Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Noam Chomsky (and Ron Paul) on the Causes of 9/11




Further to our discussions yesterday about the causes of 9/11 according to Ralph Nader, this video highlights the remarks of Ron Paul at the GOP debate and commentary by Noam Chomsky.

They all say pretty much the same thing, Nader, Paul and Chomsky. I ask again, why is it so difficult to accept what these men say and still blame the terrorists? Do you think these men are blaming America and justifying the attackers? I don't.

One idea which didn't come up in the other discussion is the explanation that they attack us because their jealous of our freedoms. What do you think about that?

I would imagine on the streets of Beirut and Damascus among the regular people this kind of jealousy exists. But at the planning stages of terror attacks I think what Chomsky said makes more sense. He actually made reference to quotes from Al-Queda in which they said that attacks were about our "invading" their holy land.

What's your opinion?

In his recent remarks at the debate Congressman Paul mentioned the increase of attacks SINCE 9/11. He attributes this to the fact that "we're in 130 countries, we have 900 bases around the world." Do you think he has a point about that? Do you think American military foreign policy has gone too far and that it's a contributing factor? Many patriotic people agree that Iraq was a big mistake, what about all the bases?

Please tell us what you think.  Leave a comment.

5 comments:

  1. I agree that America should withdraw all military ground personnel from all foreign countries. There is no need for us to police the world with a force that is capable of invading another country. We do not need to have possession of any more land, so why the need to have ground forces in foreign countries. Let Europe, Asia, and the Middle East work out their own problems and let the eventual governments know that we are open to free trade with them.

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  2. Ron Paul is an isolationist. It's not just that he doesn't want the U.S. to be the "World's Policemen"* but wants us to be out of the loop when it comes to world affairs.

    My problem with Ron Paul, btw, is not that he occassionally says some things that I don't like. It's that he's a world class hypocrite.




    * Unfortunately we seem to be seen by a lot of other countries as the "World's Ton Ton Macoute" or the "World's Stasi". Sorry, that's just the truth of it.

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  3. Jim:

    " Let Europe, Asia, and the Middle East work out their own problems and let the eventual governments know that we are open to free trade with them.

    September 14, 2011 4:24 PM"

    That's pretty much what we've been doing since about 1776, except when their ideas of "free market" conflict with ours--see Koch Bros., et al.

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  4. "That's pretty much what we've been doing since about 1776, except when their ideas of "free market" conflict with ours--see Koch Bros., et al."

    So every war America has been involved in when not directly attacked (WWI, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Serbia, etc.) were because private groups felt the offending party was conflicting with a "free market?" There was not a sense of "America must defend democracy around the globe" that led us into some of these wars? Don't get me wrong, I love our freedoms that we enjoy here, I just don't think we have any need or right to force our way of government or life onto other countries.

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  5. Jim I do believe you're a pacifist.

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