Effects of Iraq

Abu Aardvark takes Tom Friedman to task for this column in which he traces a bunch of political developments in the Middle East to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is something people have been doing a lot of lately, and it drives me nuts. There has been lively Arabic political discussion for years - the region practically lives off talking politics. Assuming that everyone in the region is now convinced of the need to reform because of the exercise of American military power suggests that people in the Middle East believe American military power was employed largely for pro-democracy purposes. They are not that naive, and the situation with Libya gives them no reason to change their minds. But read Abu Aardvark's piece. He even has pre-September 11 Friedman quotes about Arab political discussion.