opposing view to NYT fave

Friedman: Head Cheerleader for the Boss's Team
By Anthony Arnove

It's hard to turn on the television or pick up a newspaper or go into a
bookstore without seeing Thomas Friedman blaring at you.

Friedman writes a nationally syndicated column for the New York Times.
His books on globalization and the Middle East are bestsellers--and are
often praised by politicians and scholars. "Nobody understands the world
the way he does," NBC's Tim Russert recently said of Friedman.

In April, Friedman won his third Pulitzer Prize, the most prestigious
award in journalism, "for his clarity of vision, based on extensive
reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat
[after September 11]." He shared a Pulitzer in 1983 for the New York
Times' international reporting and won another in 1988 for his coverage
of Israel.

So you might think that the much-praised Friedman had something
interesting or challenging to say--or that he was an exceptional
journalist.

You would be wrong. In truth, Friedman is a hack--who specializes in
popularizing a set of ideas that have destroyed the lives of millions of
people around the world.

Over the past few years, he's become the main establishment apostle of
"globalization"--the spread of the unhindered free market and
pro-business government policies around the globe. What Friedman calls
the "golden straightjacket" of U.S.-style capitalism may be restraining
for countries that put it on.

But for him, there's no alternative to adopting neoliberalism and
letting the free market rip. Like the "hired prize fighters" of
capitalism that Karl Marx wrote about in 1873, for Friedman, the
devastation of workers, peasants and the environment by global
capitalism is so much "collateral damage" in the necessary pursuit of
high productivity rates and profit.

His book The Lexus and the Olive Tree reads like a love letter to
corporate power--which is why it's no surprise that Friedman has cozied
up to businesspeople and politicians around the world in pursuit of his
stories.

But Friedman is at his worst when writing about U.S.
imperialism--especially in the Middle East. Serving as both an armchair
general and a cheerleader urging on more destruction, he routinely
advocates committing war crimes--as long as the U.S. or its allies are
pulling the trigger.

In 1998, Friedman advocated "bombing Iraq, over and over and over
again." In an article titled "Craziness pays," Friedman explained that
"the U.S. has to make clear to Iraq and U.S. allies that.America will
use force, without negotiation, hesitation, or UN approval." He went on
to add, "We have to be ready to live with our own contradictory policy.
Sure, it doesn't make perfect sense."

Friedman never tires of using "we" when describing the actions of the
U.S. military. In 1997, he wrote: "[I]f and when Saddam pushes beyond
the brink, and we get that one good shot, let's make sure it's a head
shot." Two years later, Friedman suggested that the U.S. should "[b]low
up a different power station in Iraq every week, so no one knows when
the lights will go off or who's in charge."

Friedman couldn't care less that every power station targeted in Iraq
means more food and medicine that will spoil without refrigeration, more
hospitals that will lack electricity, more water that will be
contaminated--and more people who will die.

The U.S.-led NATO war on Yugoslavia found Friedman repeating himself:
"It should be lights out in Belgrade: every power grid, water pipe,
bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted.You want 1950?
We can do 1950. You want 1389? We can do 1389 too."

Friedman has never tried to camouflage his strong support for
Israel--even when he feels that he sometimes has to criticize the
"excesses" of settlers or the Israeli right wing to defend Israel's best
interests.

And he was an unabashed supporter as the Pentagon crushed
Afghanistan--at the cost of thousands of civilian lives--in
"self-defense." "My motto is simple," he wrote. "Give war a chance."

But because of his proximity to power, Friedman sometimes tells the
truth. In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, he gives one of the most honest
descriptions of the relationship between the U.S. military and corporate
power.

"The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist,"
he wrote. "McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas.And the
hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies
to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps."

Of course, Thomas Friedman sees nothing wrong with the U.S. military
making the world safe for U.S. capitalism--and destroying everything in
its wake. In his tiny corner of the world, Friedman has been amply
rewarded for aligning himself with that kind of power.