Chomsky: Would Withdrawal from Afghanistan Jeopardize US Security?

Excerpt from the Q&A session of Noam Chomsky's 3 Dec 2009 talk at Columbia University, titled "The Unipolar Moment and the Culture of Imperialism". For the talk itself, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIknLSsyhCo
For the whole Q&A, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3671omQ-XY

Nir Rosen on Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/2/nir_rosen_we_managed_to_make

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Noam
• Chomsky
• Obama
• Afghanistan
• troops
• withdrawal
• war
• occupation
• terrorism
• osama
• bin
• laden
• Al-Qaeda
• Taliban

[jbarks10]

Noam Chomsky is clearly less sharp than he was in his youth. To say that muslims only want to kill people in the West is because of our actions is ludicrous. There is concrete evidence to show that religion is inately irrational and many religious groups use violence to gain control over societies and people. Iran wants a caliphate with imposed sharia law and no rights for non muslims. That's as aggressive as it gets.

[yrrmom]

Chomsky never claims that our actions are the "only" motivation for terrorists. But take a look at the first thing that people like bin Laden & Khalid Sheikh Mohammed list when they themselves explain the reasons for their actions: it's always US support of Israel's occupation of Palestine & invasion of Lebanon and US support of Arab dictatorships.

[yrrmom]

Also high on the list of motives is the presence of US troops in Saudia Arabia. My guess is that the religious motivation you describe, such as it is, is focused on & inflated by mainstream Western media in an attempt to bolster the fantasy that the US & Muslims are embroiled in a "clash of civilations". This fantasy serves to increase popular support for war in the US, & surely bin Laden would be delighted to know that so many fall for it. You clearly have fallen for it.

[brucejuice52]

@jbarks10 The official 9.11 commission report stated that one of Khalid Sheik Mohammed's primary motivations was US favoritism for Israel. But then you also have US support for corrupt Islamic dictatorships, Americans directly killing thousands of Muslims, etc etc. Religion is a factor, but it means nothing as a sole variable. It's radicalized by our actions clearly.

[giriyy]

I dont have an opinion about Palestine or Iraq or Afghanistan. But Kashmir is not going to solve the problem of terrorism for India. Even if India today decides to give away kashmir to pak...there wont be peace. They want land and they dont mind fucking up UN resolution to get that land. India had simple stand withdraw troops from Pak occupied kashmir...and Kashmiris will be free to decide their fate. That never happened, thanks to cold war era US support to pak. Now things have changed,

[Thorcurry]

america's true agendas are being understood more and more by ppl who put the effort on researching, but unfortunately, right now, it is a very small minority of ppl who realise this.. more effort shud be done to fight the brainwash of the mainstream media and just turn the tv OFF !

[SignalLost730]

@jbarks10 someone thinks the evil terrorists hate us for our freedoms... hahaha

[m3141592]

"To say that muslims only want to kill people in the West [...] because of our actions is ludicrous"

That isn't the point. The point is, terrorism against america will stop if it stops terrorizing other countries. Approximately everyone on earth feels the same way, except for some americans and the odd european.

[Adnowwwwn]

LOL, there is no ideology you uneducated dipshit. Islam is used to unite people of all different colors and nationalities to create sympathy for those facing oppression and genocide at the hands of the West. That is THE only role of Islam in this war, everything else is political. The "terrorists" (O.B.L, Zawahiri) themselves express this in their videos and messages. Its OK for you to be ignorant and uneducated but don't spread your cancer to others.

[Adnowwwwn]

There are 25,000 Jews living in Iran that haven't been touched, get the fuck out of here with that "sharia law" bullshit that Christian fundamentalists use to demonize Islam. I do agree with you about religion in general but do remember that some of the most genocidal leaders were non religious like Hitler, Stalin and Hirohito.

[Adnowwwwn]

LOL, I can tell you've watched too many videos about "Islam's radicalized view for the West' which are made by CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES or whatever they're called. The truth is, it is exactly the OPPOSITE that is taking place today. Muslim governments are being replaced with Democratic ones.

Go watch Osama Bin Laden's "Message to the American people" where he explains his hate towards the American government.

[AlJalandhari]

"Iran wants a caliphate" anyone with half a clue about Islamism can see what a laughably absurd statement that is and that your yet another ignorant islamaphobe. Iran is a country governed by a shia interpretation of sharia (which incidentally gives non-muslims equal right, and does not regard apostasy as a crime). The Shia faith was FOUNDED in OPPOSITION to the caliphate. Iran's allies Hezbollah has never made any attempt to force sharia on lebanon despite its clear ability to do so