The foreign policy guru at the New York Times has two major mistakes to his credit in the last week:
 
At Davos, Friedman moderated a session on the Muslim world. Friedman argued that no nations in the region should be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Well, four feet away sat Pakistan President Musharraf..a nation which for years has had nuclear weapons —and  a nation that, through the A.Q. Khan nuclear bazaar, has spread WMD technology to Libya and Iran. Hat tip: Dan Drezner.
 
Number two is more in the nature of a distortion: He blames ($link) George Bush for unleashing a democracy wave that has brought hard—line Islamists to power in Iraq, Palestine, and Iran. Leaving aside the question of what the ultimate power alignment will be in Iraq, how can George Bush be blamed for a hard—line Islamist group taking power in Iran?

There have been hard line Islamists in power there since Jimmy Carter abandoned support for the Shah back in the late 1970s. The distorted version of "democracy" that is practiced in Iran has nothing to do with the policies of George Bush. Apparently, Friedman has been too preoccupied with his speaking and writing engagements to get his facts straight. Or is it just that he uses every opportunity to fabricate history so as to impugn George Bush? 
 
 
Here is Friedman's first line in the above piece:

So far the democracy wave the Bush team has helped to unleash in the Arab—Muslim world since 9/11 has brought to power hard—line Islamic fundamentalists in Iraq, Palestine and Iran.

Ed Lasky  2 01 06