Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 00:35:41 +0800 From: Jacob Segal <jpsegal at rcn.com> Subject: Alterman on Chomsky
As for Noam, well, it is unfair to compare him to Bill Bennett, because a) he does appear to be decent person with very good manners, and b) he has a day job as perhaps the most important linguistic philosopher since Wittgenstein. But politically, I¹m sorry. I defended the guy for years, even through the Faurrison affair. And I think he did a lot of good work on East Timor. But look at the man¹s political judgment. He defended Faurrison. He championed the Khmer Rouge. His condemnations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are one hundred percent one-sided, based on the (obviously) false notion that the Arab nations and the Palestinian people have been trying to arrange a peace with Israel for decades. He viewed the rescue mission undertaken in Kosovo as nothing more than the extension of imperial power. He accuses the United States of perpetrating a holocaust in Afghanistan and thinks that the mistaken attack on the pharmaceutical factory in Somalia was as bad if not worse than the attack on the Twin Towers. One could go on, but it all adds up to, I fear, the mirror image of the ignorant jingoism of Bennett, Krauthammer, Kelly, Will, etc. And I find it amazing that intelligent people take it seriously. But anyway, here are just a few of the many letters I received on these two topics. The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. Thanks to most of you.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp