9-11

While Chomsky is recognized around the world as a leading intellectual, his political writings remain barely known in the USA, the one country that would benefit the most from his perspective.

This small book offers a series of interviews with Chomsky in the aftermath of the 9-11 attack. Most of these interviews appeared (not suprisingly) in non - US media outlets. While the interviews overlap somewhat, in total they offer a useful antidote to the militant nationalism of the mainstream press, by putting the attack in the context of recent history and US foreign policy. That's not to say that Chomsky excuses the attack in any way or understates its significance. Rather, he challenges facile, self-serving claims that the US was attacked show more because of globalization or because "they hate our freedom."

His early prediction that the GW Bush administration would use the 9-11 attacks as justification for domestic repression was prescient -- though even Chomsky wouldn't have dreamed of how far the militant right-wing would go. This book isn't actually dated, because causes of the crisis have not been adequately explored, and the consequences live on, and on. show less

Link:

Part of review: https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/02/18/book-review-9-11-noam-chomsky/

It is a rushed book, and a rush series of interviews collected and edited into this volume. Which is all the more reason why this is actually an impressive work - twenty years after the fact. Chomsky certainly sheds a lot of light on events leading up to 9-11 from a non-American perspective and gives some form of indication and idea of why the attacks were not a complete and total 'surprise' by the world at large. He brings up salient points on how America could (before the attacks) have been considered the largest terrorist active country in the world, with regards to our actions in Beirut, Nicaragua, and elsewhere.

This isn't an pro-American show more piece of work, and Chomsky doesn't paint America in the most sympathetic light. This isn't to be confused with him believing it was a justified attack. Far from it. Nothing justifies what happened on 9-11 and Chomsky wants to be very clear about that. But our actions in Afghanistan, radicalizing fanatical Islamic groups, our actions in Beirut, and Nicaragua, and numerous other countries over the past few decades (leading up to 2001 - 1990s, 1980s, 1970s), certainly doesn't make us the complete victims we always believed us to be. And don't get me wrong here - we are victims in this attack. Its an immeasurable and incomparable attack. Pure innocents and civilians died. This wasn't a 'war' attack on a military unit. This was a terrorist attack on innocents.

Like I said above, Chomsky brings up a lot of good points, many of which I only learned years after September 11th, 2001. Especially since I was younger then, in my teens, and my knowledge and research base wasn't nearly what it is today. The interviews in the book are done well and Chomsky comes off very well, and in his normal talking and writing style. There is some bad or off point questions, but I believe they've edited this enough that its coherent, makes sense, and stays on point and topic and creates a nice piece of work with the book.

For more of the review visit here: https://thebeerthrillers.com/2022/02/18/book-review-9-11-noam-chomsky/ show less

It's hard to argue with someone as well read and complete as Chomsky. So rarely do I find myself arguing with him, even when I disagree.
As usual this book presents some of Chomsky's very detailed analysis on US actions around the globe and his opinions on the outcomes of those actions. It seems a very clear line for Chomsky, between US actions over the past 20 years and the terrorist attacks of 9-11.
A lot of the material in this book has been printed before in other Chomsky books. This one is sort of a "new organization of the timelines and 'cause and effect' policy notes" that Chomsky has presented.
This is a strong read for anyone wanting to hear a clear concise voice on policies, politics, and history that pre-dates 9-11, whether you show more think those policies are to blame or not. show less

This book is a collection of hand selected and abridged interviews Noam Chomsky granted to numerous media outlets. These interviews occurred over a span of about one month after the September 11th attacks. The editor makes no attempt at explaining his exclusion of repetitive answers to keep the compendium unnecessarily redundant.

In regards to Mr. Chomsky, I did learn he has a more tempered idea about the 9-11 attacks than I perceived. While he will never provide the US government benefit of the doubt when it comes to "economic terrorism" from Vietnam to Nicaragua to al Shifa pharmaceutical plant, he does dispute a causal effect between bin Laden and the actions to the World Trade Center with "economic imperialism."

In short, while I show more don't agree with the linguist, I was surprised to learn more about his views. show less

Through a series of excerpts from interviews with both foreign and domestic media, Chomsky provides a historical and political context for for the events of September 11th. Published in 2001, and revised in 2002, the book is now somewhat dated. Also, as many of the questions posed by interviewers are similar, Chomsky repeatedly brings up the same points, causing a good amount of overlap throughout the work. These two details aside, the book is still a valuable resource for gaining insight into the politics and history that gave genesis to the events of that day.

Essays from Chomsky, I feel lack in depth of analisys compared to other collections. It seems a bit of a opportunistic title and timing for this very light release.

Chomsky’s most masterful political argumentation is around the Vietnam war.

Useful to put the attacks in context, and hits at how we could have better responded, but it is in a question and answer format. This a format that always irritates me. It tends to feel disjointed and prevents a coherent analysis.