Noam
Chomsky interviewed by the Plymouth Institute for Peace Research
Plymouth
Institute for Peace Research, October 16, 2014
Plymouth
Institute for Peace Research (PIPR): This year commemorates the centenary of
the so-called Great War. What are your reflections?
Noam
Chomsky (NC): There is much debate about assignment of responsibility/blame for
the outbreak of this horrendous conflict, along with general agreement about
one point: There was a high level of accident and contingency; decisions could
easily have been different, avoiding catastrophe. There are ominous parallels
to nuclear catastrophe.
An
investigation of the history of near-confrontations with nuclear weapons
reveals how close the world has come to virtual self-annihilation, numerous
times, so much so that escape has been a near miracle, one unlikely to be perpetuated
for too long. The record underscores the warning of Bertrand Russell and Albert
Einstein in 1955 that we face a choice that is "stark and dreadful and
inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce
war?"
A second
no less chilling observation is the alacrity of the rush to war on all sides,
in particular the instant dedication of intellectuals to the cause of their own
states, with a small fringe of notable exceptions, almost all of whom were
punished for their sanity and integrity -- a microcosm of the history of the
cultivated and educated sectors of society, and the mass hysteria that they
often articulate.
PIPR: The
commemorations began around the same time as Operation Protective Edge. It is a
tragic irony that Gaza is home to WWI memorial graves. What were the real -- as
opposed to rhetorical reasons -- for Israel's latest assault on Gaza?
NC: It is
critically important to recognize that a pattern was established almost a
decade ago and has been followed regularly since: A ceasefire agreement is
reached, Israel makes it clear that it will not observe it and continues its
assault on Gaza (and illegal takeover of what it wants elsewhere in the
occupied territories), while Hamas observes the ceasefire, as Israel concedes,
until some Israeli escalation elicits a Hamas response, offering Israel a
pretext for another episode of "mowing the lawn" (in Israel's elegant
parlance). I have reviewed the record elsewhere; it is unusually clear for
historical events. The same pattern holds for Operation Protective Edge.
Another of the series of ceasefires had been reached in November 2012. Israel
ignored it as usual, Hamas observed it nevertheless. In April 2014, Gaza-based
Hamas and the Palestine Authority in the West Bank established a unity
government, which at once adopted all of the demands of the Quartet (the US,
EU, UN, Russia) and included no Hamas members. Israel was infuriated, and
launched a brutal operation in the West Bank, extending to Gaza, targeting
mainly Hamas. As always there was a pretext, but it quickly dissolves on
inspection. Finally killings in Gaza elicited a Hamas response, followed by
Protective Edge. The reasons for Israel's fury are not obscure. For 20 years,
Israel has sought to separate Gaza from the West Bank, with full US support and
in strict violation of the Oslo Accords that both had signed, which declare the
two to be a single indivisible territorial entity. A look at the map explains
the reasons. Gaza offers the only access for Palestine to the outside world;
without free access to Gaza, any autonomy that might be granted to some
fragmented Palestinian entity in the West Bank will be effectively imprisoned.
PIPR: The
Governments of Israel, Britain, and the US are surely thrilled with the
appearance of ISIS; a new 'threat' providing them with new excuses for war and
internal repression. What are your thoughts about ISIS and the latest bombing
of Iraq?
NC:
Reporting is limited, so what we can conclude is necessarily a construction
from scattered evidence. To me it looks like this: ISIS is a real monstrosity,
one of the many horrifying consequences of the US sledgehammer, which among
other crimes, incited sectarian conflicts that may by now have destroyed Iraq
finally and are tearing the region to shreds. The almost instantaneous defeat
of the Iraqi army was quite an astonishing event. This was an army of 350,000
men, heavily armed, trained by the US for over a decade. The Iraqi army had
fought a long and bitter war against Iran through the 1980s. As soon as it was
confronted by a few thousand lightly armed militants, the commanding officers
fled and the demoralized troops either fled with them or deserted or were
massacred. By now ISIS controls almost all of Anbar province and is not far
from Baghdad. With the Iraqi army virtually gone, the fighting in Iraq is in
the hands of Shiite militias organized by the sectarian government, which are
carrying out crimes against Sunnis that mirror those of ISIS. With crucial
assistance from the military wing of the Turkish Kurds, the PKK, the Iraqi
Kurdish Peshmerga has apparently held off ISIS. It seems that the PKK are also
the most significant force that rescued the Yazidi from extermination and are
holding off ISIS in Syria, including the crucial defense of Kobane. Meanwhile
Turkey has escalated its attacks against the PKK, with US tolerance if not
support. It appears that Turkey is satisfied to watch its enemies -- ISIS and
the Kurds -- killing one another within eyesight of the border, with awful
consequences likely if the Kurds cannot withstand the ISIS assault on Kobane
and beyond.
Another
major opponent of ISIS, Iran, is excluded from the US "coalition" for
policy and ideological reasons, as of course is their ally Assad. The US-led
coalition includes a few of the Arab oil dictatorships that are themselves
supporting competing jihadi groups. The major one, Saudi Arabia, has long been
the major source of funding for ISIS as well as providing its ideological
roots—no small matter. ISIS is an extremist offshoot of Saudi Wahabi/Salafi
doctrines, themselves an extremist version of Islam; and a missionary version,
using huge Saudi oil resources to spread their teachings throughout much of the
Muslim world. The US, like Britain before it, has tended to support radical
fundamentalist Islam in opposition to secular nationalism, and Saudi Arabia has
been a primary US ally since the family dictatorship was consolidated and vast
oil resources were discovered there.
The best
informed journalist and analyst of the region right now, Patrick Cockburn,
describes US strategy, such as it is, as an Alice-in-Wonderland construction,
opposing both ISIS and its main enemies, and loosely incorporating dubious Arab
allies with limited European support. An alternative would be to adhere to
domestic and international law: appealing to the UN Security Council and then
following its lead, and seeking political and diplomatic avenues to escape from
the morass or at least mitigate its horrors. But that is almost unthinkable in
US political culture.
PIPR: As
military operations in Iraq grow, NATO further destabilizes Ukraine. What are
your thoughts about the US-Russia proxy conflict and its potential for nuclear
war?
NC: It is
an extremely dangerous development, which has been brewing ever since
Washington violated its verbal promises to Gorbachev and began expanding NATO
to the East, right to Russia's borders, and threatening to incorporate Ukraine,
which is of great strategic significance to Russia and of course has close
historical and cultural links. There is a sensible analysis of the situation in
the leading establishment journal, Foreign Affairs, by international relations
specialist John Mearsheimer, entitled "Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the
West's Fault." The Russian autocracy is far from blameless, but we are now
back to earlier comments: we have come perilously close to disaster before, and
are toying with catastrophe again. It is not that possible peaceful solutions
are lacking.
One final
thought, about a dark and menacing cloud that looms over everything we discuss:
like the proverbial lemmings, we are marching resolutely towards an
environmental crisis that may well displace other concerns, in the not too
distant future.
chomsky.info
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