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

Chomsky consistently finds documents and articles that the rest of us have missed. Like all his books, this is full of fascinating revelations. His title comes from a speech by George Bush senior in 1991, when he said that the main principle of his new world order was, `what we say goes'. In eight interviews conducted in 2006 and 2007, Chomsky and radio journalist David Barsamian cover matters including the US state, the Middle East, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the rise of democracy in Latin America. Chomsky cites a Pentagon document that recommended an information strategy including: "Diversion: list of interesting declassified material - i.e. Kennedy assassination data", for `providing good faith distraction material'. He suggests that conspiracy theories are there to distract people from real struggles. In January 2007, Chomsky said, "there is a housing bubble that somehow overcame the collapse of the stock bubble. If the housing bubble bursts, it could turn out to be very serious." He shows how the US state has fostered Islamic fundamentalism by supporting Saudi Arabia, `the most extreme fundamentalist tyranny in the world' - and also the US state's oldest ally in the Middle East. He shows the continuity of imperial rule over Latin America. In 1907, the British empire's rulers instigated a massacre of a thousand workers in Iquique, Chile. He points out, "Right through the Clinton years, Colombia was by far the leading recipient of U.S. aid, and also had by far the worst human rights record in Latin America." He shows how the biggest divide in the USA is not between North and South, or black and white, but between the capitalist state and the American people. In every opinion poll, a majority of Americans favour a national health service, more spending on education and welfare, and less spending on war. On Iran, 75% of the American people think that the USA should end military threats and turn to diplomacy. Two-thirds of the American people want to re-establish ties with Cuba. Chomsky says that the national interest is `a mystical term', but although the capitalist class and its state naturally claim that their minority interests are the national interest, the real national interest is always a nation's people.

I didn't read the whole book yet. The first few pages' idea mirrors a classic Chinese saying, "those who steal jewels are executed; those who steal the state are made kings." (qie-zhu-zhe-zhu, qie-guo-zhe-hou). Some other reviewer mentioned that some facts may not have adequate evidence and reference, but I don't think affect the book's point much because it is really based on the well-known simple facts, e.g. invasion of Iraq.

Wow - "What We Say Goes" is a fantastic, eye-opening read. If you consider yourself conservative or right-wing (or just regularly watch "Fox News") then I would consider this book REQUIRED reading. Yes, some of the ideas are tough to swallow. As a proud, full-blooded American, it was difficult to accept, but Chomsky makes you see current events in another light, and explains leaders' true motivations. Chomsky's arguments are well reasoned. It is NOT propaganda or conspiracy theories, but critical thinking in the most pure sense. His knowledge of current events and history is deep. And while presented as a series of question-answer interviews, there are references provided to fact-check everything he says. Chomsky talks about elections in America, and how we're electing people based on image and you never hear about issues. I think the most profound point he makes is that, overwhelmingly, polls of American people show that politics do not follow what their own popular opinion is saying. Did you know we're establishing permanent military bases in Iraq? I certainly didn't, and don't think it bodes well for us getting out of there any time soon. Other gems? The United States instigates revolutions (e.g. the Pinochet coup in Chile on 9/11/1973). We give financial aid to support tyrants in countries with horrible human rights violations (Columbia, Saudi Arabia). Today we're so afraid of Iran developing the bomb, when we gave them our nuclear engineers from MIT (for a price, of course!) Chomsky discusses the recent U.S.-Israel unprovoked attacks against Lebanon. There's many mentions of the United Nations, and how we completely ignore their laws. He cuts through the underlying assumption in popular media that we can do as we please. For instance, U.S. newspapers' absurd claims that Iran is "interfering in Iraq," when Iran is doing something as benign as opening a bank (pp 101). These U.S. aggressions are definitely fueling terrorism (a big point made in the The 9/11 Commission Report, but an idea that is given no media coverage). Do we have any justification for attacking Iraq? They unequivocally did NOT have "Weapons of Mass Destruction," and had nothing to do with the September 11 terrorist attacks (please again refer to the 9/11 Commission Report). If you consider yourself an educated citizen, this book may change your mind.

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 o

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.