Reading carefully what Chomsky wrote - pretty impressive.
the people now running the show in Washington are mostly recycled Reaganites, essentially reliving the script of the 1980s.
And Noam is scared to death they might enjoy the same foreign successes. The fall of the Soviet Empire was a nightmare for him.
On the other hand, it's possible it could be what the hawks in Washington hope - a quick victory, no fighting to speak of, impose a new regime, give it a democratic facade, make sure the US has big military bases there, and effectively controls the oil.
Noam's record of predictions is pretty bad. But he's learned to hedge his bets as per above. Read carefully what he said above (and disallow the crap about controlling the oil) - he's actually saying the war with Iraq might be a whopping success. And of course, for him that's the real problem.
The chances that they will allow anything approximating real democracy are pretty slight.
Since he doesn't recognize democracy here in the US, its certain he won't recognize it anywhere else. BUT note the "real" and "pretty slight" though. He's hedging again. He's actually admitting here, in his weasely way, that democracy might be achieved, just not "real democracy". Wow, is he running scared.
One major problem is that 60% of the population roughly is Shiite. If there's any form of democratic government, they're going to have a say, in fact a majority say, in what the government is. Well they are not pro-Iranian but the chances are that a Shiite majority would join the rest of the region in trying to improve relations with Iran and reduce the levels of tension generally in the region by reintegrating Iran within it.
That's the last thing the US wants. Iran is its next target.
Poor Noam doesn't realize the US problem with Iran isn't with its (Shiite) people but with its extremist government.
You know on reflection, the biggest thing to worry about is that Chomsky is worried we might succeed. Maybe we should worry. |
