Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful & Thought Provoking
Review: Not being very political, the issues surrounding the Middle East have always been difficult for me to understand. Mr. Friedman's book might be personal commentary, but it made me think deeply about our relationship to the rest of the world, things that are right and wrong on both sides. He writes in a way that seems more like a journal than a textbook, which pulls me into the content much more effectively. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: The Friedman Files
Review: If you only want to read one contemporary account of the aftermath of September 11, this is an excellent book. By including all of the editorials Friedman about the event and the people, cultures, and religions which were affected by the disaster, it allows him to show the changing current of thoughts and emotions around the world. Friedman of course writes very well and his articles are thought provoking, which I appreciate even though I don't always agree with him, but the bst parts of this book is he explores not only the American reaction to the terrorist attacks, but those in the Middle East and Europe. It provides a much broader picture of the events than I have found else where and adds a great deal to my knowledge of the current international situation. I liked this book a great deal and would highly recommend it to people interested in world affairs, history, religion, or just like good nonfiction.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read!
Review: If The New York Times were a high school yearbook, Thomas Friedman would be "Most Likely To Succeed." For more than two decades, he has trained his agile, disciplined mind on unraveling the palace intrigue and radical movements of Middle Eastern politics. He tells a story about a waitress in chaotic, war-torn Beirut, who politely asked if he would rather have desert now or wait until the ceasefire took effect. His point: humans can adapt to virtually anything. In this compendium of columns plus a diary of post-911 events, Friedman argues that 9/11 stemmed from U.S. failure to retaliate against prior terrorism. Here, he kicks over the log and shines his light on the origins of the religious intolerance that created 9/11. It's not a pretty sight, but you had better look. To be even modestly informed about today's issues, we from getAbstract maintain, you need to read this.
Rating: 
Summary: Left Wing Diatribe
Review: I bought this book thinking it gave insight into the culture and thoughts of those in the middle east. It might accomplish that except that I never got past his partisan "attitudes" towards the democratic party and how Al Gore had the election stolen by our Supreme Court. I guess he forgot that Al did not have as many votes as George Bush.His attacks on the republicans continue throughout and I finally gave up. Buy it if you like but I am sorry I wasted the money.
Rating:
Summary: The Song Remains the Same
Review: Thomas Friedman breaks no new ground with this book. He doesn't have to. The bulk of "Longitudes & Attitudes" is a collection of his regular New York Times columns from December 2000 until July 2002. Friedman regulars will have read most or all of these columns, and even his occasional readers will be familiar with the handful of pieces that have gained fame for the clarity of their vision and their new insights into old problems. Friedman's message is simple. Anti-democratic Arab regimes conspire with radical Muslim clerics throughout the Middle East in an unholy alliance to maintain the illegitimate governments in power with the support of religious leaders spewing medieval backwardness and hatred. The U.S. props up many of these regimes in the name of an expedient short-term stability aimed at milking them of their oil reserves. Who suffers? Everyone. Arab societies are trapped in a backward-looking anti-modernist world of illiteracy, intolerance, repression of women, and censorship. A foreseeable by-product are hate-filled xenophobic young men who would rather kill themselves and thousands of innocents than search for creative solutions to this seemingly intractable impasse. Against this backdrop always looms the Israeli/Palestinian conflict which fuels the flames of anti-Western rhetoric while simultaneously distracting Arab societies from the pressing need to reform themselves. And this conflict can not be resolved until Israelis withdraw from their settlements in Palestinian areas and until Yasir Arafat is no longer a player. Friedman sounds this drumbeat over and over, with anecdotes, insights, analysis, and ruminations. His language is as simple as his message and has won him three Pulitzer Prizes. He is an unabashed American patriot with excellent contacts throughout the region. He is not an academic, but someone who has a heart, passion, skill, and is gifted with the ability to make sense of chaos and to find threads of music in cacophony. Thomas Friedman is an excellent writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Political Posturing and Extreme Liberalism
Review: When a journalist writes, they ought to write objectively. Thomas Friedman injects his overarching liberalism into this book. I understand that Friedman's column is listed in the Op-Ed section of the NY Times, but his one-sided view is disgusting. For example. he attacks V.P. Dick Cheney for "hiding out' in the weeks following 9/11. I'm sorry Mr. Friedman, I thought we wanted a stable government in the event that the President was killed or died. (Which there was and is still a significant risk of.) Friedman also becomes much more moderate after Sept. 11. I firmly believe that you are not to change those beliefs even in reaction to a significant world event, such as 9/11. Friedman, by the title of this book. suggests that he is going to write about the world after September 11. I don't see any articles written from Australia or Turkey or France. Friedman explores the Middle East after September 11, not the world. To sum up, this work contains a few good thoughts, but hardly any actual processes for implementing. teenlibrarian-- P.S. Friedman remarks that he has the number of the Operations Room of the White House memorized, to me that is troubling. (He is NOT an elected official representing the U.S., he is a journalist for gosh sakes.)
Rating:
Summary: "Net Assessment" of 9-11, Arabs, & Prospects for Peace
Review:
Although the entire book is rife with gems of insight, it is page 300 that richly rewards the reader who accepts some of the inevitable repetition between the columns and the diary to complete the book: "The Israeli army terrorism experts confided...(that) you can have the best intelligence network in the world, but there is no way that Israelis will ever be able to penetrate Palestinian society better than Palestinians. .. Only the host society can penetrate itself enough to effectively restrain or delegitimize its own suicide bombers. Outsiders can't."
