You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘International Affairs’ category.
I have read much of what Mr.Chomsky has written, his historical accuracy and meticulous fact checking make him a great resource to better understand how our world works. This is a long interview, but worth every second of your time.
I found the transcripts and can highlight a few of the more poignant parts of the interview:
ES: You say one of the great hypocrisies here is that the United States, as you say, is a leading terrorist state…
Chomsky: Well, these two examples illustrate it. And these are minor ones. You know there are much more serious ones than this.
ES: The question that arises is if the United States is a leading terrorist state, if as you say, Britain is another example of a terrorist state, how do you distinguish between what you describe as terrorism and what they are saying — Osama Bin Laden who’s a terrorist? Make the distinction.
Chomsky: It’s very simple. If they do it, it’s terrorism. If we do it, it’s counter-terrorism. That’s a historical universal. Go back to Nazi propaganda. The most extreme mass murderers ever. If you look at Nazi propaganda, that’s exactly what they said. They said they’re defending the populations and the legitimate governments of Europe like Vichy from the terrorist partisans who are directed from London. That’s the basic propaganda line. And like all propaganda, no matter how vulgar, it has an element of truth. The partisans did carry out terror, they were directed from London. The Vichy government is about as legitimate as half the governments the US has installed around the world and supports, so yes, there was a minor element of truth to it, and that’s the way it works. If somebody else carries it out, it’s terror. If we carry it out, it’s counter-terror. I think perhaps one of the most dramatic examples right at this moment is a place where I just was a couple of weeks ago, southeastern Turkey. Southeastern Turkey is the site of some of the worst terrorist atrocities of the 1990s.
—–
ES: Robert Kaplan writes about foreign policy. I spoke to him recently about his book Warrior Politics, and I put some of your points to him and he said, about the distinction between the terrorist states that you call Israel, America, and the terrorist states that America calls the Taliban, “I wish Noam Chomsky had been with me in Romania in the 70s or the 80s, just one of the seven or eight Warsaw States, with just one of the 7 or 8 prison systems with 700,000 political prisoners. Adult choice of foreign policy is made on distinctions. The argument that Chomsky makes has no distinctions because there’s a difference between the quantity and the kind of dictators that America supported and the quantity and the kind of things that went on in the Communist world for 44 years.”
Chomsky: OK, so let’s take his example, Romania under Ceausescu. Hideous regime, which he forgot to tell you the United States supported. Supported right until the end, as did Britain. When Ceausescu came to London he was feted by Margaret Thatcher. When George Bush the First came into office, I think the first person he invited to Washington was Ceausescu. Yes, Romania was a miserable, brutal regime supported by the United States right to the end, as Robert Kaplan knows very well, so the example he gave is a perfect example.
ES: It wasn’t supported by the States in the 70s though?
Chomsky: In the 70s, in the 80s, right to the end of Ceausescu’s rule. It was supported by the United States. The reasons had to do with great power politics. They were sort of breaking Warsaw Pact policies and so on, but the very example he picks illustrates it and we can proceed onward.
So the very example he gives shows the absurdity of his position and it’s a small example because we support much more brutal regimes. It has nothing to do with Cold War issues.
I gave an example in South Eastern Turkey, several million refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, a country devastated, that’s rather serious.
Nobody accused Milosevic of that in Kosovo.
Suharto was one of the worst killers and torturers of the late twentieth century. The United States and Britain supported him throughout. He’s “our kind of guy,” as the Clinton administration said in 1995. Horrible atrocities, in fact, when he came into office in 1965 with a coup the CIA compared it to Hitler, Stalin and Mao.
It led to total euphoria in the United States and Britain, and massive support when he carried out even worse atrocities, comparable atrocities in East Timor — over 200,000 people killed — full support continued right through the end of his rule, in fact, continued past his rule. In late 1999 when they were rampaging and destroying what was left of East Timor, the US and Britain continued to support him and I can continue through the world like this…
—–
ES: Should there be an organizing hegemon, do we need a constabulary, a force, a central force? In this case it’s America because it’s a superpower. Sometimes it use unjust means in the service of just causes.
Chomsky: What are the just causes? What was the just cause in, for example, slaughtering Kurds in southeastern Turkey? What was the just cause in supporting Suharto? When he killed a couple hundred thousand landless peasants in Indonesia, went on to become one of the biggest torturers in the world and slaughtered one-third of the population in East Timor, what was the just cause?
