Re: Chomsky in the news

["William S. Lear" <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday, November 28, 2001 at 15:33:47 (+0000) jdevine@xxxxxxx writes:
>from Microsoft's SLATE on-line newsmagazine:
>
>Chomsky Speak
>
>By Inigo Thomas
>...
>comments?

Aside from being sloppy and poorly written, it claims Chomsky "implies
that the Afghan famine is a result of U.S. and British military
action" and that he ignores the "lack of rain", etc.  But nowhere in
the quoted remark of Chomsky does he say anything about the cause of
the "famine".  Furthermore, from my reading of previous remarks of
Chomsky on this, he makes no such implication.  Widespread severe
hunger (perhaps truly a "famine", perhaps not) in Afghanistan was
clear prior to the US assault.  However, the hunger was being
addressed by the international aid organizations, the efforts of which
were halted due to the US attack.  Aid organizations condemned the US
bombing, noting the effects on the relief efforts; they also roundly
condemned the so-called humanitarian aid dropped from the sky as this
would tend to identify relief efforts with those raining down the
bombs and would make future relief much more difficult.

As to "plans to further destroy the hunger-stricken country", it is
hard to make out from the given quote exactly what is meant by this,
though Thomas seems to know somehow that this is not true, though he
provides no supporting evidence for this claim.

I am curious myself about the deaths due to the bombing of the
Sudanese pharmaceutical plant.  One would reasonably count direct and
indirect deaths due to this, e.g., those who died as a result of a
lack of medications, but I have not seen Chomsky's source for
this claim.

As to the final remark about the crimes being hidden, what Chomsky
clearly means is not that they will literally be unknown to anyone ---
clearly false and too blatantly stupid a notion to reasonably impute
to Chomsky --- but that they will be largely unknown to most
Americans, particularly those who tend to influence policy.

Finally, one might also question the claim that the Taliban has
engaged in a "willful destruction of their own country", which as far
as I know is not true.  Repressive religious "fundamentalist"
fanatics, yes; but from what I have read elsewhere, they brought a
measure of order to the constant warfare and real destruction that was
continuing prior to their ascent to power.


Bill