Thomas Friedman
Reader comment on item: Humor: Thomas Friedman's Iraq Predictions

Submitted by Ira Levine (United States), Jun 15, 2006 at 17:46

I have always thought that Thomas Friedman is a fraud and a poseur. His thesis that a desire for "economic prosperity" trumps religion, passion and ideology is absurd. I assume his model is Europe; but Europe had to exhaust itself through centuries of warfare. And now look at Europe: stagnant economies, declining birthrates and decadent societies!

People need an ideology, something to believe passionately. I am a confirmed democrat (small "d"). What the world needs is a belief in God and an ideology that is expressed with passion: the ideology of a republican/democratic constitutional government based on the respect for the rights of the individual.

Friedman should not spread the gospel of markets, but the gospel of freedom, republican/democratic freedom!

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