Fristman unit!

Kathy Griffin delivers that line funnier...

Is there a transcript? I find a lot of these disgusting idiots difficult to watch.

why so late to the party on this one?

this video has been bandied about for the last few months.

and i love C&L, but frequently you all post some bit of news that's at least a week old. i can't be the only one to notice this.

"Suck on this" is not a foreign policy.

It's time to stop letting the children run things.

On the other side however, he was somewhat refreshingly honest in saying that we started a war in Iraq (as opposed to other MidEast countries) simply "Because we could". He didn't try to obscure the reasons with WMD/Democracy/AQI/OverThereNotOverHere/etc. He just kind of confirms the most cynical reasons for starting a war of choice: 1. to "carry a big stick", 2. to break a bubble of mideastern perception of the US, 3. Becuase we could. I wish the other "pundits" were this honest.

You are allowed a place in the national media because THEY ARE IN ON IT. There is no other explanation for these pundits being so historically wrong and not only escaping any damage to their careers, but as in the case of Bill Kristol, actually being rewarded with a column in Time.

THERE IS NO OTHER EXPLANATION. Stop scratching your heads.

Oooh. He's on Charlie Rose. That's means he gotta say sumpin' smart. Douche.

They ought to send these hawks to Anbar to show the Iraqis the ways of freedom and democracy. I guarantee the Iraqi response will be "suck on this".

My gaydar is going off again-- BIG time!!! He's acting "macho" to hide a secret. I've seen it a million times. Ha ha ha, what a loser. I think this is the first time I've seen this guy. Hopefully the last. What a cretin.

PS Friedman, if you wanna score with the boys do something about your hair-- actually get a total make-over. Simply repulsive. My flesh would crawl if you touched me.

...Holy shit. That's some evolved discourse for you. "Suck on this."

When was this?

You must understand: It's not only the World, but Friedman's "brain waves" that are "flat."

"Suck on this"? For the sake of humanity, please please, leave it in your pants (or call Larry Craig. I hear he's tapping for action.)

Six months!

Can we send his atrocious combover to Iraq?

Boy I tell ya. Times sure have changed. I have read that in history, many advisors to countries that where this incompetent and wrong as Friedman where either thrown out or sent to the front lines. Some where even beheaded by the ruler that listened to them. George Bush on the other hand likes to promote these people. The more incomptent and wrong they are the more Bush likes them.

I enjoyed learning that we hit Iraq for the same reason that a dog licks his balls.

There's not much to suck on, sir.

Or in other words: You can throw out your faux-macho analogies as much as you want, "that part of the world", as you call it, thinks that they got us by the balls pretty good. If this whole sorry enterprise was meant to impress someone it's gone pretty badly wrong. Cause everybody now sees, what a little "insurgence" can do to our moral.

So much for locker room policies. Well done, indeed.

If anyone ever needed a bitch-slappin', he's the man.

He sounds like Ted Nugent. I wonder why these guys are so obsessed with making other guys suck on things?

It would appear the only thing standing between Tom F. and a oneway ticket to the Funny Farm are his good personal grooming habits.

Tom Friedman married a billionaire but the media lets him do the "average guy" shtick

What he fails to metion is he is a for Israel only writer. Protect and defend Israel at all costs. Thats the message he is hiding under all his posturing. And that includes most of the Irag study group too. Perle, wolfowitz, on and on it goes.

I've come up with a new definition that fits Friedman and his Neocon buddies. We will call them what they really are:

Neron-(n): 1. A cross between the Roman Emperor Nero and a Moron. 2. A person that thinks they are as ruthless, tough, and sadistic as the Roman Emperor Nero but tend to be totally incompetent and wrong about every military conflict.

Actually, 'Suck on this' is probably what was going through the heads of bastards who flew those planes into the WTC in the first place. When are we going to stop listening to simpletons who reduce geopolitics down to the level school yard shit-talk???

