Chomsky on Terror and Iraq: 13-12-2005Solution or part of the problem?
US troops in Iraq.
Click to listen to the programme
Click here for a full transcript of the programme
Author and activist Noam Chomsky joined Amsterdam Forum this week and took questions from listeners from around the world on Iraq and the War on Terror.
http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/amsterdamforum/051213af?view=Standard
Chomsky, described by The New Yorker as 'one of the greatest minds of the 20th century,' and recently named the world's top 'public intellectual' in the British magazine Prospect, is renowned for his attacks on US foreign policy.
He equates US intervention overseas with terrorism and he sees the war in Iraq as an act of aggression.
Here are a few quotes from the programme; a full transcript will be attached to this page on Monday.
Key quotes:
Chomsky on rights of coalition troops:
"An invading army has no rights whatsoever, none. It has responsibilities and its primary responsibility is to act in a way that the population of the country demands. They are to keep to the will of the population. They don't have any right to stay there just because they want to. And, as far as we know, the Iraqi population wants the occupying forces to leave."
Chomsky on violence in Iraq:
"Well, the violence in Iraq is a serious problem for the Iraqis and I tend to agree with apparently the majority of Iraqis that it's the occupying forces that are stimulating the violence."
Chomsky on 'military failure' in Iraq:
"The fact that an insurgency even developed in Iraq is astonishing - it's an amazing fact that the US has had more trouble controlling Iraq than the Germans had in controlling occupied Europe or the Russians had in controlling eastern Europe. They have turned it into a total catastrophe - it's one of the worst military catastrophes in history"
Chomsky on what he says to US troops in Iraq:
"I have plenty of correspondence with soldiers in Iraq and all you can do is offer them your sympathy and I hope that they make it safely and that their leaders will get them out of there. It's the same kind of advice you would have given to Russian soldiers in Afghanistan - you have to sympathise with them. It's not their fault, it's the fault of their commanders and I don't mean the military ones, I mean the civilians in the Pentagon and the White House."
Chomsky on torture allegations aimed at the US in war on terror:
"Condoleezza Rice was very careful to say 'we don't send people to countries where we believe they will be tortured,' so we send them to Egypt and Syria, but we don't believe they're going to be tortured there. How can you listen to that without laughing - what are they sending them there for?"
Chomsky on power:
"You don't believe what any governments say, you don't believe what corporate leaders say - the role of people in power is to deceive, it's not just the United States, we all know that. Systems of power are dedicated to deceit and delusion to maintain power and to pursue their interests."
A brief selection of the emails you sent to us:
Irene Nagy, Canada: "I am convinced that Chomsky's opinion is shared by the majority of the world. What is hard to believe is that an idiot like Bush has not been stopped."
Jude Kirkham, Vancouver, Canada: "My problem with Mr Chomsky and the left in general regarding Iraq is that they oversimplify and fail to put forth realistic solutions. When I see a crowd of hippies parading around with giant paper-mache puppets of George Bush and Tony Blair, how on earth am I supposed to take them seriously? The invasion went well, insofar as it overthrew Saddam Hussein. The occupation was and is a disaster. Simply withdrawing is not going to happen because it would be political suicide. The answer is to reform the occupation, taking more a Colin Powell approach rather than Rumsfield one."
Chomsky - pulls no punches in critique of US
Francisco Villanueva, Montreal, Canada: "After 9/11, I didn't hear a word in the American media about the real causes of the attack. Nobody dared to criticize US foreign policy, for instance, the support to Islamic fundamentalists during the 80s, the American support to corrupt dictatorships in the Middle East, the blind support to Israel, etc. They just said: 'they hate us because we're a free society.' Isn't this silence the best evidence that there's no real freedom of press in the USA?"
George [Sandy] Lawrence, Bellingham, Washington, USA: "Caspian Sea area oil is clearly going to transported via pipeline, perhaps from Baku to Turkey, perhaps via Afghanistan... given geopolitical concerns, what is most likely outcome of multi-polar struggle here?"
Noel Smyth, Dublin, Ireland: "Can the people of this country believe anything that the US says about torture not being committed on their behalf in EU countries.
Grant Rainey, Austin, Texas, US: "Who is benefiting from Iraq? What are the real reasons for invasion, in order of importance? Would it have been possible, considering the over-departmentalisation that affects the consistency of the current United States system, for a more thorough plan?"
Terise, US: "Chomsky may be educated ,but he is a commie or Marxist in my view, read his remarks and opinions..."
Roberto C. Alvarez-Galloso, Miami, Florida, US: "I think that all forms of occupation whether it be Nazi, Communist, Republican, or Democrat end up in failure. Afghanistan was also a tough country for Russia (USSR) (1870s, 1970s) as well as for Great Britain (1870s). For me, the terrorists are in the American Continent. They are the Republicans, Democrats, Nazis, Racists, and Communists (Castro/Chavez) (the traditional left and right)."
Sunil W. Ahuja, Medan, Indonesia: "I thought the US was a democracy. Yet, the best leader the people can come up with is George W. Bush."
Charles Harlich, Hightstown, NJ, USA: "I have a relative who is now serving as a soldier in Iraq. What advice would you give to him?"
Dan Kress, Oregon, US: "Now that Bush has made the Middle East even more of an unstable and unknown quantity can the US. get out? I am afraid I agree with US.Senator Joe Lieberman, for us to leave now would spell a disastrous civil war. Given the history of this area of the Middle East and both the United States and Great Britain's track record, the people there will probably never fully accept foreign occupation in the long term either. Fortunately not all of us agree with Bush's cowboy politics."
R Kurt, Oak Ridge, Tennessee: " Why isn't Europe more critical of the Bush administration's policy on torture and human rights?"
