New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on Zimbabwe: A case of unclean hands

The legal concept of unclean hands allows courts to throw out complaints where the plaintiff is shown to have acted in bad faith with respect to the subject of the complaint. Amid US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, supported by the Times and justified by Friedman as exercises in democratic nation-building, which have cost the lives of millions of civilians and wounded or displaced millions more, Mr. Friedmans long-suffering readers have every right to question the good faith of his claims to moral outrage.

After noting at the beginning of his column the decline in American popularity around the world, Chinas greater popularity in Asian countries, and the weakness of Americas overextended military and overextended banks, Friedman writes: Welcome to a world of too much Russian and Chinese power.

Citing polls showing worldwide hostility to US foreign policy, Friedman tosses off the type of obligatory and cynical criticism of US excesses that has become commonplace among liberal apologists for Americas wars of aggression. We should have done better in Iraq, he writes. An America that presides over Abu Ghraib, torture and Guantánamo Bay deserves a thumbs-down.