WEBVTT 1 00:00:14.250 --> 00:00:17.100 From Pacifica, this is Democracy Now! 2 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:21.650 Obama made what’s called here a noble gesture, 3 00:00:21.650 --> 00:00:28.030 a courageous move to end Cuba’s isolation, 4 00:00:28.030 --> 00:00:29.250 although in reality 5 00:00:29.250 --> 00:00:33.240 it was U.S. isolation that was the motivating factor. 6 00:00:33.240 --> 00:00:34.910 In a Democracy Now! special, 7 00:00:34.910 --> 00:00:38.380 Professor Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident 8 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:42.210 and linguist, on U.S.-Cuban relations, wars in the Middle East 9 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.090 and the Iran nuclear deal. 10 00:00:44.690 --> 00:00:49.850 I should say it’s a raging debate in the United States, virtually alone. 11 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:53.050 In almost everywhere else, 12 00:00:53.050 --> 00:00:58.330 the deal has been greeted with relief and optimism 13 00:00:58.330 --> 00:01:01.290 and without even a parliamentary review. 14 00:01:02.050 --> 00:01:05.530 This is one of the many striking examples 15 00:01:06.070 --> 00:01:11.490 of the famous concept of American exceptionalism. 16 00:01:11.490 --> 00:01:17.170 Noam Chomsky weighs in on the 2016 U.S. presidential race and Donald Trump. 17 00:01:17.770 --> 00:01:22.450 I think we should recognize that the other candidates 18 00:01:22.450 --> 00:01:23.780 are not that different. 19 00:01:24.290 --> 00:01:28.990 Today’s Democrats are what used to be called moderate Republicans. 20 00:01:29.950 --> 00:01:32.160 The Republicans have just drifted off the spectrum. 21 00:01:33.110 --> 00:01:41.200 They’re so committed to extreme wealth and power that they cannot get votes. 22 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:46.420 Professor Noam Chomsky on power and ideology, for the hour. 23 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:48.240 All that and more, coming up. 24 00:01:53.420 --> 00:01:56.500 Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, 25 00:01:56.500 --> 00:01:57.740 The War and Peace Report. 26 00:01:57.740 --> 00:01:59.130 I’m Amy Goodman. 27 00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:00.860 Pope Francis arrives in Washington, 28 00:02:00.860 --> 00:02:02.260 D.C., today for the start of his historic U.S. tour. 29 00:02:02.260 --> 00:02:03.830 President Obama and Michelle Obama will greet him at Joint Base Andrews 30 00:02:03.830 --> 00:02:04.160 in Maryland. 31 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:06.570 The pope will hold a formal meeting with President Obama on Wednesday 32 00:02:06.570 --> 00:02:09.510 and address a joint session of Congress on Thursday. 33 00:02:09.510 --> 00:02:12.270 On Friday, Pope Francis will address the United Nations 34 00:02:12.270 --> 00:02:15.570 General Assembly in New York City before departing for Philadelphia 35 00:02:15.570 --> 00:02:17.140 on Saturday. 36 00:02:17.140 --> 00:02:19.420 As Pope Francis arrives in Washington, D.C., 37 00:02:19.420 --> 00:02:20.790 a group of 100 women, 38 00:02:20.790 --> 00:02:24.120 many of them undocumented, are also set to arrive in D.C. 39 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:27.220 after marching 100 miles from a detention center in York, 40 00:02:27.220 --> 00:02:29.840 Pennsylvania, in order to greet the pope. 41 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:33.620 Domestic worker Silvia Gonzalez, who is walking with the group, 42 00:02:33.620 --> 00:02:37.390 said the march is intended to send a message that families belong together 43 00:02:37.390 --> 00:02:41.000 and should not be separated by U.S. immigration policies. 44 00:02:41.550 --> 00:02:48.650 Silvia Gonzalez: "My message for him, it’s for peace, for dignity, for love, 45 00:02:48.650 --> 00:02:50.770 for all the families together. 46 00:02:51.420 --> 00:02:52.710 My mom lives in Mexico. 47 00:02:52.710 --> 00:02:57.170 I’ve been here for 15 years in U.S.A., 48 00:02:57.170 --> 00:03:02.690 and I don’t see my mom for these 15, long, long 15 years. 49 00:03:03.210 --> 00:03:04.370 I live here, 50 00:03:04.370 --> 00:03:08.660 and my daughter and my granddaughter live here also. 51 00:03:09.300 --> 00:03:13.880 And I know I can go, I can go see my mom, 52 00:03:13.880 --> 00:03:16.120 but I can’t come back." 53 00:03:16.120 --> 00:03:17.950 The pope had reportedly wanted 54 00:03:17.950 --> 00:03:21.120 to begin his U.S. trip by crossing the Mexican border, 55 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:23.940 but the plan had to be scrapped for logistical reasons. 56 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:26.320 In January, Pope Francis said, 57 00:03:26.320 --> 00:03:28.840 "To enter the United States from the border with Mexico 58 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:33.390 would be a beautiful gesture of brotherhood and support for immigrants." 59 00:03:33.390 --> 00:03:34.870 In news from the campaign trail, 60 00:03:34.870 --> 00:03:36.340 Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker 61 00:03:36.340 --> 00:03:39.480 has dropped out of the 2016 presidential campaign 62 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:43.190 amid dwindling financial backing and plummeting support in the polls. 63 00:03:43.190 --> 00:03:45.990 In his announcement, he called on other Republican candidates 64 00:03:45.990 --> 00:03:49.640 to help "clear the field" and oust current front-runner, 65 00:03:49.640 --> 00:03:50.650 Donald Trump. 66 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:54.350 Gov. Scott Walker: "I encourage other Republican presidential candidates 67 00:03:54.350 --> 00:03:55.860 to consider doing the same, 68 00:03:56.420 --> 00:03:59.520 so that the voters can focus on a limited number 69 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:05.000 of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative 70 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:06.200 to the current front-runner." 71 00:04:07.110 --> 00:04:08.170 Walker’s withdrawal 72 00:04:08.170 --> 00:04:12.490 comes as a new CNN poll shows former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina 73 00:04:12.490 --> 00:04:13.900 rising to second place. 74 00:04:15.260 --> 00:04:19.290 Trump remains the front-runner with 24 percent support. 75 00:04:19.290 --> 00:04:20.470 In other campaign news, 76 00:04:20.470 --> 00:04:24.110 former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said he supports the passage of the DREAM Act 77 00:04:24.110 --> 00:04:26.140 and comprehensive immigration reform, 78 00:04:26.140 --> 00:04:28.740 after DREAM activists disrupted his speech 79 00:04:28.740 --> 00:04:32.020 to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Houston Monday. 80 00:04:32.840 --> 00:04:35.960 Protesters: "No hope without our vote! 81 00:04:35.960 --> 00:04:40.070 No hope without our vote! 82 00:04:40.070 --> 00:04:48.650 No hope without our vote!" 83 00:04:48.650 --> 00:04:50.600 Jeb Bush "As I’ve been consistently 84 00:04:50.600 --> 00:04:53.200 for the DREAM Act kids 85 00:04:53.200 --> 00:04:54.700 to get a path to citizenship — 86 00:04:54.700 --> 00:04:56.130 I’ve been consistently for it, 87 00:04:56.840 --> 00:04:58.770 and I’ll continue to be consistently 88 00:04:58.770 --> 00:05:02.070 for it irrespective of what the political ramifications of that are." 89 00:05:02.970 --> 00:05:04.870 Chinese President Xi Jinping 90 00:05:04.870 --> 00:05:08.580 is kicking off his first state visit to the United States today 91 00:05:08.580 --> 00:05:10.160 in Seattle, Washington. 92 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:13.140 President Xi is expected to meet with technology executives 93 00:05:13.140 --> 00:05:16.050 and tour Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington. 94 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:19.080 On Thursday, Xi leaves for Washington, D.C., 95 00:05:19.080 --> 00:05:21.580 where he will meet with President Obama. 96 00:05:21.580 --> 00:05:25.310 U.S. officials say Russia has begun flying surveillance drones over Syria, 97 00:05:25.310 --> 00:05:28.500 following reports Russia is slated to deploy 2,000 troops 98 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:31.370 to its new air base near the port city of Latakia. 99 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:34.930 Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel 100 00:05:34.930 --> 00:05:38.440 and Russia will coordinate military operations in Syria. 101 00:05:38.440 --> 00:05:41.980 This comes as the United States has also opened military talks with Russia 102 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:45.020 over Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 103 00:05:45.020 --> 00:05:47.170 In Guatemala, an indigenous leader 104 00:05:47.170 --> 00:05:49.620 who had fought against a palm oil factory 105 00:05:49.620 --> 00:05:53.100 that has been polluting a river with pesticides has been killed. 106 00:05:54.190 --> 00:05:55.880 Rigoberto Lima Choc, age 28, 107 00:05:55.880 --> 00:05:58.220 was fatally shot outside a local courthouse, 108 00:05:58.220 --> 00:06:01.660 one day after the court ordered the six-month closure of the factory. 109 00:06:01.660 --> 00:06:04.300 The United Nations has described the factory’s pollution 110 00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:07.590 as causing an "ecological disaster." 111 00:06:07.590 --> 00:06:08.880 At least 100 people 112 00:06:08.880 --> 00:06:10.530 have been killed in northern Nigeria 113 00:06:10.530 --> 00:06:14.010 in four seemingly coordinated bombings on Sunday evening. 