Chomsky: History of US Imperialism -6/7

Noam Chomsky - arguably the most famous Western intellectual and dissident alive today - interprets former President Bush's foreign policy actions (such as the Iraq war) in the long history of American Imperialism. He points out how the US was founded as an Empire -contrary to popular perception - and has been driven since inception again, contrary to popular perception - by an "expansion is the path to security" strategy. This lecture was delivered at Boston University in the United States on April 24th, 2008 under the title of "Modern-Day American Imperialism: Middle East and Beyond".

PLEASE READ MY COMMENTS ON THE VIDEO BEFORE WATCHING.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Noam
• Chomsky
• Modern
• Day
• American
• Imperialism
• Middle
• East
• and
• Beyond
• US
• geopolitics
• geopolitical
• full
• spectrum
• dominance
• history
• militarism
• foreign
• policy
• hubris
• expansion
• empire
• superpower

[KashifHKhan]

PART VIII:

One of my favorite Chomsky moments is his dissection of former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice's conditions for withdrawal from Iraq: "stop the flow of foreign arms and stop the flow of foreign fighters". US is the biggest "foreign fighter" as it is the invader and occupier. Similarly, it represents the largest flow of "foreign arms" to maintain occupation. Media cannot point this out as US policy presumes that US "owns the world" and only "acts with best intentions."

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART VII:

Finally, I believe it is important to note the role played by the powerful US media in helping US maintain and execute its hegemonistic policies. The media - including major left-wing papers - tightly control discussion and never point out any contradictions between US policy and its public proclamations.For instance, in Iraqi natives fighting US occupation are described as "insurgents" or "renegades" who are committing "aggression"! Never mind that US invaded their country.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART VI:

Given above-noted US historical policy, is it any wonder that neo-cons demanded "full spectrum dominance" (over land, sea, air, and space!) for America after collapse of Soviet Union? As Chomsky points out, the Cold War was nothing more than a tacit agreement between US and Soviet Union to not interfere in each other's areas of influence. With all checks on US power gone with the collapse of Soviet Union, the US was free to attempt to extend its hegemony to the entire world.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART V:

Keenan further strategized that Africa would be given to Europeans to exploit for post-war reconstruction while European colonial powers would be paid in US dollars for resources so that dollars could be recycled back to US via purchase of goods. The US policy explicitly called for it to "ensure limitation of exercise of sovereignty" by any state that might resist US plans. In plain English, this meant that there would be no free, democratic states in resource rich regions.

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART IV:

As another illustration of US empire-based expansionist strategy, consider US's central policy after WW II as enunciated by State Department's George Kennan. According to him, the US - which had 6% of the world's population and 50% of the world's wealth at that time - would focus on how to maintain this disparity! In practical terms, this meant that US would secure access to oil in Middle East and resources in Southeast Asia. (It already had access to Latin and South America).

-Kashif

[KashifHKhan]

PART III:

As an illustration of expansionist access to resources beyond US borders, consider America's hold on Latin and South America. US President, James Monroe, in his famous "Monroe Doctrine" stipulated that any attempt to influence Latin and South America by an outside power would be viewed by the US "as dangerous to our peace and safety" and would be checked with force. This meant that the US was free to set up pliant dictatorships in Latin and South America to do its bidding.

-Kashif

[BelfastAtheist]

@AmericanGuy7654

Pretty sure that's what Stalin thought about his Country too. ''We do not allow dissent''

[tanvo93]

@AmericanGuy7654 u sound like a redneck u know that? we wont this "free" country to be a better place because u know what? there is no other free society like ours.. that wastes its potential to corruption, greed, and imperialism like us..ur praising ur country like a fascist pig..that we should never question what we do..its propaganda,u tool,that has locked u in..and if u think this country is free of propaganda think again..its been in place since wilson, and thats the hole point of media now

[acphenom]

Can all the sensitive jingoist pricks fuck off from the comments sections of Chomsky? Some of us are in pursuit of justice and true knowledge, not blindly serving the interests of people who don't even care about us.

[lalilul3lo]

@yairvichman

But, on the other hand, Israel denies it has any nuclear weapons at all, does not disclose anything to the IAEA and, unlike Iran, is not a member of the NPT. Which is worse? And which is worse according to the US media?

[AmericanGuy7654]

If u don't like America then leave. It's as simple as that.

[Racquelle40]

Thank you for uploading this

[86darkhorse]

Not to mention they've repeatedly announced that they intend to nuke Israel.

[Diosibundo]

@charronfamilyconnect

He addresses "who they are" all the time, maybe he didn't mention it in this clip though. He never blames it all on a nation of people, even towards the end of this clip.

"We the people" don't control policy", political, business and financial elites do. I think Chomsky would agree with you.

[yairvichman]

he talks about Iran's right to produce uranium for Nuclear energy purposes. I would agree most of the world would say they have the right to do so. However, the fact that Iran has failed both to disclose some of its nuclear activities to the IAEA and misled inspectors about others make it look like it is using Nuclear for non peaceful purposes

[charronfamilyconnect]

"He who owns the US owns the world". So it is time Noam address who they are instead of blaming it all on a nation of people.