By: E&P Staff New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman seems to have very flexible deadlines when it comes to what will happen in war-torn Iraq, according to an advisory issued by Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting.
FAIR said Friedman keeps talking about how "the next six months" will be crucial to Iraq's future, but the columnist has been doing this since the year (2003) the United States invaded the country.
"A review of Friedman's punditry reveals a long series of similar do-or-die dates that never seem to get any closer," said FAIR, which compiled excerpts from Friedman's columns and broadcast remarks. Here are some of them:
"The next six months in Iraq -- which will determine the prospects for democracy-building there -- are the most important six months in U.S. foreign policy in a long, long time." (The New York Times, Nov. 30, 2003)
"What we're gonna find out, Bob, in the next six to nine months is whether we have liberated a country or uncorked a civil war." (CBS's Face the Nation, Oct. 3, 2004)
"Improv time is over. This is crunch time. Iraq will be won or lost in the next few months. But it won't be won with high rhetoric. It will be won on the ground in a war over the last mile." (The New York Times, Nov. 28, 2004)
"I think we're in the end game now?. I think we're in a six-month window here where it's going to become very clear and this is all going to pre-empt I think the next congressional election -- that's my own feeling -- let alone the presidential one." (NBC's Meet the Press, Sept. 25, 2005)
"We've teed up this situation for Iraqis, and I think the next six months really are going to determine whether this country is going to collapse into three parts or more or whether it's going to come together." (Face the Nation, Dec. 18, 2005)
"The only thing I am certain of is that in the wake of this election, Iraq will be what Iraqis make of it -- and the next six months will tell us a lot. I remain guardedly hopeful." (The New York Times, Dec. 21, 2005)
"I think that we're going to know after six to nine months whether this project has any chance of succeeding. In which case, I think the American people as a whole will want to play it out or whether it really is a fool's errand." (Oprah Winfrey Show, Jan. 23, 2006)
"I think we are in the end game. The next six to nine months are going to tell whether we can produce a decent outcome in Iraq." (NBC's Today, March 2, 2006)
"Can Iraqis get this government together? If they do, I think the American public will continue to want to support the effort there to try to produce a decent, stable Iraq. But if they don't, then I think the bottom is going to fall out of public support here for the whole Iraq endeavor. So one way or another, I think we're in the end game in the sense it's going to be decided in the next weeks or months whether there's an Iraq there worth investing in. And that is something only Iraqis can tell us." (CNN, April 23, 2006)
"Well, I think that we're going to find out, Chris, in the next year to six months -- probably sooner -- whether a decent outcome is possible there, and I think we're going to have to just let this play out." (MSNBC's Hardball, May 11, 2006)
Friedman's column is syndicated via the New York Times News Service.
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