114 00:06:14.010 --> 00:06:16.760 Authorities have accused the militant group Boko Haram. 115 00:06:16.760 --> 00:06:18.720 This comes as UNICEF says the number 116 00:06:18.720 --> 00:06:21.320 of children forced to flee from Boko Haram’s violence 117 00:06:21.320 --> 00:06:26.440 in Nigeria and neighboring countries has topped 1.4 million. 118 00:06:26.440 --> 00:06:27.530 In Burkina Faso, 119 00:06:27.530 --> 00:06:30.760 the leader of an apparent military coup has released the detained president 120 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:34.630 after a weekend of tense negotiations led by the president of Senegal. 121 00:06:34.630 --> 00:06:36.630 Last week, the presidential guard, 122 00:06:36.630 --> 00:06:39.900 which is loyal to Burkina Faso’s former longtime president, 123 00:06:39.900 --> 00:06:43.610 Blaise Compaoré, detained interim President Michel Kafando 124 00:06:43.610 --> 00:06:45.590 and dissolved the transitional government. 125 00:06:45.590 --> 00:06:48.110 At least a dozen people have been killed in the violence. 126 00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:49.580 A new compromise plan 127 00:06:49.580 --> 00:06:52.360 calls for President Kafando to be returned to office, 128 00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:54.300 the leaders of the coup to receive immunity, 129 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:56.390 and new elections to be held on November 22. 130 00:06:57.460 --> 00:07:00.410 In Yemen, thousands of supporters of the Houthi rebels 131 00:07:00.410 --> 00:07:02.130 celebrated the first anniversary 132 00:07:02.130 --> 00:07:04.790 of the group’s takeover of the capital Sana’a. 133 00:07:04.790 --> 00:07:06.090 The ongoing conflict 134 00:07:06.090 --> 00:07:09.480 between Houthi rebels and U.S.-backed, Saudi-led forces 135 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:11.700 loyal to Yemen’s ousted president 136 00:07:11.700 --> 00:07:16.800 has killed at least 4,000 people and sparked a humanitarian crisis. 137 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:17.800 In news from Europe, 138 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:22.420 Hungary has passed legislation allowing the army to be deployed to the border 139 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:25.940 as thousands of refugees fleeing violence in their home countries 140 00:07:25.940 --> 00:07:28.420 continue to attempt to cross the continent 141 00:07:28.420 --> 00:07:30.560 in efforts to reach northern Europe. 142 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:33.650 The new law allows Hungarian troops to use rubber bullets, 143 00:07:33.650 --> 00:07:35.940 tear gas, smoke and flash grenades, 144 00:07:35.940 --> 00:07:38.560 and net guns against refugees. 145 00:07:39.130 --> 00:07:42.340 Volkswagen says 11 million diesel cars 146 00:07:42.340 --> 00:07:45.070 worldwide have been equipped with the same software 147 00:07:45.070 --> 00:07:48.460 that was used to cheat on emissions tests in the United States. 148 00:07:48.460 --> 00:07:50.290 The news comes as the Justice Department 149 00:07:50.290 --> 00:07:54.070 is reportedly conducting a criminal investigation into reports Volkswagen 150 00:07:54.070 --> 00:07:57.370 illegally installed devices in certain diesel cars 151 00:07:57.370 --> 00:08:00.960 in a deliberate bid to avoid EPA emissions rules. 152 00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:04.560 Congress says it will also conduct hearings into the matter. 153 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:09.210 A federal judge in Georgia has sentenced the former executive of a peanut company 154 00:08:09.210 --> 00:08:13.010 to 28 years in prison for crimes related to a salmonella outbreak 155 00:08:13.010 --> 00:08:15.950 that killed nine people and sickened hundreds more. 156 00:08:15.950 --> 00:08:19.970 Stewart Parnell, the former head of Peanut Corporation of America, 157 00:08:19.970 --> 00:08:22.200 was convicted of 71 criminal counts 158 00:08:22.200 --> 00:08:25.300 for knowingly shipping salmonella-tainted peanut butter 159 00:08:25.300 --> 00:08:29.530 from the Georgia facility to companies like Kellogg’s. 160 00:08:29.530 --> 00:08:32.720 U.S. servicemembers have come forward to describe how they were ordered 161 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:36.270 to ignore child sexual abuse by allies in Afghanistan, 162 00:08:36.270 --> 00:08:39.060 even when the abuse occurred on U.S. bases. 163 00:08:39.060 --> 00:08:40.850 The New York Times reports superiors 164 00:08:40.850 --> 00:08:43.190 told servicemembers to look the other way 165 00:08:43.190 --> 00:08:47.300 when Afghan colleagues abused boys because "it’s their culture." 166 00:08:47.300 --> 00:08:48.700 In one case, Dan Quinn, 167 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:50.340 a former Special Forces captain, 168 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:54.120 was relieved of his command for beating up an Afghan militia commander 169 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:57.990 for keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave. 170 00:08:58.610 --> 00:09:00.270 A former hedge fund manager 171 00:09:00.270 --> 00:09:03.520 is facing widespread outrage after his startup company 172 00:09:03.520 --> 00:09:07.010 Turing Pharmaceuticals hiked the price of a life-saving drug 173 00:09:07.010 --> 00:09:09.420 by more than 5,000 percent. 174 00:09:09.420 --> 00:09:14.110 The drug Daraprim is used to treat a disease caused by a common parasite, 175 00:09:14.110 --> 00:09:16.440 which can afflict patients with HIV. 176 00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.370 Turing founder Martin Shkreli attempted to justify the price hike 177 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:21.960 in an interview with Bloomberg TV. 178 00:09:22.560 --> 00:09:24.120 Martin Shkreli: "So, you know, at the end of the day, 179 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:25.720 the price per course of treatment 180 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:28.080 to save your life was only $1,000, 181 00:09:28.080 --> 00:09:30.310 and we know these days in modern pharmaceuticals, 182 00:09:30.310 --> 00:09:32.510 cancer drugs can cost $100,000 or more, 183 00:09:32.510 --> 00:09:34.840 whereas these drugs can cost half a million dollars. 184 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:38.240 Daraprim is still underpriced relative to its peers." 185 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:39.380 Betty Liu: "But my understanding 186 00:09:39.380 --> 00:09:42.980 was that to actually produce this pill, what, cost only a dollar?" 187 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:44.520 Martin Shkreli: "It costs very little to make Daraprim." 188 00:09:45.220 --> 00:09:47.250 Democratic presidential candidate 189 00:09:47.250 --> 00:09:50.880 Hillary Clinton said in a tweet, "Price-gouging like this 190 00:09:50.880 --> 00:09:52.680 in the specialty drug market 191 00:09:52.680 --> 00:09:54.490 is outrageous." 192 00:09:54.490 --> 00:09:56.480 And Monday marked the fourth anniversary 193 00:09:56.480 --> 00:09:58.200 of Troy Davis’ execution. 194 00:09:58.200 --> 00:10:02.170 Troy Anthony Davis was put to death by the state of Georgia on September 21, 195 00:10:02.170 --> 00:10:03.590 2011, 196 00:10:03.590 --> 00:10:05.050 despite major doubts 197 00:10:05.050 --> 00:10:09.060 about evidence used to convict him of killing police officer Mark MacPhail. 198 00:10:09.060 --> 00:10:13.270 His death helped fuel the national movement to abolish the death penalty. 199 00:10:16.280 --> 00:10:19.500 To see all of our coverage from the night of his execution, 200 00:10:19.500 --> 00:10:20.840 you can go to democracynow.org. 201 00:10:22.300 --> 00:10:24.620 And those are some of the headlines this is Democracy Now, 202 00:10:24.620 --> 00:10:27.510 Democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. 203 00:10:27.510 --> 00:10:28.840 I’m Amy Goodman. 204 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:30.900 AMY GOODMAN: Today, in a Democracy Now! special, 205 00:10:30.900 --> 00:10:35.800 we spend the hour with Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned political dissident, 206 00:10:35.800 --> 00:10:39.400 linguist, author and institute professor emeritus 207 00:10:39.400 --> 00:10:41.820 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 208 00:10:41.820 --> 00:10:44.330 where he’s taught for more than half a century. 209 00:10:44.330 --> 00:10:46.830 Noam Chomsky has penned more than a hundred books; 210 00:10:46.830 --> 00:10:49.160 his newest, Because We Say So, 211 00:10:49.160 --> 00:10:51.180 a collection of his columns. 212 00:10:51.180 --> 00:10:52.190 On Saturday, 213 00:10:52.190 --> 00:10:56.770 Chomsky spoke before a sold-out audience of nearly 1,000 people 214 00:10:56.770 --> 00:10:59.930 at The New School’s Auditorium here in New York City. 215 00:11:00.430 --> 00:11:04.760 Chomsky discussed the persistence of U.S. exceptionalism, Republican efforts 216 00:11:04.760 --> 00:11:06.930 to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal 217 00:11:06.930 --> 00:11:09.870 and the normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations. 218 00:11:09.870 --> 00:11:13.380 Professor Chomsky also explained why he believes the U.S. 219 00:11:13.380 --> 00:11:15.070 and its closest allies, 220 00:11:15.070 --> 00:11:17.060 namely Saudi Arabia and Israel, 221 00:11:17.060 --> 00:11:20.090 are undermining prospects for peace in the Middle East. 222 00:11:20.090 --> 00:11:23.450 His speech was titled "On Power and Ideology." 