Noam Chomsky has some harsh words for Barack Obama. Does that make him racist? By progressive standards, it does. Here are some comments on Chomsky's essay:
- Chomsky uses the term "planned assassination." Could there be an unplanned assassination? Can one assassinate by accident? One would think that a professor of linguistics would avoid such infelicitous language.
- Chomsky boldly proclaims that the killing of Osama bin Laden "violat[es] elementary norms of international law." Since when is Chomsky an expert on international law? Does he have any legal training? Why do people with no legal training feel confident in making legal pronouncements?
- The most Chomsky has shown is that Obama uttered a falsehood. Yet, he calls it a lie. Either he doesn't know what a lie is or he has the capacity to read minds. How does he know what Obama believed when he made the utterance? Specifically, how does he know that Obama believed that what he was saying was false? Are you as sick as I am of hearing people be accused of lying? Chomsky is a reckless writer.
- Does Chomsky believe that Osama had nothing to do with the attacks of 9-11? If so, then he can't be taken seriously as a public intellectual.
- Does Chomsky make no distinction between domestic criminality and warfare? If so, why does he put Osama in the former category?
- Not only does Chomsky believe that George W. Bush is a greater criminal than Osama; he believes that Bush is "uncontroversially" a greater criminal. Really? There is no (reasonable) controversy about this? What world does Chomsky live in?
I know that there are people out there who idolize Chomsky. To me, he is borderline insane.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 