February 20, 2005
T.F. ON AN UPSWING:
When Camels Fly: What you are witnessing in the Arab world is the fall of its Berlin Wall. The old autocratic order is starting to crumble. (THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, 2/20/05, NY Times)
It's good news, bad news time again for the Middle East. The good news is that what you are witnessing in the Arab world is the fall of its Berlin Wall. The old autocratic order is starting to crumble. The bad news is that unlike the Berlin Wall in central Europe, the one in the Arab world is going to fall one bloody brick at a time, and, unfortunately, Vaclav Havel, Lech Walesa and the Solidarity trade union are not waiting to jump into our arms on the other side.No one is more pleased than I am to see the demonstration of "people power" in Iraq, with millions of Iraqis defying the "you vote, you die" threat of the Baathists and jihadists. No one should take lightly the willingness of the opposition forces in Lebanon to stand up and point a finger at the Syrian regime and say "J'accuse!" for the murder of the opposition leader Rafik Hariri. No one should dismiss the Palestinian election, which featured a real choice of candidates, and a solid majority voting in favor of a decent, modernizing figure - Mahmoud Abbas. No one should ignore the willingness of some Egyptians to demand to run against President Hosni Mubarak when he seeks a fifth - unopposed - term. These are things you have not seen in the Arab world before. They are really, really unusual - like watching camels fly.
Something really is going on with the proverbial "Arab street." The automatic assumption that the "Arab street" will always rally to the local king or dictator - if that king or dictator just waves around some bogus threat or insult from "America," "Israel" or "the West" - is no longer valid.
Ever notice how Mr. Friedman, who's writing is virtually bipolar, assumes that it is the world that swings back and forth rather than his mood? The "Arab street", like the Eastern European street before it, was a lie. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 20, 2005 9:49 AM
The "Arab Street" is like the "youth vote" it is only an unsupported assertion that a vast number of people, whom you don't know, support your opinion.
Posted by: Brandon at February 20, 2005 10:05 AMTake away the Arab Street and make the desires of those in the Middle East generic to those of people around te world, and Tom becomes just a guy with a passport and a New York Times expense account, with no special insights into the workings of the region other than that of a beat reporter. That's quite a step down from someone two years ago who believed there was a Middle East peace plan with his name on it just waiting for the Bush Administration to enact.
Posted by: John at February 20, 2005 10:23 AManyone with a modest grasp of geography and english grammar could write at least as well as friedman. what an overrated fop, but that's the ny times all over.
Posted by: cjm at February 20, 2005 10:45 AMActually Friedman seems to have had a streak of sanity since the election. I assume that they quit pressuring him to be on the team.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at February 20, 2005 11:09 AMThere's a bit of limited modified sanity hanging out in some corners of the MSM now that the election's over. Russert asked Kerry a couple of uncomfortable questions the other week, but didn't follow them up very hard; Friedman's acknowledged the elections in a backhanded way; and so on. They might as well, there's nothing to be gained at the moment from open partisanship.
Posted by: joe shropshire at February 20, 2005 12:00 PMFreidman can't bring himself to say that all the nostrums in which he has believed and traded over the last two decades have turned out to be wrong. Remember such beauties as 'Countries with McDonalds don't fight wars against each other.'
If merit mattered more than ideological purity at the Old Grey Lady, Friedman would be hanging out on 9th Avenue and 31st St with a squeegee.
Posted by: Bart at February 20, 2005 1:29 PM