Thomas Friedman shoots his mouth off again.
This time he’s talking about the TPP and the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.
Here’s a prediction: NATO will eventually establish “no-sail zones” — safe areas for refugees and no-go zones for people-smugglers — along the Libyan coast.
How? Is there really a difference between refugees and “people smugglers?” Do “people smugglers” have some kind of obvious identifying characteristic that will differentiate them to the 20 year old Coast Guard or Navy sailor from a NATO country whose going to have to do the sorting? Does he really think the point of a Navy is to serve as a floating fence to stop immigration?
Here’s another goldmine:
With rising disorder in the Middle East and Africa — and with China and Russia trying to tug the world their way — there has never been a more important time for the coalition of free-market democracies and democratizing states that are the core of the World of Order to come together and establish the best rules for global integration for the 21st century, including appropriate trade, labor and environmental standards. These agreements would both strengthen and more closely integrate the market-based, rule-of-law-based democratic and democratizing nations that form the backbone of the World of Order.
1. ‘Rising disorder in the Middle East’ compared to when? Is there proof that the middle east is more disordered than it was in some unspecified period of time in the past? And more importantly for a Democracy concerned with the proliferation of freedom, were those ‘ordered’ times more of less free than today? Because if we’re prioritizing order over freedom, we’re supporting tyranny. And this time we don’t even have a cold war to excuse it.
2 ‘And with Russia and China trying to tug the world their way’ As opposed to when? At which point in the last century was Russia (and the old Soviet Union) not active in the international community trying to extend it’s community of trading partners, and it’s military sphere of influence? Since 1970 or so China has acted in the same fashion, so why now is it a threat, and what is it a threat to? American (and western) hegemony? How has that worked out for the rest of the world for the last century? Might the history of the last century of western trade, military and economic hegemony inspire South American, African and Asian countries to explore alternatives to western domination?
3 “there has never been a more important time for the coalition of free-market democracies and democratizing states that are the core of the World of Order to come together and establish the best rules for global integration for the 21st century, including appropriate trade, labor and environmental standards.” So why do the rich western nation get to set global standards in these areas? Is it because we’re rich and we’ve set international standards without the input of poorer countries for a century? Might all of the actual nations affected by these unspecified rules not want and deserve a chance to define the rules?
4 “These agreements would both strengthen and more closely integrate the market-based, rule-of-law-based democratic and democratizing nations that form the backbone of the World of Order” Remind me again what’s so hot about the current world order when it can’t even rein in carbon dioxide exhaust?
Has Thomas Friedman ever even heard of confirmation bias? Has he ever imagined it might explain those voices in his head? I understand that even 25 years later, he misses the polarized world of the cold war, and he misses the vast number of things excused by the fight against communism. I get that for generations, starting with the baby boom, American superiority in military might and economic prosperity was a given. But it wasn’t always the case, it won’t always be the case, and setting up any kind of “world order” that doesn’t acknowledge those facts, is setting up a “world order” that will collapse when the US can’t maintain and extend it’s 70 year old military spending spree.
So here’s an idea, Tom. Set up a trade pact that gives labor and environmental issues the same or greater weight than unfettered trade. Throw out the proposed mediation that lets companies sue countries for labor and environmental regulations that could cut into their profit margins. When visiting other countries, talk to labor activists, economists that didn’t graduate from the university of Chicago, and environmental activists, talk to climate researchers and indigenous people. And FFS, stop talking to people in the hospitality and tourism industries as if they possess economic wisdom hidden from ivory tower intellectuals.