Tom Friedman Sort Of Tells Imus What He and Obama Talked About On The Golf Course
Fresh off his golf game with President Obama, Tom Friedman, a New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, told Imus his conversations with the President had been off the record. Like that would stop Imus from prying.
But before any inappropriate probing, Imus let Friedman talk about his most recent column, where he stated that the United States ought to draw down in Afghanistan. He's been to the country three times and admitted he's no expert, but said his conclusion was based on a lot of research and a lot of thinking about a really hard problem.
"I looked back at all the moments in the Middle East that have put a smile on my face, and what they all had in common was that America had nothing to do with starting them," said Friedman, citing as examples Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's 1977 trip to Jerusalem, and the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and Palestine.
"When people want it themselves, things happen," he added. "But when they're looking to us to do that, or we're looking to ourselves to do that, bad things happen."
That's why it makes no sense that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's brother would be on the CIA payroll. "Was Nehru, the founder of India, on the CIA payroll? Was David Ben-Gurion, the founder of Israel on the CIA payroll? Did someone have to pay them to want to build their country in a decent way for their people?" said Freidman. "I don't think so."
Since the U.S. seems to want Afghanistan to succeed more than the Afghanis do, the players there will "use us to defeat their internal foes, and to enrich themselves," said Friedman. He doesn't necessarily think leaving Afghanistan will lead to the fall of Pakistan or to an Al-Qaeda victory.
"Maybe the morning after we go, the Afghanis will want to defend their own country, because they'll have to," said Friedman. "Maybe the morning after we go, the Pakastanis will stop funding the Talban, training the Taliban, teaching the Taliban, and just decide they better fight the Taliban. Because it's them or us."
Yesterday, Friedman learned that a cable had fallen off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which he thought was emblematic of the state of the U.S. as a whole.
"We need to improve our education desperately, we need to improve our infrastructure, we need to improve our health care, we've got to get our economy under control," he said. "We need — desperately — nation building at home."
He respects people like General Stanely A. McChrystal, who advocates for more troops in Afghanistan, and called the decision of what to do "a close call taken in a moment of uncertainty." But, he added, "If it's my country or theirs — it's going to be mine."
If there's one thing Friedman knows about Obama's plans for Afghanistan, it's that he's not going to let it become his Vietnam, to take down his presidency.
"Did he tell you that during the golf game?" Imus asked. Friedman said Obama had not mentioned it on the links, thus revealing one thing that was definitely not discussed.
Point, Team Imus.
-Julie Kanfer
Tom Friedman 
Reader Comments (1)
I think it is interesting that Mr Friedman goes for par 3 and does not inform us of international knowledge that Afghanistan holds over 1 trillion dollars in natural resources and as Hannibal said, "This is a good spot for a natural gas pipeline to Russia", Party on Garth, but I want to know why american blood is on their soil.