What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World

What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World | Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian | Dialogue for America's radical middle.

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What We Say Goes: ...

	What We Say Goes: Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian Metropolitan Books, 2007 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Dick Cheney Pulls Noam Chomsky to the Center (Relatively Speaking)

Chomsky is actually starting to win over the balanced middle with his common sense. I have long respected him, but it took Dick Cheney and his merry band of nakedly amoral and obliviously delusional henchmen to really bring home to America how much his straight talk and logical thinking can help us.

There is virtually no repetition from past works. This series of interviews took place in 2006 and early 2007, and I found a great deal here worth noting.

* In 70 New York Times editorials on Iraq, not once did they mention international law or the United Nations Charter. He uses this and several other examples to show how pallid, how myopic, how unprofessional our mainstream media has become.

* A wonderful section talks about how civil *obedience* of immoral and illegal orders is our biggest challenge in this era, and I agree. The "failure of generalship" in the Pentagon resulted from a well-meaning but profoundly misdirected confusion of loyalty to the civilian chain of command, however lunatic, with the integrity that each of our senior swore to the Constitution and to We the People in their Oath of Office.

* His knowledge of Lebanon, a country I have come to love as representative of all that is good in the Middle East, is most helpful. His many remarks, all documented, make it clear that Israel has been abducting people for decades, and that the Lebanese have quite properly come to equate US "freedom" with the "kiss of death." I am especially impressed with his discussion of Hezbollah as having legitimacy based on providing social services to those ignored by past governments, and as having a significant strategic value to Iran as a flank on Israel. His observations on how the US consistently refuses to recognize honest elections that do not go as the policymakers (not the US public) wish, are valid.

* He reminds us that the US made an enormous strategic mistake in using Saudi Arabian extremist Islam as a counterpoint to Nasser's natural Arab nationalism. As Robert Baer puts it, we see no evil and slept with the devil like a common whore lusting for oil.

* His comments on China and the Shi'ites who sit on most of the reserves (including Saudi reserves in one corner of that country, are provocative. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the USA needs to cede the oil to China and execute a Manhattan Project to leverage solar power from space, tidal power, air power, and--for storage--hydrogen power made with renewable resources.

* Chomsky's comments on Chavez track with my own understanding. Chavez is a serious and well-off revolutionary who is sharing energy with his Latin American brethren, and leading the independence of Latin America from the overbearing and often hypocritical and predatory US government and US multinational corporations.

* He offers compelling thoughts on how India is sacrificing hundreds of thousands of poor rural people who now commit suicide or migrate to cities after losing their lands, for the sake of the high technology investments. I wonder why India is not doing more to teach the poor "one cell call at a time."

* His observations on US electoral fraud are brilliant. He points out that the fact that elections are stolen is much less important than the fact that the entire electoral process in the US is fraudulent, without substance, only posturing and platitudes.

* He discusses how the US public is completely divorced from the policy choices of the dual tyranny of the US (political) government and the US corporate sector.

* At every turn Chomsky offers common sense observations, for instance, Pakistan, not Iran, is vastly more likely to leak nuclear capabilities to jihadists. In passing, he points out that it was the US under Reagan that gave the Shah of Iran an entire MIT nuclear program and substantive assistance that is now being harvested by Iran.

* He observes that Israeli influence is vastly larger than the lobbying effort, because the entire US intellectual network has "bought into" the Israeli myths and lies. The American fascists (see American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America), the Christian fundamentalists, are actually anti-Semitic, but support Israel because of their belief in the apocalypse.

* The Internet is having a pernicious effect on dialog and debate and compromise, because it creates little cul-de-sacs for lunatics of like mind to find and reinforce one another, divorced from larger realities.

* Avian flu (and our lack of preparation for it) is vastly more dangerous than a nuclear event. (See my review of the DVD Pandemic).

* Missile "defense" is actually code for allowing a first strike by the US on Russia or China, as a means to moderating their counter-strike. This is the first time I have heard it put this way, and I agree. All Americans should oppose "missile defense."

* State secrecy is about keeping our own citizens ignorant of the crimes being done "in our name" not about keeping secrets from the enemies we a re covertly screwing over time and again.

* Darfur is being dumbed down, at the same time that the *millions* being genocided in the Congo are being ignored.

* He ends on two good notes. Like Thomas Jefferson (A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry") he says that "educating the American people is the main thing to be done," and love of the people is fundamental.

Great book, completely fresh and absolutely worth reading for the mainstream that might have in the past written Chomsky off as a perennial leftist, which he is not. Chomsky is what we must all seek to be: an educated engaged citizen.

See also:
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III
Bush's Brain
Why We Fight

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Dialogue for America's radical middle.

