Madam, - Has Mark Steyn got so desperate that he's having a go at Noam Chomsky?
He writes in your edition of January 19th article that that he never read the Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent because he couldn't handle some of the big words. This is a shame, because he might find it interesting. The main thrust of the book is to explain how consent can be manufactured in media-heavy democratic societies (such as our own) for wars and massacres, usually through lying or otherwise deceiving people into thinking war is necessary. The media, through no fault of their own, find themselves playing along.
For instance: 1. The first Gulf War was approved partly on the basis of the testimony of a little girl (who later turned out to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador, and who had her speech coached by the CIA) who claimed that Iraqi soldiers were unplugging incubators in hospitals in Kuwait and throwing the babies out the windows. Afterwards, several members of Congress admitted this testimony swung their vote.
2. The second Gulf War was approved on the basis that Saddam had stored weapons of mass destruction and that he was a real threat to American citizens. We now know this to be a lie.
3. The invasion of Afghanistan was approved on the basis that the Taliban was refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden. This, also, was a lie.The Taliban agreed to hand over Osama Bin Laden on condition that the US hand over the any intelligence that implicated Bin Laden in the 9/11 mass-murder, which it refused to do.
This is what "manufacturing consent" means. Mr Steyn should read the book. - Yours, etc.
BARRY PURCELL, O'Connell Street, Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
Madam, - I was fascinated to read Mark Steyn's column "Democratic candidates' fantasy world" in your edition of January 19th, and not just because he managed to spend over half his column ranting about Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore instead of discussing the democratic candidates.
The most striking thing about this article is Mr Steyn's admission that until three years ago he had "barely heard of Noam Chomsky". Mr Chomsky has been a critic of US foreign policy for nearly 40 years and has published a vast body of work in that time, most of it before 9/11. The New York Times once described him as "arguably the most important intellectual alive today".
If Mr Steyn is trying to be taken seriously as a political commentator, he should be familiar with Chomsky and his work. Mr Steyn's admission is like a sports reporter confessing that he'd only recently heard of Pele.- Yours, etc.,
BRENDAN O'SULLIVAN, Thomas Moore Road, Walkinstown, Dublin 12.