Thursday, October 14, 2004
Thomas Friedman Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/opinion/14friedman.html
the above is an op-ed piece written by thomas friedman in the ny times today. it is well written (as all things are by mr. friedman).
the following is my response which i posted on the ny times forum site for the article:
zevchi - 11:13 AM ET October 14, 2004 (#655 of 660)
rose colored glasses perhaps
the article by mr. friedman is well written and thoughtful, but i believe it is a view which is hoping for peace to suddenly spring forth from a scorched earth.
this is not only about 9/11, it is about bali, beslan, etc. not to even mention what is taking place between israel and palestine. the world is being confronted with war.
9/11 was not the first act of fanatics, we had been building up to it for 25 years. the act of doing nothing - not taking fanatics seriously enough, not holding middle east govts responsible for corruption and lack of basic rights including an economic means to change their citizens lives, and lastly closing our eyes to other acts of bloodshed helped create an atmosphere in which the fanatics believed they should & could effect change through the use of violence.
solutions must be found, but hoping for the world to return to a day when terrorism is merely a nuisance without having a plan (and more dangerously not taking seriously the risk to the 'west') is only wishful thinking. bush might not be fdr or churchill but at least he is going forward. both kerry and bush were taken to task in this article but the question that u.s. voters must articulate is which one of their candidates will make it a safer world not only today but for the next decade to come.
this is a war in which small battles have been raging since the civil war in lebanon (mr. friedman knows quite a bit about this) and the iranian revolution. perhaps in the short term we can look upon all things as isolated events, but they are not.
in order to get back to a more tranquil day we are going to need to do many things correctly for a number of years to shape the world for the better.
the above is an op-ed piece written by thomas friedman in the ny times today. it is well written (as all things are by mr. friedman).
the following is my response which i posted on the ny times forum site for the article:
zevchi - 11:13 AM ET October 14, 2004 (#655 of 660)
rose colored glasses perhaps
the article by mr. friedman is well written and thoughtful, but i believe it is a view which is hoping for peace to suddenly spring forth from a scorched earth.
this is not only about 9/11, it is about bali, beslan, etc. not to even mention what is taking place between israel and palestine. the world is being confronted with war.
9/11 was not the first act of fanatics, we had been building up to it for 25 years. the act of doing nothing - not taking fanatics seriously enough, not holding middle east govts responsible for corruption and lack of basic rights including an economic means to change their citizens lives, and lastly closing our eyes to other acts of bloodshed helped create an atmosphere in which the fanatics believed they should & could effect change through the use of violence.
solutions must be found, but hoping for the world to return to a day when terrorism is merely a nuisance without having a plan (and more dangerously not taking seriously the risk to the 'west') is only wishful thinking. bush might not be fdr or churchill but at least he is going forward. both kerry and bush were taken to task in this article but the question that u.s. voters must articulate is which one of their candidates will make it a safer world not only today but for the next decade to come.
this is a war in which small battles have been raging since the civil war in lebanon (mr. friedman knows quite a bit about this) and the iranian revolution. perhaps in the short term we can look upon all things as isolated events, but they are not.
in order to get back to a more tranquil day we are going to need to do many things correctly for a number of years to shape the world for the better.
// posted by Zevchi @ 5:23 PM 
