Longitudes and Attitudes Book Report

"Longitudes and Attitudes", written by Thomas Friedman, is a collection of columns, broken by September 11th's great catastrophe and including material from his diary. The book displays his outstanding strengths as a commentator along with a few weaknesses.

"Longitudes and Attitudes" is a collection of his more recent columns and a diary of supporting incidents. It relates to the theme that has consumed him in his career. This theme is given point by Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the attack of 9/11.

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tom Friedman went to work as a journalist in Beirut, Lebanon soon after securing a masters degree from Oxford University in Middle Eastern Studies. Employed by United Press International in 1978, he soon transferred to the New York Times and covered the Syrian destruction of that country's own town of Hama, the Israeli Lebanese invasion, the massacre of Palestinians in refugee camps, the evacuation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, etc. In 1995, he became the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times with carte blanche--unlimited travel budget and no supervision as to content. He has written two books and collected three Pulitzer Prizes.

In his current job, Friedman writes a 740-word column twice a week. It appears in many of the world's newspapers and on the Web. This latest book, Longitudes and Attitudes, is a compendium of his more recent columns and a diary of supporting incidents. The text relates to the theme that has consumed him in his career: the failure of the Arab nation to develop, democratize, and compete properly with the West. This theme is given point by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the attack of 9/11.

Friedman's ideas are presented primarily through many columns that he had written for he New York Times. Their datelines stretch from December 15, 2000 to April 20, 2003 and from Jerusalem, Israel to Peshawar, Pakistan.

In this book, Friedman presents a coherent picture of forces in the Middle East that have led to the Israeli- Palestinian confrontation and to bin Laden and his group of terrorists. Friedman's articles describe meetings, discussions, and arguments he had with people at all levels of society through out the Middle East. From his extensive travels and through dynamic interactions with the people he derived intense insights into how 9/11 came about, why, and what should be done about it.

His arguments and conclusions are well thought through, so much that they draw opponents to reason with him. Of Jewish religion, he still wears the American Flag on his sleeve and criticizes Israel for the West Bank Settlements. Wherever he goes in Muslim lands, he appears before editorial boards and argues his conclusions.

When he turns to the conflict in the Holy Land, Friedman is partially right. As he see the Palestinians have learned some things in Zionism, but they have still yet to learn the lesson that the best is the enemy f the good and that all wise negotiations mean settling for what you can get now rather than what you want one day.

While Friedman is dismayed when Arabs tell him "that the Jews control the US government", he also admits that although Israeli settlement policy is "insane", President Bush can do nothing about it, because that "would inevitably force a clash that with US Jews, whose cotes and donations he needs to protect his GOP majority in the house".

Friedman was extremely right in saying September 11th was an atrocious crime that had no plausible explanation or even justification or even any real origin in oppression and injustice. As he saw, Osama bin Laden was a bloodthirsty religious maniac, and his followers