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P N Dr Lo R says

Chomsky just doesn't like America like some others on this forum.

I don't think that's true. First, what exactly do you mean by America? The people, the government, the history, the policies, the culture?

I think that Chomsky, like most intelligent people, does not care about the political boundaries but rather the functional boundaries of human behavior. He looks at America as if it were any other country, dispassionately and from a distance so he can objectively categorize behaviors and trends in it. The following audio illustrates this.

www.youtube.com/embed/7bsYOQltflA

Chomsky's analysis revolves around matching up historic facts with alleged principles to determine if those principles are really being upheld, and the way he does this is consistent across political and cultural borders. He's actually saying that America is pretty much the same as other great powers of history, not in the specific doctrines it followed, but more importantly in the self-righteous and hypocritical ends-justify-the-means approach to forcing those doctrines on others.

He also warns about letting ideology trump hard-core facts and how this is done everywhere and America is no exception. He's not singling out America as bad. In contrast, he's showing how America is just a repeat of the same lessons history has taught every place and at every time. That's not to say that America is identical to any other country, but rather that the forces driving America are the exact same ones that have driven every empire in the history of the world. And I think he's right on this.

but yes, the idiotic american war in iraq created a vacuum filled by isis, and rewarded the saudis for attacking us on 9/11.

george w. bush should be in prison for treason.

Probably, though intent vs misinformation on the WMDs is and was difficult to prove. The first Iraq war by Bush senior however was justified, as Iraq had invaded an allied country. No buts and ifs. Of course Kuwait has been long suspected and accused of fostering extremist religious beliefs, so making them an ally in the first place may not have been the best choice. But that's a different topic.

i find it implausible that anyone in power actually believed that iraq had WMD.

i respect colin powell a lot for resigning. seems to me that he realized he was being played.