9-11

by Noam Chomsky

Slender volume consisting of interviews Chomsky held with the foreign media in the days and weeks following the attack on the World Trade Center. A bit of a tough slog to get through — not because it's traumatic reading (it isn't); more because of the density of political facts and figures Chomsky can so easily cite.

As any human being would, Chomsky deplores the attacks on the World Trade Center. But he attempts to explain the source of anti-American feeling in much of the world, and suggests various courses of action, other than war, the US could take in response. In doing, he refers to many instances that I, for one, had never heard of; for example, the US' utter dismissal of the World Court, the UN Security Council, and the UN General Assembly finding that US attacks on Nicaragua were unwarranted and devastating and deserving of reparation. (Another example: the terrible effects the US' accidental destruction of Sudan's only pharmaceutical plant has had on a country which cannot import the drugs it needs.)

A worthwhile read to get a perspective that isn't often aired in the regular media.