What Wolcott Says

He wrote not to bury Friedman, but not really to praise him much either:

I am pleased that Thomas Friedman has gotten on board with my modest proposal of a few months back that the Guantanamo prison facility be emptied and dismantled. We visionaries are always slightly ahead of the pack and it is a happy development when a distinguished blowhard like Friedman stumbles upon the path of enlightment.

However, I wish he had taken a bold step farther and embraced my brainstorm that Gitmo be converted into a bird sanctuary. This would prove to be a popular goodwill gesture in the region and provide a popular resort for migrating avians. The cost and upkeep would be far less taxing than the maintenance price of keeping suspected terrorists in orange jumpsuits behind barbed wire indefinitely...

I suspect that Friedman, like most in his celebrity journalist class, is so divorced from nature that it never occured to him that Gitmo might serve a higher purpose as an avian haven. But at least he grasps that Gitmo in its present utility is an abomination and a stain upon what little honor the US has left under Bush.