223 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:27.530 NOAM CHOMSKY: The role of concentrated power 224 00:11:27.530 --> 00:11:31.590 in shaping the ideological framework 225 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:38.460 that dominates perception, interpretation, discussion, 226 00:11:38.460 --> 00:11:39.720 choice of action, 227 00:11:40.260 --> 00:11:45.880 all of that is too familiar to require much comment. 228 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:51.630 Tonight I’d like to discuss a critically important example, 229 00:11:53.150 --> 00:11:59.910 but first a couple of words on one of the most perceptive analysts 230 00:11:59.910 --> 00:12:03.120 of this process, George Orwell. 231 00:12:04.270 --> 00:12:11.310 Orwell is famous for his searching and sardonic critique of the way 232 00:12:11.310 --> 00:12:17.650 thought is controlled by force under totalitarian dystopia. 233 00:12:18.290 --> 00:12:22.690 But much less known is his discussion 234 00:12:22.690 --> 00:12:28.020 of how similar outcomes are achieved in free societies. 235 00:12:28.020 --> 00:12:30.120 He’s speaking, of course, of England. 236 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:34.230 And he wrote that although the country is quite free, 237 00:12:34.230 --> 00:12:39.900 nevertheless unpopular ideas can be suppressed without the use of force. 238 00:12:40.710 --> 00:12:42.500 Gave a couple of examples, 239 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:46.970 provided a few words of explanation, which were to the point. 240 00:12:47.500 --> 00:12:53.980 One particularly pertinent comment was his observation on a quality education 241 00:12:53.980 --> 00:12:55.900 in the best schools, 242 00:12:55.900 --> 00:13:00.480 where it is instilled into you that there are certain things 243 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:02.920 that it simply wouldn’t do to say— 244 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:04.980 or, we may add, 245 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:06.230 even to think. 246 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:11.500 One reason why not much attention is paid to this essay 247 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:12.980 is that it wasn’t published. 248 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:17.640 It was found decades later in his unpublished papers. 249 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:23.990 It was intended as the introduction to his famous Animal Farm, 250 00:13:23.990 --> 00:13:28.720 bitter satire of Stalinist totalitarianism. 251 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:32.920 Why it wasn’t published is apparently unknown, 252 00:13:32.920 --> 00:13:36.290 but I think perhaps you can speculate. 253 00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:43.010 Orwell’s observations on thought control under freedom 254 00:13:43.510 --> 00:13:49.590 come to mind in considering the raging debate today 255 00:13:49.590 --> 00:13:51.790 about the Iran nuclear deal, 256 00:13:52.680 --> 00:13:56.050 which currently occupies center stage. 257 00:13:56.670 --> 00:14:00.640 I should say it’s a raging debate in the United States, 258 00:14:00.640 --> 00:14:01.970 virtually alone. 259 00:14:02.760 --> 00:14:04.970 In almost everywhere else, 260 00:14:04.970 --> 00:14:10.220 the deal has been greeted with relief and optimism 261 00:14:10.220 --> 00:14:13.400 and without even a parliamentary review. 262 00:14:14.030 --> 00:14:17.940 This is one of the many striking examples 263 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:23.040 of the famous concept of American exceptionalism. 264 00:14:23.900 --> 00:14:28.190 The fact that America is an exceptional nation 265 00:14:28.190 --> 00:14:34.920 is regularly intoned by virtually every political figure, 266 00:14:34.920 --> 00:14:37.550 and, I think more revealingly, 267 00:14:37.550 --> 00:14:43.680 the same is true of prominent academic and public intellectuals. 268 00:14:43.680 --> 00:14:46.750 Can select almost at random. 269 00:14:46.750 --> 00:14:51.030 Take, for example, the professor of the science of government at Harvard. 270 00:14:51.030 --> 00:14:55.780 He’s a distinguished liberal scholar, government adviser. 271 00:14:57.170 --> 00:15:02.470 He’s writing in Harvard’s prestigious journal, International Security, 272 00:15:02.970 --> 00:15:06.950 and there he explains that unlike other countries, 273 00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:11.460 the "national identity" of the United States is "defined 274 00:15:11.460 --> 00:15:17.920 by a set of universal political and economic values," namely "liberty, 275 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:18.960 democracy, 276 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.550 equality, private property, 277 00:15:21.550 --> 00:15:22.790 and markets." 278 00:15:22.790 --> 00:15:26.060 So the U.S. has a solemn duty 279 00:15:26.060 --> 00:15:30.710 to maintain its "international primacy" for the benefit of the world. 280 00:15:31.470 --> 00:15:35.090 And since this is a matter of definition, 281 00:15:35.090 --> 00:15:42.950 we can dispense with the tedious work of empirical verification, 282 00:15:42.950 --> 00:15:45.780 so I won’t spend any time on that. 283 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:52.940 Or let’s turn to the leading left-liberal intellectual journal, 284 00:15:52.940 --> 00:15:54.760 The New York Review. 285 00:15:54.760 --> 00:15:56.650 There, a couple of months ago, 286 00:15:56.650 --> 00:16:01.610 we read from the former chair of the Carnegie Endowment 287 00:16:01.610 --> 00:16:03.370 for International Peace 288 00:16:03.370 --> 00:16:05.890 that "American contributions 289 00:16:05.890 --> 00:16:10.970 to international security, global economic growth, freedom, 290 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:16.230 and human well-being have been so self-evidently unique 291 00:16:16.230 --> 00:16:21.020 and have been so clearly directed to others’ benefit 292 00:16:21.020 --> 00:16:25.580 that Americans have long believed that the [United States] amounts 293 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:28.230 to a different kind of country." 294 00:16:28.230 --> 00:16:32.280 While others push their national interest, 295 00:16:32.280 --> 00:16:36.880 the United States "tries to advance universal principles." 296 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:39.840 No evidence is given 297 00:16:39.840 --> 00:16:42.590 because it’s again a matter of definition. 298 00:16:43.230 --> 00:16:45.220 And it’s very easy to continue. 299 00:16:46.230 --> 00:16:51.490 It’s only fair to add that there’s nothing at all exceptional about this. 300 00:16:51.490 --> 00:16:57.660 American exceptionalism was standard for every great power, 301 00:16:58.450 --> 00:17:01.480 very familiar from other imperial states 302 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:04.090 in their days in the sun— 303 00:17:04.090 --> 00:17:07.390 Britain, France, others. 304 00:17:07.390 --> 00:17:08.260 And this is true, 305 00:17:08.260 --> 00:17:11.600 interestingly, even from very honorable figures 306 00:17:11.600 --> 00:17:16.580 from whom one might have expected better—so, John Stuart Mill, 307 00:17:16.580 --> 00:17:18.270 for example, in England, 308 00:17:18.270 --> 00:17:21.150 to mention a significant case— 309 00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:23.270 which raises interesting questions 310 00:17:23.270 --> 00:17:26.110 about intellectual life 311 00:17:26.110 --> 00:17:27.790 and intellectual standards. 312 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:33.950 Well, in some respects, American exceptionalism is not in doubt. 313 00:17:34.550 --> 00:17:37.290 I just mentioned one example: 314 00:17:37.290 --> 00:17:40.430 the current Iran nuclear deal. 315 00:17:40.430 --> 00:17:46.040 Now, here the exceptionalism of the United States, its isolation, 316 00:17:46.040 --> 00:17:48.240 is dramatic and stark. 317 00:17:48.830 --> 00:17:51.410 There are actually many other cases, 318 00:17:51.410 --> 00:17:54.690 but this is the one I’d like to think about this evening. 319 00:17:55.680 --> 00:18:00.200 And in fact, U.S. isolation might soon increase. 320 00:18:00.810 --> 00:18:04.980 The Republican organization— 321 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:06.730 I hesitate to say "party"— 322 00:18:06.730 --> 00:18:12.950 is dedicated to undermining the deal, in interesting ways, 323 00:18:12.950 --> 00:18:15.630 with the kind of unanimity 324 00:18:15.630 --> 00:18:18.370 that one doesn’t find in political parties, 325 00:18:18.370 --> 00:18:19.970 though it’s familiar 326 00:18:19.970 --> 00:18:24.800 in such former organizations as the old Communist Party— 327 00:18:24.800 --> 00:18:26.390 democratic centralism, 328 00:18:26.390 --> 00:18:28.460 everyone has to say the same thing. 329 00:18:28.990 --> 00:18:33.500 That’s one of many indications that the Republicans are no longer 330 00:18:33.500 --> 00:18:36.570 a political party in the normal sense, 331 00:18:36.570 --> 00:18:39.210 despite pretensions, 332 00:18:40.280 --> 00:18:41.850 commentary and so on. 333 00:18:42.600 --> 00:18:45.800 AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking Saturday at The New School in New York. 334 00:18:45.800 --> 00:18:49.260 When we come back, he addresses Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, 335 00:18:49.260 --> 00:19:34.220 Israel and the U.S. presidential elections, in a moment. 