Just to note the most striking falsehoods of the article:
Prof Chomsky said it was true that all past empires fell. But the peak of the US power was in 1945 when it possessed half of the world's wealth and a huge military force. But by 1970 this wealth was reduced to 25 per cent.
I checked the US GDP figures. In 1945 US GDP was 221 billion. By 1970, it had risen to over one trillion. Even adjusting for inflation, it more than doubled: it rose from 1.6 trillion to 3.4 trillion in constant 1992 dollars. This is not a reduction in wealth.
What happened, of course, was that in 1945 Europe lay in ruins; by 1970 it had been rebuilt (with large doses of US aid and protection), so the US' relative share of wealth dropped.
Now, he said, there were three major power centres, the US based west, the German based West and the Japan and China based South East Asia. The events on Sept 11 will not change this set up.
Notice how he does this little historical sweep without ever mentioning the Soviet Union or the US role in protecting Western Europe and South East Asia from Marxist domination. But I'm gathering that's par for the course for Chomsky. After all, if he mentioned the Soviet Union it would be harder to maintain the position that all the bad things the US ever did stemmed merely from its own greed and depravity. |
