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Noam Chomsky, �Rouge States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs�

Started October 9 � Finished October 13, 2003; 254 pages. Posted 28 October 2003

I woke up around ten this morning, then fought to get back to sleep for another hour.

I know, it�s a rough life I lead.

Anyway, I finally got up, turned on NPR and started work on my costume after putting it off for the last month and a half. No, I�m not telling you what it is, but it�s better than the Vyvian costume from The Young Ones, and it�s certainly better than the Ash Evil Dead costume from last year.

But that�s not really the point. NPR was just starting their news headline roundup and they were talking about the latest bombing raid in Iraq, the deadliest action since Bush declared combat was over six months ago.

The newscaster said Bush declared the bombings were �an act of desperation� that would fail to deter the so-called progress being made in that region, and that the U.S forces had the support of the Iraqi people.

And then came the soundbite.

�The vast majority of people have said they want to live in a free society,� Bush said. �And we will hunt down these people.�

I know, it was just a gaffe involving bad syntax, and the people he meant they would hunt down were the ones behind the bombing raids. But that�s how he said it, and I couldn�t stop laughing. Interestingly enough, I had NPR on until 6 p.m. tonight and they never used that quote again, an act of a kinder, gentler media.

At the same time, the Contras, if you remember them; the Nicaraguan soldiers illegally funded in the 80s by Reagan, Bush Sr., and Oliver North amongst others, are now threatening to sue the U.S. government for unpaid back wages incurred during their fight against the Sandinista Army. There�s a chance that the soldiers, who were financed and trained illegally by the CIA, will win their case if it does go to court. Nobody expects it to go that far, however. Most likely, they�ll be paid off with little to no mention in the press and the media.

Meanwhile, Southern California is aflame. This is the same region that voted heavily for Schwarzenegger, so I suppose the action hero better get to work. After all, he fought aliens, foreign espionage agents, cyborgs from the future, a class of kindergartners, and Sinbad � what kind of fight could a fire expect to put up? �Save us, Arnold!� They scream, not realizing they�re responsible for bringing about hell on earth and they may as well get used to it.

To quote Jello Biafra and the Dead Kennedys, �See the gerbil run run run run from the fire!�

I don�t know why these fake reality shows like Joe Millionaire and Joe Shmoe are so popular � reality itself is much more entertaining! I think it�s giggly good fun to watch people slowly realize � gasp! � the president might have stretched the truth a little!

Of course he�ll never admit that, and Bush will spend the next four months (just long enough to for the story to feel old, whereupon it will be discarded) goading anybody to prove him wrong, which is why he�s so pissed off about that last little leak that said � gasp! — the president might have stretched the truth!

The un-stretched truth is that despite all the relative mild heat Bush is getting now, this is really no different from what the U.S. has been doing for decades, and that�s what Chomsky is talking about in this book. We needle other nations and tout their leaders to be hitler-esque monsters like Noriega, or Quadaffi (Gaddafi? I�ve seen both spellings for the same man. Is that why we stepped back from an escalating conflict with Lybia? Because the press couldn�t figure out how to spell his name?)

We conduct illegal operations and military actions, sometimes to put in our own �friendly� regime, like Pinochet in Chile who, according to Amnesty International, has tortured, killed, or exiled tens of thousands of Chileans.

If we don�t go in ourselves, we train others to do our dirty work, such as the case of the apparently underpaid Contra army. And if the United Nations happens to speak up, we act tough and walk out of meetings or threaten to pull our funding.

When U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan reminds America that they haven�t paid U.N. dues, estimated in the year 2000 to have accrued to the tune of $1.3 billion U.S. dollars, we not only still refuse to pay, but the senate votes 90 to 10 that the U.N. publicly �thank the United States for its contributions.�

Wow! The unbridled arrogance of it all! And it works, as we�re one of the last rogue states left, and we�re still pushing people around. We�re like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds screaming at the freshmen and forcing them to move to the gymnasium! After all, starting a chant screaming �NERDS! NERDS!! NERDS!!!� Isn�t that different from screaming �USA! USA!! USA!!!�

So I�m just waiting for the act three, or the season finale, where the rest of the world gets its revenge. And I can only hope it�s in the form of a DEVO style rap song.

Chomsky�s getting angrier as he gets older, and this is good, not to mention (though I�m mentioning it) more accessible to the layman. Good for him. Now if he could just manage to throw in some swearing, or at least some humor.


Rating: Worth used.

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