336 00:19:34.220 --> 00:20:07.260 AMY GOODMAN: We spend the hour with MIT professor, author, activist, 337 00:20:07.260 --> 00:20:09.160 political dissident, Noam Chomsky. 338 00:20:09.160 --> 00:20:11.500 Over the weekend, he spoke to a packed audience 339 00:20:11.500 --> 00:20:13.650 at The New School here in New York City. 340 00:20:14.280 --> 00:20:17.430 NOAM CHOMSKY: The former Republican Party has now become 341 00:20:17.430 --> 00:20:22.310 a "radical insurgency" that’s abandoned parliamentary politics. 342 00:20:22.310 --> 00:20:29.100 I’m quoting two highly respected, very conservative political commentators, 343 00:20:29.100 --> 00:20:33.580 Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein of the right-wing 344 00:20:33.580 --> 00:20:35.510 American Enterprise Institute. 345 00:20:36.090 --> 00:20:41.820 And in fact, they may succeed in increasing sanctions, 346 00:20:41.820 --> 00:20:45.980 and even secondary sanctions on other countries, 347 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:47.950 and carry out other actions 348 00:20:47.950 --> 00:20:54.530 that could lead Iran to opt out of the deal with the United States— 349 00:20:54.530 --> 00:20:56.500 with the United States, 350 00:20:56.500 --> 00:20:57.530 that is. 351 00:20:57.530 --> 00:21:02.320 That, however, need not mean that the agreement is nullified. 352 00:21:04.090 --> 00:21:07.970 Contrary to the way it’s sometimes presented here, 353 00:21:07.970 --> 00:21:10.750 it’s not a U.S.-Iran agreement. 354 00:21:11.330 --> 00:21:16.800 It’s an agreement between Iran and what’s called P5+1, 355 00:21:16.800 --> 00:21:19.890 the five veto-holding members 356 00:21:19.890 --> 00:21:22.110 of the Security Council plus Germany. 357 00:21:23.290 --> 00:21:28.850 And the other participants might agree to proceed—Iran, as well. 358 00:21:29.360 --> 00:21:33.600 They would then join China and India, 359 00:21:34.160 --> 00:21:41.040 which have already been finding ways to evade the U.S. constraints 360 00:21:41.040 --> 00:21:47.340 on interactions with Iran. 361 00:21:47.340 --> 00:21:48.580 And in fact, if they do, 362 00:21:48.580 --> 00:21:53.600 they’ll join the large majority of the world’s population, 363 00:21:53.600 --> 00:21:55.460 the Non-Aligned Movement, 364 00:21:55.460 --> 00:21:59.630 which all along has vigorously supported Iran’s 365 00:21:59.630 --> 00:22:04.740 right to pursue its nuclear programs as a member of the NPT. 366 00:22:05.280 --> 00:22:09.870 But remember that they are not part of the international community. 367 00:22:10.530 --> 00:22:15.000 So when we say the international community opposes Iran’s policies 368 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:18.090 or the international community does some other thing, 369 00:22:18.090 --> 00:22:21.790 that means the United States and anybody else 370 00:22:21.790 --> 00:22:23.730 who happens to be going along with it, 371 00:22:24.770 --> 00:22:27.900 so we can dismiss them. 372 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:31.160 If others continue to honor the deal, 373 00:22:31.160 --> 00:22:32.620 which could happen, 374 00:22:32.620 --> 00:22:36.580 the United States will be isolated from the world, 375 00:22:36.580 --> 00:22:38.740 which is not an unfamiliar position. 376 00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:44.500 That’s also the background for the other element of Obama’s— 377 00:22:44.500 --> 00:22:47.220 what’s called Obama’s legacy, 378 00:22:47.220 --> 00:22:50.570 his other main foreign policy achievement, 379 00:22:50.570 --> 00:22:54.450 the beginning of normalization of relations with Cuba. 380 00:22:55.100 --> 00:23:00.920 On Cuba, the United States has been almost totally isolated for decades. 381 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:07.130 If you look, say, at the annual votes in the U.N. General Assembly 382 00:23:07.130 --> 00:23:09.060 on the U.S. embargo, 383 00:23:09.060 --> 00:23:10.960 they’re rarely reported, 384 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:14.340 but the U.S. essentially votes alone. 385 00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:17.730 The last one Israel joined. 386 00:23:17.730 --> 00:23:20.430 But, of course, Israel violates the embargo; 387 00:23:20.430 --> 00:23:21.810 they just have to join, 388 00:23:21.810 --> 00:23:24.510 because have to join with the master. 389 00:23:24.510 --> 00:23:29.220 Occasionally, the Marshall Islands or Palau or someone else joins. 390 00:23:29.760 --> 00:23:35.400 And in the hemisphere, the United States has been totally isolated for years. 391 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:42.660 The main hemispheric conferences have foundered because the United States 392 00:23:42.660 --> 00:23:46.900 will simply not join the rest of the hemisphere 393 00:23:46.900 --> 00:23:49.500 in the major issues that are discussed. 394 00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:51.620 Last one in Colombia, 395 00:23:52.180 --> 00:23:56.850 the two major issues were admitting Cuba into the hemisphere— 396 00:23:57.880 --> 00:23:59.730 U.S. and Canada refused, 397 00:23:59.730 --> 00:24:01.450 everyone else agreed— 398 00:24:01.450 --> 00:24:04.420 and the U.S. drug war, 399 00:24:04.420 --> 00:24:06.850 which is devastating Latin America, 400 00:24:06.850 --> 00:24:08.740 and they want to get out of it, 401 00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:12.430 but the U.S. and Canada don’t agree. 402 00:24:12.430 --> 00:24:18.120 Now that’s actually the background for Obama’s acceptance 403 00:24:18.120 --> 00:24:23.260 of steps towards normalization of relations with Cuba. 404 00:24:23.260 --> 00:24:27.080 Another hemispheric conference was coming up in Panama, 405 00:24:27.080 --> 00:24:29.300 and if the United States had not made that move, 406 00:24:29.300 --> 00:24:31.300 it probably would have been thrown out of the hemisphere, 407 00:24:31.840 --> 00:24:37.430 so therefore Obama made what’s called here a noble gesture, 408 00:24:37.430 --> 00:24:40.830 a courageous move 409 00:24:40.830 --> 00:24:43.760 to end Cuba’s isolation, 410 00:24:43.760 --> 00:24:45.010 although in reality 411 00:24:45.010 --> 00:24:49.440 it was U.S. isolation that was the motivating factor. 412 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:57.670 So if the United States ends up being almost universally isolated on Iran, 413 00:24:57.670 --> 00:25:00.750 that won’t be anything particularly new, 414 00:25:00.750 --> 00:25:02.900 and in fact there are quite a few other cases. 415 00:25:03.570 --> 00:25:05.400 Well, in the case of Iran, 416 00:25:05.970 --> 00:25:14.800 the reasons for U.S. concerns are very clearly and repeatedly articulated: 417 00:25:15.310 --> 00:25:18.910 Iran is the gravest threat to world peace. 418 00:25:18.910 --> 00:25:22.980 We hear that regularly from high places— 419 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:26.260 government officials, commentators, 420 00:25:26.260 --> 00:25:28.870 others—in the United States. 421 00:25:29.500 --> 00:25:32.950 There also happens to be a world out there, 422 00:25:33.450 --> 00:25:35.530 and it has its own opinions. 423 00:25:35.530 --> 00:25:40.040 It’s quite easy to find these out from standard sources, 424 00:25:40.040 --> 00:25:43.610 like the main U.S. polling agency. 425 00:25:43.610 --> 00:25:48.140 Gallup polls takes regular polls of international opinion. 426 00:25:48.140 --> 00:25:51.510 And one of the questions it posed—it’s posed is: 427 00:25:51.510 --> 00:25:55.320 Which country do you think is the gravest threat to world peace? 428 00:25:55.890 --> 00:25:58.360 The answer is unequivocal: 429 00:25:58.360 --> 00:26:00.790 the United States by a huge margin. 430 00:26:01.290 --> 00:26:05.750 Way behind in second place is Pakistan— 431 00:26:05.750 --> 00:26:07.270 it’s inflated, surely, 432 00:26:07.270 --> 00:26:08.440 by the Indian vote— 433 00:26:09.060 --> 00:26:10.920 and then a couple of others. 434 00:26:12.110 --> 00:26:13.720 Iran is mentioned, 435 00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:17.480 but along with Israel and a few others, way down. 436 00:26:18.340 --> 00:26:23.670 That’s one of the things that it wouldn’t do to say, 437 00:26:24.220 --> 00:26:31.100 and in fact the results that are found by the leading U.S. polling agency 438 00:26:31.100 --> 00:26:36.320 didn’t make it through the portals of what we call the free press. 439 00:26:36.320 --> 00:26:38.580 But it doesn’t go away for that reason. 440 00:26:39.390 --> 00:26:46.270 Well, given the reigning doctrine about the gravity of the Iranian threat, 441 00:26:46.270 --> 00:26:51.040 we can understand the virtually unanimous stand 442 00:26:51.040 --> 00:26:56.440 that the United States is entitled to react with military force— 443 00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:58.420 unilaterally, of course— 444 00:26:58.420 --> 00:27:03.570 if it claims to detect some Iranian departure 445 00:27:03.570 --> 00:27:05.660 from the terms of the agreement. 446 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:07.450 So, again, 447 00:27:07.960 --> 00:27:12.260 picking an example virtually at random from the national press, 448 00:27:13.550 --> 00:27:18.460 consider the lead editorial last Sunday in The Washington Post. 449 00:27:19.090 --> 00:27:21.710 It calls on Congress—I’ll quote— 450 00:27:21.710 --> 00:27:24.570 to "make clear that Mr. Obama 451 00:27:24.570 --> 00:27:30.940 or his successor will have support for immediate U.S. military action 452 00:27:30.940 --> 00:27:35.680 if an Iranian attempt to build a bomb is detected"— 453 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:37.550 meaning by the United States. 