Power Systems

by Noam Chomsky

  25. Andre England and Sylvia Pfeifer, “Iraq’s Proven Oil Reserves Soar by a Quarter,” Financial Times (London), 4 October 2010. See also Christopher Helman, “The World’s Biggest Oil Reserves,” Forbes, 21 January 2010.

  26. Suzanne Goldenberg, “Bush Commits Troops to Iraq for the Long Term,” Guardian (London), 26 November 2007. See also Guy Raz, “Long-Term Pact with Iraq Raises Questions,” National Public Radio, Morning Edition, 24 January 2008. For further analysis, see Noam Chomsky, Hopes and Prospects (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010).

  27. Charlie Savage, “Bush Asserts Authority to Bypass Defense Act,” Boston Globe, 30 January 2008.

  28. GOP Debate, Myrtle Beach Convention Center, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 16 January 2012.

  29. William S. Cohen, Report of the Quadrennial Defense Review (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, May 1997), p.8.

  30. See, for example, Glenn Greenwald, “Killing of Bin Laden: What Are the Consequences?” Salon, 2 May 2011.

  31. Matthew Yglesias, “International Law Is Made by Powerful States,” ThinkProgress.org, 13 May 2011. See also Matthew Yglesias, “Killing Osama Bin Laden Is Legal,” ThinkProgress.org, 5 May 2011.

  32. “Is America Over?” Foreign Affairs 6, no. 4 (November–December 2011).

  33. Scott Shane, “Balancing U.S. Policy on an Ally in Transition,” New York Times, 20 November 2011.

  34. For discussion and references, see Noam Chomsky, Turning the Tide: U.S. Intervention in Central America and the Struggle for Peace, expanded ed. (Boston: South End Press, 1999), p.66.

  35. Thomas Carothers, Critical Mission: Essays on Democracy Promotion (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004), pp. 7, 42.

  36. Anthony Shadid, “At Mubarak Trial, Stark Image of Humbled Power,” New York Times, 3 August 2011.

  37. Senate Resolution 534, 109th Cong., 2d sess., 18 July 2006. For background, see Stephen Zunes, “Congress and the Israeli Attack on Lebanon: A Critical Reading,” Foreign Policy in Focus, 22 July 2006.

  38. Hans J. Morgenthau, The Purpose of American Politics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960).

  39. Ibid., p. 7.

  40. Ibid.

  4. Domestic Disturbances

  1. Press Release, “Occupy the Dream Rolls Out National Steering Committee to Join the Occupy Wall Street Movement,” Occupy the Dream, Washington, DC, 3 January 2012.

  2. Charlie Savage, “Obama Drops Veto Threat Over Military Authorization Bill After Revisions,” New York Times, 14 December 2011.

  3. For a detailed analysis, see Glenn Greenwald, “Three Myths about the Detention Bill,” Salon, 16 December 2011.

  4. Supreme Court of the United States, Holder, Attorney General et al. v. Humanitarian Law Project et al., Washington, DC, no. 08–1498. Argued 23 February 2010. Decided 21 June 2010.

  5. U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Counterterrorism, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, 27 January 2012. Available at http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm.

  6. For analysis, see David Cole, “Advocacy Is Not a Gun,” New York Times, Room for Debate blog, 21 June 2010.

  7. “Mandela Taken Off US Terror List,” BBC News, 1 July 2008.

  8. David B. Ottaway, “Iraq Gives Haven to Key Terrorist,” Washington Post, 9 November 1982.

  9. “Mandela Taken Off US Terror List.”

  10. Robert Pear, “U.S. Report Stirs Furor in South Africa,” New York Times, 13 January 1989.

  11. Andy Grimm and Cynthia Dizikes, “FBI Raids Anti-war Activists’ Homes,” Chicago Tribune, 24 September 2010.

  12. Glenn Greenwald, “The Omar Khadr Travesty,” Salon, 11 August 2010.

  13. Charlie Savage, “Delays Keep Former Qaeda Child Soldier at Guantánamo, Despite Plea Deal,” New York Times, 24 March 2012.

  14. Lawyers Rights Watch Canada, “Canada in Breach of Human Rights Obligations in Omar Khadr Case,” Vancouver, British Columbia, 16 May 2012.

  15. GOP Debate, Myrtle Beach Convention Center, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 16 January 2012.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Jeffrey M. Jones, “Unemployment Re-Emerges as Most Important Problem in the U.S.,” Gallup, 15 September 2011.