What was the just cause when we invaded South Vietnam 40 years ago? This is the 40th anniversary of the public announcement of the U.S. attack on South Vietnam, ending up killing millions of people, leaving the country devastated. They’re still dying from chemical warfare. What was the just cause?
What was the just cause when we fought a war to a large extent against the Catholic Church in Central America in the 1980s, killing hundreds of thousands of people, every imaginable kind of torture and devastation, what was the just cause? The just cause for people like Kaplan was yes, we did it, therefore it’s a just cause. You can read that in the Nazi archives too.
Can Trust be Restored?
ES: It’s no great secret that we function by self-interest. Self-interest is part of foreign policy. We’re here to protect our policy, protect the interests of our policy, in this case of the Americans.
Chomsky: Was the self-interest of the American people served by slaughters in southeastern Turkey, or by destroying Vietnam, or by turning El Salvador and Guatemala into cemeteries?
Was the self-interest of the American people served by that? No. The self-interest served by that is foreign policy elites and the power-centers they represent, which are not protecting the American people, they’re protecting their own power, profit, dominance and hegemony, like others around the world.
And they count on intellectuals of the Robert Kaplan type to applaud any atrocity they carry out.
Aerial Death for you Evil Doers!
It is really crappy when the people you are killing decide to return the favour, Hillary Clinton is outraged at the audacity of people who are being bombed a couple of times a week that they might want to strike back, how dare they:
“We’ve made it very clear that, if, heaven forbid, an attack like this, if we can trace back to Pakistan, were to have been successful, there would be very serious consequences,” Clinton said on CBS News’ 60 Minutes programme last week.
Yeppers, watch out. It is the US who wields the stick, at all times. Or the US Proxy forces that must be eager to toss their people into the gapping bloody maw of the neo-imperialist war machine. Observe the pressure placed on Pakistan to get their people out there to die for US policy.
“And behind the scenes, the US is also reportedly pressuring Pakistan to launch a fresh military offensive in North Waziristan.”
Evil Doers are out there, and you need to go git’em!
“Many analysts say that recent history is not encouraging: Drone strikes and several major Pakistani army offensives have succeeded in inflaming public opinion, but they have failed to dislodge the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
Huh, accidentally killing innocent people inflames public opinion? Who would have guessed? Of course it just the opinion of the people who are being bombed, if they have not read the US Foreign Policy handout telling them that this murderous war is officially a “good thing” then they simply need to get with the pogrom program. Thankfully, the casualties are all foreigners, otherwise we would have a real problem stateside.
It is okay though, the US is consolidating the military gains made in Afghanistan securing large portions of the country as safe from harm. Or not.
“The Swat Valley offensive last year displaced more than two million people from their homes. Most have returned, according to the Pakistani government – but many of the returnees say the government is not providing basic services, notably security and housing.
“Widespread insecurity has also allowed the Taliban to return to previously-cleared areas in the Swat Valley.
Even if Pakistan launches an offensive there is no guarantee it will be able to hold and consolidate its gains – particularly if eastern Afghanistan, just across the border from North Waziristan, remains insecure.
“The Pakistanis acknowledge that they haven’t been able to do [counterinsurgency]. But the Nato failure on the other side of the border is just as obvious,” said Hassan Abbas, a professor at Columbia University and a former Pakistani government official.”
Whoops! Perhaps the US should begin establishing strategic hamlets so we can sort out who is good and who is evil. It has worked effectively in the past, so why not now?
Of course, intensifiying the conflict will only make things better:
“The US, meanwhile, has already accelerated its aerial bombing campaign in the tribal regions: Suspected drone strikes have already occurred 35 times this year, compared with 53 attacks in all of 2009, according to the Washington-based New America Foundation, which maintains a comprehensive database of the strikes.
“That seems to be the alternative plan: In case the Pakistani army refuses to go into North Waziristan, the US will intensify its drone strikes,” said Abdul Basit, a researcher at the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad.
But the drone strikes have not decapitated the TTP; the group continues to terrorise Pakistan, and some US officials
Your home and relatives destroyed, love the War on Terror
acknowledge that the drone strikes have made the Taliban more determined to strike targets in the US.”
The blowback is festering and growing in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“It is too early to tell what caused his radicalisation, but there are reports that he was motivated – at least in part – by anger over US drone strikes.
A larger US military presence in Pakistan could have a similarly negative effect on public opinion.
“I don’t see what more boots on the ground will do … in terms of bolstering the military’s capacity to fight the TTP,” said Sameer Lalwani, a research fellow at the New America Foundation.”
Afghanistan will be yet another untimely end to an imperialist power. The rails are greased and the US is already on the downward trajectory.