454 00:27:38.650 --> 00:27:44.780 So the editors, again, make it clear that the United States is exceptional. 455 00:27:44.780 --> 00:27:46.900 It’s a rogue state, 456 00:27:46.900 --> 00:27:50.560 indifferent to international law and conventions, 457 00:27:50.560 --> 00:27:53.890 entitled to resort to violence at will. 458 00:27:54.950 --> 00:27:58.670 But the editors can’t be faulted for that stand, 459 00:27:58.670 --> 00:28:00.500 because it’s almost universal 460 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:05.270 among the political class in this exceptional nation, 461 00:28:05.270 --> 00:28:07.620 though what it means is, again, 462 00:28:07.620 --> 00:28:10.370 one of those things that it wouldn’t do to say. 463 00:28:11.170 --> 00:28:15.680 Sometimes the doctrine takes quite a remarkable form, 464 00:28:16.240 --> 00:28:19.190 and not just on the right, by any means. 465 00:28:19.720 --> 00:28:24.520 So take, for example, the Clinton doctrine—namely, 466 00:28:24.520 --> 00:28:30.270 the United States is free to resort to unilateral use of military power, 467 00:28:31.070 --> 00:28:37.720 even for such purposes as to ensure uninhibited access 468 00:28:37.720 --> 00:28:42.870 to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources— 469 00:28:42.870 --> 00:28:48.370 let alone security or alleged humanitarian concerns. 470 00:28:48.370 --> 00:28:51.920 And adherence to this doctrine is very well confirmed 471 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:57.270 and practiced, as need hardly be discussed among people 472 00:28:57.270 --> 00:29:00.910 willing to look at the facts of current history. 473 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:05.830 Well, The Washington Post editors also make clear 474 00:29:05.830 --> 00:29:11.450 why the United States should be prepared to take such extreme steps 475 00:29:11.450 --> 00:29:14.450 in its role of international primacy. 476 00:29:15.020 --> 00:29:19.890 If the United States is not prepared to resort to military force, 477 00:29:19.890 --> 00:29:23.810 they explain, then Iran may—I’m quoting— 478 00:29:23.810 --> 00:29:27.260 Iran may "escalate its attempt 479 00:29:27.260 --> 00:29:31.490 to establish hegemony over the Middle East by force." 480 00:29:32.110 --> 00:29:35.140 That’s what the president, President Obama, 481 00:29:35.140 --> 00:29:39.760 calls Iran’s aggression, which we have to contain. 482 00:29:40.760 --> 00:29:44.680 For those who are unaware of how Iran 483 00:29:44.680 --> 00:29:50.680 has been attempting to establish hegemony over the Middle East by force— 484 00:29:50.680 --> 00:29:53.820 or might even dream of doing so— 485 00:29:54.790 --> 00:29:58.350 the editors do give examples, two examples: 486 00:29:58.350 --> 00:30:01.380 its support for the Assad regime 487 00:30:01.380 --> 00:30:02.920 and for Hezbollah. 488 00:30:03.790 --> 00:30:11.100 Well, I won’t insult your intelligence by discussing this demonstration 489 00:30:11.100 --> 00:30:17.490 that Iran has been seeking to establish hegemony over the region by force; 490 00:30:17.490 --> 00:30:19.760 however, on Iranian aggression, 491 00:30:19.760 --> 00:30:21.230 there is an example— 492 00:30:21.230 --> 00:30:24.010 I think one in the last several hundred years— 493 00:30:24.010 --> 00:30:29.700 namely, Iranian conquest of two Arab islands in the Gulf 494 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:35.430 under the U.S.-backed regime of the Shah in the 1970s. 495 00:30:36.150 --> 00:30:44.420 Well, these shocking Iranian efforts to establish regional hegemony by force 496 00:30:44.950 --> 00:30:49.890 can be contrasted with the actions of U.S. allies— 497 00:30:49.890 --> 00:30:53.500 for example, NATO ally Turkey, 498 00:30:54.060 --> 00:30:58.310 which is actively supporting the jihadi forces in Syria. 499 00:30:58.310 --> 00:31:05.020 The support is so strong that it appears that Turkey helped its allies 500 00:31:05.020 --> 00:31:07.140 in the al-Nusra Front, 501 00:31:07.140 --> 00:31:10.200 the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, 502 00:31:10.730 --> 00:31:14.740 to kill and capture the few dozen fighters 503 00:31:14.740 --> 00:31:20.030 that were introduced into Syria by the Pentagon a few weeks ago. 504 00:31:20.030 --> 00:31:21.900 It’s the result of several years 505 00:31:21.900 --> 00:31:24.970 and who knows how many billions of dollars of training. 506 00:31:24.970 --> 00:31:29.490 They did enter and were immediately captured or killed, 507 00:31:29.490 --> 00:31:33.560 apparently with the aid of Turkish intelligence. 508 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:38.090 Well, more important than that is the central role 509 00:31:38.090 --> 00:31:41.300 of the leading U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, 510 00:31:41.870 --> 00:31:45.670 for the jihadi rebels in Syria and Iraq, 511 00:31:46.220 --> 00:31:47.420 and, more generally, 512 00:31:47.420 --> 00:31:49.980 for Saudi Arabia having been— 513 00:31:49.980 --> 00:31:50.980 I’m quoting— 514 00:31:50.980 --> 00:31:53.350 "a major source of financing 515 00:31:53.350 --> 00:31:55.980 to rebel and terrorist organizations 516 00:31:55.980 --> 00:31:57.680 since the 1980s. 517 00:31:58.180 --> 00:32:00.550 " That’s from a study, recent study, 518 00:32:00.550 --> 00:32:02.150 by the European Parliament, 519 00:32:03.110 --> 00:32:05.060 repeating what’s well known. 520 00:32:05.610 --> 00:32:07.980 And still more generally, 521 00:32:07.980 --> 00:32:10.510 the missionary zeal with which 522 00:32:10.510 --> 00:32:17.800 Saudi Arabia promulgates its radical, extremist, Wahhabi-Safafi doctrines 523 00:32:17.800 --> 00:32:21.110 by establishing Qur’anic schools, 524 00:32:21.110 --> 00:32:22.380 mosques, 525 00:32:22.380 --> 00:32:26.590 sending radical clerics throughout the Muslim world, 526 00:32:26.590 --> 00:32:28.150 with enormous impact. 527 00:32:28.690 --> 00:32:33.170 One of the closest observers of the region, Patrick Cockburn, 528 00:32:33.170 --> 00:32:37.860 writes that the "Wahhabisation" by Saudi Arabia— 529 00:32:37.860 --> 00:32:39.980 "The 'Wahhabisation' of mainstream 530 00:32:39.980 --> 00:32:45.120 Sunni Islam is one of the most dangerous developments of our era"— 531 00:32:45.810 --> 00:32:49.170 always with strong U.S. support. 532 00:32:49.910 --> 00:32:52.880 These are all things that wouldn’t do to mention, 533 00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:54.000 along with the fact 534 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:59.170 that these pernicious developments are a direct outgrowth 535 00:32:59.170 --> 00:33:03.050 of the long-term tendency of the United States, 536 00:33:03.690 --> 00:33:05.090 picking up from Britain 537 00:33:05.090 --> 00:33:06.310 before it, 538 00:33:06.310 --> 00:33:11.730 to support radical Islam in opposition to secular nationalism. 539 00:33:11.730 --> 00:33:13.940 These are long-standing commitments. 540 00:33:14.700 --> 00:33:19.340 There are others, like U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, 541 00:33:19.340 --> 00:33:23.450 who condemn Iran’s destabilization of the region. 542 00:33:24.160 --> 00:33:29.370 Destabilization is an interesting concept of political discourse. 543 00:33:29.930 --> 00:33:32.990 So, for example, when Iran comes to the aid 544 00:33:32.990 --> 00:33:37.760 of the government of Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan 545 00:33:37.760 --> 00:33:42.470 in defense against the assault of ISIS, 546 00:33:42.470 --> 00:33:46.600 that’s destabilization, and we have to prevent it, 547 00:33:48.140 --> 00:33:49.840 if not aggression, perhaps. 548 00:33:50.360 --> 00:33:53.220 In contrast, when the United States invades Iraq 549 00:33:53.830 --> 00:33:56.240 and kills a couple hundred thousand people, 550 00:33:57.230 --> 00:34:02.140 generates millions of refugees, destroys the country 551 00:34:02.140 --> 00:34:07.470 and sets off a sectarian conflict that’s tearing Iraq and, by now, 552 00:34:07.470 --> 00:34:09.520 the whole region to shreds, 553 00:34:09.520 --> 00:34:11.160 and, on the side, 554 00:34:11.160 --> 00:34:15.970 increases terrorism worldwide by a factor of seven, 555 00:34:15.970 --> 00:34:17.910 just in the first year, 556 00:34:17.910 --> 00:34:24.410 that’s stabilization, part of our mission 557 00:34:24.410 --> 00:34:27.330 that we must continue for the benefit of the world. 558 00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:33.050 Actually, the exceptionalism of U.S. doctrinal institutions 559 00:34:33.050 --> 00:34:36.630 is quite wondrous to behold. 560 00:34:37.390 --> 00:34:40.070 Well, going on with The Washington Post editors, 561 00:34:40.070 --> 00:34:43.080 they join Obama’s negotiator, 562 00:34:43.080 --> 00:34:46.180 Obama’s Clinton negotiator, Dennis Ross, 563 00:34:46.180 --> 00:34:49.140 Thomas Friedman, other notables, 564 00:34:49.140 --> 00:34:54.540 in calling on Washington to provide Israel with B-52 bombers, 565 00:34:55.130 --> 00:34:59.430 and perhaps even the more advanced B-2 bombers, 566 00:34:59.430 --> 00:35:01.360 and also huge, 567 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:06.620 what are called massive ordnance penetrators—bunker busters, informally. 568 00:35:07.860 --> 00:35:08.990 There’s a problem: 569 00:35:08.990 --> 00:35:12.880 They don’t have airstrips for huge planes like that. 570 00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:17.330 But they can use maybe Turkey’s airstrips. 