Mainstream pundits shrug at this and say "we're trying to keep the number of deaths down, we're not trying to kill innocent people." This is seen as a crucial distinction which only rabid anti-American's can't understand. But if the 9/11 bombers had been more targeted in their execution, had they tried to kill US officials without inflicting too much "collateral damage", we would not have seen them as less murderous. The "crucial distinction" is further evidence of the callousness of the people who make it.
Chomsky's critics can't accept that the lives of Afghans, Iraqi's or Sudanese are worth as much as American's. Hence they assume that Chomsky must not sympathize with the victims of 9/11.
Joe Emersberger
Bennett is good and decent
Dear Editor:
I don't agree with all of William J. Bennett's ideas, but he is a good and decent man who loves this country, its system of government and its free enterprise economic system. Noam Chomsky is the opposite. He hates this country, its democratic system and capitalism in general. Chomsky gave moral support to the cause of Communism when that evil empire was still around, and he is an apologist for Palestinian and Islamist terrorism today. On top of that Chomsky is a liar. To imply that Mr. Chomsky and Mr. Bennet are equally misguided strikes me as the worst sort of moral equivalence.
Unfortunately Chomksy's writings are widely admired in the academic community and among the left-liberal so-called intelligentsia in this country. In the San Francisco Bay Area of California where I live Chomsky's brand of anti-Americanism is widely shared. William Bennett is not wrong to be worried about the lack of patriotism among academics and media people and those whom they influence.
The good news, as Mr. Bennett says, is that President Bush has widespread support for the war on anti-American terrorism. President Bush is no rocket scientist, but he has the sense to know that if somebody comes into your house and tries to kill you put him out of commission, and engage in psychoanalytic speculation about why he was behaving the way he was only afterwards.
Maybe Ben Laden and company have attacked us because they had unhappy childhoods. Maybe it's because we support Israel and they hate Jews. Maybe it's their culture, maybe it's their religion. Whatever, we can try to "understand" them after they are safely dead.
Yours truly,
Joe Willingham
Berkeley CA
Re: Bitch Goddess (October)
Can you get me Ann Coulter's number?
I am interested in finding out more about Ann Coulter and how I can subscribe to her writings. Can you send me some contact info? I happen to agree with her that we need to occupy and convert the Moslems to Christianity. We've been fighting these bastards since the Crusades (and before) and the only reason we've been able to put up with them is they couldn't hurt us. Now that they can hurt us, we must eliminate them from the equation.
Michel Whitaker
Beaufort, SC
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