Noam Chomsky: The U.S. Continues to Be a Terrorist State

http://www.alternet.org/books/146815/noam_chomsky%3A_the_u.s._continues_to_be_a_terrorist_state

Noam Chomsky discusses his forthcoming book, the hypocrisy of neoliberalism and where he feels hopeful about democracy despite U.S. terrorism.
May 12, 2010 |


If Noam Chomsky’s critics have a common refrain, it is pointing to his habit of being far too hard on America’s motives and too easy on its opponents. The former, of course, is his métier. The latter criticism has limited (though a few important) instances. In fact, Chomsky’s central question is how do you punish the crook who owns the jailhouse, pays the police their salaries, and fails consistently to see his crimes as such? Or perhaps, how do you get a self-enamored hypocrite to reckon with his pathology? Certainly not by repeating the praise, or what Chomsky sometimes calls America’s “state religion” of self-worship. And despite this, in a very limited way, Chomsky does give credit where credit is due.

In his forthcoming book Hopes and Prospects, Chomsky admits that a black family in the White House is historic. But he credits not “America,” a “system of power” defined by “market interventions” in the economy that once tolerated, and even fought for, the right to own humans as slaves. Nor does he give much credit to “Brand Obama,” as he calls the phenomenon that elected our new president, insisting that the new president is “likely to ‘have more influence on boardrooms than any president since Ronald Reagan.’” In fact, Chomsky gives credit for the 2008 election, in a way, to himself and his ilk.

In an early manuscript of the book, Chomsky writes, “The two candidates in the Democratic primary were a woman and an African-American. That, too, was historic. It would have been unimaginable forty years ago. The fact that the country has become civilized enough to accept this outcome is a considerable tribute to the activism of the nineteen sixties and its aftermath, with lessons for the future.” As such, this small tome is Chomsky’s legacy book.

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That what we do abroad in the name of 'keeping us safe' is terrorism to the people we're doing it to, because the vast majority of these people have done nothing to deserve being tortured, blown to bits, or shot on their wedding day.

Bomb them? They will bomb us. Terrorize them? They will terrorize us. Kill their family? They will kill ours. Without all the killing of the innocent there would be far less creation of terrorists. Maybe if we got out of their countries they also might not be so interested about being in ours. I guess it's just too simple for most Americans to understand.

Hey ...maybe we should blow up all the other countries ...then we'd be safe ...huh.