Friedman: we need to understand “who were those guys?”

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Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and author Tom Friedman told a capacity audience at Williams College last week that the United States will not be safe until we understand “who were those guys?” — those 19 young men who hijacked jetliners and slammed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. “Who and what produced them?” asked Friedman. Until we understand that, he said, “I don’t think we’re going to feel safe.” He divided the suicide hijackers into two groups, the Saudis and the Europeans. The Saudis, he said, were from “a vast pool of young men I call ‘sittin’ around guys.’” The hijackers included four groups of brothers from the poorest part of Saudi Arabia. The “Wheel of bin Ladenism,” said Friedman, meshes authoritarian regimes, which strike a bargain with anti-modernist educators and religious figures, who produce another generation of unskilled young people.” The Europeans, including key plotter Mohammed Atta, were, without exception, not radical Islamists when they left their homes in the Middle East to live in Europe. But their encounter with Western societies sparked their rage. Although the United States aspires to be a melting pot, Europe does not, he said. So immigrants coalesce in prayer groups, some radical, and some made their way all the way to Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. They were, he said, “raised with a view of the world that considers Islam the most perfect religion, and the Koran the ultimate revelation.” To use computer terms, he said, they believe Islam is God 3.0., Christianity is God 2.0, and Judaism is God 1.0. Yet when they move to Europe, they discover Christians and Jews “living so much more prosperously.” That creates resentment, fueled by Osama bin Laden’s contention that Christians and Jews somehow caused Muslim misfortune. “Nine-eleven was about the poverty of dignity, not poverty of mind,” he said. “It was about humiliation.” Friedman said God 2.0 is really 2.0.1, and God 1.0 is really 1.0.1 — since both Christianity and Judaism have been through the Enlightenment. “Until Islam is God 3.0.1, I believe this cognitive dissonance will manifest itself in other places and in other forms.” Calling Osama bin Laden “a combination of Charles Manson and Jack Welch,” a man who combines evil intent with formidable organizational skills. “We have to kill Osama bin Laden and the people around him, and kill their ideas,” said Friedman. “People say violence doesn’t solve anything, but that’s not quite true.” Al Qaeda, he said, is a franchise operation — “think McDonald’s” — with local groups acting in “a largely autonomous and independent basis.” “It’s much more important to kill their bad ideas,” said Friedman. In that endeavor, he said, “we have a role, and the Arabs have a role.” For our part, he said, “we need to be the best global citizens we can be.” That means, he said, not demanding that other nations join us in the war on terrorism while we refuse to join in international efforts to combat global warming and continue to drive our gas-guzzling SUVs. We have to be, he said, “very careful about how we talk to the world,” he said. “People who have power seem unaware of the shadow we cast around the world.” There are people in the Pentagon and the government, he said, who are contemptuous of Muslims and Islam, and, said Friedman, “people can smell contempt an ocean away.” When the secretary of defense refers to the “so-called occupied territories,” he said, “it’s a way of dissing the concerns and aspirations of a billion Muslims.” “We need to make a much more concerted effort to defuse the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. To resolve that conflict would, he said, take away an excuse from the worst Arab leaders for not addressing the issues of the Arab Human Development Report. That report, written by 25 Arab intellectuals — 10 of whom asked for their names to be removed for fear of reprisals — under United Nations auspices, explored Arab countries in terms of freedom, modern education and women’s empowerment. Bin Laden, said Friedman, is “an authentic character, a Saudi multimillionaire who gave up a life of luxury . . .with a retrograde vision.” There has been no progressive message from moderate Muslims since 9/11, said Friedman. “Islam is not an angry religion, but there are a lot of angry Muslims,” he said. “Religion mirrors your daily life.” Unlike countries where people’s ideas are repressed, India, the second largest Moslem country in the world, has no representatives in Al Qaeda or among those detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The United States, he said, has ignored conditions in Saudi Arabia for 50 years, content as long as that oil rich country remains “a big dumb gas station. If all the pumps are open and price is low, and if they were nice to Israel, we didn’t care what was going on out back. We just got hit from out back.” To objections that open