@Charleston Chew: No doubt there are many little known folk who do all kinds of good things, but the famous do tend to get more attention. They hardly have to deserve it, consider Sarah Palin. Chomsky has made 10,000 speeches attacking one war or another, so he certainly counts as an “anti-war” person of note. I rather imagine that the Sydney Peace folk sited him partially to express disapproval of American militarism. A reasonable position, IMHO.

Back to the article: With respect to his comparison of the crimes of Bush and bin Laden, Chomsky meant that Bush’s crimes did more damage. No doubt they did. A moral comparison of the two men might give a different judgement. The US President is much more powerful than any mountain-dwelling fanatic, so he could do more damage without being as nasty a person. After all, bin Laden killed about as many people as he could, and clearly Bush did not. But Chomsky is interested in political effects, not individual psychology, so his judgements are on that basis.