A good Tom Friedman op-ed!

I've very mixed feelings on Tom Friedman, but this recent op-ed is him at his best: making observations which Americans aren't paying enough attention to, and making good, should-be-common-sense points about them with analogies that clarify instead of dumbing down. When he's arguing for common sense, he's very good at it. And his common sense in this article is this: "9/11 has made us stupid." An obvious basic point, but this op-ed draws out the implications and connects it to other important issues in ways you don't usually think of.

He's been on my mind lately for other reasons, though; for my whole time in Egypt, whenever I talk to friends in the US or write on the blog, I've been trying to understand a foreign culture and explain it to friends who don't live here. Tom Friedman made his name explaining the Middle East to Americans, which is exactly what I'm trying to do here. And he's prone to certain... pitfalls that I more and more see myself falling into. More thoughts to come.