War on Afghanistan a bigger terrorist act, says Chomsky

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, NOV. 10. Arguing that the war on Afghanistan constituted a greater terrorist act than the September 11 attacks on the United States, the renowned scholar, Prof. Noam Chomsky, today denounced state terrorism in all its forms.

The U.S., he said, did not seek the sanction of the United Nations Security Council for the war despite knowing that it could have obtained the sanction without any difficulty because it did not want to legitimise the need to approach the Council. The U.S. wanted to reserve its right to act unilaterally.

Delivering a lecture on `September 11 and its aftermath: where is the world heading?', Prof. Chomsky pointed to the double standards adopted by the U.S. While it wanted the extradition of Osama bin Laden in connection with the attacks, it was unwilling to grant Haiti's request for the extradition of a criminal wanted in connection with atrocities committed in the Nineties.

Criticising U.S. attempts at hegemony in the world, he said the moves for extending the defence system and for total domination would only increase with the attempts toward globalisation. The forms which globalisation took were intended to benefit the West and the corporates and not the people.

Public opinion against globalisation had increased in the Nineties in countries such as India. Globalisation had only widened inequalities. There was now a broad alliance of labour unions, social democrats and others against the specific forms of globalisation. There was also greater awareness of human rights and civil liberties from the Sixties onwards.

The September 11 attacks were a historic turning point, not because of their scale but for the choice of target. The national territory of the U.S. itself became the target of attack.

Mr. N. Ram, editor of Frontline, which sponsored the lecture, introduced Prof. Chomsky and recalled his contribution to various fields, including linguistics.

Earlier, Prof. Chomsky, speaking at the Asian College of Journalism, made out a case for people's participation in the political process and described all States as terrorist States.

Barring the weak ones, which were incapable of aggression, all States were ``terrorist'', he said during an ``open and free discussion'' at the ACJ.

The political class wanted to reduce the domain of democratic choices. Major decisions were not taken in the public arena.

While the ``politics of oil'' might be in the background of the war on Afghanistan, this was not a triggering factor. The Gulf, and not Central Asia, was the most important in terms of oil resources, he pointed out.

Insisting that the U.S. was not a democracy, he said the political system in that country was meant to protect the opulent classes against the majority of the people. The ``permanent interests'' of the country was defined as the interests of the property holders. Pointing to the alienation from the political process in the case of a vast majority of people, he said they sections were indoctrinated with a consumerist culture of sports, music and purchasing. The propaganda tools reached their highest forms in the more democratic societies, he said.

Asked if he thought that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of a unipolar world had increased American hegemony, he said the collapse of the Soviet Union was in effect a removal of a barrier to the emergence of socialism. However, the existence of two super powers left some manoeuvering room for the rest of the world and the non-aligned movement, as the victims of one super power, were supported by the other.

Mr. Sashikumar of the Media Development Foundation introduced Prof. Chomsky.

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