News Behind the News

Thomas Friedman, that indefatigable proponent of globalization and now "global citizenship," applauds President Bush in his role as Commander-in-Chief but wants more out of his president. Exactly what?

Well, to begin he wants his president to ask Americans to sacrifice for the war effort. First, we must all turn down our thermostats to 65 degrees this winter. That should just about break the back of OPEC. I'm serious. That is what he said. Of course, he was just getting warmed up, no pun intended. What he really wants is America to take on the role of President Johnson's Great Society worldwide.

Thus, after advocating less heat this winter, he got on a roll and called for a new "Manhattan Project to make us energy independent in a decade, on the basis of domestic oil, improved mileage standards and renewable resources, so we Americans, who are 5 percent of the world's population, don't continue hogging 25 percent of the world's energy?" Well, that should just about do it. Americans could reduce their energy consumption, say, by giving up the second car and buying a jack ass. That ought to help. Then we could burn the ass's droppings to heat our homes. That ought to teach the bin Laden's and spoiled Saudis a thing or two.

Friedman would also have every senior executive cut his salary voluntarily by 10 percent to make room for the less productive who in rough times get the ax. That is because Friedman really doesn't believe in those free markets he often praises. Indeed, why don't we just reduce the number of journalists world wide and donate their salaries to the less fortunate.

Our NY Times pundit then argued that we must do what it takes to be "the best global citizens, we can be. . . . That means doubling our foreign aid, intensifying our democracy promotion programs, increasing our contributions to world development banks (which do microlending to poor women) and lowering our trade barriers for textile and farm imports from the poorest countries. Imagine if the president called on every U.S. school to raise money to buy solar-powered light bulbs for every village in Africa that didn't have electricity so African kids could read at night? And let every one of those light bulbs carry an America flag decal on it, so when those kids grew up they would remember who lit up their nights?"

After such nonsense, it is hard to take this man seriously, but given his pulpit at the "newspaper of record," we must give him his due. To understand this light bulb carrying liberal, one must understand that Friedman's problem stems from his world view. He is convinced that there is a "global citizen" out there. He simply doesn't understand that America is great because America is great for her citizens, not for some global citizenry.

America is the best citizen it can be right now precisely because it is being led by a president taking on the grim task of facing down terrorism based upon its own national interests. America is the place it is because it thrives on consumption, freedom, opportunity. It is that citizenship that provides the fire power for the most powerful military the world has ever known. Foreign aid and democracy courses for petty dictators has never paid big dividends, if it has paid any at all. The Marshall Plan worked because the US dictated who would survive, under what conditions, and with what military assets. Hardly the kind of global citizen Friedman would call for. Imagine what his response to Hiroshima would have been.

Islamists hate America, light bulbs and all, precisely because they perceive the very real threat to their world view presented by the American way of life. Friedman's glad-handing the third-world types brings neither world peace nor his sought after world-wide appreciation.

Mr. Friedman: if you want to enlist for some extra-curricula voluntarism, try your hand at fighting for the American way and not trying to convert America into some universal global village welfare state.