Friedman returns

I don't know what Friedman was doing while on vacation, but whatever he did, I hope he keeps on doing it.

His article today rips the Bush administration for failures in energy policy. Friedman calls their energy policy 'No Mullah Left Behind'

Anyway, the first couple paragraphs after the jump, or read the whole thing here

Apologies if this has been diaried already, google turned up nothing.

I really liked Friedman's 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' and had been distressed to see him become ever more self-involved and unreadable as time went by. I had given up reading him about a year ago, when his Bush administration apologies had become too egregious.

But here? He sounds as if he's channeling Krugman. And that can't be bad.

Anyway, without further ado:

The Battle of the Pump

Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.

Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism.

Mr. Bush says we're in "a global war on terrorism.'' That's right. But that war is rooted in the Arab-Muslim world. That means there is no war on terrorism that doesn't involve helping this region onto a more promising path for its huge population of young people - too many of whom are unemployed or unemployable because their oil-rich regimes are resistant to change and their religious leaders are resisting modernity.

Again, the whole thing is here.

•  i think

  that friedman is going to back Kerry now.  Which is good.  I'm hopeful.

  by seamus on Thu Oct 07, 2004 at 01:20:31 PM PDT

  •  I couldn't figure him out

    He seemed to be so wishy washy about everything except that he was the smartest guy around.

    I'm hopeful, too.

    by mecki on Thu Oct 07, 2004 at 01:26:56 PM PDT

•  Has he changed all that much?

  I have to admit that I like Friedman.  It was in his columns in the late 1990s that I first heard about Osama bin Laden, and the threat that he and the 'super-empowered' haters represented.

  I was dismayed by his advocacy for invading Iraq, but while he did advocate this, he also warned that you do not invade without having a plan to win the peace, and if you don't have that, you don't invade.  I think he was naive in thinking that you can make the world safer by invading.

  In his two columns since he returned from his sabbadical (sic), I see nothing to indicate that he has changed in his opinions.  He still recognizes (and I agree) that the biggest threat to peace IS the huge numbers of unemployed and underemployed young educated people in countries throughout the Southwest Asia and North Africa, and the corruption that is endemic among many, if not all, of the governments in these countries.

  Ultimately, our allies in that region of the world NEED to recognize this.  They are all hamstrung, because they know that if they decide to stop blaming Israel or American for their problems, the anger among all these young people will be directed towards them.  

  Supporting invasion to install democracy (or at least hope) was Friedman's biggest problem; it was a mistake, and it seems that Friedman realizes that he was mistaken. no matter how well-intentioned the invasion.  

  But ultimately, Bush was going to do it, Bush did it, and Bush executed the policy, not caring about the aftermath, and not caring a liberal columnist joined him in cautionary supprot.

  by Khun David on Thu Oct 07, 2004 at 02:08:24 PM PDT