Enjoying java on the lava

Cradling a cup of Kona coffee at a clean, well-lighted cafe overlooking the black lava shoreline of the Kohala Coast on the "Big Island" of Hawaii, I feel like I’m one dead fish short of an Ernest Hemingway moment.

Inspiration, perhaps, to write this column in his style — a distinctive, bare-bones staccato rhythm honed as newspaper correspondent in Paris?

Like this. Get it?

I’ll spare you the effort. I’m more a meandering, touch-all-the-bases-in-no-particular-order kinda writer, taking liberties with the language by using words like "kinda." It’s not that I’m against short, declarative sentences. But long, chatty sentences or fragments thereof are just fine with me, too. While I know this can sometimes test the reader’s desire to finish a column (and it usually happens right about now in an 800 word essay), those who persevere will be rewarded.

So I better get on with it. On this morning, I find a wonderful column reprinted in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald on Iraq by The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman.

Because of a scheduling conflict, I missed meeting Friedman when he visited UNLV last year. My loss. He’s a provocative, solid thinker and, best as I can tell from his writing on the Middle East, he’s got a good heart not only for the well-being of Israel, but also the people of the entire region.

In this column, he made an excellent point on the effort of the United States to best al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden in Iraq — and in the war of public opinion.

The Bush administration is losing the PR war in the Arab world and in Europe. How the Bush team, goes Friedman’s argument, can be so skillful painting war heroes like Sen. John Kerry as traitors, yet fail to make a compelling argument in the court of world opinion against bin Laden is almost unexplainable.

Bin Laden is "Swift Boating" us, says Friedman. In the eyes of the world, bin Laden is the resistance hero and we’re the bad guys. How can that happen when bin Laden is, as Friedman correctly calls him, a "genocidal monster"?

People around the globe remember Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo but not the atrocities of bin Laden. Compared to what al-Qaida and its Sunni jihadist supporters have been doing in Iraq, Abu Ghraib is "a day at the beach," argues Friedman, who then points to the Aug. 14 suicide bombings in two Iraqi villages, "killing more than 500 Kurdish civilians — men, women and babies." The bombings were directly related to al-Qaida or inspired by al-Qaida.

How can Bush lose a PR war to a "mass murderer?" Friedman asks.

It is a worthy question, to which I would only add this: Let’s not stop the blame with Bush. Where’s Friedman’s own newspaper in all this?

Somehow, I don’t remember reading much about bin Laden being a "genocidal monster" on the front pages of The New York Times.

And how about the Democrats running to succeed Bush? Where are they on the "genocidal monster" front? We have so far heard hours of droning by the candidates on Iraq, but not one has characterized Osama bin Laden as a "genocidal monster" or even much of a big problem in Iraq. The primary problem, according to the Democratic presidential contenders, is Bush.

My own senior senator, Harry "Run Away" Reid, is no better. His public record on Iraq is filled with second-guessing on the war, blaming Bush and saying the leaders and men and women of the U.S. military are losers who have failed to win in Iraq.

But calling bin Laden a "genocidal monster" is noticeably missing from Reid’s daily Iraq message. Judging by his public statements, Sen. Reid seems more outraged by the American war strategy than he is with al-Qaida killing babies.

Obviously, I like what Friedman says about al-Qaida and bin Laden. They are mass murders and genocidal monsters.

But in making that case, we could sure use a little help — just a little — from The New York Times, Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid. The killing of 500 civilians — men, women and babies — three weeks ago deserves at least a mention, don’t you think?

Damn straight it does. But you’re not going to get it from people who, on a daily basis, articulate that Bush is more of a monster in Iraq than bin Laden.

OK, maybe that’s going too far. Chalk it up to thoughts of a Hemingway character who, hopped up on Kona coffee, suffers fools poorly — especially those with ulterior motives.

Sherman Frederick is publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and president of Stephens Media. Readers may write him at sfrederick@reviewjournal.com.