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A conversation with Tom Friedman author of “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America”This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com’s standard return policy will apply…. More >>
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On the one hand I learned a great deal from Tom Friedman’s analyses of different situations and problems. For instance his remarks on what President- elect Obama should say on Inauguration Day make great sense. His idea of calling for a ‘united we stand’ effort of the American people to confront their problems seems right. Also in many of the other areas discussed such as relations with China and Russia , Friedman outlined an Administration approach which seems reasonable. His remarks on the transformative effect an Obama leadership can have on the world’s perception of America also seem wise.
However on the ‘Middle East’ and Iran he seems to me off the mark. He did not mention that the Palestinians are not capable of making peace now, even if they wanted to. The Hamas- Fatah division is the major factor here. He did however wisely indicate that an Israeli- Palestinian agrement would by no means put an end to the myriad conflicts, and the whole atmosphere of conflict which pervades the Middle East. On Iran’s nuclear-program he is seeing the world from Minnesota, which is not immediately endangered by a nuclear Iran. That will not be true once Iran develops, and it is working to develop, its intercontinental missiles. But as I see it from my home in Israel a nuclear Iran is an existensial threat. Friedman says there is ‘deterrence’. I think he misses the mark here. A suicide- bomber society and people cannot be deterred by sane considerations especially when they have proxies through whom they can operate. President Bush repeatedly gave the committment that the U.S. would not allow Iran to go nuclear. President – elect Obama has also pledged himself to not allowing a nuclear- Iran to come into being. I think Tom Friedman absolutely mistaken when he says a nuclear Iran should be preferred to the consequences of preventing this. Preventing this could lead to the regime change in Tehran which would be the great turning point in the global war on Terror. Allowing Iran to go nuclear would be admitting the Terrorists were on their way to winning the war.
Rating: 4 / 5