[Peace-discuss] Scahill interviews Chomsky

[Carl G. Estabrook]

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 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria>>.) Some recent accounts of the Assad government approach “brave little Israel” rhetoric.

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” <https://www.counterpunch.org/2001/04/17/down-the-river-with-vladimir-putin/ <https://www.counterpunch.org/2001/04/17/down-the-river-with-vladimir-putin/>> and why one might want to avoid dinner with him - even a “channel catfish…”)

Chomsky seems to "explicitly advocate American troops' remaining there” only in the case of Rojava, an apparently estimable socialist (even anarchist) experiment. Chomsky has long defended Kurds against Turkish and American depredations. (Kissinger on an earlier American betrayal of the Kurds: "Covert action should not be confused with missionary work.”)

It’s a bit over the top to say that Chomsky’s "gratuitous remarks reinforce the justification of American imperialism by the media,” given Chomsky’s life-long and energetic critique of US imperialism. —CGE


> On Oct 2, 2018, at 10:13 PM, Brussel, Morton K via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> Chomsky as usual, imposing but also dubious in statements about Bashir al Assad ["a horrible war criminal”], and Putin ["not a nice guy. I would not like to have dinner with him…”].
> 
>  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. The above gratuitous remarks reinforce the justification of American imperialism by the media.
> 
> 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: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n18/jackson-lears/i-figured-what-the-heck <https://www.lrb.co.uk/v40/n18/jackson-lears/i-figured-what-the-heck>
> 
> —mkb
> 
> 
> 
>> On Oct 1, 2018, at 10:47 PM, Carl G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>> wrote:
>> 
>> AMERICAN DISSIDENT: NOAM CHOMSKY ON THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE
>> by Jeremy Scahill | Intercepted | September 26, 2018
> 
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