From the fat file of addressing effects rather than causes in the Middle East:
“Barack Obama, the US president, has asked Congress for $205m to help Israel speed up construction of a new short-range anti-missile defence system, White House aides have said.
Another 'pillar' of the Peace Process
The so-called “Iron Dome” project is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells from the Gaza Strip and neighbouring Lebanon.”
Rather than addressing the root causes of why Israel needs a missile shield, lets just build a slapdash system give it a sexy name and throw a couple billion into developing and deploying it. The amount of US peaceable hand-waving in the Middle East is increasing as of late as well as the threat of military action.
“As the president has repeatedly said, our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakable and our defence relationship is stronger than ever,” Vietor said.”
An equitable two state solution would solidify Israel’s security concerns without lining the pockets of the defense industries.
“A senior department of defence official tells me that recently, US officials saw a test of the project and were very impressed by it, and decided to give the money to help speed up production.”
The move comes after ties between Israel and the US were strained by an announcement of more illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem made during a visit to Israel by Joe Biden, the US vice-president.”
Oh well; it is kiss and make up time as the frothy pro-Israeli lobby in the US once again dictates foreign policy. “Oh hey, don’t worry about breaking international law and the whole illegal settlement thing. Here is a couple million for your troubles we caused you by daring to call you on your anti-Palestinian colonization program.”
“According to the US state department, US military aid to Israel in 2009 totalled $2.55bn. This will increase to $3bn in 2012, and will total $3.15bn a year from 2013 to 2018.”
Will there be peace in the Middle East? I have 3.15 billion reasons to think that the answer for the foreseeable future will be ‘No’.
Update: Watch the Pro-Israeli Flak machine in action at Think Progress, sickening.
Did you ever want to see a society remade into the corporatist mode? Greece is going down that path right now. The IMF is gleefully setting out conditions and ‘austerity measures’ necessary for Greece to qualify for the bailout package. How much would you wager that the Public Sector is going to take a beating? Today’s news is part of a cycle of the forced privatization of the Greek economy.
“Hundreds of youths rioted in Athens on Saturday, throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at police who responded with tear gas at a large May Day rally against austerity measures needed to secure loans for near-bankrupt Greece.”
The youthful vanguard responds, but until the middle class in Greece responds their efforts will be in vain.
“Greece’s additional austerity measures are likely to include raising consumer taxes while docking pensions and public service pay. Unions are furious.
“These measures are death,” said Nikos Diamantopoulos, participating in a rally organized by unions. “How people are going to live tomorrow, how they’re going to survive, I do not understand.”
The people will live for tomorrow but will they accept the dismantling of the state in order to ‘save’ their country? Some resist:
“The Greek people do not owe anything to anybody,” Left coalition leader Alexis Tsipras told reporters at one of the Athens rallies, assailing “those who have brazenly robbed public money and pension funds.”
Virginia Kalapotharakou, an accountant who joined striking seamen and dockworkers rallying in the port of Piraeus, called the potential measures “very reactionary.”
“They’re trying to do away with all the rights we gained through struggles in previous years,” she said.
Because breaking unions and cutting the public sector is obviously the first choice in fixing a country. How about raising corporate taxes and income taxes for the rich? Austerity plans seldom mention these strategies.
Stay tuned, hopefully the workers in Greece can resists the undoing of their country.
How much destruction needs to be caused before we understand the concept that greed does not equal ‘good’. Our relentless hunt for oil has potentially sacrificed a great big chunk of the Louisiana coastline to unctuous death.
The CBC reports:
“British energy company BP Plc. said it was “unlikely that an accidental surface or subsurface oil spill would occur” from the well it was proposing to drill 80 kilometres off the Louisiana shore. And if such a spill did occur, the company said, “due to the distance to shore and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected.”
Ah ha! Well, I mean the oil that down there is pretty easy to reach, and we can make a great profit by extracting it. Let’s lowball the safety concerns and work our corporate connections to the EPA and US government and see if we can grease the right palms and get this bad boy going to make some money.
“Last week, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and then collapsed into the Gulf of Mexico, rupturing the wellhead and sending forth 5,000 barrels a day of oil into the sea.”
“At least six million litres of petroleum have spilled so far, according to U.S. Coast Guard estimates, making it one of the worst U.S. oil spills in decades. Tens of thousands of animals, including birds and marine life, living along the southeast U.S. coast are at risk.”
Well, the other shoe just dropped. Guess who is going to get the short end of the stick? Can you even put a price on wiping out a large portion of the biosphere? Wildlife be damned.
