Chomsky on Terror and Iraq

[CHIMO]

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.

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.

http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/amsterdamforum/051213af?view=Standard

Laid back down to earth logic.

[ixion]

1. one of the worst military catastrophes in history

committed by the worst president in US history.

chimpy has set many records, all of them negative.

[rman]

2. kick for The Man

and for truth

[Wind Dancer]

3. Thanks for posting.

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 sympathize 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."

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4. 26 minutes to get 2 more nominations

Come on, people!