I don't think Moore's or Chomsky's comments of late demand much respect. Chomsky's comments can be found at: <a href=http://www.zmag.org/chomnote.htm target=new>http://www.zmag.org/chomnote.htm</a> Which he essentially blames America for this happening, because we've done far worse and we look askance at the Palestinians, who are bent on the extermination of the Jewish people. Much of what he says is factually dubious and side rants abut missile defense and the "hard jingoist right" are just being said at the wrong time. I find little difference between his comments and Falwell's. Both take their extreme political opposites and blame their policies for "bringing" this upon America, with assorted cheap shots thrown in. He should stick to linguistics. Moore's comments are even more sick. They can be found at: <a href=http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0912.html target=new>http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0912.html</a> He implies something sinister is going on, hinting at CIA involvement, complete with the post hoc ergo propter hoc that, since bin Laden was trained by the CIA to fight Soviet invaders fifteen years ago, they're responsible for his actions now. He then joins Chomsky in saying that since we've massacred all these people (more factually dubious examples) we've been asking for it, even though bin Laden was never directly connected to any of these events, so it must be bad karma, not actual geopolitics, causing these actions. There's more bad stuff, I think the worse being that Bush is to blame for leaving the Durban conference (again, anti-Semitism and anti-Westernism on parade) and dropping that Kyoto treaty (so dear to bin Laden, no doubt!). This is assuming, as evidently some of these terrorists had been in country before Bush had even been elected president preparing for this, so no doubt his position on the internaional landmines treaty weighed heavily on their minds. Then, the master stroke: "If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes destination of California these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!" The scary thing is, Moore thinks he's been amusing. Sorry, maybe they say great things 51 weeks of the year, but not this week. At best what they've said is tasteless, and that's being generous. Whether their view of geopolitics is correct or not, it's clear that America was attacked because it believes in freedom and individual liberty, not because Phil Knight is running sweatshops in Thailand.
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