Friedman derides ‘bumper sticker’ views towards Afghanistan, offshore drilling

In a New York Times op-ed Wednesday, Thomas Friedman chastises Republicans and Democrats for narrow-mindedness in their views towards offshore drilling and Afghanistan, respectively.

“Republicans, by mindlessly repeating their offshore-drilling mantra, focusing on a 19th century fuel, remind me of someone back in 1980 arguing that we should be putting all our money into making more and cheaper IBM Selectric typewriters – and forget about these things called the ‘PC’ and ‘the Internet,’” Friedman writes. “It is a strategy for making America a second-rate power and economy.”

On Afghanistan, Friedman maintains that bringing in more U.S. troops is not the answer, saying that “producing islands of decent and consensual government in Baghdad or Kabul or Islamabad would be a much more meaningful and lasting contribution to the war on terrorism than even killing bin Laden in his cave.”

He adds: “The truth is that Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Pakistan are just different fronts in the same war. The core problem is that the Arab-Muslim world in too many places has been failing at modernity, and were it not for $120-a-barrel oil, that failure would be even more obvious.”

For the full op-ed, click here.