  18. Immanuel Wallerstein, interview with Sophie Shevardnadze, Russia Today, 4 October 2011.

  19. Martin Wolf, “The Big Question Raised by Anti-Capitalist Protests,” Financial Times (London), 28 October 2011.

  20. See also Richard Wolff, Democracy at Work (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2012).

  21. Howard Zinn, “A Chorus Against War,” The Progressive 67, no. 3 (March 2003), pp. 19–21.

  22. Howard Zinn, “Operation Enduring War,” The Progressive 66, no. 3 (March 2002), pp. 12–13.

  23. David Hume, “Of the First Principles of Government,” in Selected Essays, ed. Stephen Copley and Andrew Edgar (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), p.

  24. 24. Edward Bernays, Propaganda (Brooklyn: Ig Publishing, 2005), p. 127.

  25. Clinton Rossiter and James Lare, The Essential Lippmann: A Political Philosophy for Liberal Democracy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965), p.91.

  26. David Brooks, “Midlife Crisis Economics,” New York Times, 26 December 2011. Elizabeth Mendes, “In U.S., Fear of Big Government at Near-Record Level,” Gallup, 12 December 2011.

  27. See Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “Question Wording,” no date, available at http://www.people-press.org/methodology/questionnaire-design/question-wording/.

  28. Eva Bertram, “Democratic Divisions in the 1960s and the Road to Welfare Reform,” Political Science Quarterly 126, no. 4 (Winter 2011–12), pp. 579–610.

  29. Barbara Vobejda, “Clinton Signs Welfare Bill Amid Division,” Washington Post, 23 August 1996.

  30. Aristotle, The Politics and the Constitution of Athens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 75.

  31. James Madison, The Federalist No. 10 (“The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection [Continued]”), Daily Advertiser, 22 November 1787.

  5. Unconventional Wisdom

  1. See Dean Baker, “Faith-Based Economics at the European Central Bank,” Guardian (London), 11 April 2012.

  2. Dakin Campbell, “U.S. Banks Face Contagion Risk from Europe Debt,” Bloomberg News, 17 November 2011.

  3. Michael Mackenzie, Dan McCrum, and Lindsay Whipp, “US Treasuries: Surprisingly Sturdy,” Financial Times (London), 15 December 2011.

  4. Richard Wolff, “Occupy Wall Street and the Economic Crisis,” New York, New York, 20 November 2011 (Alternative Radio, no. WOLR004). See also Richard Wolff and David Barsamian, Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2012).

  5. Dan Bilefsky and Sebnem Arsu, “Charges Against Journalists Dim the Democratic Glow in Turkey,” New York Times, 4 January 2012.

  6. For a detailed discussion, see Kerim Yildiz, The Kurds in Turkey: EU Accession and Human Rights (London: Pluto Books, 2005).

  7. Tamar Gabelnick, William D. Hartung, and Jennifer Washburn, with Michelle Ciarrocca, Arming Repression: U.S. Arms Sales to Turkey During the Clinton Administration (New York and Washington, DC: World Policy Institute and Federation of Atomic Scientists, October 1999). See Table I: “Total Dollar Value of U.S. Arms Deliveries to Turkey Through the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Programs from FY 1950 to 1998.”

  8. Jim Lobe, “Erdogan Most Popular Leader by Far Among Arabs,” Inter Press Service, 21 November 2011. James Zogby, Arab Attitudes, 2011 (Washington, DC: Arab American Institute Foundation, 2011), p. 1.

  9. Souren Melikian, “Turkey Reawakening to Its Vast Iranian Ties,” New York Times, 23 April 2010.

  10. David E. Sanger and Michael Slackman, “U.S. Is Skeptical on Iranian Deal for Nuclear Fuel,” New York Times, 17 May 2010. See also Mark Landler, “At the U.N., Turkey Asserts Itself in Prominent Ways,” New York Times, 22 September 2010.

  11. Alexei Barrionuevo, “Obama Writes to Brazil’s Leader
About Iran,” New York Times, 24 November 2009.

  12. Phillip, “Turkey Not Game to Back NATO,” 28 March 2011.

  13. Sebnem Arsu, “Turkey Lashes Out over French Bill About Genocide,” New York Times, 23 December 2011.

  14. “EU to Tell Turkey to Shape Up,” New York Times, 4 October 2008.

  15. See Midnight on the Mavi Marmara: The Attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and How It Changed the Course of the Israel/Palestine Conflict, ed. Moustafa Bayoumi (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010).

  16. Megan K. Stack, “Israel Flotilla Raid Deals a Blow to Ties with Turkey,” Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2010.

  17. For discussion, see Paul Street, “Obama-Gaza: No Surprise,” ZCommunications.org, 4 January 2009.

  18. Katrin Bennhold, “Leaders of Turkey and Israel Clash at Davos Panel,” New York Times, 29 January 2009.

  19. Talila Nesher, “Israeli MKs to Discuss Recognizing Turkey’s Armenian Genocide,” Ha’aretz (Tel Aviv), 26 December 2011.

