Sure, You've Heard of Chickenhawks,

Good observation Tully. I've followed Friedman over the years. Some metal gets stiff when you bend it repeatedly while other metal justs snaps. I wonder what cosmic message Friedman sees in this latest report. Yes, I wonder as Sunnis in Iraq continue to see the splits not only in AQ, but between neighbors like Syria and Turkey, Iran and Russia who fuels Syrian and Iranian desires. Isn't the US, Mr. Freidman, still the only nation willing to shed blood for Iraqi self-interest? Should the tide begin to shift, will Chickendove turn back into Chickenhawk?

Now let's back Friedman up to when Iraqi nuclear scientists were relocating in Syria. Let's go back to the Leftist chants of "sanctions kill Iraqi babies". Let's go back to the deliberate manipulation by Saddam to make the world, in particular Iran, believe he was up to "some" WMD questing (listen to his own words on cabinet tapes). Let's go back to those fat French and Russian energy contracts with Saddam. Let's go back to Damascus terror conventions and murder plots and Iranian hit squads in Europe. I suggest that Freidman get hold of himself and look out the window. Much of his global wet dreams hang in the balance. He will find three things...

1. It was very bad back in 2002 for all the reasons Freidman stated then, as he pushed bold internationalism in the golden age of globalization (something the NYT once aspired to).

2. AQ is hurt and divided. Saddam is no more. Ahadinejad is a monster to the West and friend to Putin. Turkey and the US are both after terrorists in Iraq. Syrian and Iranian strategy is under greater exposure and international sanctions. More nations are understanding the lines being drawn now, more than were with us after our invasion of Iraq. In short, news has been coming forth which either highlights positive gains by the West, or more opposition in the West to obvious escalation of threats by freedom's enemies enabled by several world powers and wannabes such as Kimmie and Belarus.

3. Nutrooters hate him for his economic advocacy, his internationalism and the idea of globalization. They did then and they do now.

My prediction is that at some point Friedman will turn Chickenhawk again, but even among Chickenhawks there is a moral code. You don't want to be called a Chickenchickenhawk. Then your credibility is about zero in the hawk camp, though doves are always accepting those who repent their belief in our American experiment. I believe it was Ben Franklin who suggested the Bald Eagle to be our nation's mascot. I don't believe any of our Founders suggested doves, though peace and tranquility was and is the goal of our strength and our continued opposition to threatening authoritarianism. Nope, Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Franklin, Madison, Paine, and others were hardly doves.

Some were Chickenhawks no doubt......

P.S. another reality Friedman might consider as many Chickendoves oppose sanctions on Iran. And Iranian hardly like the billions Iran is buying Assad with, let alone the quest for the bomb. Webb looked foolish tonight on a network interview defending Quds and openly distrusting Republicans on most foreign policy. What is the term for this transmutation?

Perhaps Friedman has simply watched too much cable.