July 7, 2002

It is a telling commentary on the political and intellectual culture of the world’s most powerful state, and even though Noam Chomsky’s booklet 9-11 is a bestseller, yet mainstream papers in the United States have so far not seriously reviewed this important analysis of the events of September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. The reason for this neglect is that any mention of Western state terrorism is unacceptable in “polite” company.

Chomsky’s book offers a thorough, rigorous and detailed analysis of the causes and the effects of the September 11 attacks. The atrocities of that day, in which thousands of innocent civilians died, were serious acts of terrorism. There is no dispute that those responsible for perpetrating this outrageous violence should be brought to justice and punished according to US and international laws.

The US authorities retaliated by promptly launching a war on Afghanistan, citing as its goal the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden and the defeat of Al Qaida. Later it added to its agenda the overthrow of the Taliban regime.

This war against Afghanistan has led to the deaths of at least 3,000 civilians, according to one estimate. It also led to countless injuries, immense hardships, diseases, starvation and dislocation of the Afghans, one of the poorest people in the world. It is doubtful that the US will ever be held accountable for its action in Afghanistan.

Given the immense suffering the US inflicted on the Afghans, some questions can be logically asked. But this is never done by the Western media. Could this course of action have been avoided? While one cannot undo history and there will be no definitive answers, the record shows that the US rejected the path of negotiations.

This booklet is based on a collection of interviews conducted with Noam Chomsky following the atrocities of September 11. Chomsky’s view is that the 9/11 attacks were something new in world affairs because this was the first time that the national territory of the US was under attack. But in terms of terrorism and assaults on civilians resulting in a large numbers of deaths and massive destructions and sufferings, there are many other examples, such as Western annihilation of Native Americans, US conquests of Mexico, Hawaii, the Philippines, and the invasion of Vietnam; and the European colonization of Asia and Africa.

According to Chomsky the official doctrine and practice of what is euphemistically called “low intensity warfare” is actually a form of terrorism as understood in US laws. While there is some truth in the dictum that terrorism is often the weapon of the weak, terrorism is also a frequently used tool of the powerful. The US has often supported a variety of terrorist criminal wars by supplying arms to autocratic regimes. Its substantial aid to Israel’s illegitimate occupation of Palestinian territories is a notable example of the American backing to terrorism.

Chomsky rejects the conceited misconception articulated by various pro-establishment intellectuals, such as Samuel Huntington and Bernard Lewis, that there is a clash of civilizations between the West and Islam. The notion that the quest for freedom, tolerance, prosperity, democracy, peaceful coexistence is alien to Muslims or Arabs has no real basis. Contrary to the claims of “experts” who assert that the US is hated for its freedom, democracy, and wealth, he sticks to the facts.

The resentment which the Muslims and the Arabs feel against the US stems from its policy of harsh sanctions against Iraq and support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. The US supported the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in which about 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed. Chomsky also reminds the readers of the US sponsorship of terrorist bombing in Beirut in 1985 which killed 80 people.

As Chomsky emphatically says, “Nothing can justify crimes such as those of September 11.” It has become fashionable to denounce anyone suggesting that one has to try to fathom the causes of terrorism. Christopher Hitchens of The Nation denounced what he called the “Chomsky-Zinn-Finkelstein quarter”, as if examining the plausible connections between the rise of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism and Western state terrorism is sacrilege. It is completely irrational to believe that an attempt to understand the causes of terrorism is a rationalization of violence.

Those who reject the vulgarity of “bombing a country back out of the Stone Age” and instead seek peace, justice, real change in human rights situation and an end to terrorism and war, will find their beliefs reinforced by Chomsky’s 9-11. It enables the reader to recall the long history of Western state terrorism, and to understand the context of the events of September 11, and discuss the alternatives available to reduce violence in today’s world.

Chomsky correctly observes that for the US media the problem of state censorship is insignificant but there is a real problem of self-censorship and self-induced conformity with the interests of the powerful. The US authorities did, however, apply pressure on Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV because of its exposure of the corruption and the abuse of power of monarchies and dictators in Arab states.

He rejects the notion that the activists must abide by the dictums of power and privilege. In the United States there are many undercurrents of resistance underway to the wars of terrorism. Chomsky presciently observes that terrorist attacks serve as “a gift to the harshest and most repressive elements on all sides, and are sure to be exploited . . . to accelerate the agenda of militarization, regimentation, reversal of social democratic programmes, and undermine democracy in any meaningful form”.

This booklet will be an essential read not only for those who wish to resist the attempt to curb freedom and democracy but also everyone who wants to learn about the background to the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

If a new edition is planned, these interviews should be updated and a detailed postscript analyzing subsequent developments in Afghanistan should be added. A chronology of events and an index would also be helpful.

Writer’s email: ta63@columbia.edu

9-11
By Noam Chomsky
Edited by Greg Ruggiero
Seven Stories Press, 140 Watts Street, New York, NY10013
Website: www.sevenstories.com
ISBN 1-58322-489-0
125pp. US$8.95

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