THE CRIMES OF CHOM:

The Crimes of 'Intcom' (Noam Chomsky, September/October 2002, Foreign Policy)

One does not read that for 25 years the United States has barred the efforts of the international community to achieve a diplomatic settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along the lines repeated, in essence, in the Saudi proposal adopted by the Arab League in March 2002. [...]

Similarly, one does not read that the United States defies the international community on terrorism, even though it voted virtually alone (with Israel; Honduras alone abstaining) against the major U.N. resolution in December 1987 harshly condemning this plague of the modern age and calling on all states to eradicate it. The reasons are instructive and highly relevant today. But all of that has disappeared from history, as is customary when Intcom opposes the international community (in the literal sense).

The interesting thing about this typically idiotic essay by Mr. Chomsky and about the many equally foolish commentaries and op-eds we've been deluged with, about how dissent is being quashed in America, is that they are not just moronic but actually oxymoronic. By the very act of reading the words "One does not read that for 25 years the United States has barred..." one proves the sentence false. So what Mr. Chomsky should really say, were he at all interested in the pursuit of the truth, is: "Very few Americans read the things that I and others like me write in which I accuse them of all the world's ills." This has the very great advantage of being both true and self-explanatory. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 10, 2002 8:50 PM