Editing Thomas Friedman


== On Iraq==
Friedman was a supporter of the invasion of Iraq, writing columns on why the war was necessary. 

"You can’t go from Saddam to Switzerland without getting stuck in Hobbes — a war of all against all — unless you have a well-armed external midwife, whom everyone on the ground both fears and trusts to manage the transition. In Iraq, that was America... the only reason Iraq has any chance for a decent outcome today is because America was on the ground with tens of thousands of troops to act as that well-armed midwife, reasonably trusted and certainly feared by all sides, to manage Iraq’s transition to more consensual politics." (2003) [[http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2013/0318/Thomas-Friedman-Iraq-war-booster]]

"What they [Islamic extremists] needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house—from Basra to Baghdad—and basically saying: Which part of this sentence don't you understand?: You don't think we care about our open society? You think this [terrorism] fantasy [you have]—we're just gonna let it grow? Well, suck. on. this. That, Charlie, was what this war was about. We coulda hit Saudi Arabia....We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could." Friedman in 2003 speaking about Iraq and the Middle East on ''The Charlie Rose Show." [[http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/30/that-time-tom-friedman-said-the-iraq-war]] 

"I think it was unquestionably worth doing, Charlie. I think that, looking back, I now certainly feel I understand more what the war was about...What we needed to do was go over to that part of the world, I'm afraid, and burst that bubble. We needed to go over there basically, and take out a very big stick, right in the heart of that world, and burst that bubble. And there was only one way to do it." Friedman in 2003 speaking about Iraq and the Middle East on ''The Charlie Rose Show.'' [[http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/03/19/where-are-the-medias-iraq-war-boosters-10-years/193117#friedman]]

"Many liberals oppose this war because they can’t believe that someone as radically conservative as George W. Bush could be mounting such a radically liberal war." Friedman in a 2003 column. [[http://mondoweiss.net/2014/06/pollack-friedman-experts#sthash.AQLrISwY.dpuf]]

== On Iran ==
"O.K., so we learn to live with Iran on the edge of a bomb, but shouldn’t we at least bomb the Islamic State to smithereens and help destroy this head-chopping menace? Now I despise ISIS as much as anyone, but let me just toss out a different question: Should we be arming ISIS?" [[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/opinion/go-ahead-ruin-my-day.html?smid=tw-TomFriedman&seid=auto&_r=2&referrer=]]

== Net Worth ==
$25 Million [[http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9938]]