Well, I just emailed the NYT, telling them what an idiot I think Friedman is, and that I couldn't understand why they keep publishing him. I am sure they will reply saying that I am a fool who doesn't understand the intricacies of US foreign policy as the Very Serious People Who Write For The Very Serious Establishment Media. But then, I am only a patriotic American who deosn't really want to see my fellow country run through a meat grinder. Pity my foolishness. Maybe I'll change my mind in SIX MONTHS (LOL!).

I think I'm going to be ill...

It's fascinating that the clip you have following this is from a real journalist and a real man named Walter Cronkite. Friedman isn't even man enough to shine Cronkite's shoes.

Friedman is an ass.

Of course, Friedman's discourse is odious; it's the Neocon game plan without mentioning the oil. The Project For A New American Century is distinguishable from Hitler's Third Reich only in that the Neocons are more delusional. Hitler didn't expect to be welcomed as a liberator, didn't expect Nazism to bloom among the local population, and when he said "Suck On This," there were ovens to deal with the result.

BTW, I welcome C&L posting material that isn't fresh-off-the-shelf. This website is a valuable repository--our "institutional memory"--for the time when we need to know who got us where we are and how they did it. The number of Americans familiar with the principles and precepts this country was founded on and what they mean in practice is withering under the onslaught of conservative media and the brand of aggressive ignorance they're peddling these days. C&L is one of the counterweights to the Mighty Right-wing Wurlitzer.

Nicole, not having read your blog earlier, I was at DKos and wrote almost the same comment you did, only I was referring to boner and the "small price" to pay. Everyone of these mouthy rat bas***** should be set down in the middle of Baghdad and left to find their way out , OR NOT.

What a dope.

could some one date this interview for me?

Macdaffy @ 53:

Of course, Friedman's discourse is odious; it's the Neocon game plan without mentioning the oil. The Project For A New American Century is distinguishable from Hitler's Third Reich only in that the Neocons are more delusional. Hitler didn't expect to be welcomed as a liberator, didn't expect Nazism to bloom among the local population, and when he said "Suck On This," there were ovens to deal with the result.

BTW, I welcome C&L posting material that isn't fresh-off-the-shelf. This website is a valuable repository--our "institutional memory"--for the time when we need to know who got us where we are and how they did it. The number of Americans familiar with the principles and precepts this country was founded on and what they mean in practice is withering under the onslaught of conservative media and the brand of aggressive ignorance they're peddling these days. C&L is one of the counterweights to the Mighty Right-wing Wurlitzer.

Agreed. It is good to be reminded from time to time about the comments that got us into Iraq and Friedman's fits that bill.

Never mind-- 2003

Is this dickhead even making any sense? I've watched this twice already and I am clueless as to what the fuck he is even talking about. Anybody care to break it down for me?

Thought about this...

We are living in a country where there is in-fighting everywhere...fights in the home, fights in school, fights in work, fights in government.

I think this war is still being fought because too many people think that the answer can be found with the US government, indeed any really. The whole entire world is waiting for the US to pull out of Iraq. I mean, why isn't the whole world stopping the war? What if the whole world decided to go into Iraq and fight back the Americans who are fighting for us only?

I know soldiers, and they need to feel like the whole world is behind them, not just their own country. When you fight in a war, you are fighting on behalf of "humanity" in it's most perfect state of being (which isn't acheivable but we have to keep thinking there is)...a state that is in a peaceful position...

The whole world is NOT doing anything to make a difference, which is telling many of the soldiers that there is at least one reason to keep fighting...this one and only reason is "I'm still alive"...

See that's the swear they take..."To fight until I am killed"

Many soldiers can't live by this doctrine as it is something that not everyone can agree on...everyone needs to agree for something to be called a truth nowadays...truth by majority...if we can trick people and get them into forming the "majority" opinion that gives us control of the world, we can do ANYTHING WE WANT...and what we want is for people to not fight anymore....not in their homes, school or anywhere...

So we will do whatever we can do trick people into the majority, and once we have control, we will then stop the fighting. Don't ask me what kind of group the winner will be, as long as there is no fighting in the world. Then once one power is in control, it will be up to future generations to decide how to gain more peace. We are not leaving our children the worst world in history...

