This is a great post by Bovard, but I thought this graph was very interesting:
If a government systematically attacks civilians, the government is no less culpable than private cabals that blow up planes, buses, or cafes. By this standard, the Indonesian invasion of East Timor was as much a terrorist action as the bombings of Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed hundreds of civilians.
I thought this was interesting because Chomsky has been a huge critic of U.S. foreign policy with respect to Indonesia and East Timor (blog entry here). This is interesting because Chomsky is painted by his opponents of being to the 'extreme left' ideologically, but Bovard is no lefty. I was also surprised to see a reference to East Timor at all, which was very cool. The more people know about U.S. treachery in East Timor, the better. Bovard is probably the first semi-mainstream author/reporter-type to say that 'state terror' is wrong, even if it is conducted by the state (i.e. a government). That's a big deal.
No comments:
Post a Comment