Chomsky on GITMO, and American aggression
posted by Nick86
http://youtube.com/watch?v= KXIIGZfgnf0
http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=p7HtgtzLo-E&feature =related
Chomsky, no matter you may think of him, is truly an intellectual. He is dealing with a very apparent thing that non-American notice about American imperialism. American's do have the idea that they, in all their actions, do right and good. we all know that this is NOT true, even American's are realizing the propaganda that has been inflicted on them by this narrative after Bush's failed adventure in Iraq. The facade of American exceptionalism is crumbling under the contradictions of American rhetoric and reality in Iraq.
Indeed, Americans justify their invasions on "freedom" or "democracy", Iraq is only the most RECENT example of this. Chomsky notes that most ordinary Americans have historically disapproved of the expansionist policies of the American government, yet the intelligentsia and the media do propagate a falsified image of America and her actions are inherently benevolent. This is propaganda, not a critical assessment of what is actually happening. I think we all can agree that this is proven by the media's complete failure in the pre-Iraq war coverage, pandering to jingoism and atavism to rile the American public behind a superficial war. The media and Bush was able to get at least 65% of the American public behind the war under the notion that American actions are inherently good.
His idea of "enemy combatant" is very telling, imagine if another country invaded the US and a 15 year old attacked the invader, would he be an "enemy combatant"? Of course not, for two reasons. The first reason is that no nation would ever say that in the face of defence, those who defend it are terrorists. Yet, when a nation attacks another nation and faces resistance, that resistance is considered teroristic. This was true of Nazi occupied Europe where resistance fighters were indeed calle terrorists, today we call them freedom fighters. This asks the question about the US in Iraq, are those who are fighting the US indeed "terrorists", "resistance fighters", or "freedom fighters"? Lest we forget that Reagan called the predecessors to the Taliban and Al Q equal to the founding fathers in the US...and today are considered terrorists...so what is it?
*Note: I never use Chomsky in my academic work, because he has been mis-used by so many people that it might not help in boosting the integrity of the work.
Indeed, Americans justify their invasions on "freedom" or "democracy", Iraq is only the most RECENT example of this. Chomsky notes that most ordinary Americans have historically disapproved of the expansionist policies of the American government, yet the intelligentsia and the media do propagate a falsified image of America and her actions are inherently benevolent. This is propaganda, not a critical assessment of what is actually happening. I think we all can agree that this is proven by the media's complete failure in the pre-Iraq war coverage, pandering to jingoism and atavism to rile the American public behind a superficial war. The media and Bush was able to get at least 65% of the American public behind the war under the notion that American actions are inherently good.
His idea of "enemy combatant" is very telling, imagine if another country invaded the US and a 15 year old attacked the invader, would he be an "enemy combatant"? Of course not, for two reasons. The first reason is that no nation would ever say that in the face of defence, those who defend it are terrorists. Yet, when a nation attacks another nation and faces resistance, that resistance is considered teroristic. This was true of Nazi occupied Europe where resistance fighters were indeed calle terrorists, today we call them freedom fighters. This asks the question about the US in Iraq, are those who are fighting the US indeed "terrorists", "resistance fighters", or "freedom fighters"? Lest we forget that Reagan called the predecessors to the Taliban and Al Q equal to the founding fathers in the US...and today are considered terrorists...so what is it?
*Note: I never use Chomsky in my academic work, because he has been mis-used by so many people that it might not help in boosting the integrity of the work.
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