Friedman: Arabs "a little people, a silly people: greedy, barbarous, and cruel" "In his must-read new book about the impact of culture on politics and economic development, “The Central Liberal Truth,” Lawrence Harrison notes that some cultures are “progress-prone” and others are “progress- resistant.” In the Arab-Muslim world today the progress-resistant cultural forces seem to be just too strong, especially in Iraq, which is why it is so hard to establish durable democratic institutions in that soil, he says. "
- Thomas Friedman, Ten Months or Ten Years - New York Times

Oh, I see. It's that the Arabs are inherently incapable of governing themselves. Hmmm, didn't we hear this about 85 years ago at Sevres?

This is a convenient excuse, and it excuses the inconvenient fact that Bremer, Wolfowitz, and the Gang purposely dismantled whatever functional elements of Iraqi society existed (army, state-run enterprises) after the war in their attempt to create their NeoCon Nirvana in Nineveh.

Friedman, one of the blindest and most enthusiastic "liberal" apologists for this disaster, should be ashamed. Tom, go back to writing about how the Indians and Chinese are going to eat our lunch. At least there your simplistic analysis and blind enthusiasm ("Dig me! I know the Chairman of InfoSys!") doesn't get anyone killed.  ¶ 9:36 AM