Battleangel

Thomas Friedman hits his head, writes something useful, seems to espouse Obama. Nearly apologizes for past warmongering, cheerleading. Close shave, Friedman, watch the mustache.

They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper — that we’re just not that strong anymore. We’re borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore.

Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore’s ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children’s play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, like we had just flown from the Flintstones to the Jetsons. If all Americans could compare Berlin’s luxurious central train station today with the grimy, decrepit Penn Station in New York City, they would swear we were the ones who lost World War II.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

Of course, lauding Singapore of all places makes you wonder if Friedman isn’t just re-hashing his old market economy act and moving on to small, not entirely free, special case states since his beloved U.S. isn’t doing too well.