571 00:35:17.330 --> 00:35:19.050 And none of this is for defense. 572 00:35:19.050 --> 00:35:22.030 These are not defensive weapons, remember. 573 00:35:22.030 --> 00:35:27.280 All of these weapons are offensive weapons for Israel 574 00:35:27.280 --> 00:35:29.790 to use to bomb Iran, 575 00:35:29.790 --> 00:35:31.330 if it chooses to do so. 576 00:35:32.570 --> 00:35:37.450 And, you know, since Israel is a U.S. client, 577 00:35:37.970 --> 00:35:43.480 it inherits from the master the freedom from international law, 578 00:35:43.480 --> 00:35:51.910 so nothing surprising about giving it vast supplies of offensive weapons 579 00:35:51.910 --> 00:35:53.670 to use when it chooses. 580 00:35:53.670 --> 00:35:58.290 Well, the violation of international law goes well beyond threat; 581 00:35:58.290 --> 00:35:59.740 goes to action, 582 00:35:59.740 --> 00:36:01.780 including acts of war, 583 00:36:01.780 --> 00:36:05.910 which are proudly proclaimed, presumably, 584 00:36:05.910 --> 00:36:07.460 because that’s our right— 585 00:36:08.670 --> 00:36:10.510 as an exceptional nation again. 586 00:36:11.130 --> 00:36:19.330 One example is the successful sabotage of Iranian nuclear installations 587 00:36:19.330 --> 00:36:20.600 by cyberwar. 588 00:36:21.250 --> 00:36:25.820 The Pentagon has views about cyberwar. 589 00:36:25.820 --> 00:36:29.320 The Pentagon regards cyberwar as an act of war, 590 00:36:29.880 --> 00:36:32.490 which justifies a military response. 591 00:36:33.030 --> 00:36:35.310 And a year ago, 592 00:36:35.310 --> 00:36:38.860 NATO affirmed the same position, 593 00:36:39.390 --> 00:36:43.800 determined that aggression through cyber-attacks 594 00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:51.020 can trigger the collective defense obligations of the NATO alliance, 595 00:36:51.020 --> 00:36:54.690 meaning if any country is attacked by cyberwar, 596 00:36:54.690 --> 00:36:59.660 the whole alliance can respond by military attacks. 597 00:37:01.040 --> 00:37:08.050 That means cyberwar attacks against us, not by us against them. 598 00:37:08.050 --> 00:37:12.150 And the significance of these stands is, again, 599 00:37:12.150 --> 00:37:14.970 something that wouldn’t do to mention. 600 00:37:14.970 --> 00:37:19.460 And you can check to see that that condition is well observed. 601 00:37:20.040 --> 00:37:23.280 AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking Saturday at The New School in New York. 602 00:37:23.280 --> 00:37:24.870 When we come back, 603 00:37:24.870 --> 00:37:27.750 Professor Chomsky continues on the issue of the Middle East, 604 00:37:27.750 --> 00:37:31.920 U.S.-Israel relations, presidential politics and Donald Trump. 605 00:37:31.920 --> 00:37:54.770 More in a minute. 606 00:37:54.770 --> 00:38:39.640 [break] 607 00:38:39.640 --> 00:38:41.030 AMY GOODMAN: In our Democracy Now! special, 608 00:38:41.030 --> 00:38:44.090 we continue our full-hour broadcast with Noam Chomsky, 609 00:38:44.090 --> 00:38:46.530 the world-renowned political dissident, linguist, author, 610 00:38:46.530 --> 00:38:48.070 institute professor emeritus 611 00:38:48.070 --> 00:38:49.910 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 612 00:38:49.910 --> 00:38:51.820 where he’s taught for more than half a century. 613 00:38:51.820 --> 00:38:54.150 He’s author of more than a hundred books. 614 00:38:54.150 --> 00:38:57.890 As we bring you the remainder of his speech, "On Power and Ideology," 615 00:38:57.890 --> 00:38:59.140 which he delivered this weekend 616 00:38:59.140 --> 00:39:01.290 at The New School here in New York. 617 00:39:01.290 --> 00:39:04.080 NOAM CHOMSKY: Perhaps the United States and Israel 618 00:39:04.080 --> 00:39:09.870 are justified in cowering in terror before Iran 619 00:39:09.870 --> 00:39:12.730 because of its extraordinary military power. 620 00:39:13.270 --> 00:39:16.650 And it’s possible to evaluate that concern. 621 00:39:16.650 --> 00:39:20.850 For example, you can turn to the authoritative analysis, 622 00:39:20.850 --> 00:39:22.520 detailed analysis, 623 00:39:22.520 --> 00:39:26.230 of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 624 00:39:26.230 --> 00:39:31.460 the main source for such information, last April, 625 00:39:31.460 --> 00:39:38.230 which conducted and published a long study of the regional military balance. 626 00:39:38.780 --> 00:39:40.660 And they find—I’ll quote— 627 00:39:40.660 --> 00:39:42.350 "a conclusive case 628 00:39:42.350 --> 00:39:44.850 that the Arab Gulf states have ... 629 00:39:44.850 --> 00:39:46.620 an overwhelming advantage [over] 630 00:39:46.620 --> 00:39:51.910 Iran in both military spending and access to modern arms." 631 00:39:52.460 --> 00:39:54.840 That’s the Gulf Cooperation 632 00:39:54.840 --> 00:39:56.020 Council states; 633 00:39:56.020 --> 00:39:58.300 that’s Bahrain, Kuwait, 634 00:39:58.300 --> 00:40:01.820 Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates. 635 00:40:02.360 --> 00:40:07.220 They outspend Iran on arms by a factor of eight. 636 00:40:07.790 --> 00:40:10.510 It’s an imbalance that goes back decades. 637 00:40:11.110 --> 00:40:16.890 And their report observes further that "the Arab Gulf states have acquired 638 00:40:16.890 --> 00:40:21.750 and are acquiring some of the most advanced and effective weapons 639 00:40:21.750 --> 00:40:23.650 in the world [while] Iran 640 00:40:23.650 --> 00:40:26.460 has [been essentially] forced to live in the past, 641 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:30.100 often relying on systems originally 642 00:40:30.100 --> 00:40:34.090 delivered at the time of the Shah," 40 years ago, 643 00:40:34.090 --> 00:40:35.980 which are essentially obsolete. 644 00:40:36.620 --> 00:40:38.030 And the imbalance is, of course, 645 00:40:38.030 --> 00:40:40.690 even greater with Israel, which, 646 00:40:40.690 --> 00:40:46.450 along with the most advanced U.S. weaponry and its role 647 00:40:46.450 --> 00:40:51.200 as a virtual offshore military base of the global superpower, 648 00:40:51.880 --> 00:40:54.710 has a huge stock of nuclear weapons. 649 00:40:55.980 --> 00:41:01.640 There are, of course, other threats that justify serious concern 650 00:41:01.640 --> 00:41:03.620 and can’t be brushed aside. 651 00:41:04.690 --> 00:41:10.990 A nuclear weapon state might leak nuclear weapons to jihadis. 652 00:41:11.600 --> 00:41:13.060 No joke. 653 00:41:13.060 --> 00:41:16.260 In the case of Iran, the threat is minuscule. 654 00:41:16.790 --> 00:41:22.940 Not only are the Sunni jihadis the mortal [enemies] of Iran, 655 00:41:22.940 --> 00:41:26.670 but the ruling clerics, whatever one thinks of them, 656 00:41:26.670 --> 00:41:30.630 have shown no signs of clinical insanity, 657 00:41:30.630 --> 00:41:34.070 and they know that if there was even a hint 658 00:41:34.070 --> 00:41:36.840 that they were the source of a leaked weapon, 659 00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:42.510 they and all they possess would be instantly vaporized. 660 00:41:43.750 --> 00:41:47.720 That doesn’t mean that we can ignore the threat, however— 661 00:41:47.720 --> 00:41:50.980 not from Iran, where it doesn’t exist, 662 00:41:50.980 --> 00:41:53.890 but from U.S. ally Pakistan, 663 00:41:53.890 --> 00:41:56.090 where the threat is in fact very real. 664 00:41:56.630 --> 00:42:02.450 It’s discussed recently by two leading Pakistani nuclear scientists, 665 00:42:02.450 --> 00:42:04.230 Pervez Hoodbhoy and Zia Mian. 666 00:42:04.230 --> 00:42:08.780 In Britain’s leading journal of International Affairs, 667 00:42:09.540 --> 00:42:12.350 they write that increasing fears 668 00:42:12.350 --> 00:42:17.230 of "militants seizing nuclear weapons or materials 669 00:42:17.230 --> 00:42:19.650 and unleashing nuclear terrorism 670 00:42:19.650 --> 00:42:21.400 [have led to] the creation 671 00:42:21.400 --> 00:42:25.740 of a dedicated force of over 20,000 troops 672 00:42:25.740 --> 00:42:27.760 to guard nuclear facilities. 673 00:42:28.280 --> 00:42:30.930 There is no reason to assume, however, 674 00:42:30.930 --> 00:42:34.760 that this force would be immune to the problems 675 00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:39.870 associated with the units guarding regular military facilities," 676 00:42:39.870 --> 00:42:42.630 which have frequently suffered attacks 677 00:42:42.630 --> 00:42:44.210 with "insider help." 678 00:42:44.820 --> 00:42:46.620 In other words, the whole system 679 00:42:46.620 --> 00:42:51.500 is laced with jihadi elements, in large measure 680 00:42:51.500 --> 00:42:54.850 because of the— of what Patrick Cockburn described, 681 00:42:54.850 --> 00:43:00.090 the "Wahhabisation" of Sunni Islam from Saudi Arabia 682 00:43:00.090 --> 00:43:03.110 and with the strong support of the United States, 683 00:43:03.110 --> 00:43:05.000 ever since the Reagan administration. 684 00:43:06.200 --> 00:43:11.730 Well, in short, the problem is real enough, very real, in fact. 685 00:43:11.730 --> 00:43:14.950 It’s not being seriously addressed. 686 00:43:14.950 --> 00:43:16.190 It’s not even discussed. 687 00:43:16.740 --> 00:43:21.110 Rather, what we’re concerned about is fantasies, 688 00:43:21.110 --> 00:43:26.220 concocted for other reasons, about the current official enemy. 689 00:43:27.230 --> 00:43:30.820 Opponents of the Iran nuclear deal 690 00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:36.580 maintain that Iran is intent on developing nuclear weapons. 