Noam Chomsky - on Iraq, Iran and the wars.

Audio from terrorism theirs and ours lecture.

"I don't accept the view that we can just condemn the NLF terror, period, because it was so horrible. I think we really have to ask questions of comparative costs, ugly as that may sound. And if we are going to take a moral position on this— and I think we should—we have to ask both what the consequences were of using terror and not using terror. If it were true that the consequences of not using terror would be that the peasantry in Vietnam would continue to live in the state of the peasantry of the Philippines, then I think the use of terror would be justified. But, as I said before, I don't think it was the use of terror that led to the successes that were achieved".[3]

Chomsky believes that acts he considers terrorism carried out by the U.S. government do not pass this test, and condemnation of U.S. policy is one of the main thrusts of his writings which he has explained is because he lives in the United States, and thus holds a responsibility for his country's actions.

He has also criticized stay-behind operations such as Gladio, NATO's secret paramilitary anticommunist organizations during the Cold War.


[edit] Criticism of United States government
Chomsky has been a consistent and outspoken critic of the United States government, and criticism of the foreign policy of the United States has formed the basis of much of Chomsky's political writing. Chomsky gives reasons for directing his activist efforts to the state of which he is a citizen. He believes that his work can have more impact when directed at his own government, and that he holds a responsibility as a member of a particular country of origin to work to stop that country from committing crimes. He expresses this idea often with a comparison of other countries holding that every country has flexibility to address crimes by unfavored countries, but is always unwilling to deal with their own.

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News & Politics

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• Iran
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• terrorism
• terrorist
• bagdad
• chomsky
• noam
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• history
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• geneva

[solysoly89]

hate you bush,clinton,bush ju.

you all lied and people died in vain. wake up americans and love your country in an grown up way!

[Bliss44]

I wish we would see this kind of talk on TV nstead of al that other biased garbage.

5 stars!

[inbredagogo]

@ellej28 you can say that again...

[trop68]

The most patriotic americans are the ones that condem the behavior of its goverment.The U.S goverment are vicious violent tugs that are committing horrible acts of terrorism in the name of the american people.Americans must stand against this because the people of america are good decent people.

[ellej28]

I have a great deal of respect for Noam Chomsky. He is a voice that is much needed in today's irrational political climate.

[ellej28]

I have a great deal of respect for Noam Chomsky. I agree that he is a much needed voice in today's irrational political climate.

[blaziermissy]

Yes he is! Rational and Intelligent, utilizing reason and empirical facts.

Reality, not politically backed religion or denial to bias his perception.

[blaziermissy]

We, the people, of the U.S.S.A. (United Stockholm Syndrome of America.

Delusion and Ignorance prevails in more ways than one.

[blaziermissy]

Our country is corrupt and is a hegemony of sociopathic liars.

[gellerstudent]

their what? their hypocrites? what about their hypocrites? i don't understand your use of the word their. please help me out.

lrn2english

[sockrahtease]

His personal religious belief is irrelevant.

I agree with the statement that Americans, I being one, need to learn to love our country in an adult, rational, reasonable way.

Chowsky is a very advanced, much-needed voice in the United States. I applaud his work for its depth of historical, contextual understanding and rational, skepticism.