Chomsky
I recently decided to read something by Noam Chomsky, because he's very well known, has written on at least some of the issues surrounding this new whatever between Israel and Palestine - about which I know nothing, but about which I would like to know something - and because I generally hear he's worth reading. So I bought Interventions, which is a collection of op-eds he wrote between 2002 and 2008. They're mainly about Iraq and America's imperialism, and they are very, very good. Being op-eds, there's not much elaboration or intellectual virtuosity, but the information he presents is shocking (if true), and we really ought to know about it all. Take the following, for example.
In the early 1980s, Reagon's Washington used Honduras as a base for a covert war against neighbouring Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Why? Because the U.S. was afraid of a second Cuba in the region.
"In 1984, Nicaragua responded in a way appropriate to a law-abiding state by taking its case against the United States in the World Court in the Hague. The court ordered the United States to terminate the "unlawful use of force" - in lay terms, international terrorism - against Nicaragua and to pay substantial reparations. But Washington ignored the court, then vetoed two UN Security resolutions affirming the judgement and calling on all states to observe international law." ("John Negroponte: From Central America to Iraq," originally published on July 28, 2004, in the New York Times Syndicate)
Anyway; the guy responsible for all this (and more), Negroponte, was recently made U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, which is the same post he held in Honduras.
Which makes my innocent Irish soul livid, and so I recommend this book to all. I have to go read some of his other stuff.
In the early 1980s, Reagon's Washington used Honduras as a base for a covert war against neighbouring Nicaragua's Sandinista government. Why? Because the U.S. was afraid of a second Cuba in the region.
"In 1984, Nicaragua responded in a way appropriate to a law-abiding state by taking its case against the United States in the World Court in the Hague. The court ordered the United States to terminate the "unlawful use of force" - in lay terms, international terrorism - against Nicaragua and to pay substantial reparations. But Washington ignored the court, then vetoed two UN Security resolutions affirming the judgement and calling on all states to observe international law." ("John Negroponte: From Central America to Iraq," originally published on July 28, 2004, in the New York Times Syndicate)
Anyway; the guy responsible for all this (and more), Negroponte, was recently made U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, which is the same post he held in Honduras.
Which makes my innocent Irish soul livid, and so I recommend this book to all. I have to go read some of his other stuff.