Chomsky

A nice little interview/bio piece on Noam Chomsky that gives a good overview of where he's at these days on Iraq and the "war on terrorism." From the London Independent via ZNet:

Still, he says, he is amazed at how the invasion of Iraq has turned out in what he believes "should have been one of the easier military occupations in history". He says: "I thought the war itself would be over in two days and that the occupation would immediately succeed. It was known to be the weakest country in the region. The US never would have invaded otherwise. The sanctions had killed hundreds of thousands and compelled the people to rely on Saddam for survival, otherwise they probably would have overthrown him.

"The country is obviously going to fall apart as soon as you push it. And any resistance is going to have no outside support, a trickle but nothing significant. But, in fact, it is proving harder than the German occupation of Europe in the Second World War. The Nazis didn't have this much trouble in Europe. But somehow the US has managed to turn it into an unbelievable catastrophe. And it is partly because of the way they are treating people. They have been treating people in such a way that engenders resistance and hatred and fear."

The long-awaited Iraqi elections are to be held next Sunday but Chomsky calls talk about a sovereign, independent, democratic Iraq a "poor joke". He says: "I don't see any possibility of Britain and the US allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that's almost inconceivable. It will have a Shia majority.

Click here for the rest.

The thing I like most about Chomsky is his ability to see a spade for what it actually is. He's declared again and again that there is no real intellectual connection between his linguistics work and his political work, but it seems that the majority of his political analyis deals with looking at the official line and then illustrating how words and deeds simply do not match. In other words, his non-linguistics writing looks at language and meaning where it counts most, in the political realm, where millions of lives are affected every day. In this case, the US is calling this theatrical event in Iraq an election. Indeed, votes will be cast and leaders will be appointed: however, this "election" will no doubt be less fair than the electoral travesty in Florida during the 2000 Presidential election. That is, it's not an election at all. It is simply an event designed to give legitimacy to American control of Iraq.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$