Chomsky ... always hits the nails on the head. As I always have said in my blog that there's no such thing as "democracy" in the so-called Western, developed countries. The government does whatever it feels like to do, either domestically or internationally, while the public feels something else completely.
Millions of Americans don't have enough food. Almost 60,000 Americans are homeless in NYC alone (since 2004). But billions were spent on Iraq & Afghanistan wars. Thousands of American soldiers died. For what? Taliban are back in Afghanistan. Drugs production is back in full force, & actually, even more than Taliban time. Iraq & Syria are completely broken down now. Prominent Americans, e.g. Donald Trump, himself are saying that the world was better off with tyrants like Gaddafi & Saddam than what we have now.
At this point, we can only reiterate that age-old proverb to Americans & Europeans: "you reap what you sow"
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Major American media organizations diligently parrot what US officials want the public to know about global affairs, historian Noam Chomsky told RT. To US leaders, any news outlet that “does not repeat the US propaganda system is intolerable,” he said.
The culpability of the West – namely the US – for world affairs, such as the Ukrainian conflict or tensions with Iran, is another idea that is not permissible in leading American media, Chomsky said, adding that world opinion does not matter when that opinion counters US strategy.
“The West means the US & everyone else that goes along,” he said. “What’s called the international community in the US is the US & anyone who happens to be going along with it. Take, say, for example, the question of Iran’s right to carry out its current nuclear policies, whatever they are. The standard line is that the international community objects to this. Who is the international community? What the US determines it to be.”
He added that, “any reader of [George] Orwell would be perfectly familiar with this. But it continues virtually without comment.”
“The most interesting one is the charge that Iran is destabilizing the Middle East because it’s supporting militias which have killed American soldiers in Iraq,” Chomsky told RT’s Alexey Yaroshevsky.
“That’s kind of as if, in 1943, the Nazi press had criticized England because it was destabilizing Europe for supporting partisans who were killing German soldiers. In other words, the assumption is, when the US invades, it kills a couple hundred thousand people, destroys the country, elicits sectarian conflicts that are now tearing Iraq & the region apart, that’s stabilization. If someone resists that tact, that’s destabilization.”
Chomsky also related American media propaganda to recent moves by US President Barack Obama to reach out to Cuba, which the US has long considered a state sponsor of terror while instituting a harsh embargo regime. Chomsky said top American media outlets go to great lengths to pit Cuba -- & not the US -- as the isolated party in the Western Hemisphere.
“The facts are very clear. ... We know what happened. The Kennedy administration launched a very serious terrorist war against Cuba. It was one of the factors that led to the missile crisis. It was a war that was planned to lead to an invasion in October 1962, which Cuba & Russia presumably knew about. It’s now assumed by scholarship that that’s one of the reasons for the placement of the missiles. That war went on for years. No mention of it is permissible [in the US]. The only thing you can mention is that there were some attempts to assassinate [Fidel] Castro. And those can be written off as ridiculous CIA shenanigans. But the terrorist war itself was very serious.”
Obama has changed course on Cuban policy not for reasons pursuant to freedom or democracy, as is peddled in the US media, Chomsky said.
“There is no noble gesture, just Obama’s recognition that the US is practically being thrown out of the hemisphere because of its isolation on this topic,” he added. “But you can’t discuss that [in the US]. It’s all public information, nothing secret, all available in public documents, but undiscussable. Like the idea -- & you can’t contemplate the idea -- that when the US invades another country & the other resists, it’s not the resistors who are committing the crime, it’s the invaders.”
As for international law, Chomsky said it “can work up to the point where the great powers permit it.” Beyond that, it is meaningless. Thus, is international law an illusion if the US picks & chooses -- while exempting itself -- from what is enforced?
“To say that [international law is] dead implies it was ever alive. Has it ever been alive?” he said, citing US stonewalling of the world court’s demand in the 1980s that the US halt its war on Nicaragua & provide extensive reparations for damage done.
“International law cannot be enforced against great powers,” he said. “There’s no enforcement mechanism. Take a look at the International Criminal Court, who has investigated & sentenced African leaders who the US doesn’t like. The major crime of this millennium, certainly, is the US invasion of Iraq. Could that be brought to the international court? I mean, it’s beyond inconceivable.”
Chomsky said the so-called American Dream & US democracy are in “very serious decline,” as social mobility is among the worst among the richest nations. He added that, formally, the US retains a democratic veneer, but actual manifestations of democracy are dwindling.
“Basically, most of the population is disenfranchised,” he said, referring to public polling. “Their representatives pay no attention to their opinion. That’s roughly the lowest three-quarters on the bottom of the income scale. Move up the scale, you get a little more influence. At the top, essentially policy is made. That’s plutocracy, not democracy.”
