Thomas Friedman, why don't you break up?

does anyone know what year this photo is from

https://i.imgur.com/jjJGUfk.png

Year of the Walrus

I sometimes think about the time a C-suite exec at my then-employer was speaking at a departmental meeting and went on a tangent about something in Friedman's The World is Flat book and I left thinking... wow, I don't know about this exec

and he was gone from the company within the year

I remember Taibbi's classic take-down of that book. I wonder which of them is worse these days though.

I think Friedman's never tried to be unorthodox and if someone's coming to his work and picking up ideas from it, that's... probably an indictment of how well-informed they are

His writing can be terrible but it's just an articulation of things his readers already believe, but haven't written bad articles about

absolute king shit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFbhdU9XAAAUPFv?format=jpg&name=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFb_ZW_XUAAndy3?format=jpg&name=small

also says My guess is that the next week or so is likely to be the most important in the Gaza war since Hamas launched it on Oct. 7.

just the least self-aware person in the world

When you have been spewing BS for so long you have no longer have a sense of the stench.

“Is there a better description of Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq today?”

I’m no Middle East expert, but I’m gonna go with yes here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/opinion/israel-war-rafah-riyadh.html

Friedman's got a great plan folks to solve all Mideast issues if you ignore what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, women and others in Saudi Arabia and those in Yemen (he mentions none of these drawbacks) --

the U.S.-Saudi-Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic-security deal that the administration is close to finalizing the terms of with the Saudi crown prince. It has several components, but the three key U.S.-Saudi ones are: 1) A mutual defense pact between the United States and Saudi Arabia that would take any ambiguity out of what America would do if Iran attacked Saudi Arabia. The United States would come to Riyadh’s defense, and vice versa. 2) Streamlining Saudi access to the most advanced U.S. weapons. 3) A tightly controlled civilian nuclear deal that would allow Saudi Arabia to reprocess its own uranium deposits for use in its own civilian nuclear reactor.

And last, the United States would bring together Israel, Saudi Arabia, other moderate Arab states and key European allies into a single, integrated security architecture to counter Iranian missile threats the way they did on an ad hoc basis when Iran attacked Israel on April 13 in retaliation for an Israeli strike on some senior Iranian military leaders suspected of running operations against Israel, who were meeting at an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria. This coalition will not come together on any continued basis without Israel getting out of Gaza and committing to work toward Palestinian statehood. There is no way Arab states can be seen to be permanently protecting Israel from Iran if Israel is permanently occupying Gaza and the West Bank. U.S. and Saudi officials also know that without Israel in the deal, the U.S.-Saudi security components are not likely to ever get through Congress.

The Biden team wants to complete the U.S.-Saudi part of the deal so that it can act like the opposition party that Israel does not have

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/opinion/israel-war-rafah-riyadh.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nk0.rXgm.WH78ETdBDTbF&smid=url-share

Those renowned Saudi peacemakers.

To be fair, I think he's right the Saudis will have to play a role in any post-Israeli-offensive scenario. But the glib framing of his opening alone is impeachable.

Blinken is over there trying to do some of the above, but Friedman comes across as naive and simplistic about all aspects including the Saudi part