In the past, people have often assumed that Noam Chomsky was "too radical" for the general public of the United States; but as his recent best-selling book sales have revealed, "regular" citizens are hungry for this sort of analysis. Despite the best efforts of clownish servants of power like David Horowitz and Peter Collier The Anti-Chomsky Reader, Chomsky's work is reaching an ever broader audience.
In addition to his dozens of books and countless articles in magazines like Z Magazine, Chomsky is being heard on C-SPAN and through grassroots media efforts like Justice Vision, Alternative Tentacles, Radio Free Maine and David Barsamian's "Alternative Radio" (which airs on over 100 community, public and college radio stations in the U.S., Canada and beyond).

Some tools of the right-wing will charge Chomsky with being "anti-American," but Chomsky is actually carrying on the proud radical tradition of this country that was earlier exemplified by people like Henry David Thoreau, Jane Addams, Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Mother Jones, Malcolm X and many others. Moreover, much of Chomsky's criticisms are directed not at the U.S., but at transnational corporations which have no regard to this country, its workers, or its environment. In fact, Thomas Jefferson sounded an early alarm regarding corporate power when he wrote, "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

For more on corporate tyranny, I'd suggest:
The Corporation - which features Chomsky and many other important authors.
Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights - by the prolific author and Air America radio host, Thom Hartmann. Hartmann is making life miserable for corportist warmongers like Limbaugh and Hannity.

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A Real Discussion On Our Current State.

"What We Say Goes" comes as a refreshing read after a season dominated by worthless books by Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter and the typical crowd of right-wing mouthpieces. This latest collection of discussions with intellectual Noam Chomsky are not for leftists or conservatives, but for everyone because these are the bare bones facts of the current state of our foreign policy. The most recent developments in Latin America are discussed, as well as the situation in Iraq, Israel and the greater Middle East. Chomsky uses documents and facts, observations and developments to display a world becoming more chaotic as the Bush White House imposes a new form of imperial rule over the world economically and as with Iraq, by force. But this is not anti-American bashing, it is a citizen providing a real analysis of what's happening, Chomsky points out that as citizens we should be concerned because the actions of those currently in power do not just pose a threat to others, but to our own nation as well. The recent tilt to the Left in the Americas is touched upon as Chomsky reflects on the social movements gaining strength in Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador, and the disappointing reality of Central America as Daniel Ortega returns to power, but more as an opportunist than an actual revolutionary. The growing tensions with Iran are discussed, with Chomsky exploring how the U.S. has already been waging war on Iran for almost 50 years beginning with the overthrow of their elected government in 1953 and support for Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran in the 1980s. "What We Say Goes" is crucial reading because it explores real history, not just bumper sticker slogans and nationalistic propaganda. The difference between Chomsky and the "mainstream" releases is that a real effort is made here to look at the consequences of history and policy, from the political and human perspectives. How has our foreign policy affected Haiti and Cuba, why is there a rising sense of anti-Americanism in the world? These issues are discussed with an in-depth look at the facts, with documents to support conclusions. There is a special way in the style Chomsky approaches current events, with a deep human understanding and a clear prose that explains much of what seems muddled on the evening news. "What We Say Goes" provides interesting insights into current events such as the arms deals the U.S. has with Israel, and little-known incidents such as a British-backed massacre of Chilean miners in 1907, which can be seen as as precedent to the U.S.-backed fascist coup on September 11, 1973. Middle East politics are discussed in great detail with a fascinating, important history on the demise of secular Arab movements by the U.S. and Israel, leading to the formation of radical Islamic groups. "What We Say Goes" is priceless reading in the era of Anne Coulter and Sean Hannity, it is truth through the word, it sets itself apart from other works by actually asking you to THINK.

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A Good Follow-Up to Imperial Ambitions

I bought this title because I was impressed with the last collection of Barsamian-Chomsky interviews that was published under the American Empire Project series, Imperial Ambitions. I haven't quite finished reading this one, but so far it's about the same quality. People who find Chomsky's writing too dense will enjoy reading interviews with him; Chomsky's conversational speaking makes for easier writing than his more scholarly-sounding writing. Additionally, his interviews his provide readers with more brevity on each topic and a wider range of topics. David Barsamian is a good interviewer, and his questions often illicit insightful responses from Chomsky.

The third chapter provides some good updates on past things Chomsky has written about Latin America, as well as further commentary about the nuclear threat posed by India, Pakistan, and the U.S.

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Read This for Lebanon

This book is typical Chomsky. If you are conservative you probably will not like this book. But, if you are liberal you will enjoy it. I mostly liked it because of the talk about Lebanon and the recent invasion by Israel. More needs to be written about the war last summer. Aside from that there is not a whole lot too new in this book.

Further, I would like to say that I am truly dissapointed by Chomsky's scepticism about 9/11 being an inside job. I understand that not everyone (even every liberal)will agree with me or 9/11 Truthers. But, he writes in this book that it would take too many people in America to pull this off without anyone in the US knowing or ratting the others out. First, he says that it would take too many people in the US but according to the official story line it took only about 20-25 people in caves to pull it off. If officially it only took that many then why would it take thousands of people in the US to pull it off. Further, the US has pulled off similar operations all over the world without thousands of people inside the US being part of it.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4

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