The convenient myopia of elite opinion-makers

It’s Sunday once again, so The Sunday Star treats its readership to a recycled Friedman column from the New York Times circa Tuesday last; “Trump, Niger and Connecting the Dots.” Much more “economically efficient” than producing original copy, I suppose. At least I’m not asked to pay $6.30 for it… yet.

So Friedman, certainly one of the most influential voices in English language media, wants us to know “just how foolish, how flat-out dumb President Donald J. Trump is. Trump is a person who doesn’t connect dots – even when they’re big fat polka dots.”

Friedman furthermore wants us to know that unlike the imbecile Trump, he knows something about Niger. Take it away Thomas!

Connect those dots for us!

Which he does. He finds the climate change dots and the overpopulation dots and the poor governance dots and offers numerous asides about the ineptitude of the current President, all without ever mentioning the one humongous dot that arguably dwarfs all those others; Libya.

Those US special forces in Mali and Chad and Niger aren’t there to fight climate change or desertification or overpopulation; they’re there to fight “terrorists.”

And why did these African states see a sudden rise in terror activities in 2012? Could it have anything to do with the US led destruction of the Libyan state in 2011?

That would be an exceptionally obese polka dot to leave out when one is purportedly connecting the dots in Niger, wouldn’t you think?

Friedman knows this of course. The NATO assault on Libya and the murder of Gaddafi was a monstrously foolish and flat-out dumb decision. It unleashed forces that will destabilize the region for decades.

Unfortunately for the narrative Friedman is spinning, that White House decision was taken several years before Trump lived there.

Best to leave out stuff we can’t pin on Trump!