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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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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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