Millions of Americans don't have enough food. Almost 60,000 Americans are homeless in NYC alone (since 2004). But billions were spent on Iraq & Afghanistan wars. Thousands of American soldiers died. For what? Taliban are back in Afghanistan. Drugs production is back in full force, & actually, even more than Taliban time. Iraq & Syria are completely broken down now. Prominent Americans, e.g. Donald Trump, himself are saying that the world was better off with tyrants like Gaddafi & Saddam than what we have now.
At this point, we can only reiterate that age-old proverb to Americans & Europeans: "you reap what you sow"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Major American media organizations diligently parrot what US officials want the public to know about global affairs, historian Noam Chomsky told RT. To US leaders, any news outlet that “does not repeat the US propaganda system is intolerable,” he said.
The culpability of the West – namely the US – for world affairs, such as the Ukrainian conflict or tensions with Iran, is another idea that is not permissible in leading American media, Chomsky said, adding that world opinion does not matter when that opinion counters US strategy.
“The West means the US & everyone else that goes along,” he said. “What’s called the international community in the US is the US & anyone who happens to be going along with it. Take, say, for example, the question of Iran’s right to carry out its current nuclear policies, whatever they are. The standard line is that the international community objects to this. Who is the international community? What the US determines it to be.”
He added that, “any reader of [George] Orwell would be perfectly familiar with this. But it continues virtually without comment.”
“The most interesting one is the charge that Iran is destabilizing the Middle East because it’s supporting militias which have killed American soldiers in Iraq,” Chomsky told RT’s Alexey Yaroshevsky.
“That’s kind of as if, in 1943, the Nazi press had criticized England because it was destabilizing Europe for supporting partisans who were killing German soldiers. In other words, the assumption is, when the US invades, it kills a couple hundred thousand people, destroys the country, elicits sectarian conflicts that are now tearing Iraq & the region apart, that’s stabilization. If someone resists that tact, that’s destabilization.”
Chomsky also related American media propaganda to recent moves by US President Barack Obama to reach out to Cuba, which the US has long considered a state sponsor of terror while instituting a harsh embargo regime. Chomsky said top American media outlets go to great lengths to pit Cuba -- & not the US -- as the isolated party in the Western Hemisphere.
“The facts are very clear. ... We know what happened. The Kennedy administration launched a very serious terrorist war against Cuba. It was one of the factors that led to the missile crisis. It was a war that was planned to lead to an invasion in October 1962, which Cuba & Russia presumably knew about. It’s now assumed by scholarship that that’s one of the reasons for the placement of the missiles. That war went on for years. No mention of it is permissible [in the US]. The only thing you can mention is that there were some attempts to assassinate [Fidel] Castro. And those can be written off as ridiculous CIA shenanigans. But the terrorist war itself was very serious.”
Obama has changed course on Cuban policy not for reasons pursuant to freedom or democracy, as is peddled in the US media, Chomsky said.
“There is no noble gesture, just Obama’s recognition that the US is practically being thrown out of the hemisphere because of its isolation on this topic,” he added. “But you can’t discuss that [in the US]. It’s all public information, nothing secret, all available in public documents, but undiscussable. Like the idea -- & you can’t contemplate the idea -- that when the US invades another country & the other resists, it’s not the resistors who are committing the crime, it’s the invaders.”
As for international law, Chomsky said it “can work up to the point where the great powers permit it.” Beyond that, it is meaningless. Thus, is international law an illusion if the US picks & chooses -- while exempting itself -- from what is enforced?
“To say that [international law is] dead implies it was ever alive. Has it ever been alive?” he said, citing US stonewalling of the world court’s demand in the 1980s that the US halt its war on Nicaragua & provide extensive reparations for damage done.
“International law cannot be enforced against great powers,” he said. “There’s no enforcement mechanism. Take a look at the International Criminal Court, who has investigated & sentenced African leaders who the US doesn’t like. The major crime of this millennium, certainly, is the US invasion of Iraq. Could that be brought to the international court? I mean, it’s beyond inconceivable.”
Chomsky said the so-called American Dream & US democracy are in “very serious decline,” as social mobility is among the worst among the richest nations. He added that, formally, the US retains a democratic veneer, but actual manifestations of democracy are dwindling.
“Basically, most of the population is disenfranchised,” he said, referring to public polling. “Their representatives pay no attention to their opinion. That’s roughly the lowest three-quarters on the bottom of the income scale. Move up the scale, you get a little more influence. At the top, essentially policy is made. That’s plutocracy, not democracy.”
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