Suppose a top politician, entertainment figure, or sports star said it didn’t really matter who shot Lincoln or why, who attacked Pearl Harbor, the Alamo or the USS Liberty. Imagine the derision. Imagine the ridicule....

My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state, for two reasons. For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence. But also for...

A very, in a sense, terrifying aspect of our society, and other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe [war]. I think that’s more terrifying than the...

That comes to about one hundred million people in India alone from 1947 to 1980. But we don’t call that a crime of democratic capitalism. If we were to carry out that calculation throughout the...

adulteresses” throughout the Muslim world. I hope it goes without saying that the Afghan girls who even now are risking their lives by merely learning to read would not be best compensated for their struggles...

When Loughner himself speaks and we find out his real influences are Spiderman, ‘Gnome Chomsky,’ Taylor Swift, and Dr. Bronner, then what?

Suppose that we agree that the two atrocities can or may be mentioned in the same breath. Why should we do so? I wrote at the time (The Nation, October 5, 1998) that Osama bin...

Some readers may have noticed an icy little missive from Noam Chomsky [“Letters,” December 3], repudiating the very idea that he and I had disagreed on the “roots” of September 11. I rush to agree....