First Fineman, Now Friedman?

by digby

What’s with this odd sanity that has overcome certain members of the punditocrisy? Tom Friedman writes:

It is crunch time on Afghanistan, so here’s my vote: We need to be thinking about how to reduce our footprint and our goals there in a responsible way, not dig in deeper. We simply do not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interests to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan. I base this conclusion on three principles. First, when I think back on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the times when a key player in the Middle East actually did something that put a smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had nothing to do with it.

This from the guy who used to drive around New York with “Battle Hymn of the Republic” sung by the Morman Tabernacle choir blaring on his car radio? Wow.

He does toss in that we need to” get Iraq right,” so he’s not all the way there. But he’s come a long way just by admitting that we won’t get anywhere by running around putting our guns in the locals’ mouths and telling them to “suck on this.” It’s progress.

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