“Remaining oil from the slick, which measures about 1,500 square kilometres, is expected to wash ashore in Mississippi on Saturday before reaching Alabama on Sunday and Florida on Monday, putting those areas at risk of environmental catastrophe.”
“BP officials have said it could take as long as 90 days to stop the leak, meaning as many as 71.5 million litres of petroleum could ultimately get into the water — far more than the 41 million litres dumped by the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history”
Hmmm. It seems this is making the Exxon Valdez look like small potatoes. I wonder, once the southern US shores are coated with oil, how silly renewable energy is going to be looking? Probably just as silly, because those damn hippies do not know what they are talking about.
“London-based BP, which had contracted the drilling rig, is fully responsible for funding the cleanup.”
I wonder if the US government is going to charge them for the cleanup efforts undertaken by government agencies. I certainly hope so.
If there is one general feature of North American psyche that does not appeal to me, it would be our inability to see how privileged we are, and the small things we take for granted that other people are fighting for right now. Take Lebanon a state riddled with sectarian violence and all the divisiveness that comes with running a country on religious principles. Al Jazeera reports:
“Thousands of protestors have gathered in Beirut to demand a separation of politics and religion in Lebanon.
The demonstrators marched on parliament on Sunday chanting “secularism” and waving placards calling for the recognition of civil marriage in the Mediterranean country.”
Wow. A secular state not ruled by the wisdom of 2000 year old magic books and the delusional rantings of assorted high priests and mullahs. We take it for granted that we can keep the tomfoolery out of state affairs and run a marginally rational state and by that extension a marginally rational society.
“The idea of a secular political system has faced stiff opposition from ruling politicians who fear an erosion of power if the complex power sharing system between the different religious communities is abandoned.
Power. Control. Influence. Make no mistake, religion rules by no heavenly mandate; only the lowly aspirations of pernicious, greedy men who value power over any so called ‘ethical’ pronouncements their assorted magic books may make.
“What is missing is the political support. In the last election in 2009, all the main political parties paid lip service to the sectarian system,” Elias Muhanna, a Boston-based political analyst and blogger, told Al Jazeera.”
The Lebanese people are rallying for a secular nation. This should be front page news here in the North America where we purport to hold the institutions of Liberal Democracy and personal freedom so dear to our collective identity as a nation. Of course the religious nuttery of the USA precludes covering any movement so clearly geared toward freeing a country from religious rule. Depending on the news cycle it can look like the US is regressing toward some flavour of a theocratic state, where delusional behaviour is openly celebrated.
“Lebanon is home to 18 religious sects, and is deeply divided between Christians and Muslims.
Its sectarian system was soldified in a 1943 national accord in a bid to avoid religious conflict, but the country was torn apart by a brutal 15 year civil war that started in 1975.
The agreement that ended the conflict called for the abolition of sectarianism, but the system has endured.
Under the complicated rules, public sector jobs are subject to religious quotas that change year-on-year in a bid to maintain the delicate balance.”
Such a waste of time and resources all just to keep the people who wear funny hats and irrational attitudes happy and in check.
North Americans should take notice and see what a religious state is like and realize it is not a good outcome if we are interested in maintaining the liberal democratic society which we seem to regularly take pride in while at the same neglecting the institutions that maintain it.
Lawless Mercenaries anyone?
Blackwater, private mercenaries, you remember the ones that ran wild in Iraq shooting civilians pretty much as they pleased as they were busy making millions ‘restoring democracy’ in Iraq?
Al Jazeera reports: “The former president of Blackwater, the controversial American private military contractor, has been indicted for firearms violations and making false statements.
Gary Jackson has been charged with the illegal possession of machine guns, receiving unregistered weapons and making false statements according to an indictment submitted to a North Carolina court on Friday.”
They have tagged the head weasel, but will the rest be held accountable for the mayhem they are responsible for in Iraq? I highly doubt it.
“Jackson left Blackwater, which is now known as Xe Services, last year. The company has struggled to restore its image after a 2007 shooting in Baghdad which saw several of its guards charged with federal crimes.
That case was thrown out of court when a judge found that prosecutors had mishandled evidence, and so far the company’s executives have escaped censure despite a range of investigations in the incidents involving its staff.”
You see, when it comes to justice, we get due process. Our enemies, well they get dead or Gitmoized. I swear, if I hear another commentator bleating “why do they hate us?” or similar courtier-esque drivel that propagates the false history we are being fed… I”ll…I’ll…write another blog article.
Take that forces of evil.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…