Monday, June 16, 2003

Chomsky interview: What's Happening? (v.good)
'The reason is that they [Bush administration] are carrying out policies which are quite harmful to the general population and favorable to an extremely narrow sector of corporate power and the corrupt sectors as well, and they can't face the electorate on that. As he [Karl Rove] pointed out, if we can make the primary issue national security then we will be able win because people will -you know- flock to power if they feel frightened... They are seeking a "fiscal train wreck" that will make it impossible to fund the programs... In effect, if you look at the press today they describe soldiers as saying: "we are here for revenge - you know - because they blew up the World Trade Center, they will attack us", or something. Well, these beliefs are completely unique to the United States. I mean: no one in the World believes anything like this... That [National Security Strategy] caused shudders around the world, including the foreign policy elite at home which was appalled by this. I mean it is not that things like that haven't been heard in the past. Of course they had, but it had never been formulated as an official national policy. I suspect you will have to go back to Hitler to find an analogy to that... This [Islamic governments] is the last thing the US wants, so chances of any kind of democratic opening very likely will be immediately opposed.. The voices of secular democracy will also be opposed... The differences with [Kennedy administration and] September 2002 is that instead of being operative policy now it became official policy. That is the difference... They [Bush administration] want a very powerful state, a huge state in fact, a violent state and one that enforces obedience on the population. There is a kind of quasi-fascist spirit there, in the background, and they have been attempting to undermine civil rights in many ways... These plans [Patriot 2] would permit the Attorney General to remove citizenship from any individual whom the attorney general believes is acting in a way harmful to the US interests. I mean, this is going beyond anything contemplated in any democratic society. One law professor at New York University has written that this administration evidently will attempt to take away any civil rights that it can from citizens and I think it´s basically correct.'

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