Re: Chomsky on East Timor (9/10/99)

Konstantin,

I do NOT want to be in the position of defending Chomsky, BUT note he said
PER MONTH.  So divide the Soviet losses by months and see how it turns
out.  Both are horrific in any case.
tom


Thomas D. [tom] Hall [on leave 99/00]
A. Lindsay O'Connor Professor of American Institutions
Dept. Sociology & Anthropology
Colgate University
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On Sun, 12 Sep 1999, Konstantin Borodinsky wrote:

> >As for how "things turned out,"
> >Moynihan comments that within a few months 60,000 Timorese had >been
> >killed, "almost the proportion of casualties experienced by the Soviet
> >Union during the Second World War."
> This is either a printing mistake or delusion. Soviet casualties during 
>the
> W.W.II were 27 million people with million here, million there - noone 
>knows
> exactly. Total losses of all countries thus rising to 57 million. Hardly
> conceivable "statistics", but still.
> Proved by post-war census in the USSR.
> Though I came across a figure of 850 000 casualties on ALL fronts of the
> war. Strange - or, may be, not very strange manipulation with figures.
> Which doesn't make the tragedy of the Timorese easier.
> Respectfully,
> Konstantin Borodinsky,
> Minsk, Belarus
> 
>