Tukidid:

"Jaki rade ono sto mogu, dok slabi trpe ono sto moraju." ( )

In Interventions, the linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky writes about politics in contemporary America. They are all short pieces (about 1,000 words each) that were originally meant as op-eds in regional newspapers. (It should be noted that none of them have appeared in “mainstream” newspapers—New York Times, Washington Post, etc—presumably because his work is too controversial.)

If you've been paying any attention to the intellectual sphere, you'd know that Chomsky was a giant; his writings being read by aspiring dissidents everywhere. The op-eds in this collection are mostly about America's involvement in the Iraq War and the U.S. government's long history of imperialism. His writings are a bit more than your typical Leftist fanfare because he takes his arguments further than most (which is why he isn't published by popular media companies).

9/11, he believes, should have taught us a lesson: that we should watch what our government is doing and how it is received by the international community. (The implications of this, that “we had it coming,” got him severe criticism from a fellow dissident and intellectual, Christopher Hitchens.) Chomsky repeatedly condemns the actions of the Bush administration and the “Bush Doctrine,” as he calls it. One very controversial essay, “Saddam Hussein and the Crimes of the State,” asks that the president and his cabinet answer for their support of Saddam's murderous regime in the first Bush administration.

If you're familiar with Chomsky (which you probably are because this isn't a popular book), you will know his positions on issues like Israel, the Iraq War, the American government, etc. If you really are well-acquainted with his work, this collection of short, snack-sized bites of his work are bound to be unfulfilling. They are more geared towards people that aren't very familiar with his work and want a brief introduction. Even then, this collection still may not be the one to start with. Why? Because it only regurgitates standard positions and views of the Left, and you probably wouldn't learn anything new.

This is not because Chomsky isn't an deep, insightful writer, but because he has only one thousand words to form a cogent argument, and most of the time he doesn't; he simply has too little room. His lack of well-developed arguments also make the book seem like it is preaching to the choir. The audience for the book is likely to agree with everything he writes already, and there isn't much new to be learned.

The simplicity of Interventions may be the saving point of it for some. For someone that isn't familiar with Chomsky's views and opinions, or those of the radical Left, and doesn't feel like reading massive tomes to extract their political consciousness, this is a must read. For the rest of us, though, it is a mediocre volume. ( )

I was sort of disappointed, actually. It was a pretty easy read, for the most part. And I didn't learn much new. I was expecting something more challenging. ( )