7 Brilliant Insights from Noam Chomsky on American Empire

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/activism/7-brilliant-insights-noam-chomsky-american-empire



***SNIP

1. [In early 2007] there was a new rash of articles and headlines on the front page about the "Chinese military build-up." The Pentagon claimed that China had increased its offensive military capacity -- with 400 missiles, which could be nuclear armed. Then we had a debate about whether that proves China is trying to conquer the world or the numbers are wrong, or something. Just a little footnote. How many offensive nuclear armed missiles does the United States have? Well, it turns out to be 10,000. China may now have maybe 400, if you believe the hawks. That proves that they are trying to conquer the world.

***SNIP

2. “Could we stop the militarization of space? It certainly looks like we could. The reason is that the U.S. is alone, literally alone, in pressing for it. The entire world is opposed, because they’re scared, mainly. The U.S. is way ahead. If other countries are not willing to even dream of full-spectrum dominance and world control, they’re way too far behind; they will react, undoubtedly. But they’d like to cut it off. And there are several treaties, which are in fact already in place, that are supported literally by the entire world and that the U.S. is trying to overturn. One is the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which bans placing weapons in outer space. Everyone signed it, including the United States. Nobody has tried to put weapons in outer space. It has been observed and would be easily detected if anyone broke it. In 1999, the treaty came up at the UN General Assembly, and the vote was around 163 to 0 with 2 abstentions, the U.S. and Israel, which votes automatically with the U.S.” -- “Militarizing Space ‘to protect U.S. interests and investment,” International Socialist Review Issue 19, July-August 2001

3. "Globalization is the result of powerful governments, especially that of the United States, pushing trade deals and other accords down the throats of the world’s people to make it easier for corporations and the wealthy to dominate the economies of nations around the world without having obligations to the peoples of those nations." -- Profit over People: Neoliberalism and the Global Order

4. "[The U.S. still names] military helicopter gunships after victims of genocide. Nobody bats an eyelash about that: Blackhawk. Apache. And Comanche. If the Luftwaffe named its military helicopters Jew and Gypsy, I suppose people would notice." -- Propaganda and the Public Mind: Conversations with Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian

[marmar]

1. k/r

nt

[dotymed]

2. What a great mind.

Unafraid to speak the truth..

[ananda]

3. #4 got me.

Damm. I hadn't really made the connection.

Thank you, Professor Chomsky.

[bemildred]

4. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Chomsky is very good at that.

[Festivito]

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