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Horror Beyond Description
By Noam Chomsky and C. J. Polychroniou
Source: Truthout
December 4, 2015
The “war on terror” has now taken the form of a full-on global war campaign. Meanwhile, the actual causes of the rise and spread of murderous organizations such as ISIS remain conveniently ignored.
Following the Paris massacre in November, major Western countries like France and Germany are joining the United States in the fight against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. Russia has also hastened to join the club, as it has its own fears about the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, Russia has been waging its own “war on terror” since the collapse of the Soviet state. At the same time, close allies of the US, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are providing either direct or indirect support to ISIS, but this reality is also conveniently ignored by the Western forces fighting international terrorism. Only Russia dared recently to label Turkey as “accomplices of terrorists,” after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane for having allegedly violated Turkish airspace. (For the record, Turkish fighter jets have been violating Greek airspace with great frequency for years, violating it 2,244 times in 2014 alone.)
Does the “war on terror” make sense? Is it an effective policy? And how different is the current phase of the “war on terror” from the two previous phases that occurred under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush’s administrations, respectively? Moreover, who really benefits from the “war on terror”? And what’s the link between the US military-industrial complex and war making? World-renowned critic of US foreign policy Noam Chomsky offered his insights to Truthout on these issues in an exclusive interview with C.J. Polychroniou.
C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, thank you for doing this interview. I would like to start by hearing your thoughts on the latest developments on the war against terrorism, a policy that dates back to the Reagan years and was subsequently turned into a doctrine of [Islamophobic] “crusade” by George W. Bush with simply inestimable cost to innocent human lives and astonishingly profound effects for international law and world peace. The war against terrorism is seemingly entering a new and perhaps more dangerous phase as other countries have jumped into the fray, with different policy agendas and interests than those of the US and some of its allies. First, do you agree with the above assessment on the evolution of the war against terrorism and, if so, what are likely to be the economic, social and political consequences of a permanent global war on terror, for Western societies in particular?
Noam Chomsky:
Following the Paris massacre in November, major Western countries like France and Germany are joining the United States in the fight against Islamic fundamentalist terrorism. Russia has also hastened to join the club, as it has its own fears about the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. In fact, Russia has been waging its own “war on terror” since the collapse of the Soviet state. At the same time, close allies of the US, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, are providing either direct or indirect support to ISIS, but this reality is also conveniently ignored by the Western forces fighting international terrorism. Only Russia dared recently to label Turkey as “accomplices of terrorists,” after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane for having allegedly violated Turkish airspace. (For the record, Turkish fighter jets have been violating Greek airspace with great frequency for years, violating it 2,244 times in 2014 alone.)
Does the “war on terror” make sense? Is it an effective policy? And how different is the current phase of the “war on terror” from the two previous phases that occurred under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush’s administrations, respectively? Moreover, who really benefits from the “war on terror”? And what’s the link between the US military-industrial complex and war making? World-renowned critic of US foreign policy Noam Chomsky offered his insights to Truthout on these issues in an exclusive interview with C.J. Polychroniou.
C.J. Polychroniou: Noam, thank you for doing this interview. I would like to start by hearing your thoughts on the latest developments on the war against terrorism, a policy that dates back to the Reagan years and was subsequently turned into a doctrine of [Islamophobic] “crusade” by George W. Bush with simply inestimable cost to innocent human lives and astonishingly profound effects for international law and world peace. The war against terrorism is seemingly entering a new and perhaps more dangerous phase as other countries have jumped into the fray, with different policy agendas and interests than those of the US and some of its allies. First, do you agree with the above assessment on the evolution of the war against terrorism and, if so, what are likely to be the economic, social and political consequences of a permanent global war on terror, for Western societies in particular?
Noam Chomsky:
Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/horror-beyond-description/
