Product Description

Noam Chomsky comments on terrorism, U.S. foreign policy, Osama bin Laden, and the long-term implications of America’s military response.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143084 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Library Journal
MIT-based Chomsky revolutionized linguistics in the late Fifties, but for nearly as long he has been better known as an energetic and constructive debunker of American establishment politics and behavior. However, the current Chomsky contributes nothing to the legacy he established decades ago. These two most recent productions do not reveal systematic efforts to sustain or develop any aspect of his prolifically expressed critique; indeed, they are not so much authored as collaged, with Chomsky's sanction, from talks, after-talk Q&As, and interviews with generally converted interlocutors. Understanding Power draws mainly on vintage utterances from the Nineties, and its most penetrating passage takes on, of all pressing matters, literary theory. Chomsky, who is relentless in condemning the media as incapable of any function other than converting the masses to elite desires, just as relentlessly samples mainstream reporting sources for instances of corporate and government ill doings. In trying to illustrate that he is not a crude conspiracy theorist, he conveys the opposite impression. The shorter 9-11 could not have been planned, of course, though it mostly consists of interviews conducted while the calendar still read September, suggesting both the urgency Chomsky felt to get his perspective on the record and his utter disinclination to reexamine any of his cemented opinions about world affairs. Chomsky condemns the attacks specifically and then suggests that the deaths are entirely the responsibility of capitalist globalization, which nonetheless he asserts is irrelevant to the September 11 actors. However, consistency is even less a priority for Chomsky than humility. Apparently, Chomsky believes that he has discovered the concept of blowback, not to mention imbalance in coverage of the perpetual Israeli-Palestinian murder-and-misery fetish. For him, a direct line runs from Reagan's mining of Nicaragua's harbors to the flying of commercial airliners into buildings. 9-11 is a worthwhile purchase for public libraries intent on demonstrating (or risking) balance; Understanding Power is not half as useful as Chomsky's earlier, authentic innovations in political literature, especially Manufacturing Consent (coauthored with Edward Herman). Libraries truly wishing to ensure representation of the most lucid nonconventional opinion should first check that their subscriptions to the Nation a proud carrier of Chomsky for 40 years are current. Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review
Chomsky's latest book,..."9-11,"... is a badly needed corrective to news coverage of the present-day "war on terrorism." -- Review by Norman Solomon on Common Dreams website

About the Author
Noam Chomsky is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author most recently of Hegemony or Survival, 9/11, and Power and Terror.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing
I'm a pretty avid reader of Noam Chomsky, but this book was a disappointment. What I found absurd was his comparison of 9-11 with Clinton's bombing of Sudan. They are not morally equivalent-actually Chomsky actually goes farther than claiming moral equivalence and says Clinton's actions were worse. It should be obvious that the bombing of Sudan was an attempt to kill Al-Qaeda members, not civilians, while the 9-11 terrorists deliberately targeted civilians, in the hope of killing as many as possible. Sam Harris does a great analysis of this book in his work The End of Faith. Todd Gitlin, as far from a right-winger as one can be, also harshly criticized 9-11 in the Nation.

I cannot recommend this book. If you want a good Chomsky book, try Failed States or the Indispensable Chomsky.

Important Context for 9/11 that's Hard to Find Elsewhere
This is a collection of talks and interviews so it lacks the political models and theories that Chomsky applies to U.S. politics and media that are found in his larger and more in depth works.

This book is probably best suited for the moderate dissident or progressive who has read only minimally on the subject. This text has nothing to do with 9/11 conspiracy theories or the 9/11 truth movement.

What it does contain is context to help people put the 9/11 attacks in perspective. During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan the U.S. and others armed, trained, and funded several radical Islamism groups to engage in low intensity conflict with the Russians. Many of these groups ascribe to a purist form of Islam that deems any foreign influence in Arab lands as an abomination. These groups were not particularly popular among Arabs, but through foreign support they became quite powerful militarized organizations.

Since then they have been doing more of the same, which is basically fighting a holy war against imperialism in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are constantly being targeted by them. These groups have dissolved and reconstituted themselves and have had a variety of names over the years, they fight each other and are mostly funded by drug profits. Al Qaeda is one of these organizations. They had very little power before they received foreign support to fight the Russians.

Basically the people we gave the guns to do our dirty work turned them on us after they had served their purpose.

In the book, Chomsky advocates a peaceful approach to resolving the conflict, predicting the negative affects on the civilian populations that result from military conflict will lead more people to sympathize with Bin Laden's cause. The bombing Afghanistan halted U.N. food aide shipments to the millions who are starving there, resulting in unknown death tolls. While the Arab world was overwhelmingly appalled by the events of 9/11, taking it out on civilian populations (unintentionally, incidentally or otherwise) will only increase support for Bin Laden's efforts.

This prediction has been proven true by a NSA report two years ago that said as a result of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda has increased in number and organization and we are now more at risk of an attack as the result of our actions.

After reading all the one star reviews, would estimate that at most 4 of the people who left them have actually read the book, and every single one of them misrepresents Chomsky's views completely.

If you're interested in this book, read it and form your own opinions.

Being really smart does not mean you know anything.
Noam Chomsky could well be the character upon whom famed intellectual/cannibalistic mass murderer Hannibal Lecter is based. Brilliant in his chosen field (that's linguistics, not political science), he nonetheless is possessed of an insatiable need to feed on the flesh of the nation that welcomed his people while the Europeans were burning Jews' homes, and preparing to do much worse.

9-11 is a miserable, malicious, and awesomely unsophisticated villification of the greatest and most successful country in the history of mankind, the United States of America.

If you want to know why your toddler knows the f-word even though you never said it in front of him, read Chomsky. If you want a cogent and insightful analysis of American foreign policy and the politics of Muslim fanaticism, you'd do just as well to ask that same toddler as to read this glob of moronic silt.