elections would result in Islamist regimes, Friedman said “I want the Islamists to win,” he said, “so they’ll have to pay retail . . .and look their own people in the eye and say they’re not going to sell oil and gas to the infidel.” Then, he said, the war will be within Islam. Friedman noted that the single Middle Eastern country that had a democratic government — Lebanon — also lacked oil. And the first to become a constitutional monarchy — Bahrain — was the first to run out of oil. Oil, he said, allowed autocratic rulers to drill a sand dune rather than developing the resources — the creativity, energies and talents — of their people. It is why, he said, the transition from authoritarianism to democracy has taken so much longer than in the countries of the former Communist bloc in Eastern and Central Europe — Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. “There’s a very short answer called Oil,” he said. “Even in a theocracy it allows the government to maintain a monopoly of force on all the instruments of coercion,” the police and the military. “That part of the world has been on vacation from history for centuries,” he said. “That part of the world hasn’t had a good century in 800 years.” Vice President Dick Cheney may say conservation is for sissies, but conservation can help free the United States from the stranglehold of Middle Eastern oil. There exists a total mismatch, he said, between the degree to which we are all wired together technologically, and the degree to which we are developing frameworks for understanding each other. These frameworks have to be developed “the old-fashioned way, through travel, cultural exchanges and language study.” The example of Iran is an instructive one, he said. A recent poll showed that 75 percent of Iranians wanted the immediate restoration of relations with the United States, but 46 percent thought U.S. relations with Iran are basically correct. “That was a massive vote of no confidence in the regime,” he said. And so the clerics closed the polling agency. “They’ve completely lost popular support,” he said. Iranians, he said, “have had enough democracy to know they want more. They’ve had enough theocracy to know they want less.” Friedman, addressing the current administration push toward war with Iraq, said “I’m not the least bit afraid of (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction . . .(and) I believe a lot of the discussion about them is pure hype.” “What really worries me is the young men of 9/11,” he said. And, he cautioned, Iraq carries a sign similar to those in antique shops, “If you break it, you own it.” “There is nothing worse than ambivalent nation-building,” he said. “Will the Bush team see this through?” “Some people are really good at smashing things,” he said. “If you have something you want smashed, these are your guys. But I’m not sure how good they are at building things.” To engage in nation-building, he said, “you need some naive optimism . . .you need to have a little bit of Bill Clinton, and these guys don’t have an ounce of Bill Clinton.” If you think the cost is too high for plunging into war, he said, then opt for “aggressive containment. Don’t go in there.” He urged listeners to use the democratic process to convey their wishes. And he said he thinks progressive Islam can only emerge within a democratic context.
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McCann Recognizes Superintendent Award Recipient

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff

Landon LeClair and Superintendent James Brosnan with Landon's parents Eric and Susan LeClair, who is a teacher at McCann. 
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Superintendent's Award has been presented to Landon LeClair, a senior in McCann Technical School's advanced manufacturing course. 
 
The presentation was made last Thursday by Superintendent Jame Brosnan after Principal Justin Kratz read from teachers' letters extolling LeClair's school work, leadership and dedication. 
 
"He's become somewhat legendary at the Fall State Leadership Conference for trying to be a leader at his dinner table, getting an entire plate of cookies for him and all his friends," read Kratz to chuckles from the School Committee. "Landon was always a dedicated student and a quiet leader who cared about mastering the content."
 
LeClair was also recognized for his participation on the school's golf team and for mentoring younger teammates. 
 
"Landon jumped in tutoring the student so thoroughly that the freshman was able to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment despite the missed class time for golf matches," read Kratz.
 
The principal noted that the school also received feedback from LeClair's co-op employer, who rated him with all fours.
 
"This week, we sent Landon to our other machine shop to help load and run parts in the CNC mill," his employer wrote to the school. LeClair was so competent the supervisor advised the central shop might not get him back. 
 
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