WW2 left the world in literal shambles everywhere, yet the human race lived on. This war in Iraq is NOTHING compared to both world wars...so there is no reason to be afraid, we will live through this one...we will be ok...

Joe O. @ 61:

Macdaffy @ 53:

The Project For A New American Century is distinguishable from Hitler's Third Reich only in that the Neocons are more delusional. Hitler didn't expect to be welcomed as a liberator, didn't expect Nazism to bloom among the local population, and when he said "Suck On This," there were ovens to deal with the result.

Agreed. It is good to be reminded from time to time about the comments that got us into Iraq and Friedman's fits that bill.

I suppose the difference is the Nazis went house to house rounding people up to put them into concentration camps before killing them. The U.S. is simply going house to house and killing them. Or skipping the house-to-house bit and hitting them with "targeted strikes."

Where does this jackass get off saying we need to "burst the bubble" of other sovereign nations? And does he really think by invading a sovereign nation, the U.S. is asserting some sort of control, or "bursting bubbles"?

The only bubble that got burst was the bubble the U.S. was living in until 9/11.

I really tried to come up with some witty and crushing comment to make here, but, really, that video speaks for itself.

Really, all Neo-cons ought to be entirely prevented from shaping or enacting foreign policy. Gay men are just too emotional.

"...and suck on this."

That man is a sicko. Nobody between "Baghdad and Basra" - as he put it - had anything whatsoever to do with attacking or threatening our country.

That is really disgusting.

I've got better things of a current nature to view/read than a video from MAY of 2003...

Do they not understand that Wars have been fought over less?

As bad as Ann Coulter, and just as loathsome.

What's his address?

This along the same line of thought:

What I would give to see this hairball strap on the gear and make the trek from house to house in the desert in order to domineer a people that will do their best to turn him into a grease spot in the dirt.

telecom @ 71:

Really, all Neo-cons ought to be entirely prevented from shaping or enacting foreign policy. Gay men are just too emotional.

I am a hetero-sexual male and I don’t to see what gay men have to do with Friedman being the psycho that he is. Care to explain?

OMG. Why is it those people can say anything, however offensive and cruel with an arrogance that is mind-bending and it's OK. Are they really that mean, or is there something else in it for them? I'd like to think he's being paid to be mean, and that he's only being cruel for profit. Otherwise, I'd have to believe that he believes what he's saying - and most of these people are so intellectually dishonest that can't be it - they don't have the courage of their convictions - they are puppets. If some other swaggering, macho faux cowboy was in there saying everything exactly opposite - with enough authority and bravado - he'd be parroting those talking points instead. They don't know how to behave without their abusive fathers. They govern by battered-wives syndrome.

The bubble that got burst was the racist wet-dream that American military power can be a transformational tool for the bringing of western-style democracy anywhere in the world. If you read the Project for a New American Century's (PNAC) manifesto, its centerpiece is the taking of Iraq as the keystone to securing the entire region for the projection of American power and influence. They tried to get Bill Clinton to do it and he told them to piss off, so they made sure that someone just stupid and malleable enough to believe them was elected in 2000--thus, the vitriolic campaign against Al Gore.

The plan was to kill Saddam, set up a puppet American government in Iraq, kick Iran's ass, and start drilling. A sweet deal if it weren't for the racist and boneheaded notion that any population anywhere will acquiesce to occupation by a foreign power--no matter how benevolent the reason. I'm just a jerk with a few years of college under his belt, and I could have told them it wasn't going to work. Western-style democracy as practiced in the US is an elaborate scam and needs the right conditions to flourish. Turning the Middle East into Europe and Japan in the Forties is magical thinking of the most tragic sort.

And I repeat--I don't care if it's from May of 2003: Sometimes, it's educational to play "That Was Then, This Is Now."

I am so impressed by Tom's manhood, in a completely heterosexual way!

