Chomsky-Pirates&Emperors, Old&New (2002)

This is Noam Chomsky's shocking book Pirates and Emperors, Old and New - International Terrorism in the Real World (2002, first published in 1986) which is a classic dissection of state terrorism worldwide, its origins and practices. The author, internationally acclaimed philosopher, linguist and political activist, explores the role of the US in the Middle East, and reveals how the media are used to manipulate public opinion about what constitutes "terrorism." With several new chapters as well as the original sections on Iran and the bombing of Libya, Pirates and Emperors is a brilliant account of the workings of state terrorism by the world's foremost critic of US terrorism. Chomsky starts by tracing the changing meaning of "terrorism," examining how it originally referred to violent acts by "governments designed to ensure popular submission." He calls its current application "retail terrorism," practiced by "thieves who molest the powerful." Chomsky argues that appreciating the differences between state terror and nongovernmental terror is crucial to stopping terrorism, and understanding why atrocities like the bombing of the World Trade Center happen. In comparing the "war on terror" launched by George W. Bush to that of his father and Ronald Reagan's administrations, Chomsky recalls Winston Churchill's summation of the terror by the powerful: "The rich and powerful have every right to demand that they be left in peace to enjoy what they have gained, often by violence and terror; the rest can be ignored as long as they suffer in silence, but if they interfere with the lives of those who rule the world by right, the 'terrors of the earth' will be visited upon them with righteous wrath, unless power is constrained from within." 130 pages. A must read for everyone.