I wrote the comment at the end of this post to send to the Times today after reading Thomas Friedman's opinion piece. I am posting a link to Friedman's article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/opinion/friedman-obama-snowden-and-putin.html?
My Comment:
Really! Snowden should return to the U.S. as the American people will treat him fairly. Hard to believe I just read this in the New York Times and that the Opinion Page editor permitted it to be published. We finally get Maureen Dowd' to leave Entertainment Weekly and write a serious political column on Larry Summers and then we get this from you! Let me point out Mr. Friedman, as even your own paper acknowledges, that if other western countries weren't so afraid of the United States and its bullying, Snowden wouldn't be forced to seek asylum in Russia.
Even those who could care less about the entire issue (most Americans) know that Snowden is a whistle blower not a traitor, but if he returns he'll spend the remainder of his life in prison. He blew the whistle on traitors, the Obama administration and those that came before, Bush, et al., traitors to the Constitution and to humanity. Without doubt, this is the worst column I've read in the Times in years and I'm including all the columns in the Times, including Friedman's, that supported our destruction of Iraq based on lies. This is something I would expect of the Fox network. I wish the Times would get serious in its selection of political columnists.
The above did not get submitted as the Times website went down right after I wrote it, but I doubt the Times would have printed it anyway. It's very protective of its editorial staff particularly when called out about its involvement in the Iraq war. But I am still amazed that the Times would have published this. Friedman knows full well that Snowden would never get a fair trial in this country and would spent the rest of his life in prison, where I would gladly put Friedman for writing such crap.
One other important note. Many people who agree with Obama and condemn Snowden point out that he had signed a contract that he would keep the government's secrets before he took the job. Since Snowden could not have known what he would find after he took the job until he had signed the contract, I believe in Contract Law at least he would not be held to the contract if he determined that what he was involved in was illegal, as he did. And Prism under current U.S. law is acting illegally in its collection of private records. If you don't believe this, you should read more.
More important, at the Nuremburg trials the defense that one was under orders did not hold sway, and the United States supported the thesis that there's no defense for following orders when one is asked to do something illegal, and worse, immoral or inhumane. On all counts Snowden is guilty of nothing beyond his belief in human decency and the ascendancy of the United States Constitution.
Thomas Friedman is a wanker. I can't believe so many people think he's great.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Edward Snowden is a hero. The most disgusting aspect of all this is the hypocrisy -- proud hypocrisy -- on display by the liberal establishment, who we all know would damn well have defended Snowden if his revelations had come during the Bush administration. But now that Obama is in office, suddenly black is white, up is down, good is bad.
I can't stand cocktail-party liberals. They're not "liberal" in any sense of the world. They're phonies. They're tribalists, just like the rightwing they love to excoriate. (And in case it's not clear, I identify as left -- far left -- inasmuch as the left/right dichotomy even means anything anymore.)