Hegemony or Survival

In a country of complicated decisions made by politicians about far away places and the people that live there, it's only a guess as to the motives behind each of these decisions. In Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance", Noam gives a scrupulously researched critique of America's quest for dominance at any cost that not only has cast us in the role of a rogue superpower but also jeopardizes the very survival of humanity. From reading this book, I will give an account as to what Chomsky says about American hegemonic ideals and give him credit for the attempt that he has made to expose historical truth.

In the first chapter of this book Chomsky ponders the idea of human existence and if our stupidity overpowers intelligence to not destroy ourselves. From there Chomsky identifies two superpowers in the world right now: "the United States and world public opinion. (pg 4) Chomsky points out that every American president, dating back centuries, seems to have had their own disgraceful foreign policy that, no matter how liberal the president, has directly pillaged, plundered, and terrorized another country, or as has supported another regime that has pillaged, plundered, and terrorized their own country. Chomsky ends with says that when hope is destroyed, democracy is allowed. (pg 10)

In the second chapter of Chomsky's book, he immediately uses a quote from the National Security Strategy saying that America's goal is to be the center of the world and will attempt to stomp out anyone who tries to stop them. (pg 11) Enforcing hegemony is the next step for America. The main idea for this is breaking U.N. rules if necessary and shut down any opposition. (pg 14) In the international spot light, the foreign diplomacy of the U.S. is not only, talking the talk, but walking it as well. This is in the sense of invading a country whenever we like. (pg 17) He then states that America may flex its muscle by detaining whoever, whenever they like. This is furthered by pushing the U.N.'s buttons and ignoring the Security Council whenever our government pleases. Lastly Chomsky tells that the U.S. government will only deal with elite ideas, not ones that waist their time in the quest for dominance.

The 3rd chapter of the book is the idea of a new era of enlightenment which reveals the heart of humanity, both good and bad. Chomsky states that the era of enlightenment is intervention when should happen but only occurs when it benefits the hegemony in some way. (pg. 54) Here it's stated that America is only in certain nations for its resources, such a Columbia's crude oil. In the end of this chapter, the U.S. is said to bully around the "smaller kids" of the world. This is profoundly seen in Venezuela and the history of their oil industry that never took off with Britain because of the U.S. involvement. (pg 64)

The next chapter in Chomsky's book is titled as "Dangerous Times", referring to the nuclear sensitive time period that we live in. Here Chomsky draws a parallel between the Cuban Missile Crisis and the first few days of was in Iraq by stating that both situations attempted to reveal weapons of mass destruction. The difference was that Kennedy had solid proof and Bush did not. (pg 77) Chomsky digs up a memorandum that Kennedy sent out to for CIA agents to create terrorist attacks on Cuba to hopefully get the U.S. involved to help contain these attacks and eventually create a good relationship with Castro. (pg 84) He states here that the type of international diplomacy is the cause for the shut down of "liberation Theology".

Next on Chomsky's list is the vast subject of Iraq. He begins with setting the stage for what would be 9/11 by going through the Russians military hand out to extremists groups in poverty stricken countries. Chomsky then goes through our domestic status leading up to Iraq. He captures our attention by looking at the outside conflicts, such as Momar Quadafi, and goes moves inside to looking at social programs that have failed. From there, Chomsky takes us even deeper in to reveal that there were no real evidences for us to invade Iraq and that there were real faults in homeland security prior to 9/11. (pg 123) Leaving no stone unturned, we find out just how much the was going to cost us or how much it is costing us, not only in U.S. casualties, but also Iraqi and Afghani deaths. Lastly, Chomsky poses the question that the U.S. is using Iraq as a democratic puppet and that the U.S. has made life even harder for the Iraqi's because of democracy.

In the only small chapter of the book, Chomsky pulls out the lengthy suspicion of the rest of the world trying to catch up to the U.S. He goes through the newly born Eastern Europe and dictates it as a region that is somewhat similar to South and Latin America, but hopefully will crawl out of its hole sometime soon. Chomsky then touches on the "Asian Invasion" of economic growth seen in recent years. He says to expect a "tripolar" world to appear, even though the U.S. would despise the idea that would contain the U.S., China, and India. (pg 155) For some humor, Chomsky states that North Korea has been on the list of rivals, but low on it due to the fact that they are not defenseless.

Speaking from a militaristic point, Chomsky goes into the U.S. and Middle East relationships that leads into the issue of weapons of mass destruction and a lengthy relationship that the U.S. has had with Israel. After World War 2 ended, one of the U.S.' problems was with totalitarian Nasser, who was called the "Hitler of the Middle East." (pg163) With the help of Israel, Nasser was shut down in the Six Day War. In the early 1980s, Saddam Hussein took control