  20. Peter Balakian, “State of Denial,” Tablet, 19 October 2010. See also Israel W. Charney, “A Moral Israel Must Recognize the Armenian Genocide,” Jerusalem Post Magazine, 24 January 2012.

  21. Raphael Ahren, “Genocide Expert Calls on Israel to Put Armenian Suffering Before Politics,” Ha’aretz (Tel Aviv), 22 July 2011.

  22. Israel W. Charny, “Fighting for Israel’s Recognition of the Armenian Genocide,” Genocide Prevention Now, no. 7 (Summer 2011).

  23. Associated Press, “Israel Snubs Turkish Ambassador in Public,” 12 January 2010.

  24. Sabrina Tavernise, “Raid Jeopardizes Turkey Relations,” New York Times, 31 May 2010. See also Marc Champion and Joshua Mitnick, “Turkey Expels Israeli Ambassador,” Wall Street Journal, 3 September 2011.

  25. For a detailed history, see Jonathan C. Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998).

  26. Kevin McKiernan, Good Kurds, Bad Kurds (Access Productions, 2001), 81 mins.

  27. Kim Sengupta and Donald Macintyre, “Israel’s Military Leaders Warn Against Iran Attack,” Independent (London), 2 February 2012. Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker, “U.S. War Game Sees Perils of Israeli Strike Against Iran,” New York Times, 19 March 2012. See also Elisabeth Bumiller, “Iran Raid Seen as a Huge Task for Israeli Jets,” New York Times, 19 February 2012.

  28. Karl Vick and Aaron J. Klein, “Who Assassinated an Iranian Nuclear Scientist? Israel Isn’t Telling,” Time, 13 January 2012. Indira A. R. Lakshmanan, “Iran Is Seen Suffering Crippling Effect of Sanctions on Oil Trade, Banking,” Bloomberg News, 29 February 2012. Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Moni Basu, “Sanctions Take Toll on Ordinary Iranians,” CNN, 23 January 2012.

  29. Klaus Naumann et al., Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing the Transatlantic Partnership (Lunteren, The Netherlands: Noaber Foundation, 2007), p. 27.

  30. Ibid., p. 97. See also John J. Kruzel, “Gates Discusses New Nuclear Posture, U.S. Relations with Karzai,” American Forces Press Service, 11 April 2010.

  31. Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p. 39.

  32. Noam Chomsky, “The Torture Memos and Historical Amnesia,” Nation, 1 June 2009, no. 40, p. 179.

  33. Anatol Lieven, “Afghanistan: The Best Way to Peace,” New York Review of Books, 9 February 2012.

  34. Jane Perlez, “Pakistanis Continue to Reject U.S. Partnership,” New York Times, 30 September 2009. See also Pew Global Attitudes Project, “Public Opinion in Pakistan: Concern About Extremist Threat Slips: America’s Image Remains Poor,” 29 July 2010.

  35. Scott Shane, “Drone Strike Kills Qaeda Operative in Pakistan, U.S. Says,” New York Times, 19 January 2012.

  36. “US Embassy Cables: ‘Reviewing Our Afghanistan-Pakistan Strategy,’” Guardian (London), 30 November 2010.

  6. Mental Slavery

  1. Bob Marley and the Wailers, “Redemption Song,” Uprising (Tuff Gong/Island, 1980).

  2. Matthew Creamer, “Obama Wins!…Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year,” Advertising Age, 17 October 2008.

  3. John Quelch, “How Better Marketing Elected Barack Obama,” Harvard Business Review, HRB Blog Network, 5 November 2008. See also Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, “Bush Set to Be Knocked Off His CEO Pedestal,” Financial Times, 25 November 2008.

  4. E. L. Doctorow, Ragtime (New York: Plume, 1997).

  5. Mohammed Hanif, A Case of Exploding Mangoes (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

  6. James Rainey, “Wikipedia to Go Offline to Protest Anti-Piracy Legislation,” Los Angeles Times, 17 January 2012.

  7. Jonathan Weisman, “In Fight over Piracy Bills, New Economy Rises Against Old,” New York Times, 18 January 2012.

  8. Dean Baker, Financing Drug Research: What Are the Issues? (Washington, DC: Center for Economic and Policy Research, September 2004).

  9. Dean Baker, “The Surefire Way to End Online Piracy: End Copyright,” Truthout.org, 23 January 2012.

  10. “A Selection from the Cache of Diplomatic Dispatches,” “Diplomacy: Analyzing a Coup in Honduras,” New York Times, 19 June 2011.