I wonder if he would squeal like a little girl if somebody beat him up? It's so easy to talk like a big macho brute, but then he's not over there going house to house with his platoon, in full body armor, in 130 degree heat!

But he does talk tough, so he must be macho. Just like his not-gay pal, W.

Does his racism have anything to do with this arrogant hate spewing? "That part of the world"! There Ay-rabs and thus subhuman, not part of an elect, chosen tribe. "We coulda done Saudi Arabia, we coulda done Pakistan".
Kick in their doors and murder their civilians. Yeah, that's made Israel real popular too, hasn't it. Screw the tribalists on all side. The only tribe/race I belong to is the human race.

uh,... I wonder if that is what they will say to us? "We will go there and 'burst their bubble'."

No, no,no, that is not possible. Only us, The Mighty United States of America can say that.

Tom my dear, this is not a good way to stop violence, which was the end goal, right? Stopping terrorism. Of course it is easy to promote tropps dying when you don;t have to put your own life on the line. Takes REAL courage.

Tom Friedman blames the USA because the USA doesn't care enough to win?

The Iraq War has been going on now for 15 Friedman Units now.

The USA is not a winner because the USA doesn't care enough to win?

THAT'S ALL HE HAS?????

I think that seeing this Friedman clip from 03 is extremely timely now, especially in light of Impending Iran. Unbelievable stupidity can be repeated.

The last line: "We hit Iraq because we could."

...is EXACTLY what I told my students in February 2002 when I asked them to tell me why we were about to go to war with Iraq.

One final comment on that experience, one of a great many such. As usual, once the racists involved reach the end of their denial, under steady accusation of such, and see that, indeed, they ARE racists, they suddenly leave, having outed themselves to themselves.

Prior to being told he was a racist, last night's hateful fool thought he was doing the Lord's work. I told him he was bearing false witness, and he seemed genuinely stunned.

The mirrors of protest reflect the light of truth into estranged eyes, and sometimes the haters see themselves in their hate, and flee. Like the Vietnam-era soldier who told me he had fought his guilt and shame for thirty years, until George W. ("Mfer") Bush made it safe for him to hate again.

Proof positive that Boy Wonder is an antichrist. Throw off your guilt and shame and become clean in the projection of your moral angst onto the innocent!

Does he have any relationship to AIPAC? Just asking.

That was really terrifying. What an idiot. Why does Friedman still get invited onto these shows? He's been just as wrong as Bush about every aspect of this war.

BUSH hit Iraq because they had been occupied by US and their strength was QUASHED after years of occupation and oversight.

BUSH hit Iraq because it looked easy.

E A S Y

Boy was that jackass wrong!

*ss*ole

What a fucking dork. He talks like a badass. I wonder if he's actually that tough?

what a disgusting excuse for a man.

I believe good old Tom is letting something slip here. Going door to door letting exactly who in Iraq know what. It seems to me we had only one enemy in Iraq and that was Saddam, i.e. the regime. Who exactly is Tom's vendetta with. The Iraqi people after all were victims of the same regime. Too many blow-hards on television seem to forget that the Iraqi's were not our enemies and that much of the resistance is the result of our actions. Unless Tom meant he should go door to door personally apologizing for this ill thought-out misadventure. I'm not following.

Man oh man.......as a Canadian, of course we're your brothers-in-arms but wait a fucking moment now. In being Canadian, we are also known to be a lot more foreign policy friendly and compassionate that that gov't below the 49th P.
This type of rhetoric should NEVER be heard coming from a guy whose cultural friggin' background disfavours Arabs anyway and whose country is so assisted by the US against Arabs. It's the kind of bulklshit that gets me nearer and nearer to saying...Hey America, maybe you need another spanking just to let the arseholes know, they can be hurt.
Unfortunately, it'll be the innocent people who will pay for this peckerheads bullshit.
How he is allowed to say this is unforgiveable.

