Brilliant essays which illuminate the post-9/11 world. - Rated 
This collection of Professor Chomsky's hard-hitting essays, previously published in newspapers world-wide during the period 2002-2008, includes persuasive pieces on Iraq, Iran, the 'war on terror', the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, US domestic issues and the failures of the George W Bush administration.
It's disgraceful that Noam Chomsky, one of the world's leading intellectuals, is treated as a pariah in his own country but these clearly argued essays brilliantly illuminate the post-9/11 world and deserve to have the widest possible readership.
Very informative, as ever - Rated
This is the complete collection of Chomsky's opinion pieces written between 2002 and 2007 and distributed by the New York Times Syndicate. Chomsky is one of the world's best-informed and most astute commentators on current affairs. His consistent theme is the need for real democracy.
He examines Israel's invasion of Lebanon, the US-British invasion and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the US-Israeli rejection of a Palestinian state, the growing democracy and independence of the countries of Latin and Central America, the increasing nuclear threat and the relationship between democracy and national sovereignty.
He notes that the US National Intelligence Estimate of 2006 said that the Iraq war has worsened terrorism. Since 2003, there has been a sevenfold rise in the yearly rate of jihadist attacks, and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan; in the rest of the world it has risen by a third. The Iraq war removed an enemy, not an ally, of al-Qaeda. Contradicting Bush, the Pentagon's Defense Science Board reported, "Muslims do not `hate our freedom', but rather they hate our policy." When the Royal Institute of International Affairs reported that "the UK is at particular risk because it is the closest ally of the United States ... a pillion passenger", the government furiously denied this obvious truth.
On the root cause of the crisis in the Middle East, Chomsky cites a former head of Israeli military intelligence, "To offer an honorable solution to the Palestinians respecting their right to self-determination: That is the solution of the problem of terrorism. When the swamp disappears, there will be no more mosquitos."
In November 2004, the UN Committee on Disarmament voted 147 to 1 for a verifiable Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, which would block the production of yet more nuclear bomb material. The USA voted against, Britain and Israel abstained.
Chomsky writes, "decline of sovereignty entails decline of democracy, and decline in ability to conduct social and economic policy. That in turn harms development." He argues that public opinion doesn't matter to the US and British states. Polls show that 80% of Iraqis want the US occupiers to leave. So what? The USA is bringing Iraqis democracy, so it doesn't matter what they think. 70% of us in Britain want a referendum on any treaty which transfers further powers to the EU. So what? We can't have one, the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution is good for us, so it doesn't matter what we think.
A useful collection (albeit repetitive) - Rated 
Chomsky has for a long time been rightly seen as one of the most incisive left wing critics of the US government and its foreign policy, applying the intellectual firepower which earlier had made him a leading thinker in linguistics to political matters.
This collection provides a selection of his "op-ed" thought pieces featured on the same pages as the newspaper's editorials for the New York Times syndication from September 2002 to March 2007. Since each item is limited to around 1,000 words they are easy to dip into and present an exercise in being concise on whatever the chosen topic is (the addition of subsequent footnotes for the book is mainly data sources).
As such they are a fascinating overview of events from post 9/11 through the Iraq conflict up to the growing US pressure on Iran, and while not all observations may have proven correct they do show a great skill to "think outside the box" against the US government policies and the general more establishment standard of other US op-ed writers over this period (there is a fascinating Foreword essay on this area by Peter Hart).
The downside (and my 3 star rating) is that if you have read the earlier longer book "Failed States" you will see many of the same themes featuring again in the shorter vignettes here. Also because of the nature of newspaper writing on matters as they develop, there is some repetition and overlap even between the pieces in this book.
The other observation is that while Chomsky is at his most provocative on US foreign policy in all its manifestations, what a number of these pieces reflect is that he is less effective when covering the US domestic issues. Whether it is US social security funding problems or presidential elections, his thoughts are much more lightweight and less incisive.
A fine sampler of the toughest political thinker of our time - Rated 
I'm ashamed to see how few reviews I've done of Chomsky's books. His deadpan presentation of the evidence has profoundly influenced the way I see the world since I was in my early 20s.
His method is simple. He doesn't construct a big conspiracy theory based on shreds of evidence. He starts from the standpoint that the political processes that we really need to scrutinise are the ones we have a chance of influencing - i.e., our own. From here, he looks at what our politicians say they are doing, and compares this with what they are verifiably reported as doing, and also with what the mainstream media says they are doing. None of this is any more than the scientific method as applied to media studies.
From this method, he draws down devastatingly critical results, in which politicans are condemned by the facts that their own organisations have elicited. Chomsky can ruin your faith in your elected leaders like nobody else. However, he is animated by a vision of freedom and justice that is truly democratic and egalitarian - and he is not blind to the fact that there are people out there who don't believe in freedom or justice but in theocracy. He just wants to point out that some of those people form the backbone of the US government.
This is a selection of op-ed columns, hardly the kind of book-length closely reasoned argument that any Chomsky-experienced radical will be looking for, but a bracing shot in the arm for anyone who just feels bewildered and confused by the whole situation and wants someone to suggest a direction towards clarity. Chomsky is by nature not a guru, positively allergic to 'followers' - merely someone with more access to information than most of us, and so disinclined to tell people what to do. But this little book is a small light that may help to illuminate the road towards an exit from the confusion and impotence that paralyse us every day.
|
