THOMAS FRIEDMAN DOES WHAT HE DOES BEST: SNEAKILY RETRACTS SOMETHING HE HAD SAID

If you search this blog, you will learn that I had predicted that this would happen: that Thomas Friedman would soon deny that he had argued repeatedly that Arab uprisings have no foreign policy goals.  I knew that it would happen because he has a history of such sneaky and deceptive shifts.  He supported the US war on Iraq in 2003, and later suddenly claimed that he was opposed to the war.  Today he wrote this: " First, it is now clear that Arab autocracies are being replaced with Islamist/populist parties. And, in Egypt, in particular, it is already clear that a key issue in the election will be the peace treaty with Israel."  Wait. The key issue is the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty?  Were you not the one who stressed over and over again, from your room in Marriott of Cairo that the Egyptian uprising has no foreign policy goals? I see that you have changed your tune. Just like that.