Chomsky nails it again - with a sledgehammer! This excerpt breaks my heart! Iraq specialist Raed Jarrar outlines what we in the West should know. Like many Iraqis, he is half-Shiite, half-Sunni, and in preinvasion Iraq he barely knew the religious identities of his relatives because sect wasnt really a part of the national consciousness. Jarrar reminds us that this sectarian strife that is destroying the country ... clearly began with the U.S. invasion and occupation. The aggressors destroyed Iraqi national identity and replaced it with sectarian and ethnic identities, beginning immediately when the U.S. imposed a Governing Council based on sectarian identity, a novelty for Iraq. By now, Shiites and Sunnis are the bitterest enemies, thanks to the sledgehammer wielded by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney (respectively the former U.S. Secretary of Defense and vice president during the George W. Bush administration) and others like them who understand nothing beyond violence and terror and have helped to create conflicts that are now tearing the region to shreds. ... Closer to home it is harder to ignore the consequences of U.S. state terror. There is now great concern about the flood of children fleeing to the U.S. from Central America. The Washington Post reports that the surge is mostly from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras - but not Nicaragua. Why? Could it be that when Washingtons sledgehammer was battering the region in the 1980s, Nicaragua was the one country that had an army to defend the population from U.S.-run terrorists, while in the other three countries the terrorists devastating the countries were the armies equipped and trained by Washington? ... Obama has proposed a humanitarian response to the tragic influx: more efficient deportation. Do alternatives come to mind? It is unfair to omit exercises of soft power and the role of the private sector. A good example is Chevrons decision to abandon its widely touted renewable energy programs, because fossil fuels are far more profitable. Exxon Mobil in turn announced that its laserlike focus on fossil fuels is a sound strategy, regardless of climate change, Bloomberg Businessweek reports, because the world needs vastly more energy and the likelihood of significant carbon reductions is highly unlikely. It is therefore a mistake to remind readers daily of the Nuremberg judgment. Aggression is no longer the supreme international crime. It cannot compare with destruction of the lives of future generations to ensure bigger bonuses tomorrow. truth-out.org/opinion/item/24796-noam-chomsky-the-sledgehammer-worldview
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 00:48:12 +0000