Re: Is Chomsky The Problem

[aabdo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Abdo)]

Jared, you have called Chomsky a liar.    And you yourself have been
accused of being a liar.    I certainly believe this has been the case,
am I not right?      The overwhelming majority of activists fall in the
great in-between of labelling neither of you liars...     We admire
certain aspects of both your work, and also admire parts of Chomsky's
work, too.       And we consider that both of you have played very
important roles in building resistance against Empire.

So let me explain further my position in regards to your attack that
focuses on Chomsky's politics.      You state below....

<Am I a Marxist? I'm with Marx on that one.
I did not consult Marx to discover that this is a lie. I read tons of
Western newspaper articles (I read the stuff 5-6 hours a day, have been
doing it for a couple of years; before that I read about Yugoslavia, but
less) and benefit from the privilege (!!) of being in contact with all
sorts of people who know this situation intimately. The Website I
started at Lou's suggestion has become a focus of resistance and is fed
information from all over. What an honor.>

Exactly.    You should feel the honor that The Movement has bestowed on
you by our constant entrances into your website, looking for information
and opinion.      This is the situation with Chomsky, also.     He has
filled a role of opening people's eyes to certain aspects of
imperialism's functioning.

Here is the problem for us Left activists, most of us who do not have
time to read tons of stuff about Milosevic and Yugoslavia.     We have
little time to try to figure out the situation in Kosovo or Indonesia,
the Caucasus or The Congo.      We are never going to even visit these
places, not even as vacations.      We just don't have 5-6 hours per
day, year after year.

Yugoslavia cannot be the center of our attention, as it has become the
center of your attention.      And neither can East Timor become the
center of our attention, as it was for Chomsky, and still is.

You ae certainly right about the following-
<The question of what kind of socialist Milosevich is is a question to
be resolved by the Yugoslav people. But the attack made on him by the
Western media IS THAT HE IS A WAR CRIMINAL. Sorry for the caps, but now
perhaps you will get it. WAR CRIMINAL. He and 'his' army.>

So what shall be the response?      I asked earlier, if we were to now
have to paint Milosevic as some kind of saint?      The truth is that
war is very brutal.     The Bolsheivics were brutal, the Chinese also.
As the Vietnamese.      They did commit  many war crimes, as has the
Serb army.

So how do we reconcile this with our desire to oppose the imperialist
war machine?      Must we pretend that one side is the model of humanity
and virtue- OUR SIDE?     Or do we try to put perspective into the
reasons and causes that violent response is needed to counter
aggression, and demonstrate that not always is there a perfect cowboy
dressed in white, that represents the side opposing imperialist
intervention?

This type of moral opposition to All violence has a pacifist appeal.
So it is important to educate people about context, and relative levels
of force used between the varying sides.      That's the importance of
educating against the destructiveness of the capitalist imperialist
system.

Efforts to make one side out as an army of Jesus Christ (in red), only
go to ultimately limit credibility in your point of view.     It cannot
be posed.... all or nothing.... or you risk people rejecting your
political stance, just based on that attempted pressure, if nothing
more.

Plus, it detracts from examining the larger issue.     Why, with wars
raging all over the globe, has the Left in the industrailized
imperialist countries been unwilling and unable, to build and sustain an
opposition to the militarization of world society?      Notice that I
focus in on that word.... UNWILLING.

This is a much bigger and broader issue than trying to figure out just
who is doing what to whom in The Balkans.     And then jumping around
the globe trying to answer the same questions in regards to The
Caucasus, Africa, or Indonesia.

Jared, you wrote-
<Based on what I have learned I know the Western media is lying. It is
because the media is lying that I want to build an antiwar movement -
not because of my politics, whatever they are.>

Chomsky is to be criticized, along with so many others for playing
interminable games with data.      He is always trying to explain in
outrageous amounts of detail, how in just ONE MORE PARTICULAR CASE,
there is a media manipulation of information.       You seem to want to
join him in this contest?

It is not so much that Chomsky has made errors in his data analysis, and
because of that he is leading others astray.    It is more the case,
that the problem with Chomsky and that mindset, is that data analysis of
current events has become an end in itself.      But where are we going
with all these counter opinions to the State?

Contrast the response to The Balkan intervention, to the Left's response
to the attack on Iraq.     What has changed in the ability to pour into
the streets against Bush's war, to the inability to do anything in the
streets to oppose NATO aggression?     Getting enraged over the defects
of Chomsky's  Balkan writings during the last 2 years, does not get to
the core of the issue.

The Left has become UNWILLING to mobilize into opposition to imperialist
war.   Saddam was a much more evil villain than The US State Department
could ever be able to paint Milosevic as.... in a million years.
And everybody but everybody agrees on this.

Further, the Left is currently refusing to mobilize against the US war
in South America.      Thirteen million Colombians poured into the
streets across Colombia last October, in possibly the largest
demonstration in South American history.    What was  their cause?
They wanted -No Mas-, because the Colombian people saw that the US was
planning to inervene on a much larger scale.

That was a demonstration of people demanding that their
self-determination be respected.        The US and international Left
paid no attention.      This is where Jared should focus his attentions
and criticisms of Chomsky.

Why are these hotshot intellectuals unwillling to mobilize an antiwar
movement on all fronts?      It has nothing to do with their supposed
mistakes in data analysis in The Balkan conflict.      They just refuse
to put out any real call to action, preferring instead, to analyze the
issues to death.

Jared continues-
<Chomsky and Z have staked out a position that is, objectively, NATO's
position within the antiwar movement. Even though some may put it
forward with good intentions, it is STILL objectively NATO's position
for those who need to hear criticisms of NATO in order to ALSO listen to
attacks on NATO's victims.>

Jared, you are absolutely right about this.    I agree with you
completely.     I am in the group, Solidarity, and this is exactly how
they have responded, also.      This data shifting serves as some sort
of substitute for political activity in building an antiwar movement.

Here is where I disagree with you on the cause.      Z, Chomsky, and all
the others of this crowd were not building an antiwar movement before
The Balkan NATO bombings, either.      And they are not doing any work
afterwards, now that the focus has switched somewhat in the direction of
Colombia.

That should underline for us, that there is another dynamic at work, far
greater than just the mere disagreements over how Milosevic is seen by
Left activists, or Chomsky's role in spreading, or not spreading,
misinformation.

This is where our focus should be.     Why has the Left frozen itself
into inactivity?     Then we begin to see that there are other 'guilty'
parties, too.      For example, people like Nader, and the forces he
represents play as large a role as Chomsky and the Z people have.

Let's look at the excuses the broad Left is making, when no effort is
made to build an antiwar consciousness in the broader population.
Chomsky's politics are a symptom, and not the main cause.

Best wishes, Jared.

Tony Abdo