691 00:43:37.130 --> 00:43:42.490 U.S. intelligence can discern no evidence for this, 692 00:43:42.490 --> 00:43:47.650 but there is no doubt at all that in the past they have, in fact, 693 00:43:47.650 --> 00:43:48.790 intended to do so. 694 00:43:48.790 --> 00:43:55.430 And we know this because it was clearly stated by the highest authorities 695 00:43:55.430 --> 00:43:56.690 in Iran. 696 00:43:56.690 --> 00:43:58.510 The highest authority 697 00:43:58.510 --> 00:44:02.250 of the Iranian state informed foreign journalists 698 00:44:02.250 --> 00:44:06.250 that Iran would develop nuclear weapons "certainly, 699 00:44:06.250 --> 00:44:08.120 and sooner than one thinks." 700 00:44:08.770 --> 00:44:13.430 The father of Iran’s nuclear energy program, 701 00:44:13.430 --> 00:44:17.790 former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, 702 00:44:17.790 --> 00:44:22.020 expressed his confidence that the leadership’s plan 703 00:44:22.020 --> 00:44:24.530 is "to build a nuclear bomb." 704 00:44:24.530 --> 00:44:26.960 And a CIA report 705 00:44:26.960 --> 00:44:33.030 also had, in their words, "no doubt" that Iran would develop nuclear weapons 706 00:44:33.030 --> 00:44:36.680 if neighboring countries do, as of course they have. 707 00:44:37.260 --> 00:44:39.060 All of this was under the Shah, 708 00:44:40.210 --> 00:44:42.640 the "highest authority" just quoted. 709 00:44:42.640 --> 00:44:47.220 That is during the period when high U.S. officials— 710 00:44:47.220 --> 00:44:50.000 Cheney, Rumsfeld and Kissinger— 711 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.890 were urging the Shah to proceed with nuclear programs, 712 00:44:54.890 --> 00:44:57.740 and they were also pressuring universities 713 00:44:57.740 --> 00:44:59.430 to accommodate these efforts. 714 00:45:00.330 --> 00:45:03.970 My own university was an example, MIT. 715 00:45:03.970 --> 00:45:07.710 Under government pressure, it made a deal with the Shah 716 00:45:07.710 --> 00:45:12.680 to admit Iranian students to the nuclear engineering department 717 00:45:12.680 --> 00:45:15.460 in return for grants from the Shah. 718 00:45:16.040 --> 00:45:20.550 This was done over the very strong objections of the student body, 719 00:45:20.550 --> 00:45:23.850 but with comparably strong faculty support. 720 00:45:24.700 --> 00:45:27.690 That’s a distinction that raises a number 721 00:45:27.690 --> 00:45:33.360 of interesting questions about academic institutions and how they function. 722 00:45:33.870 --> 00:45:36.850 The faculty or the students of a couple years 723 00:45:36.850 --> 00:45:40.510 ago would have a different institutional place. 724 00:45:41.360 --> 00:45:44.920 Opponents of the nuclear—in fact, 725 00:45:44.920 --> 00:45:50.790 some of these MIT students are now running the Iranian nuclear programs. 726 00:45:51.500 --> 00:45:56.830 Opponents of the nuclear deal argue that it didn’t go far enough. 727 00:45:57.390 --> 00:45:58.430 You’ve heard a lot of that. 728 00:45:58.950 --> 00:46:02.400 And interestingly, some of the supporters of the deal agree, 729 00:46:03.090 --> 00:46:08.000 demanding that it go beyond what has been achieved 730 00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:13.640 and that the whole Middle East should rid itself of nuclear weapons 731 00:46:13.640 --> 00:46:16.380 and, in fact, weapons of mass destruction generally. 732 00:46:16.920 --> 00:46:23.450 Actually, I’m quoting Iran’s minister of foreign affairs, Javad Zarif. 733 00:46:23.450 --> 00:46:28.080 He is reiterating the call of the Non-Aligned Movement— 734 00:46:28.080 --> 00:46:29.370 most of the world— 735 00:46:29.370 --> 00:46:32.250 and the Arab states, for many years, 736 00:46:32.760 --> 00:46:35.030 to establish a weapons 737 00:46:35.030 --> 00:46:38.320 of mass destruction-free zone in the Middle East. 738 00:46:38.890 --> 00:46:42.210 Now that would be a very straightforward way 739 00:46:42.210 --> 00:46:48.100 to address whatever threat Iran is alleged to pose. 740 00:46:48.100 --> 00:46:50.000 But a lot more than that is at stake. 741 00:46:51.240 --> 00:46:57.280 This was discussed recently in the leading U.S. world arms 742 00:46:57.280 --> 00:46:59.990 control journal, Arms Control Today, 743 00:46:59.990 --> 00:47:02.500 by two leading figures 744 00:47:02.500 --> 00:47:06.320 in the international anti-nuclear movement, 745 00:47:06.990 --> 00:47:12.480 two scientists who are veterans of Pugwash and U.N. agencies. 746 00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:16.170 They observe that "The successful adoption 747 00:47:16.170 --> 00:47:21.080 in 1995 of the resolution on the establishment 748 00:47:21.080 --> 00:47:25.660 of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East 749 00:47:25.660 --> 00:47:29.010 was the main element of a package 750 00:47:29.010 --> 00:47:35.170 that permitted the ... extension of the [Non-Proliferation Treaty]." 751 00:47:35.170 --> 00:47:39.980 That’s the most important arms control treaty there is, 752 00:47:39.980 --> 00:47:45.930 and its continuation is conditioned on acceptance of moves 753 00:47:45.930 --> 00:47:50.360 towards establishing a weapons of mass destruction-free zone, 754 00:47:50.360 --> 00:47:51.540 a nuclear-free zone, 755 00:47:51.540 --> 00:47:53.070 in the Middle East. 756 00:47:54.280 --> 00:48:00.970 Repeatedly, implementation of this plan has been blocked by the United States 757 00:48:00.970 --> 00:48:07.650 at the annual five-year review meetings of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, 758 00:48:07.650 --> 00:48:11.660 most recently by Obama in 2010 759 00:48:11.660 --> 00:48:15.100 and again in 2015, a couple of months ago. 760 00:48:16.400 --> 00:48:25.040 The same two anti-nuclear specialists comment that in 2015 this effort 761 00:48:25.040 --> 00:48:28.680 was again blocked by the United States "on behalf 762 00:48:28.680 --> 00:48:30.940 of a state that is not party 763 00:48:30.940 --> 00:48:33.240 to the [Non-Proliferation Treaty] 764 00:48:33.240 --> 00:48:34.720 and is widely believed 765 00:48:34.720 --> 00:48:40.300 to be the only one in the region possessing nuclear weapons." 766 00:48:40.300 --> 00:48:44.880 That’s a polite and understated reference to Israel. 767 00:48:45.990 --> 00:48:50.550 Washington’s sabotage of the possibility, 768 00:48:50.550 --> 00:48:53.490 in defense of Israeli nuclear weapons, 769 00:48:53.490 --> 00:48:56.610 may well undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty, 770 00:48:57.980 --> 00:49:04.650 as well as maintaining dangerous instability in the Middle East— 771 00:49:04.650 --> 00:49:05.880 always, of course, 772 00:49:05.880 --> 00:49:07.620 in the name of stability. 773 00:49:08.320 --> 00:49:12.130 This is, incidentally, not the only case 774 00:49:12.130 --> 00:49:16.120 when opportunities to end the alleged Iranian threat 775 00:49:16.120 --> 00:49:18.620 have been undermined by Washington— 776 00:49:19.680 --> 00:49:21.460 some quite interesting cases; 777 00:49:21.460 --> 00:49:23.390 no time, and I won’t go into them. 778 00:49:23.390 --> 00:49:27.280 But all of this raises quite interesting questions, 779 00:49:27.280 --> 00:49:32.110 which we should be asking, about what actually is at stake. 780 00:49:32.700 --> 00:49:34.270 So, turning to that, 781 00:49:34.890 --> 00:49:38.900 what actually is the threat posed by Iran? 782 00:49:39.570 --> 00:49:42.350 Plainly, it’s not a military threat. 783 00:49:42.350 --> 00:49:43.490 That’s obvious. 784 00:49:43.490 --> 00:49:49.880 We can put aside the fevered pronouncements about Iranian aggression, 785 00:49:49.880 --> 00:49:51.720 support for terror, 786 00:49:51.720 --> 00:49:54.560 seeking hegemony over the region 787 00:49:54.560 --> 00:49:55.850 by force, 788 00:49:55.850 --> 00:50:00.910 or the still more outlandish notion that even if Iran had a bomb, 789 00:50:00.910 --> 00:50:05.630 it might use it, therefore suffering instant obliteration. 790 00:50:06.550 --> 00:50:12.990 The real threat has been clearly explained by U.S. intelligence 791 00:50:12.990 --> 00:50:16.520 in its reports to Congress on the global security situation. 792 00:50:16.520 --> 00:50:19.460 Of course, they deal with Iran. And they point out— 793 00:50:19.460 --> 00:50:22.000 I’m quoting U.S. intelligence— 794 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.490 "Iran’s nuclear program 795 00:50:24.490 --> 00:50:26.880 and its willingness to keep open 796 00:50:26.880 --> 00:50:30.470 the possibility of developing nuclear weapons 797 00:50:30.470 --> 00:50:35.000 is a central part of its deterrent strategy." Right? 798 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:38.690 It’s part of Iran’s deterrent strategy— 799 00:50:38.690 --> 00:50:41.040 no offensive policies, 800 00:50:41.040 --> 00:50:44.090 but they are trying to construct a deterrent. 801 00:50:44.680 --> 00:50:50.220 And that Iran has a serious interest in a deterrent strategy 802 00:50:50.820 --> 00:50:54.780 is not in doubt among serious analysts. 803 00:50:54.780 --> 00:50:57.530 It’s recognized, for example, by U.S. intelligence. 804 00:50:58.050 --> 00:51:04.010 So the influential analyst, CIA veteran Bruce Riedel, 805 00:51:04.010 --> 00:51:06.770 who’s by no means a dove, 806 00:51:06.770 --> 00:51:11.500 he writes that "If I was an Iranian national security planner, 807 00:51:11.500 --> 00:51:15.060 I would want nuclear weapons" as a deterrent. 808 00:51:15.060 --> 00:51:17.600 And the reasons are pretty obvious. 809 00:51:18.120 --> 00:51:20.640 He also makes another crucial comment. 810 00:51:21.170 --> 00:51:26.730 He points out that Israel’s strategic room for maneuver in the region 811 00:51:26.730 --> 00:51:31.240 would be constrained by an Iranian nuclear deterrent. 812 00:51:31.990 --> 00:51:35.250 And it’s, of course, also true of the United States. 