<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Those of us appalled by US crimes may tend to see the victims as necessarily virtuous. A just assessment of the Assad regime before (and during) the 2011 uprising is necessary - including why the CIA ‘rendered’ people to Syria for torture. (Not just Maher Arar - see <<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria" class="">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria</a>>.) Some recent accounts of the Assad government approach “brave little Israel” rhetoric.<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily a nice guy, even if my enemy is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today … my own government.” (On Putin as a ‘nice guy,’ see “Down the River with Vladimir Putin” <<a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2001/04/17/down-the-river-with-vladimir-putin/" class="">https://www.counterpunch.org/2001/04/17/down-the-river-with-vladimir-putin/</a>> and why one might want to avoid dinner with him - even a “channel catfish…”)<br class=""><br class=""><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">Chomsky seems to "<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><font color="#1d2129" class="">explicitly advocate American troops' remaining there<span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class="">”</span> only in the case of Rojava, an apparently estimable socialist (even </font></span><font color="#1d2129" class="">anarchist) experiment. Chomsky has long defended Kurds against Turkish and American depredations. (Kissinger on an earlier American betrayal of the Kurds:</font><span style="color: rgb(84, 84, 84); font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""> "</span><font color="#545454" face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" size="2" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”)</span></font></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><font color="#545454" face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" size="2" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><font color="#545454" face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" size="2" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">It’s a bit over the top to say that Chomsky’s "</span></font><font color="#1d2129" class="">gratuitous remarks reinforce the justification of American imperialism by the media,<span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class="">”</span> given Chomsky’s life-long and energetic critique of US imperialism. —CGE</font></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><font color="#545454" face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" size="2" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></span></font></div><div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Oct 2, 2018, at 10:13 PM, Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" class="">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="">
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<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">Chomsky as usual, imposing but also dubious in statements about Bashir al Assad ["<span style="color: rgb(29, 33, 41); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">a
horrible war criminal</span><span style="orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class=""><font color="#1d2129" face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, .SFNSText-Regular, sans-serif" class="">”</font></span><span style="color: rgb(29, 33, 41); font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; orphans: 2; widows: 2; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">],
and Putin ["</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#1d2129" face="system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, .SFNSText-Regular, sans-serif" class="">not a nice guy. I would not like to have dinner with him…<span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class="">”</span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class="">].</span></font></span></div>
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<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><font color="#1d2129" class=""> It would be useful to know the basis on which he makes these statements. He has made them before and to my mind has partly
justified American actions in Syria, actions which have created the chaos that exists there.. He then explicitly advocates American troops remaining there</font></span><font color="#1d2129" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class="">. The
above gratuitous remarks reinforce the justification of American imperialism by the media.</span></font></div>
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<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class=""><font color="#1d2129" class=""><span style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41);" class="">By the way, a very good article is to be found about Seymour Hersh by Jackson Lears, which has some relevance to Chomsky's reflections: </span></font><a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n18/jackson-lears/i-figured-what-the-heck" class="">https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n18/jackson-lears/i-figured-what-the-heck</a></div>
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<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">—mkb</div>
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<div class="">On Oct 1, 2018, at 10:47 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <<a href="mailto:peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net" class="">peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:</div>
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AMERICAN DISSIDENT: NOAM CHOMSKY ON THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE<br class="">
by Jeremy Scahill | Intercepted | September 26, 2018</p>
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