Chomsky’s 9-11.
Noam Chomsky’s recent book, 9-11, is worthy of critical examination.
Noam Chomsky
9-11
96 pp. Seven Stories Press
1583224890
Noam Chomsky has made an enormous impression on millions of readers around the globe. He has been a stalwart in probing for and finding fault in American foreign policy. He has championed the meek and the victimized in legendary fashion. Always an imperfect warrior, he was always a force to be reckoned with.
And then came one horrifying day in September. Chomsky’s fall from grace, either in my eyes or from an “objective” standpoint, was not precipitous. His ardor for anarchy, and his mistaken equivocation of reality with mental process always weakened Chomsky’s thought.
In this book, 9-11, Chomsky abandons the victims of history. He does repeatedly deny that he blames the victims of September 11 for what happened to them. He does repeatedly deny that the malice worked that day could be justified. Yet he implies and assumes, as the core of his argument, that American foreign policy is September 11’s root cause.
While American foreign policy may have inspired the terrorists, their killing of thousands of people far removed from the affairs of the Middle East was an indefensible act. Was it American foreign policy that sparked the imagination of terrorists as they planned to use hijacked civilian airliners to ram civilian buildings? Had American foreign policy been a bit more magnanimous or charitable, would the terrorists’ mad drive to ignite a world war been lessened? If America had forced Israel to make peace with Palestine, would that have sated the terrorists’ demands? If US military personnel were not stationed in Saudi Arabia, would they not have bombed us, fashioning innocent lives into ordnance? Did the victims of September 11 get what they bargained for, because they were Americans?
Of course not, but all these are the implications of Chomsky’s argument. This is a disgusting, sick, and immoral capstone to an otherwise positive career.
If Al Qaeda had targeted a third world country with the same attacks that befell the U.S. on September 11, is there any doubt that Chomsky would somehow blame the US for it?
I am aware of Chomsky’s mostly successful exposure of how the US’s foreign policy is frequently immoral. The September 11 attacks, however, were an illegitimate political protest. I advocate nonviolence, though I am not a pacifist. In any case, however, in no way can self-defense or anything at all justify these attacks.
The US government may have behaved in an immoral manner with regard to genocide in East Timor, Iran with Mossadegh, and Chile with Allende. Oppression committed by a country can never justify the oppression of that country, however.
In the French Revolution, it was legitimate to overthrow the monarchy. Once the Reign of Terror began, however, innocent lives were taken. The real revolution had ended.
All oppression is reprehensible. It is not hypocritical to condemn oppression, no matter who commits it. Oppression ought to always be condemned. Doing so, in my opinion, is the duty of progressives, including Chomsky. By his implications, assumptions, and by the spirit of his writings, unfortunately, Chomsky condemns only the oppression perpetrated by the US, not the kind perpetrated on it.
Originally posted to Amazon.com. After it appeared on their site for a while, it was removed from their site. In response to my e-mailed question about where it went, I received the following e-mail message back. I admit that I am troubled by Amazon’s explanation. Dealing with Chomsky’s philosophy as a whole, however imperfectly I did so here, must be part of any review of his book that would satisfy my conscience. Regardless of the removal, I thank Amazon for the opportunity to post my review on their site in the first place, and for their kindness in sending a copy of it to me when I became aware that I no longer had any copy of it. Since then, I’ve made a few minor editorial changes to it. Here is the message from Amazon.
Dear Andrew,
Thank you for writing back to Amazon.com.
I have found your review of “9-11″ in our database. I found that the review has not been posted to the website [sic] as much of the review deals with your personal opinions on the subject rather than the contents of the book itself.
Our intention is to make the customer review forum a place for constructive commentary and feedback, so reviews that fall outside these guidelines are removed from the web site.
What I can suggest is that you resubmit your review, but stick to critically analyzing the content of the title.…
(Excerpt of letter)
Update: 21 November 2003. Someone is “sick of Bush” and they are trying to scam people into worshipping Chomskian politics and overlooking Chomsky’s immoral rationalization of terrorist attacks like 9/11. (*) Chomsky is of course a groundbreaking linguist. I’m stating disagreement with his politics.