So. Thomas Friedman. Holy shit. He finds a Cronkite-Kennedy interview:
Cronkite: “Do you think this government still has time to regain the support of the people?”The interview took place on Sept. 2, 1963! One month to the day later, Diem would be dead following a disastrous America-backed coup. One month! Ho Chi Mihn would apocryphally chortle: "I can scarcely believe the Americans could be so stupid."
Kennedy: “I do. With changes in policy and perhaps with personnel I think it can. If it doesn’t make those changes, the chances of winning it would not be very good."
So is this the plan Friedman commends to The Obama?
Not yet a month later, Kennedy would also be dead. The war would persist for another 12 years. Another fifty-odd thousand Americans would die, along with untold millions of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the New York Times.
21 comments:
Tom Friedman is our most gifted journalist at actually looking at what is happening in the world and figuring out its relevance to tomorrow.
I don't see any connection to Vietnam, Walter.
Actually 2 months to the day later. And, coincidently, 3 weeks before Kennedy's own assassination and America's own coup.
Anyhoo, we read Tommy F starts off by saying;
"President Obama certainly showed leadership mettle in going against his own party’s base and ordering a troop surge into Afghanistan. He is going to have to be even more tough-minded, though, to make sure his policy is properly executed."
Yeah! LBJ was also elected in 1964. And his base was also antiwar. And he too courageously went against his base and escalated in Vietnam.
Funny how it always works out for the courageous pro-war side, 'cause, you know, it could go either way.
And not only that, Lysander, the courageous pro-war side validates itself against its pacifistic base, because everything always turns out so well.
Your Afghani has no regard for human life, not even of his own. For this reason men, I want to impress upon you the need for extreme watchfulness. The enemy may come individually, or in strength. He may even appear in the form of our own troops. But however we must stop him.
Thank you! Thank you! They'll be here all week!
Two months, indeed. I never liked October anyway.
Didn't mean to be picky. But I liked how Diem's murder segued into Kennedy's so soon after. I guess The CIA was on a roll that month.
I beg to differ on October. Halloween is by far the coolest holiday of the year.
What you fail to understand is that the main difference between Vietnam and Afghanistan is that Kennedy and Cronkite both loved to sail and were very good at it, whereas Obama has not shown any inclination to do even two seconds before the mast. This may be perhaps because ... well ... you know THEY usually can't swim and are scared of water ...
friedman obviously ran out of rolling paper, and was gonna use the yellowing piece of the times, used to hide his stash, when he saw 'kennedy' and 'cronkite' printed and the rest is, sadly enough, history...
Remember when the Onion ran the issue where they'd been bought by a Chinese fish-rendering conglomerate? This is more of the same, except they've hijacked the NYT URL.
-- sglover
"in the end it’s not about how many troops we send or deadlines we set. It is all about our Afghan partners." So is he asking for Karzai to be shot here?
Resolved: "corruption" providing a stable cash flow and "thuggery" by a competent strongman are prerequisites for building a proxy state.
The problem with Karzai is that he's an incompetent strongman, not that he's corrupt.
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush................
do not go gently into the night, Gray Lady...
We've got a shortage of equivalents to the Cuban exiles angry and bitter over Kennedy's refusal to use the navy during the Bay of Pigs. You don't see many former US marines walking around New Orleans handing out pro-Karzai leaflets neither.
Anti-Karzai pigeons were seen drinking in bars the night before. They were reportedly heard saying "Coup, coup."
cristobal - you really should have credited Johnny Carson (or his writers) for that line. When Charles Robb married Lucie Bird (LBJ's daughter) and thereby avoided a tour in Vietnam, JC quipped: "a hand in the bird is worth two years in the bush" ...
Lawrence Wilkerson sits down for a 20 minute interview with the real news network;
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=485
I love larry wilkerson. He's the acceptable face of black people everywhere.
It hurts to think that anyone takes Friedman seriously.
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