Does The Usa Intend To Dominate The Whole World By Force?

--Chomsky Interview

posted by admin on Monday June 02, @08:37AM

Noam Chomsky interviewed on the Amsterdam Forum

by Noam Chomsky; Amsterdam Forum; June 02, 2003

ANDY CLARK

zmag.org

Hello and welcome to Amsterdam Forum - Radio Netherlands' interactive discussion programme.

Today a special edition featuring the world-famous author and political activist Noam Chomsky.

Professor Chomsky, once described by the New York Times as arguably the most important intellectual alive, is an outspoken critic of US foreign policy. He says, following the war in Iraq, the US is seeking to dominate the world by force, a dimension in which it rules supreme. And he warns this policy will lead to proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and terror attacks based on a loathing of the US administration. He says the very survival of the species may be at stake.

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Well professor Chomsky joins us to take questions from our listeners around the world. Welcome professor Chomsky.

The first e-mail is from Norberto Silva, from the Cape Verde islands, and he says: "Could the USA and president Bush lead the world into a nuclear war with their policy of pre-emptive attacks?"

NOAM CHOMSKY

They very definitely could. First of all we should be clear - it is not a policy of pre-emptive attacks. Pre-emption means something in international law. A pre-emptive attack is one that is taken in the case of an imminent, on-going threat. For example, if planes were flying across the Atlantic to bomb New York, it would be legitimate for the US Air Force to shoot them down. That's a pre-emptive attack. This is what is sometimes called preventive war. That's a new doctrine that was announced last September in the National Security Strategy. It declares the right to attack any potential challenge to the global dominance of the United States. The potential is in the eye of the observer, so that, in effect, gives the authorisation to attack essentially anyone. Could that lead to a nuclear war? Very definitely. We've come very close in the past. Just last October, for example, it was discovered, to the shock and horror of those who paid attention, that, during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, the world was literally one word away from probably terminal nuclear war.

Russian submarines with nuclear weapons were under attack by US destroyers. Several commanders thought a nuclear war was on, and gave the order to shoot nuclear missiles. It was countermanded by one officer. That's why we're around to talk. There have been plenty of such cases since.

ANDY CLARK

Are we in a more dangerous situation now, with this preventive doctrine in place?

NOAM CHOMSKY

Sure. The preventive war doctrine is virtually an invitation to potential targets to develop some kind of deterrent, and there are only two kinds of deterrent. One is weapons of mass destruction, the other is large-scale terror. That's been pointed out over and over again by strategic analysts, the intelligence agencies and so on, so sure, it raises the danger that something will get out of control....

As usual -- the man with a mind like a razor blade cuts right to the core.

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