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FRIEDMAN: Because we really did not capture the reality of Iraq. What was the reality of Iraq? This country had been driven into a ditch by Saddam Hussein.
I must say, I was shocked to see outside of Baghdad how poor this country is. These are people living in mud huts. This was Babylon with electricity poles.
We defeated the Flinstones in this war, Howard. I mean, this was not some modern army by any stretch of the imagination. That was not captured. I fear sometimes reporters, news organizations pull their punches to get their visas and didn't really capture how much Saddam had driven this country down, which now we, in being responsible to rebuild it, now have to dig it out.
It's hard to imagine anything more pathetic than seeing someone with a twice weekly column in the Paper of Record complaining about the lack of press attention to a particular issue. I mean, if I had 730 words in the NYT twice a week I'd hopefully use them for something other than spewing an unending stream of bad metaphors.
But, okay, maybe Tom didn't quite understand what was going on in Iraq until his recent visit. Fair enough. However... I'm pretty sure I missed the Friedman column where he got outraged about the fact that the Bush administration was apparently making visas to Iraq for journalists contingent on receiving favorable coverage of Operation Enduring Shit.
Perhaps he should stop pulling his punches.
UPDATE: Perhaps Friedman was referring to the pre-war coverage of Iraq. In which case, it's a somewhat different issue. But, still, the general point remains. Maybe he should just ask his bosses at the New York Effing Times if they had a policy of providing favorable coverage to maintain their access.