In one paragraph, this thrice-winning Pulitzer Prize winner has marked the third major failure in the Administration's strategy against global terrorism (the first was the failure to cordon off Tora Bora in Afghanistan with reliable U.S. troops, because the U.S. Army can't do mountains; the second was to declare war on Iraq against the President's best instincts but yielding to the Vice President's obsession, if Bob Woodward's account in "Bush at War" is correct). Although the U.S. is spending upwards toward $200M to destabilize Iraq, and perhaps another $100M in global bribery of local liaison services (themselves penetrated by terrorists, or supporting terrorism), we have failed to establish the kind of deep credible relations that lead to sustained and effective counter-terrorism by the host countries. Pakistan is an excellent case in point--it consistently gives lip service to US demands, and fails to bring home the Al Qaeda leaders passing in and out of Pakistan at will. Across many columns, the author hits again and again at the basics: "we have been allowing a double game to go on with our Middle East allies for years, and that has to stop." Either they cease supporting terrorists in return for a dubious poverty-ridden peace at home, or they join the target list; we must invest heavily in both a Marshall Plan and a Voice of America *in Arabic* that consistently and constantly counters all of the lies about America and against America that the Arab regimes permit as part of their strategy for peace at home; lastly, more subtly, we must get serious about standing up for our values and not allowing rogue governments to abuse our friendship and tolerance while fostering hatred of America among their repressed, using America as the opiate of the down-trodden. The author seems to agree with Ralph Peters, author of "Beyond Terror" and "Fighting for the Future" in focusing on the importance of the Muslim outlands from Pakistan and India down through Malaysia and Indonesia, and he is especially strong at documenting the severe misunderstandings and misimpressions of America that persist across the Muslim world but especially in Arabia--otherwise serious people who really believe that bin Laden is good, 9-11 was justified, and everything will get better if America stops supporting Israel. This particular book, down to earth and based on very direct observations, is a useful counter-balance to Bernard Lewis, "What Went Wrong." Both distinguished authors agree that the Arab regimes are their own worst enemies and have brought their poverty on themselves--but where the historian seems to deem this sufficient to permit disengagement, the correspondent takes the other tack and calls for major generational-changing engagement, utilizing all the instruments of national power, from coercive diplomacy backed up by the very real threat of military intervention amongst our pupported allies, to massive economic, educational, and cultural assistance and outreach. Toward the end of the book, quoting the deputy editor of New Isvestia in Moscow, the author hits the final nail on the head: "It is not East versus West anymore. It is the stable versus unstable worlds..." China, Russia, Islam, water, disease, crime--terrorism, I conclude, is a very small part of the threat, and our greatest challenge right now is to devise a holistic national security strategy that does not lose sight of the forest for the one burning bush. Overall, the author has provided as fine a net assessment as any President could ask for.
Rating:
Summary: A clear, and easy to understand view of post 9/11
Review: Through the flurry of media publications and government programs using the war on terrorism a guise to push 'September 10th politics' 142 Mr. Friedman has eloquently brought together an amazingly moving compilation of essays explaining the post September 11th world of geopolitics that hit us [quite literally] like a million tons of steel and concrete. Mr. Friedman put into words what most Americans have been feeling about the United States after September 11th and did a great job of playing devil's advocate offering incite into the world of the Arab states that fueled this tragedy. It was a refreshing change from the 'Breaking News on the War on Terror' that every cable news network has been pounding into our psyche for over a year now, and gives a level-headed approach to fix the problems that have caused our country so much pain. I would recommend this book for everyone that would like a clear and in depth explanation of what fueled the attack on our country and what our elected officials are or need to be doing about it. This really is a great book for everyone, I'm 15 and I loved it'
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile complilation of columns and material around 9/11
Review: This is not a written out book. It is a collection of Mr. Friedman's columns plus his unpublished diary. It begins a few months before Sept 11, 2001 through mid-2002 and is grouped in pre- and post 9/11. Op-ed columnists have an interesting problem. On one had they only have to put together 800 or so words to make one piece. However, putting something important in a small space can be hard work if the writer takes the job seriously (less serious columnists find the op-ed real estate large - they tease a nothing idea into 800 empty words). Then there is the problem of having to write opinions in close to real time. Events force you to re-think your views and yet you have all that previously published stuff that seems to contradict what you are presently saying. Almost by definition the experiences of life provide new perspectives and a change of context. It is hard to be alive and not change your understanding of things. So, collecting one's opinions over time may provide apparent inconsistencies and changes, but it is more about deeper understanding and new appreciation of things. Thomas L. Friedman is a very good columnist because he is a keen observer of events in our world. He writes seriously and with passion. He actually cares what he is writing about. He is courageous in stating what he thinks should be done by the parties involved and this leads to another risk: people who agree with him one day might be furious with him the next. But all this is just fine. I find myself appreciating the author's observations and most of his analysis. However, I find most myself disagreeing with many of recommendations. Again, this is great. He provides me with ideas and insights that are worth considering. It isn't necessary to agree with him to find him valuable. The value is in giving us substantive and worthwhile material to think over and consider. You may have read many or most of the columns before, but they have a different effect when bound and then read one after the other. It is tough to write columns that hold up over time. Mr. Friedman does that for us better than most. And that is why I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Ooops
Review: Oh Well. Interesting book. His opinions since 9-11 contrast his warm and fuzzy "global village" prior to 9-11. Do you remember everything that Mr. Friedman wrote in THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE???? .....never mind.
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