ARTURO
GARCIA
07
OCT 2014
Author and
social philosopher Noam Chomsky criticized U.S. policy regarding the Middle
East in an interview with Truthout, blaming the country’s involvement in Iraq
for the rise of the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS).
“‘Inevitable’
is a strong word, but the appearance of ISIS and the general spread of radical
jihadism is a fairly natural outgrowth of Washington wielding its sledgehammer
at the fragile society of Iraq,” Chomsky was quoted as saying.
Chomsky
also said he agreed with author and former CIA officer Graham Fuller’s recent
statements calling the U.S. one of the group’s “key creators” as a result of
its 2003 war against Iraq.
“The
situation is a disaster for the U.S., but is a natural result of its invasion,”
Chomsky told Truthout. “One of the grim consequences of U.S.-U.K. aggression
was to inflame sectarian conflicts that are now tearing Iraq to shreds, and
have spread over the whole region, with awful consequences.”
At the
same time, Chomsky said, religious fanaticism is spreading not just in Middle
Eastern countries, but in the U.S., as well, a growth he blamed in part on the
Republican Party.
“There are
not many countries in the world where the large majority of the population
believes that God’s hand guides evolution, and almost half of these think that
the world was created a few thousand years ago,” he said. “And as the
Republican Party has become so extreme in serving wealth and corporate power
that it cannot appeal to the public on its actual policies, it has been
compelled to rely on these sectors as a voting base, giving them substantial
influence on policy.”
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