I haven't thought about this guy in the last 3 or 4 FU's.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

(note: FU is a Friedman Unit--which is 6 months--see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_Unit)

Without further ado, because I know how much DU has missed the wisdom of this blowhard, I give you Thomas Friedman:
--

Thomas Friedman asks if US should arm ISIS to fix problems created by policies he supported

“Should we be arming ISIS?”

That’s the question New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman poses today, writing that while he loathes the terrorist group, also known as the Islamic State, it’s not as if the Shiite militias fighting ISIS in Iraq would govern much better:

O.K., so we learn to live with Iran on the edge of a bomb, but shouldn’t we at least bomb the Islamic State to smithereens and help destroy this head-chopping menace? Now I despise ISIS as much as anyone, but let me just toss out a different question: Should we be arming ISIS? Or let me ask that differently: Why are we, for the third time since 9/11, fighting a war on behalf of Iran?

In 2002, we destroyed Iran’s main Sunni foe in Afghanistan (the Taliban regime). In 2003, we destroyed Iran’s main Sunni foe in the Arab world (Saddam Hussein). But because we failed to erect a self-sustaining pluralistic order, which could have been a durable counterbalance to Iran, we created a vacuum in both Iraq and the wider Sunni Arab world. That is why Tehran’s proxies now indirectly dominate four Arab capitals: Beirut, Damascus, Sana and Baghdad.

ISIS, with all its awfulness, emerged as the homegrown Sunni Arab response to this crushing defeat of Sunni Arabism — mixing old pro-Saddam Baathists with medieval Sunni religious fanatics with a collection of ideologues, misfits and adventure-seekers from around the Sunni Muslim world. Obviously, I abhor ISIS and don’t want to see it spread or take over Iraq. I simply raise this question rhetorically because no one else is: Why is it in our interest to destroy the last Sunni bulwark to a total Iranian takeover of Iraq? Because the Shiite militias now leading the fight against ISIS will rule better? Really?

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/18/thomas_friedman_asks_if_us_should_arm_isis_to_fix_problems_created_by_policies_he_supported/

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. He is making this too complicated, why dont we bomb ALL brown people to smithereens, this way

nothing is left to chance...

right?

[DisgustipatedinCA]

2. Not ALL brown people. He gets all his material from Middle Eastern cab drivers.

So he needs them to keep driving cabs.

[Journeyman]

3. Thanks for the reminder on Friedman Units. I'd forgotten that bit of pundit idiocracy . . .

As for Thomas, think I'll go another dozen FU's, or maybe just one big one (and gift it to Thomas), and pass on reading him today. My life will be better for it, I'm sure.