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Summary: The American Empire!
It's time to get honest about the unfortunate direction that United States foreign policy has gone in the post-WWII era. It is no exaggeration to say that U.S. policy seeks to completely dominate the world, as no other imperialist power ever has. "Right now our government is doing things we think only other countries do." Chomsky once again summarizes U.S. abuse of power masterfully and makes it clear that U.S. policy is making the world a much more dangerous place. The U.S. government makes enemies around the globe and then seeks to wage war against them with a doctrine of preemptive war. Constant propaganda keeps most of the American public unaware of the atrocities committed in the name of freedom and democracy. The so-called axis of evil, rogue states, failed states and terrorist organizations are not ignorant of the hypocrisy that has plagued U.S. foreign policy for decades. Israel is allowed to possess scores of nuclear weapons with not so much as a scolding from Washington, while Iran and North Korea are treated as evil terrorist states for possibly having or attempting to build nuclear weapons. The double-standard must end if there is any hope for lasting peace in this world. As Woodrow Wilson said, "Only a peace between equals can last." U.S. hegemony is forming a world that is heading straight for WWIII.
Summary: Intensely authoritative, well-crafted
Noam Chomsky's "Failed States" reflects the thinking of so many Americans these days....the United States is in trouble and we know it. With a sternly worded narrative, Chomsky delivers a message that is straightforward and well documented. Given the current crisis in the Middle East and the residual problems on the domestic front, "Failed States" could not be more timely. It is without doubt the best book of the year.
Covering a period largely from the end of the Second World War to present, Chomsky begins with an assessment of what makes a "failed state". Among other things he declares that a failed state is one that has an "inability or unwillingness to protect (its) citizens from violence or perhaps even destruction". That statement alone is enough to question the Bush administration's so-called "war on terror" which, as the author concludes, has only caused more terror. Violence begets violence, as he rightly says. Chomsky's second characteristic of a failed state is one that is impervious to international law. Certainly in the past five years, to say the least, the United States has arrogantly sought to circumvent these laws and it leads to his third point...a sense by some Americans to think that we, as a nation, somehow own the moral high ground and should "spread our message" around the world. "Pshaw" says Chomsky and I couldn't agree more. The inherent dangers of this kind of thinking are evident in our decreased international standing and our increasing divisions here at home. For those Pollyannas who think that America's best days are ahead of us, "Failed States" will sober them up fast.
Written in a detached and unemotional manner, Chomsky zeroes in on other failed states of the past and the present. The usual suspects abound....Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Japan, etc., but he targets the present day US allies with equal force. The UK and Israel are tops on the list and if there ever was a time that the relevance of his arguments have borne fruit, look at today's Lebanon. While Chomsky's book (in this area) is related more to Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, had he been writing at this moment, the Israeli incursions into Lebanon no doubt would have been added.
The term "historical memory" is as apt as any in the book and it is always a wonder (though not really) why failed states tend to repeat the mistakes of their past. Though no student of history, Bush II might have looked to others for advice before plowing ahead into Iraq, but uncurious as he is and surrounded by people who don't give a damn, it's no wonder the United States is in such a mess. The emperor has no clothes and is missing a few other things as well.
Chomsky is at his best when he offers up the first of two chapters on democracy...."Democracy Promotion Abroad". The notion that the United States would somehow spread democracy to the Middle East has to be one of the most laughable ideas ever presented in a serious vein. Yet there was the president trying to sell it after the supposed WMDs weren't found. Funny we don't hear too much of that anymore. The author's finest hour comes with his chapter about "Democracy Promotion At Home". Here he brings the internal combustion of the current United States into the forefront. His assessments that business has never been more closely associated with politics than it is today and that the country's wishes are the exact OPPOSITE of public policy couldn't ring truer. When the United States fails in the end it will have collapsed from within as Chomsky might very well agree.
"Failed States" contains so much about which to think that it should be absorbed with great care. It is a tour de force...a book that reaches not so stunning conclusions by revealing the very facts that have needed assemblage under one cover. I thank Noam Chomsky for his wonderful landmark contribution.
Summary: Shines a Deeply Troubling Light on American Democracy and Policies
In FAILED STATES, Noam Chomsky proposes the notion that the United States, by virtue of its policies particularly under Ronald Reagan and increasingly under Bush II, is rapidly gravitating toward being a "rogue nation." That is, a nation that disregards international law, treaties, and organizations, disregards the principals of universality except when its own interest, attacks other countries preemptively and without clear cause, militarizes at the risk of other nations, supports repressive regimes and intervenes to overthrow democratically elected governments, and generally fails to safeguard the well-being of its own people. The indictment is harsh, but the historical and documentary evidence is indisputable (at least among those outside the United States). U.S. disregard and explicit violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, combined with its clearly signaled intent to weaponize and control outer space, encourages others to follow the nuclear armament path. In so doing, America has become the primary motive force in actions that could lead deliberately or inadvertently to a nuclear Armageddon. That the U.S. is now regarded by most of the industrial world as the single greatest threat to world peace, that it is the object of hatred in South and Central America and the Arab world, that even Canada and Mexico are severely at odds with it, demonstrate convincingly that Chomsky's thesis is largely correct.
