As Edie McClurg so cogently assessed the situation...

This is how I feel about Tom Friedman's latest column, "C.E.O.'s, MIA." If you strip away the flat earth nonsense, the generously exculpatory in part/in part/in part syntax, and a whole lot of other rhetorical junk, basically what you have is the classic exchange between Steve Martin and Edie McClurg (as the car rental agent) in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles:

Car Rental Agent: I really don't care for the way you're speaking to me.
Neal: And I really don't care for the way your company left me in the middle of fucking nowhere with fucking keys to a fucking car that isn't fucking there. And I really didn't care to fucking walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to get back here to have you smile at my fucking face. I want a fucking car RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
Car Rental Agent: May I see your rental agreement.
Neal: I threw it away.
Car Rental Agent: Oh boy.
Neal: Oh boy what?
Car Rental Agent: You're fucked!

Friedman is telling us we're fucked. No, wait. Friedman's rarely that emphatic. No, he is cautioning us in his Friedmanly way that if we're not careful we may at some point be surprised to find that we are ourselves in the process of being fucked.

America faces a huge set of challenges if it is going to retain its competitive edge. As a nation, we have a mounting education deficit, energy deficit, budget deficit, health care deficit and ambition deficit. The administration is in denial on this, and Congress is off on Mars. And yet, when I look around for the group that has both the power and interest in seeing America remain globally focused and competitive - America's business leaders - they seem to be missing in action. I am not worried about the rise of the cultural conservatives. I am worried about the disappearance of an internationalist, pro-American business elite.

Well, Tom has discharged his responsibilities. He's done all he can. He has pointed out, in general terms, all that is poised to come crashing down on the heads of the readers of the New York Times. Still, a much bigger voice is needed if more are to be saved.

But who will tell the people? If not the situation room, it better be the boardroom - otherwise the costs to our country will exceed anything that can measured on a balance sheet.

Cue Edie McClurg: Oh boy…. You're fucked!