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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
No, you're actively reinforcing your own ignorance by refusing to acknowledge his peer reviewed academic credentials while at the same time dismissing him outright as a legitimate source based on the skimmed testimonials of those who oppose his views. You even insinuated that he was correct, yet still refuse to accept him as a legitimate voice of reason in this discussion. If his writings are correct, what does it matter if he has a bias?
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I insinuated he was correct?
Don't remember doing that and if I did I mislead you. He's anti-American, and that seems to be his bent in almost everything he's done since 1967. To me that hurts his credibility and because of that I questioned him as THE source for the Middle East.
Amazing that I've now repeated that about 6 times and we've now gone 8 or so pages with the same questions.
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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
See, your lack of ability to even recognize the possibility that US Foreign Policy has done more harm than good is a prime example of the error in judgement of dismissing 'fringe' points of view. For the same reason, 80 percent of Americans believe that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were military requirements of ending the second World War.
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See now that's kind of funny.
I talked openly about US mistakes in my last post while you talked about the US being some kind of vessel for human suffering, really the fact that you are now admitting some "good" means you've come along way!!!!
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Originally Posted by Flash Walken
I see conjecture being passed off as informed opinion. I think it is irrational to weigh in on a subject, especially one as specific as the credibility of a source on Israeli history and policy, without prior knowledge of the topic. It is clear that the sum total of your knowledge regarding Chomsky and his writings is quite inchoate. I don't mean to be dismissive, rather, I would like to use this as an opportunity to be inclusive.
I don't know what you're talking about in regards to the buying a chomsky book and quoting it all day. There's any number of authors who could tell you almost the same thing chomsky is. As per the original topic of discussion, if you were interested in Lebannon specifically, I would suggest articles by Robert Fisk, or his two books on the country. If you would like an overview of some of the negative aspects of american foreign policy over the last 50 years, I'd suggest William Blum.
I offer up the following links as introductory pieces to him and his writing. Make sure you have a comfortable reading environment, one of the things lost in skimming chomsky's writing is his attention to specific language. His arguments also tend to be thorough.
Chomsky reader: Personal Influences
Transcript of Debate with former CIA director James Woolsey
Chomsky written debate with Professor Samuel P. Huntington, Author of Clash of Civilizations
'War Is Peace', Excerpt from the book,Fateful Triangle |
Hopefully I get a chance to look some of that up.
However, I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you. I've read a few of his lectures and essays today and the run on anti-American sentiment has me thinking of the teacher in the Peanuts classic cartoon before I'm a few paragraphs in.
I just can't understand the emtional attachment a few of you have to this guy. The whole topic has been shoved aside for like 8 pages to defend the man.