While most Westerners were happy to hear of the long overdue death of Osama bin Laden, Noam Chomsky was not.
But then, the well known linguist, humorist, writer and activist, is a member of two organizations long opposed to Western liberty, and known for their sympathy for any force opposed to the West in general and America in particular.
Chomsky, the hero of addle headed, acne ravaged , adolescent anarchists everywhere, is a long time member of both Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party USA spin-off, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
It is also worth remembering that as recently as 2006, Chomsky was a leader of Movement for a Democratic Society with former Weather Underground terrorist leaders and Barack Obama supporters Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones and Mark Rudd.
Here are some quotes from Chomsky’s latest eruption in Znet: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death (emphasis added)
It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them.
Nothing serious has been provided since. There is much talk of bin Laden’s “confession,” but that is rather like my confession that I won the Boston Marathon. He boasted of what he regarded as a great achievement.
Less is said about Pakistani anger that the U.S. invaded their territory to carry out a political assassination. Anti-American fervor is already very high in Pakistan, and these events are likely to exacerbate it. The decision to dump the body at sea is already, predictably, provoking both anger and skepticism in much of the Muslim world.
We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s, and he is not a “suspect” but uncontroversially the “decider” who gave the orders to commit the “supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole” (quoting the Nuremberg Tribunal) for which Nazi criminals were hanged: the hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, destruction of much of the country, the bitter sectarian conflict that has now spread to the rest of the region.
Same with the name, Operation Geronimo. The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”
It’s true folks.
Marxists just do not think like the rest of us.
Winner. . . Looser each will view the heros or terrorist in their own perspective.
Man, you guys make me lose my faith in humanity. Chomsky is an extremely intelligent human being no matter what you think of his politics. You guys aren’t even worthy of dusting off his book collection with ignorance like this.
From a moral standpoint, from which appeals most to me, we could have a discussion about how it is wrong to kill another human being, even if they have committed heinous crimes. But we do not even have to get into ethics to understand how killing Osama bin Laden was a bad idea. We can be within a realist perspective, in which the world is simply about states competing with one another for self-interest, and realize this was a bad idea. As part of the War in Afghanistan, the Pakistan government has allowed the U.S. military to transport goods and weapons from the Pakistani-Afghani border, and angering the Pakistani government by violating their sovereignty doesn’t help the American war effort in Afghanistan. I don’t agree with the war, and I think it’s horrible, but within the realist perspective, killing bin Laden was a bad idea.
Trevor Louden, you talk a lot about liberty. It’s obviously really important to you. I have to ask you, though, do you universalize this value? Do you think it should be applied to everyone or just to those living in the West? I’m guessing you do not think it should apply to those people in Iraq who have been murdered by the U.S. government, for you to criticize Chomsky’s criticism of Bush for doing that, exemplifies that you just do not care about the liberty of the Iraqi people. And that is a shame, because to limit such wonderful values like liberty, peace, freedom, and love to only certain people is itself a violation of the values.
You’re a commie paranoid! I didn’t know such dinosaurs still existed!!! (reffering to the blogger of course….)
I loved his comment about Iraqi Special Forces sneaking in and killing Bush.
I’ve seen the Iraqi SF units, and trust me friends, you ain’t got nothing to worry about. They can’t do their boots up without a US advisor holding them by the scruff of the neck and talking them through it. Hopeless, even after ten odd years of being spoon fed stuff our basic infantry guys learn in the first month.
He is not suggesting this as a reality. It is simply a thought experiment to get us thinking about how George Bush was a terrorist too, and much more incontrovertibly one than bin Laden.
Mr. Chomsky evidentally didn’t remember the terrorists who came over to assassinate 3000 Americans. They were dancing in the street in those countries who loved Bin Laden. Can’t have it both ways. It appears that Mr. Chomsky has no issue with Socialists, homegrown terrorists, and Marxists because he hobknobs with, belongs to their organizations and spews distaste for the rest of us. Why was Bush chosen for the example? We have had citizens whose heads were removed, others burned and hung on bridges and they never did anything to anyone other than their job. It is amazing that the people who are so hateful of this country, stay here. If you don’t like it here, I’m sure we can get you a ticket out. There are plenty of places you can celebrate what America wasn’t intended to be. There is no reason for this country to be changed to satisfy your desires. We’ve already destroy a great deal of the Founder’s hard work and if Obama gets his way, he will finish the job.
Here’s a thought. Old Noam is simply giving political cover for Obama by acting all upset. Call me cynical but in my opinion Obama’s decision to take Bin Laden out was political. I believe that during the 16 hour deliberation, Obama was calculating the political capital that would be generated by either capturing Bin Laden or killing Bin Laden. This operation had been in the works for months. Are we to believe Obama didn’t know which decision he’d make when the time to act came? And of course while telling us that release of the photos would be “Spiking the football” Obama didn’t waste any time getting to ground zero or going on 60 minutes to “Spike the football.”
If old Chomsky is so upset over the fact of OBLs death; then maybe he can be introduced to the SEAL team?
Who cares what marxists think? Why should we concern ourselves with not “offending” them? This country was not established to accomodate them and their perverted beliefs, their views on anything are not part of the American equation. The more they are offended, the more “American” America is. Our national motto should become: “Offend a marxist – preserve America.”