  11. Robert Naiman, “WikiLeaks Honduras: State Dept. Busted on Support of Coup,” CommonDreams.org, 29 November 2010.

  12. David E. Sanger, James Glanz, and Jo Becker, “Around the World, Distress Over Iran,” New York Times, 28 November 2010.

  13. Jacob Heilbrunn, “Are the WikiLeaks Actually an American Plot?” National Interest, 29 November 2010.

  14. 2010 Arab Public Opinion Survey (Washington, DC: Zogby International/Brookings Institution, 2010). The figure is from among Egyptians “who believe Iran has peaceful goals,” and is 69 percent for Egyptians “who believe Iran seeks nuclear weapons.”

  15. In response to the question, “Name two countries that you think pose the biggest threat to you,” Israel received 88 percent, the United States 77 percent, and Iran 9 percent among those aged thirty-six and over and 11 percent among those thirty-six and under. 2010 Arab Public Opinion Survey.

  16. Ian Black, “WikiLeaks Cables: Tunisia Blocks Site Reporting ‘Hatred’ of First Lady,” Guardian (London), 7 December 2010. Ian Black, “Profile: Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali,” Guardian (London), 14 January 2011. See also Amy Davidson, “Tunisia and WikiLeaks,” New Yorker, Close Read blog, 14 January 2011.

  17. Steven Erlanger, “French Foreign Minister Urged to Resign,” New York Times, 3 February 2011.

  18. Charlie Savage, “Soldier Faces 22 New WikiLeaks Charges,” New York Times, 2 March 2011.

  19. Scott Shane, “Court Martial Recommended in WikiLeaks Case,” New York Times, 12 January 2012.

  20. Stephanie Condon, “Obama Says Bradley Manning ‘Broke the Law,’” CBSNews.com, 22 April 2011.

  21. Mark Mazzetti, Eric Schmitt, and Robert F. Worth, “Two-Year Manhunt Led to Killing of Awlaki in Yemen,” New York Times, 30 September 2011.

  22. President Barack Obama, “President Obama’s Statement on the Memos,” New York Times, 16 April 2009. See also Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane, “Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A.,” New York Times, 16 April 2009.

  23. Noam Chomsky, “If the Nuremberg Laws Were Applied…” Chomsky.info, circa 1990, available at http://www.chomsky.info/talks/1990----.htm.

  24. Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, 1950.

  25. See Telford Taylor, Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1970), p. 39. See also Telford Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992).

  26. Taylor, The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, p. 567. See also Taylor, Nuremberg and Vietnam, pp. 37 and 86.

  27. Alex Pareene, “Our Militarized Police Forces,” Salon, 8 November 2011.

  28. Noam Chomsky, “Who Owns the World?” TomDispatch.com, 21 April 2011.

  29. Fiona Harvey, “World Headed for Irreversible Climate Change in Five Years, IEA Warns,” Guardian (London), 9 November 2011.

  30
. Ibid.

  31. Ibid. See also Andrew Revkin, “High Odds of Hot Times,” New York Times, Dot Earth blog, 20 May 2009. See also David Chandler, “Climate Change Odds Much Worse than Thought,” MIT News, 19 May 2009.

  32. Edward Luce, “America Is Entering a New Age of Plenty,” Financial Times (London), 20 November 2011.

  33. Naomi Klein, “Capitalism vs. the Climate,” Nation, 28 November 2011.

  34. Clifford Krauss and Jad Mouawad, “Oil Industry Backs Protests of Emissions Bill,” New York Times, 18 August 2009.

  35. Davis Asman, Interview with Ron Paul, Fox Business, 4 November 2009.

  7. Learning How to Discover

  1. William James, The Principles of Psychology, vol. 1 (New York: Henry Holt, 1918), p. 488.

  2. Bill Keller, “Diplomats and Dissidents,” New York Times, 13 May 2012.

  3. The Cambridge History of the Cold War, ed. Melvyn P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). See particularly John H. Coatsworth, “The Cold War in Central America, 1975–1991,” The Cambridge History of the Cold War, vol. 3, p. 221.

  4. For further discussion, see Noam Chomsky, Hopes and Prospects (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2010).

  5. Noam Chomsky, Chomsky on Democracy and Education, ed. Carlos P. Otero (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003), p. 34.

  6. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 2 (London: Macmillan, 1883), p. 525.

  7. For discussion, see Noam Chomsky, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1964). See also Noam Chomsky, Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

  8. Michel Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington, and Joji Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (New York: New York University Press, 1975), p. 113.

  9. Lewis F. Powell Jr., Confidential Memorandum: Attack on American Free Enterprise System, August 23, 1971, available at http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/The-Lewis-Powell-Memo/.

  10. National Security Council Report 68: “United States Objectives and Programs for National Security,” 14 April 1950, available at www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsc-hst/nsc-68.htm.