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Title: Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 0-8050-7400-7 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.66 (68 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Keeping the World Safe
Comment: In theis book, Chomsky lays out his opinion of American power in the world. His basic premise is that the American government will do anything to protect it's economic interests and it's global power, even if it includes supporting acts that could be considered terrorism. For example, all of the worst war crimes that Saddam Hussein committed were during the time when Iraq was a client state of the United States. Chomsky argues that the definition of terror isn't applied equally to all nations.
For example, consider the case of Emmanuel Constant. Constant was a leader of a paramilitary force in Haiti which was responsible for the deaths of thousands in the early 90's. Haiti has repeatedly requested for the extradition of Constant, so that he can face trial for his crimes. However, the U.S. refuses to do so. Would it be justifiable for Haiti to bomb New York in an attempt to recover Constant and to punish the government that protects him? Most people would say no, but they would support a similar case--the invasion fo Afghanistan to find Bin Ladin. Why the double standard?
ANother point he covers is the atrocities committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinians and by the Turkish government against the Kurds. These campaigns kill thousands and terrify the local populations, but they aren't call terrorism because they are campaigns supported by the American government. If we're going to have a war against terror, shouldn't we be a little more objective?
This book was an excellent read. I recommend this book for those who want to think seriously about America's role in the world.
Rating: 4
Summary: One Third Rehash, One Third New Stuff, One Third Vital
Comment:
Yes, Chomsky tends to be repetitive and to rehash old stuff, so take away one-star. However, and I say this as the #1 Amazon reviewer of non-fiction about national security, to suggest that Chomsky is ever anything less than four stars is to betray one's ignorance and bias. He adds new material in this book, and perhaps even more importantly, he delivers this book at a time when America is faced with what may well be its sixth most important turning point in history (after independence, the civil war, two world wars, and the cold war). How America behaves in the 2004 election is going to determine whether the Republic deteriorates into a quasi-totalitarian and bunkered society with a lost middle class and a gated elite, or whether we restore the world's faith in American goodness, moral capitalism, and inclusive democracy.
Chomsky brilliantly brings forth a theme first articulated in recent times by Jonathan Schell ("Unconquerable World") by pointing out that the *only* "superpower" capable of containing the neo-conservative, neo-totalitarian, neo-Nazi militarism and unilateralism of the current Bush Administration is "the planet's public."
Chomsky updates his work with both excellent and well-balanced footnotes and an orderly itemization of the arrogance, militarism, contempt for international law, arbitrary aggression, and--Bible thumpers take note--proven track record for supporting dictators, Israeli genocide against Palestinians, and US troop participation in--directly as well as indirectly--what will inevitably be judged by history to be a continuing pattern of war crimes.
Chomsky, past master of the topic of "manufacturing consent" now turns his attention to the manner in which the Bush Administration is attempting to establish "new norms" that, if permitted to stand, will reverse 50 years of human progress in seeking the legitimization of governance, respect for human rights, and collective decision-making and security.
He is especially strong on documenting the manner in which US aid grows in direct relation to the degree to which the recipient country is guilty of genocidal atrocities, with Colombia and Turkey being prime examples. The case can be made, and Chomsky makes it, that the US arms industry, and US policies on the selling and granting of arms world-wide, are in fact a direct US commitment to repression, genocide, and terrorism sponsored by one big state: the US. He is most interesting when he discusses the new US approach to repression, the privatization of actions against the underclasses of the world.
Morality plays big with Chomsky, who brings new ideas in with his discussion of moral asymmetry and the lack of moral integrity in US decision-making. Sadly, the US public is both ignorant and unengaged, and do not realize the crass immorality of all that is being done "in their name."
Chomsky reminds us that George Bush the Second pardoned a known international terrorist, Luis Posada Carriles, because of his ties to the extremist Cuban-American community that his brother Jeb Bush is so dependent upon for support.
Over the course of the middle of the book Chomsky addresses the competing models for national development, with Cuba prominent as an alternative model that the US has sought to destroy, as the US worked very hard to destroy Catholic "liberation theology" because of its temerity in believing that the poor should be protected against repressive governments and their American corporate paymasters. Chomsky is correct, I believe, when he states and documents that the US model of capitalism has pathologically high rates of inequality and poverty (even CNN has noticed--as I waited for an airplane in Salt Lake City, a bastion of common sense, the lead story was the collapse of the US middle class).
Chomsky moves from his discussion of exceptions to US capitalism to a discussion of the importance of regional differentiation, and this is of course in direct competition with the US view that the world should be a homogenized generic variation of the US culture, with one big difference: 80% of the benefits for the US, while the rest of the world shares the left-overs.
Chomsky agrees with Dr. Col Max Manwaring and other mainstream strategists (see my review of "The Search for Security" when he identifies the legitimacy of governments, and the sanctity of human and civil rights, as the two litmus tests for determining if balance and fairness exist in a society. By this measure, the US is now failing.
The book begins to conclude with a semantic discussion of terrorism, what is terror, who sponsors terror, and here Chomsky draws on both his linguistic and historical background to make the case that the US is the primary sponsor of terrorism in the world (something both the Indonesian and Malaysian leadership would tend to agree with), and he notes that the US, in a bi-partisan manner among the elite, has consistently been hypocritical about terrorism. Nelson Mandela, and his resistance party, were labeled terrorists by the US for many years.
Are we in a passing nightmare, or the beginning of a renaissance? The jury is still out. I personally believe that John McCain would have been a vastly superior president that this lightweight bully that we have now, with his out-of-control neo-conservatives, none of whom ever served in uniform and some of whom--as with Dick Cheney--were active draft dodgers. However, I also believe that both John McCain, and Dick Gephardt if he were to be elected, are too close to the "business as usual" crowd of beltway politicians capitalized by beltway bandits. In other words, Howard Dean would not have been possible without the excesses of George Bush Junior. God does indeed work in mysterious ways, and I pray that the American public will both read Chomsky, and understand that they represent the only super-power that can restore legitimacy, sanity, comity, and prosperity to the American Republic. Down with the carpetbaggers--El Pueblo Avansa--EPA!.
Rating: 4
Summary: Substantive, articulate and not what Americans want to hear.
Comment: Turn off Survivor and educate yourself.
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Title: The Sorrows of Empire : Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic [The American Empire Project ] by Chalmers Johnson ISBN: 0805070044 Publisher: Metropolitan Books Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Toward a New Cold War: Essays on the Current Crisis and How We Got There by Noam Chomsky, John Pilger ISBN: 1565848594 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky by Noam Chomsky, John Schoeffel, Peter R. Mitchell, Peter Mitchell ISBN: 1565847032 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda (Open Media Series) by Noam Chomsky ISBN: 1583225366 Publisher: Seven Stories Press Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title:Noam Chomsky - Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror? ASIN: B00008AOW1 Publisher: Koch Vision Entertai Pub. Date: 25 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $7.98 |
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