With regard to international relations, Professor Chomsky argues that the U.S. policy goal of "spreading democracy" has, since at least the time of Woodrow Wilson, been a complete and utter sham. Time and again, the historical record clearly demonstrates that American tolerance of democracy has been predicated on the "right" outcomes of elections. In cases ranging from Mossadegh to Aristede to Chavez, the "wrong" outcome (even when the result is clearly the will of the electorate in internationally monitored elections) has led the U.S. to reject the results, declare the election invalid, or seek (and frequently cause) the violent overthrow of a popularly elected government. Democracy projection in the American government view is the desired goal only when the same American government can guarantee (and correspondingly control) the winner. The consequence of such actions has been the backing of repressive, reactionary, dictatorial regimes and policies (such as the IMF-backed, neo-liberal free market initiatives that have destroyed the economies of one country after another) that have made the U.S. an object of near-universal hatred among Third World peoples, what Chomsky refers to as "the unpeople." From this viewpoint, seen from outside the American cultural and media cocoon, the actions of Iraqi insurgents and even Osama bin-Laden take on a certain retaliatory logic.
On the domestic front, internal promotion of democracy is nonexistent. American Presidential elections are meaningless, as are the non-debates that accompany them. Congress is an embedded society where incumbency is a virtual guarantee of continued incumbency, where business and lobbyists control every agenda and legislative initiative, and where little more than lip service is given to the issues and policy desires of the public. How else to explain a governmental system that (directly against overwhelming public opinion as measured repeatedly in surveys) refuses to recognize the International Criminal Court and World Court, rejects the Kyoto protocols, belittles the United Nations as irrelevant, uses military rather than diplomatic and economic measures in the so-called (and conveniently never-ending) "war on terror," resorts to preemptive war, cuts funding for education and guaranteed health care, and focuses on "values" issues like gay marriage and flag burning instead of education, employment, economic growth, and social welfare. In many instances, the U.S. stands virtually alone in the world in its positions, often being the only non-signatory or dissenter in As Chomsky clearly delineates, even the Bush II Administration's repeated concerns over protecting Americans from the "threat" of terrorism are little more than lip service put to use during election cycles and to justify programs and actions that the populace would otherwise never tolerate.
Those who would put off Chomsky's arguments as those of a left-wing crank will find it difficult to refute the numerous other authors he cites to support his arguments, as well as published studies and statistics. Even more convincingly, he uses people's own words to bolster his case. Consider, for example, his citation of Condoleeza Rice that the U.S. government need not conform to "illusory norms of international behavior" or "adhere to every international convention and agreement someone thinks to impose," even those we've signed. Or John Bolton's declaration that "There is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world...when it suits our interests..." Or Henry Kissinger's commentary on the much-reviled Bush doctrine of anticipatory self-defense (which, if announced by China, would be considered an intolerable statement of aggressive intent) that this "revolutionary" doctrine must not be "universalized." The right to use force at will belongs solely and exclusively to the United States alone, or those clients to whom it wishes to delegate such powers.
In the final analysis, Professor Chomsky takes to task not only the Reagan and Bush II administrations (and to a lesser degree, Bush I and Clinton), but the American media and the American people. The former are lambasted for their continued unwillingness and failure to inform the public of the truth behind American international and domestic policies, leaving the American people among the world's least well informed as regards the true picture of international affairs and the U.S. role in those events. As for the American people, Chomsky believes that they are largely willing dupes, lulled into electoral apathy or snookered by campaign slogans and engineered PR and too self-centered and intellectually lazy to bother learning the truth . How else to understand a populace that inexplicably re-elects a President virtually all of whose actions and policies run diametrically counter to the wishes of that same populace on issue after issue, as measured time and again in public opinion polls?
FAILED STATES is a difficult book to summarize, since Chomsky ranges so far and wide in stating his case that the U.S. is a failing, if not failed, state. However, this book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the U.S. or wonders why most of the rest of the world treats us with contempt tinged with fear. Readers may not agree with everything written in FAILED STATES, and it certainly has its faults (overly polemical at times, prose that is too often unnecessarily dense and dry, lacking in prescriptive recommendations - hence the four stars rather than five). However, those who persevere through this difficult work will finish the experience with a changed perspective on the "myth of American exceptionalism" and profound doubts about its future. Any complete and honest reading of FAILED STATES can only leave you deeply troubled.
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