Friedman was a propagandist for the right wing, and lately he has been hiding, trying too jump the ship of USS Bushite which is sinking and he is like the infamous Titanic males who pushed women/children aside too get a seat on the life boats, he is the lowest form of life, he helped propagandise, prosecute this war, and has blood on his hands, just as if he ordered, it, sadly he is likely too never face punishment on this earth, but surely as there is a god in heaven and jesus, on judgment day he will have too atone for his evil, he is typical of all rich men, as jesus said for them too enter heaven is as likely as a camel too pass thru the eye of a needle....the elite rich who gloried in this war, have as much chance of seeing heaven as a camel does going thru a eye of a needle, and that is their poetic justice, too spend all eternity suffering for this evil they have perpetrated on America and the civilians killed in this fiasco called Iraq War...

Dear Tommy --

Wonder drugs like Viagra can't work for everyone. Perhaps you should treat your low testosterone with testosterone replacement therapies.

Or maybe you should abandon the idea of becoming a man eventually and consider estrogen treatments. It will clear your thinking and stop these testosterone-deprived rants you have become increasingly fond of going off on.

But alas, when you've failed as a man and have punished the rest of the world for it, maybe you just can't make it as a woman either.

Tom Friedman proves once again that he's out of touch. The world is flat and so is Tom's IQ. I'd like to send Tom and all the other political and pundit chickenhawks to Iraq and see how long they could stand being where they've had the audacity to place our troops.

I'm betting he's short and has no muscle tone. Most of the public warmongers from the last few years are.

Can we please change the Constitution to lower the age that people can run for office? These adults (people above let's say 35) are really screwing things up. The "adults" are acting like children with phrases like "suck on this" and "bring it on". Why do we allow this? Yes, there is free speech, but why do we as a nation endorse these fools who use caveman-esqe machismo and schoolyard taunts as foreign policy and electoral policy? Unfortunately people like John Mayer are right, we do have to wait on the world to change.

The Nazis did a lot of stuff, because they could.
The US supported Saddam because Saddam was able to do stuff, because he could.
This guy and people like him are no better.
Sad thing is, the US seems full of these kind of jerks.

This clown has a big lip when sitting in front of a camera.
Typical coward who can hide behind a bully and trash people.
These people where the infamous Nazi Party members.
The ones calling for the synagogues to be burnt and jews and liberals and gays and whatnot to be murdered in the concentration camps.

He's at least said one true thing, we went into Iraq because we could. And I'm sure that all the innocent civilians will take great comfort in realizing that we're "bursting the terrorists' bubbles" when they die daily in colateral damage. What a monster.

Just another rich boy chickenhawk trying to convince himself that he has a pair.

You ask how Friedman is "allowed a continued place on the national platform?"

Quite simple... Tommy boy is a member of the elitist Council on Foreign Relations (i.e. the people who really run things in this country).

The criminal enterprise within U.S. government and beyond chose to "hit" Iraq because Iraq was vulnerable and rich in resources, including real estate. The "enterprise" chose to impose their Shock Doctrine on Iraq - Friedmanesque (Milton Friedman) "shock and awe" to kill and displace as many Iraqis as quickly as possible in order to take control and privatize, monetize, commodify Iraq and Iraqis. That same "shock therapy" will visit all of us if we live long enough.

F**king jingoist! The world is being played like a wrestling match in the WWF by these knuckleheads.

My God! This guy is a NYT liberal these days?

Boy, it's been a long time since I've been in the US, sjees.

i didn't see the whole thing. was tom saying that this was his view, or that this was the view of the administration going to iraq. by saying we hit them because we could, i didn't get the impression he was endorsing it, i took it as a metaphor for what went on, which didn't seem totally far off.

Friedman spewed this filth four years ago. His sick prison rape fantasy is typical of the prowar crowd. They all see the Iraqis as savages and have killed many thousands in order to satisfy their belief in white supremacy and American empire.

He is an ass hole, a racist, and an all around dick!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3800770925110269212&q=charlie+ro...

Look from 2:52 until about 5:40. I only looked for the relevant quote, I'm glad he said it early on in the interview. I could not stomach listening much longer.