Thomas Friedman's column in Friday's New York Times asserts, "The Bush team is about to make a big mistake. Mr. Putin has made the decision to 'go west.' But he's way out ahead of his generals and his public. He needs the continued cover of the ABM treaty to keep them moving west, too. But he's willing to concede limiting testing under ABM." Mr. Friedman opines, "Give him what he wants. Let's have more Putin and less testing."
Vladimir Putin, the former KGB official who now runs Russia, has "made the decision to 'go west,'" huh?
Maybe Mr. Friedman should check out the article in the international section of Friday's New York Times that runs under the headline, "Ruling to Dissolve Independent Russian TV Network Draws Protests." That reports that Russia is headed toward "virtual government control over national television." It reports that the independent television network blames "a manipulative Kremlin" for putting it out of business.
It's almost enough to make a cynic think that what is driving Mr. Friedman's policy decisions is not a judgment about Mr. Putin's "decision to 'go west'" but Mr. Friedman's opposition to missile defense.
Experts: A report in the international section of today's New York Times seeks to explain a suicide bombing attack on an Israeli bus. "Some experts saw a mix of reasons for the recent violence," the Times reports. "'Some of the Palestinian violence is in retaliation,' said Yossi Alpher, a security expert and the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. Part of the violence, he said, was 'mindlessly done,' and still other attacks were 'deliberate sabotage of Arafat's standing.'" Hmm. The "expert" selected by the Times doesn't seem to consider that another reason for the violence is that the perpetrators are anti-Semites who want to kill Jews and destroy Israel.