813 00:51:35.250 --> 00:51:39.510 "Room for maneuver" means resort to aggression and violence. 814 00:51:40.310 --> 00:51:43.830 And it’s—yes, it would be constrained by an Iranian deterrent. 815 00:51:43.830 --> 00:51:50.960 For the two rogue states that rampage freely in the region— 816 00:51:51.480 --> 00:51:53.070 the United States and Israel— 817 00:51:53.760 --> 00:51:56.040 any deterrent is, of course, 818 00:51:56.040 --> 00:51:57.140 unacceptable. 819 00:51:57.660 --> 00:52:03.010 And for those who are accustomed and take for granted their right 820 00:52:03.010 --> 00:52:04.780 to rule by force, 821 00:52:04.780 --> 00:52:10.780 that concern is easily escalated to what’s called an existential threat. 822 00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:15.120 The threat of deterrence is very severe, 823 00:52:15.120 --> 00:52:19.620 if you expect to resort to force unilaterally at will 824 00:52:19.620 --> 00:52:21.350 to achieve your goals, 825 00:52:21.350 --> 00:52:23.390 as the U.S. and, secondarily, 826 00:52:23.390 --> 00:52:26.380 Israel do commonly. 827 00:52:26.380 --> 00:52:30.080 And more recently, the second U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia, 828 00:52:30.080 --> 00:52:34.330 has been trying to get into the club, pretty incompetently, 829 00:52:34.850 --> 00:52:40.880 with its invasion of Bahrain to prevent mild reformist measures, 830 00:52:40.880 --> 00:52:45.440 and more recently its extensive bombing of Yemen, 831 00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:48.690 which is causing a huge humanitarian crisis. 832 00:52:48.690 --> 00:52:50.930 So for them, a deterrent is a problem, 833 00:52:50.930 --> 00:52:52.860 maybe even an existential threat. 834 00:52:53.620 --> 00:52:56.400 That, I think, is the heart of the matter, 835 00:52:57.090 --> 00:53:00.210 even if it wouldn’t do to say or to think. 836 00:53:01.020 --> 00:53:07.770 And except for those who hope to fend off possible disaster 837 00:53:07.770 --> 00:53:12.330 and to move towards a more peaceful and just world, 838 00:53:12.330 --> 00:53:16.090 it’s necessary to keep to these injunctions. 839 00:53:16.090 --> 00:53:18.860 These are things that wouldn’t do to say, 840 00:53:18.860 --> 00:53:20.420 wouldn’t do to think— 841 00:53:20.420 --> 00:53:23.490 you don’t read about them, you don’t hear about them— 842 00:53:23.490 --> 00:53:26.960 but they are, I think, the heart of the issue. 843 00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:28.250 Thanks. 844 00:53:29.950 --> 00:53:34.860 AMY GOODMAN: Professor Noam Chomsky, speaking at The New School this weekend. 845 00:53:34.860 --> 00:53:36.500 AMY GOODMAN: After his talk, 846 00:53:36.500 --> 00:53:41.650 Professor Chomsky read and answered questions from the audience. 847 00:53:41.650 --> 00:53:43.600 This is one of those questions. 848 00:53:43.600 --> 00:53:46.570 NOAM CHOMSKY: "What do think about the antics of Donald Trump, 849 00:53:47.210 --> 00:53:51.790 in tangent to your earlier idea about American exceptionalism?" 850 00:53:54.330 --> 00:53:55.590 Well, actually, 851 00:54:00.100 --> 00:54:04.990 I think we should recognize that the other candidates 852 00:54:04.990 --> 00:54:06.370 are not that different. 853 00:54:07.020 --> 00:54:07.460 I mean, 854 00:54:07.460 --> 00:54:08.710 if you take a look at— 855 00:54:12.460 --> 00:54:15.260 just take a look at their views. 856 00:54:15.260 --> 00:54:19.470 You know, they tell you their views, and they’re astonishing. 857 00:54:19.470 --> 00:54:24.640 So just to keep to Iran, a couple of weeks ago, the two front-runners— 858 00:54:24.640 --> 00:54:26.640 they’re not the front-runners any longer— 859 00:54:26.640 --> 00:54:28.790 were Jeb Bush and Scott Walker. 860 00:54:29.330 --> 00:54:31.140 And they differed on Iran. 861 00:54:31.800 --> 00:54:35.080 Walker said we have to bomb Iran; 862 00:54:35.080 --> 00:54:36.870 when he gets elected, 863 00:54:36.870 --> 00:54:40.070 they’re going to bomb Iran immediately, the day he’s elected. 864 00:54:40.970 --> 00:54:43.980 Bush was a little— 865 00:54:43.980 --> 00:54:45.190 you know, he’s more serious: 866 00:54:45.190 --> 00:54:47.700 He said he’s going to wait 'til the first Cabinet meeting, 867 00:54:47.700 --> 00:54:48.910 and then they'll bomb Iran. 868 00:54:49.660 --> 00:54:54.820 I mean, this is just off the spectrum of not only international opinion, 869 00:54:54.820 --> 00:54:56.780 but even relative sanity. 870 00:54:56.780 --> 00:54:57.890 This is— 871 00:54:58.590 --> 00:55:00.660 I think Ornstein and Mann are correct: 872 00:55:00.660 --> 00:55:02.750 It’s a radical insurgency; 873 00:55:02.750 --> 00:55:04.560 it’s not a political party. 874 00:55:04.560 --> 00:55:06.310 You can tell that even by the votes. 875 00:55:06.840 --> 00:55:13.220 I mean, any issue of any complexity is going to have some diversity of opinion. 876 00:55:13.220 --> 00:55:15.720 But when you get a unanimous vote 877 00:55:15.720 --> 00:55:19.860 to kill the Iranian deal or the Affordable Care Act 878 00:55:19.860 --> 00:55:22.240 or whatever the next thing may be, 879 00:55:22.240 --> 00:55:24.800 you know you’re not dealing with a political party. 880 00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:27.020 It’s an interesting question why that’s true. 881 00:55:27.600 --> 00:55:29.110 I think what’s actually happened 882 00:55:29.110 --> 00:55:33.560 is that during the whole so-called neoliberal period, 883 00:55:33.560 --> 00:55:37.800 last generation, both political parties have drifted to the right. 884 00:55:38.980 --> 00:55:43.810 Today’s Democrats are what used to be called moderate Republicans. 885 00:55:44.680 --> 00:55:47.580 The Republicans have just drifted off the spectrum. 886 00:55:47.580 --> 00:55:54.420 They’re so committed to extreme wealth and power 887 00:55:54.420 --> 00:55:56.470 that they cannot get votes, 888 00:55:56.470 --> 00:55:59.520 can’t get votes by presenting those positions. 889 00:55:59.520 --> 00:56:04.620 So what has happened is that they’ve mobilized sectors of the population 890 00:56:04.620 --> 00:56:06.650 that have been around for a long time. 891 00:56:06.650 --> 00:56:09.740 It is a pretty exceptional country in many ways. 892 00:56:09.740 --> 00:56:12.410 One is it’s extremely religious. 893 00:56:12.410 --> 00:56:15.860 It’s one of the most extreme fundamentalist countries in the world. 894 00:56:15.860 --> 00:56:21.460 And by now, I suspect the majority of the base of the Republican Party 895 00:56:21.460 --> 00:56:24.660 is evangelical Christians, 896 00:56:25.270 --> 00:56:26.620 extremists, not— 897 00:56:26.620 --> 00:56:29.610 they’re a mixture, but these are the extremist ones, 898 00:56:29.610 --> 00:56:32.420 nativists who are afraid that, 899 00:56:32.420 --> 00:56:37.280 you know, "they are taking our white Anglo-Saxon country away from us," 900 00:56:37.830 --> 00:56:40.330 people who have to have guns 901 00:56:40.330 --> 00:56:42.540 when they go into Starbucks because, 902 00:56:42.540 --> 00:56:46.630 who knows, they might get killed by an Islamic terrorist and so on. 903 00:56:46.630 --> 00:56:49.130 I mean, all of that is part of the country, 904 00:56:49.130 --> 00:56:50.990 and it goes back to colonial days. 905 00:56:50.990 --> 00:56:52.620 There are real roots to it. 906 00:56:52.620 --> 00:56:56.760 But these have not been an organized political force in the past. 907 00:56:56.760 --> 00:56:58.070 They are now. 908 00:56:58.070 --> 00:57:00.700 That’s the base of the Republican Party. 909 00:57:00.700 --> 00:57:02.300 And you see it in the primaries. 910 00:57:02.300 --> 00:57:05.550 So, yeah, Trump is maybe comic relief, 911 00:57:05.550 --> 00:57:07.190 but it’s just a— 912 00:57:07.190 --> 00:57:09.860 it’s not that different from the mainstream, 913 00:57:09.860 --> 00:57:11.080 which I think is more important. 914 00:57:11.930 --> 00:57:14.230 AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking at The New School 915 00:57:14.230 --> 00:57:16.130 this weekend here in New York City, 916 00:57:16.130 --> 00:57:18.330 "On Power and Ideology." 917 00:57:18.330 --> 00:57:20.160 Professor Chomsky is institute professor 918 00:57:20.160 --> 00:57:22.720 emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 919 00:57:22.720 --> 00:57:25.100 where he’s taught for more than half a century. 920 00:57:25.100 --> 00:57:28.740 A world-renowned linguist and political dissident, Chomsky 921 00:57:28.740 --> 00:57:30.140 has written more than a hundred books; 922 00:57:30.140 --> 00:57:32.560 his latest, Because We Say So. 923 00:57:32.560 --> 00:57:35.460 For the full transcript and video and audio of the speech, 924 00:57:35.460 --> 00:57:37.280 you can go to democracynow.org. 925 00:57:37.280 --> 00:57:41.930 We’ll also post the full Q&A right there at democracynow.org 926 00:57:41.930 --> 00:57:43.500 with Professor Chomsky. 927 00:57:43.500 --> 00:57:45.950 What did you find most interesting about this speech? 928 00:57:45.950 --> 00:57:49.610 You can tweet us, @democracynow, or go to our Facebook page. 929 00:57:49.610 --> 00:57:51.670 That does it for the show. 930 00:57:51.670 --> 00:57:53.930 If you’d like to get a copy of the show, 931 00:57:53.930 --> 00:57:56.090 you can go to democracynow.org. 932 00:57:56.090 --> 00:57:58.230 On Wednesday, September 23rd, 933 00:57:58.230 --> 00:58:01.290 Democracy Now!'s Juan González will be moderating a panel 934 00:58:01.290 --> 00:58:03.610 on the Young Lords Party here in New York. 935 00:58:03.610 --> 00:58:07.240 It'll take place at 7:30 at the King Juan Carlos Center 936 00:58:14.140 --> 00:58:44.720 at New York University.