AMY GOODMAN: Speaking at the renowned Paris University Science Politique, Rice continued President Bush's inaugural and State of the Union themes of what he called spreading freedom and democracy around the world.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE: America and Europe have stood firm in the belief that the fundamental character of regimes cannot be separated from their external behavior. Borders between countries cannot be peaceful if tyrants destroy the peace of their societies from within. State where corruption and chaos and cruelty reign invariably pose threats to their neighbors, threats to their regions, and potential threats to the entire international community. Our work together has only begun. In our time, we have an historic opportunity to shape a global balance of power that favors freedom, and that will therefore deepen and extend the peace. And I use the word power broadly. Because even more important than military and indeed economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope. I am here in Europe so that we can talk about how America and Europe can use the power of our partnership to advance our ideals worldwide.
AMY GOODMAN: Condoleezza Rice delivering her first major address as Secretary of State in Paris on Tuesday. Two weeks earlier, another leading figure in American politics gave his first major speech of President Bush's second term: Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is the author of Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance, also wrote the best seller, 9/11: Power and Terror, and dozens of other books, regarded as one of the leading dissidents and scholars in the United States. On January 26, Chomsky spoke at a forum sponsored by the Lannan Foundation in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The forum was held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the International Relations Center. Today we spend the hour hearing his address. Chomsky spoke about imperialism, elections in Iraq, and much more. This is Professor Noam Chomsky.
NOAM CHOMSKY: My last visit to New Mexico was five years ago for the -- to join in the celebration of the 20th anniversary of IRC. I'm very pleased to be able to participate in the 25th anniversary celebration. Since that time, as you know, the name has changed, the scope has broadened, but the mission remains. The central component, as they put it, is to make the United States a more responsible global partner, and to engage citizens in that endeavor. Well, that task was urgent enough five years ago. Even at that time there were warnings from right at the heart of the establishment that -- I’m quoting – “much of the world regards the United States as a rogue state and the greatest threat to their existence.” That happens to be Samuel Huntington, Harvard Professor, at -- in Foreign Affairs, the journal of the Council on Foreign Relations. And he was not alone. Shortly after the president of the American Political Science Association repeated the same message in very similar words. That was five years ago. Since then, the situation has become far worse. It's now not much of the world that regards the US as a rogue state and the greatest threat to their existence, but most of the world, almost all of it, in fact. George Bush has -- his administration has succeeded in a few years in making the United States the most feared and often hated country in the world.
Well, one reason for this, obviously, is the invasion of Iraq, which against extraordinary international opposition -- in fact, I cannot think of a historical parallel to that. That incidentally includes the so-called “Coalition of the Willing.” So, at the summit meeting announcing war, declaring the war, virtually, George Bush and his -- I'll say, politely -- associate Tony Blair, were joined by Prime Minister Aznar of Spain to announce that the war was going to start in a couple of days. At that point, Aznar had support of 2% of the population of Spain for joining in the US-British war. And he was therefore hailed as a great leader of what was called the New Europe, the grand hope for democracy. In fact, the performance about New Europe and Old Europe was a very enlightening one. There was very sharp cri-- you remember it, of course. New Europe, were the good guys, the hope of the future, the leaders of the democratic crusade and so on; Old Europe were the bad guys, stuck in their old ways, don't have democratic credentials. The criterion to distinguish them was extremely sharp. Old Europe, bad guys, were the country as where the governments took the same position as the large majority of their population. New Europe were the countries like Spain where the government overruled even larger majorities of their population -- huge ones in the case of Spain and Italy -- and followed orders from Crawford, Texas. So, they were -- therefore, they understood the nature of democracy. Perhaps the most extraordinary case was Turkey, which to everyone's surprise -- mine, too -- the government actually followed the -- took the same position as 95% of the population, and rejected Washington's orders. And they were bitterly condemned by the US leadership, by intellectuals. Paul Wolfowitz, who is identified by the Washington Post as the -- what they called the “idealist-in-chief,” leading the democracy crusade -- he went so far as to berate the Turkish military because they didn't force the government to overrule 95% of the population, and take their marching orders from the boss. And he ordered them to apologize to the United States for this and to make it clear that their task is to help America. Well, that performance was doubly interesting, first because it took place, and second, because nobody seemed to notice it and what it meant. What it means about the elite conceptions of democracy shouldn't require any comment. What it means is democracy is fine as long as you do what we say. We, of course, doesn't mean you and me or the people of the United States, it means the political and economic leadership. And that conception is so deeply ingrained that even in an incredible case like this, it literally can't be noticed.
Well, one reason for the deterioration in the position of the United States in the eyes of the world is, of course, the invasion of Iraq. For most of the world, that was the supreme international crime encompassing all of the evil that follows -- the wording of the Nuremburg Judgment, trying the Nazi criminals, including people like the Nazi Foreign Minister, von Ribbentrop, who was accused and hanged in fact for such crimes as preparing the diplomatic background for Hitler's preemptive strike against Norway, which I'll leave the consequences of the conclusion from that to you. The evil that followed was -- only increased the fear and the hatred. That's, first of all, the fate of Iraqis, as Tariq [Ali] mentioned. The most probable estimate of deaths done on a careful study several months ago was about 100,000 mostly violent deaths since the US invasion. The number of children suffering from acute malnutrition has doubled. It's now at the level of Burundi, lower than Haiti and Uganda. These matters were barely reported in the United States, and insofar as they were even mentioned, quickly dismissed. In England there was enough other response so that the British Government had to release a pathetic and embarrassing answer. Here, not even that. That's a rather important fact that has to be borne in mind for people here who care about their country.
Following -- that's just the beginning of it. What followed were really serious outright war crimes. We have just seen one in the last few months: the invasion of Fallujah. In this case, the crimes were not concealed, which may be worse than passing them over in silence. They were openly reported, and then, in fact, proudly reported. You could see on the front page of the New York Times a big picture of the first victory in the conquest of Fallujah. The first target was the Fallujah General Hospital, and the Times featured a big picture on the front page of a soldier standing guard over people lying on the floor in hospital gowns with their hands tied behind their backs. The story explained that the American forces that went in forced patients from their beds, forced them to lie on the floor, and manacled them with their hands behind their backs. The story went on to say that this had had to be done because the Fallujah General Hospital was serving as a propaganda weapon for the insurgents by releasing casualty figures. The Times added, of course, these are inflated casualty figures. They knew they were inflated because our dear leader had announced that, which is apparently enough.
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky, speaking at the Lensic Theater in Sante Fe, New Mexico. We'll come back to this speech in a minute.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/09/1458256
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