Ricardo, we don't need this here. Chomsky was not interested in dismissing the
problems in Cambodia but pointing out the selective outrage that existed in the
capitalist press.
Ricardo Duchesne wrote:
> >
> > "It is obvious that there exists a Western delirium that seems to be
> > the flip side of a great rationality and that there is a Western bias
> > that seems to be the flip side of a great efficiency. Obvious as long
> > as one takes into account that the West is at war. And that it is
> > waging its war through peaceful means which are characteristic of
> > a cultural war: 'If you want war, pretend you are making peace.' The
> > West's principal weapon is its monopoly on information (and
> > disinformation) along with the financial establishment of
> > multinational corporations. It is winning the war of words and
> > images...The best source of propaganda for the West was the Pol
> > Pot regime. We needed that ogre, that foil" by Regis Debray.
> >
> > How many millions did that foil cost Cambodia?
> > =======
> >
> > Actually, none. The wicked Pol Pot regime was supported by the wicked
> > regimes of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiao-Ping, on the basis
> > that it was anti-Vietnamese.
>
> You can add China to the list, but my point is that Debray,
> Chomsky and others dismissed western reports about the
> extermination this regime was carrying against its own people -
> those who drove cars and used oil, simply on the grounds that non-
> westerners were incapable of such crimes. We now know that
> every race and ethnic group on earth that has had the opportunity
> has killed, infected, exterminated, and assimilated others: the
> West has no monopoly on this, and should be praised for
> cultivating the very ideas you now advocate.
>
> No amount of words and images concerning the
> > Pol Pot ogre served to temper that support.
> >
> > Michael K.
> >
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901