Adam Daniel Mezei, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: "Mr Chomsky, it is not the first time in your past positions on matters of similar significance regarding American activities in the Middle East that you've resorted to what I feel is nothing short of supercharged propaganda in your utterances. Citing the Nazis and the Russians is sure to stir a caustic reaction amongst your detractors... is this intentional?"
"Can you provide empirical proof that the Nazis had less trouble in occupied Europe [Chomsky called US action in Iraq a military failure and said Soviets and Nazis had far less trouble controlling occupied territories], and/or the Russians held their satellites for decades with far less difficulty? This, as expressed in your own words...?"
Jasmin, Amritsar, India:" Politicians are rarely great minds or intellectuals; they are 'scoundrels' as told by Samuel Johnson. So my question to Mr Chomsky is, what effect do intellectuals or great minds have in the politics of today and has he ever been able to influence any major decision of the political leaders in the past few decades?"
Jairo Silva, Colombia: "On the War on Terror, what do you think about the new alliances between USA and countries like Colombia? Are these countries a new form of satellites against terrorism?"
Reg Pollock, Canada: "I don't think the Americanas had any right to go into Iraq, but now there are there and removed the government they are stuck until there is a body which can maintain the country. As bad a Saddam was he did control three peoples. It's not the same as Vietnam. They (USA) have a tiger by the tail."
Gonzalo Alvarado, Peru: "Do you see any serious alternative to the Bush administration for next elections, in order to change the US foreign policy? How do you think the US will deal with the regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia? In Peru, we have a presidential candidate with the same profile, Humala. He is growing in the polls for next presidential elections. His tactic? Blaming the imperialism and the free market for making us poorer."
Steven Brown, Mexico: "No one is talking anymore about oil. Isn't that still the main reason the US invaded Iraq and are Iraq's large reserves now under control of US corporations?"
Mark Humphrey, Ireland: "Withdrawing the troops early from Vietnam (while the enemy was undefeated) was an utter disaster - for Vietnam. Communist democide raged across Vietnam and Cambodia afterward. Millions of innocents were starved, tortured and killed by the communists. Millions more fled. Vietnam still lives under communist tyranny today."
"The 'anti-war' movement destroyed Vietnam, and far from being ashamed of it, they are proud of it, and they want to do the same thing to Iraq. They want to abandon Iraq to the Jihadis and the Baathists and civil war. All they care about is that no white people are involved."
Iraqi election worker in Dujail
Mohammed, Iraq: [email written on eve of Iraqi elections] "Tomorrow it's going to be us who decide and I can feel the greatness of the responsibility because the result will draw the shape of our future and will determine how long it will take till we can announce victory in this war; our war against the past, against the past's illusions and the past's mistakes; with our hands we can make this war last shorter and with our own choices."
Richard T, California, USA: "Sorry, if people think that the war in Iraq is being lost, but you have not been in Iraq, or have read the local paper. We have not had a bomb attack since 9/11 in the US, to me that's a successful matter."
Jeremy Raskin, Los Angeles, California: "What then do you make of the trend currently underway in the Middle East to move towards more democratic national institutions - for example, the growing strength of the anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon and the recent elections in Egypt and Iraq? Can we succeed in remaking the states of the Middle East by encouraging this trend? Or does America give up 'spreading the gospel' of democratic institutions?"
Thomas Kuca, New York: "Is it correct to call what the USA is doing fascism, or is this too strong a term?"
Dr John Paul Schwartz, Texas, USA: "Has Cindy Sheehan [high-profile anti-war campaigner whose soldier son was killed in Iraq] had any effect on the course of the War in Iraq with her protests? Is it a valid tactic to try and 'shame' the Republican administration in the public eye to end the war in Iraq? Has the media fallen down in reporting this story, or are people now too cynical to care?"
Michael Mullock, Philadelphia, USA: "Noam Chomsky has a pathological hatred for the United States. Like all haters, he is blinded to everything that does not support his bigotry. His clever twisted skilful use of rhetoric and language is chum for the schools of his far leftist American despising bottom feeders. It must kill him and his followers to constantly be so smart, so wrong and consistently on the wrong side of history. I do wish him a long life so that he sees George Bush, the anti-intellectual, successfully help preserve the western civilization Mr Chomsky finds so distasteful."
Dan Srebnick, Aberdeen, New Jersey, USA: "The actions of President Bush and others in his administration in support of the war in Iraq and their support for the continued ability of the CIA to torture prisoners have sacrificed the once honourable position of the United States in regard to human rights around the world. Billions have been squandered, tens of thousands have died and the main threat to our democratic freedoms at home come not from 'terrorists' but from the Bush administration and the US Congress. Is George Bush not guilty of treason?"
L. Douglas Raymond, US: "With the war in Iraq, it seems we are viewing the US's engagement in some bold, in your face, strategic geopolitical chess. In your opinion, what is the US's next likely international move?"
Jim Bergquist, United States: "Do you think that US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq fall within the limits of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights?"
Noam Chomsky is professor emeritus of linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is world renowned as a linguist and political activist. His latest book is 'Imperial Ambitions: Conversations with Noam Chomsky on the post 9/11 World.'
go to top of page
Iraq photos - Radio Netherlands' Hans Jaap Melissen.
© Radio Nederland Wereldomroep, all rights reserved
External Links:
Official Chomsky site
http://www.chomsky.info/
Prospect magazine on Chomsky
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7110
Related Articles:
Programme 21 - 30 May 2003 - Noam Chomsky - Transcript (17-05-2003)
http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/amsterdamforum/030517ch_trans.html?view=Standard
Full transcript of a special Amsterdam Forum with Noam Chomsky
Transmission date: 18 December 2005
http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/amsterdamforum/051220af?view=Standard
zzzzz
No comments:
Post a Comment