9-11

by Noam Chomsky

Book Overview

In 9-11, published in November 2001 and arguably the single most influential post 9-11 book, internationally renowned thinker Noam Chomsky bridged the information gap around the World Trade Center... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1583224890
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Open Media/Seven Stories Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.0" x 0.4" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A great resource

The Chomsky reader is a must for anyone, liberal or conservative, who seeks insight away from the mainstream media. I think he is overboard at times but the viewpoint is unvaluable and stimulating.

Asking the right questions.

Chomsky is disturbing to many people becasue he asks the difficult questions. When most of the U.S. media is focused on retaliation, bombs, attacking Afganistan,then looking for the next area in the world to bomb, Chomsky asks, Who is served by this response. The British govenment did not bomb Belfast in retaliation for the IRA attacks, or Boston, which was the source of most of the IRA funding. More to the point, however, is the history of Nicaragua where the U.S. was obviously the aggressor against a fellow republic and was condemmmed by the World Court for unlawful use of force, i.e., state terrorism. Then the U.S. and Israel vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on the U.S. to desist. It is why the U.S. for the first time in history was not included among states which respect human rights in the last U.N. report. The brutal attack on the helpless population of Afganistan is not an action which shows the U.S. as a nation which respects international law or the integrity of others nations or its peoples. Nor has its purpose, the apprehension of Bin Laden, been accomplished.Those who find Chomsky disturbing tend to be folks who do not read news or opinions outside the U.S. Dialogue on controversial international subjects tends to be circumscribed by the media in the U.S. and the limits clearly set out. Few students of history have read The Irish Soldiers of Mexico by Michael Hogan or the Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galleano which are required reading for most international students. Both books show a history of U.S. forceful interventions which would certainly make reflective readers see more dimensions and more appropriate responses to terrorism than retaliation which results in the collateral damage of tens of thousands of innocent lives.

Katie Couric's head would spin!

In other words, this is not the stuff of NBC News. I begin with a quote from the book:"Nothing can justify the crimes such as those of September 11th, but we can think of the United States as an 'innocent victim' only if we adopt the convenient path of ignoring the record of it's actions and those of it's allies, which are, after all, hardly a secret(p 35)."This short book is a transcript of email conversations with Chomsky. Many who are not familiar with Chomsky's work may be too quick to call him callous due to his style. He is not one to overzealously repeat obligatory statements so as to appease and pacify possible critics who would question his patriotism. Instead, Chomsky wishes to illustrate the "B-side" of the current crisis which is often bankrupt in most media. Crucial premises among his talks include the idea that the U.S. did not take the legal route towards our response to 9-11 becuase it would lead to questions about the recent history of U.S terrorism (he gives a sampling) as defined by U.S. Codes and organizations such as the World Court. He discusses the comparability of 9-11 with other U.S. created disasters such as the Al-Shifa plant in Sudan (with it's resulting death count reaching into the tens of thousands). Interestingly, he discusses U.S. intelligence failures that may have led to the prevention of 9-11, such as Clinton's refusal (due, according to the CIA, to his "irrational hatred" of the country) to accept Sudan's critical information regarding many members of the Al-Qaida network. Chomsky also questions the current Realpolitik phenomenon of American anti-Islamic Fundamentalism while we currently support Islamic Fundamentalist regimes, such as in Saudi Arabia, which are just as despotic, especially to U.S. "noble ends."It seems that there is more of a pause among Americans in response to the bombings of 9-11. This is in sharp contrast to the American reaction to the Gulf War incident over a decade ago. Books such as "9-11" by Chomsky perhaps gives us a bit of insight as to why there is more of a "pause."

Essential background to current war

The only shortcoming of this book is its brevity. Luckily, however, the facts about American foreign policy that Chomsky alludes to here are thoroughly documented in his other work, spanning four decades (_Deterring Democracy_, _The Fateful Triangle_, and _The Culture of Terrorism_, for example). Thin as it is, this pamphlet provides more relevant background to understanding the crimes committed on September 11, 2001, and the current "war on terrorism" and on Afghanistan, than anything else published so far on these tragic events. As Chomsky persuasively demonstrates, the United States is no more engaged in a war on terrorism now than it was 20 years ago, when a different administration was pioneering today's foreign policy rhetoric. What we are engaged in is a war on those terrorists who oppose American interests, and it is not even clear that the methods chosen are effective to that end. If we are seriously interested in preventing a repetition of the 9-11 attacks, or worse things to come, then it is imperative that we look to the reasons why the United States is almost universally hated in the arab and Islamin world, and this implies certain very concrete changes that we should make in our policy toward the Middle East, such as ceasing our support for Israel's system of apartheid and lifting the genocidal sanctions on Iraq. Noam Chomsky is one of the leading experts on US Middle East Policy and especially the Palestinian question, so it is clear why he has a lot to say on these matters, and why we should listen to what he says carefully.

Truth, Language and Understanding: A Workout

Dear Colleagues, Noam Chomsky understands the power of language, the nature of language, how language can be used and how language is frequently abused by those who would seek to lead us, influence us, beguile us, repress us or simply rip-us off for as long as possible.Noam Chomsky makes people think, he poises some of the difficult questions, and will maybe have you struggling to justify some of your best and long held beliefs in people and society. In this way, this book is both a gentle introduction and a great mental workout, if nothing else, and it can be much more.Starting with this book by Chomsky if you haven't read any of his stuff before is like deciding on a diet and workout plan that is neither drastic or radical, but eases the reader into the Chomsky ways of seeing things, of gathering facts, of interpreting language and of developing ideas and analysis. Chomsky is nearly always delivering arguments that are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive, which leads for well focussed and sometimes overly-knowledge rich text, but it's well worth the effort - in my book Chomsky is one of the greatest thinkers of the last 100 years - even if you, like me, will disagree with at least 50 percent of Chomsky's conclusions.Regards,Martyn_jones@iniciativas.com