08 May 2011

CLINTON / CHOMSKY / CHOULES





CLINTON. This is rich. Former President Bill Clinton, as eloquent as ever, takes on Faux News over the network's conservative-biased twisting of news events. The video lists no date, but the interview clearly took place before last week's assassination of Osama bin Laden. It does my heart good to see the neocons, who delight in personal attacks and disinformation, have their feet held to the fire with FACTS. Clinton has taken some well-deserved heat over his sexual activities while president, but on national and international issues he remains as well-informed, clear-minded, and persuasive as he was while in office. The hunted becomes the hunter.

CHOMSKY. In a short piece in Guernica, philosopher, linguist and social activist Noam Chomsky raises several of the same questions I did in a previous post, regarding the assassination of Osama bin Laden -- in Chomsky's Reaction to Osama bin Laden's Death, he correctly points out that this was a planned assassination, not an attempt to capture a terrorist in order to try him for his crimes. "We might ask ourselves how we would react if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush's compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic Ocean. Uncontroversially, his crimes vastly exceed bin Laden's ... " A fair point, made more compelling by the operation taking place within the borders of a purported U.S. ally, Pakistan. I have no qualms with bringing bin Laden or any other terrorist to justice. I do take serious issue with lowering the standards of our behavior to the level of the terrorists we oppose. It is gratifying to see that in asking questions, I am in esteemed company.

CHOULES. Last Thursday, Australian Claude Stanley Choules passed away. He was the last surviving military veteran of World War I (1914-1918), and was 110 years old at the time of his death. In a time when the veterans of World War II and the Korean War are passing from our midst by the thousands, and the veterans of the Vietnam War are entering old age, it is far too easy to forget that earlier global conflict, the second deadliest in Western history.

Mr. Choules was also the last veteran to have served in both world wars, the third oldest verified military veteran in the world, and the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Rest in peace.








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