Damn You America.

This piece initially focuses on the Reagan and Bush era, but I am eager to explore his views regarding Trump. I firmly believe that there must already be something written about it. I have to make the effort to find out.

The fact of the matter is that for quite some time now, the question of what constitutes the American way and what is against it has been a topic of intense discussion around the world. The United States has often been seen as a bully. It is no more and no less than that. The actions and policies of the US in different eras have had a significant impact on the global stage. Whether it was during the Reagan and Bush years or now with Trump, there are always different perspectives and opinions. Understanding these views and analyzing the actions of the US is crucial in order to have a better understanding of the world we live in.

Noam Chomsky shines whenever he tells the story of America's moral failure... and strips it of logic.

He has been a vocal critic of the United States' actions in various aspects, highlighting the contradictions and hypocrisies.

Chomsky's analysis delves deep into the political, social, and economic realms, revealing how America's supposed values often do not align with its actual behavior.

His work challenges the status quo and forces people to question the narrative that is often presented.

By presenting a different perspective, Chomsky encourages critical thinking and a more comprehensive understanding of the complex issues at hand.

His ideas have had a significant impact on scholars, activists, and the general public alike, inspiring many to take a closer look at America's role in the world and its moral responsibilities.

It is an extremely interesting book that reveals a plethora of facts and realities. It uncovers the hidden agenda of the US behind promoting democracy worldwide. The US has been using various means, such as leveraging the UN, IMF, and other institutions, to advance their own agenda. They have been actively involved in toppling governments in different countries and implanting their reliable people who will work solely for their interests. This book provides a detailed and eye-opening account of how the US has been manipulating the global political and economic landscape for its own gain. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the true nature of power and politics in the modern world.

Noam Chomsky is indeed one of the most prominent scientists and intellectuals in the contemporary world.

However, his scathing criticism of U.S. foreign and domestic policies has led to his work being ridiculed and undermined by the corporate media.

"Failed States" offers an engaging, relatively straightforward (for Chomsky), and clear account of how the American government is exerting a negative influence globally today.

Chomsky provides insights into how the government manipulates facts and polls to shape public opinion. In America, the government essentially dictates what people should think.

The book mainly focuses on the George W. Bush administration and the war in Iraq, but Chomsky also explores other broader topics.

These include the failure of neoliberalism and the way the United States has misused its power and prestige within the United Nations as a platform for bullying.

Other significant points are Reagan's intervention in Nicaragua and America's subsequent undermining of Central America as a whole.

The U.S. constantly uses coercion to overthrow democratically elected Socialist governments, despite claiming to bring democracy to the world's regions that lack it.

And how the U.S. supported the coup against President Aristide, the popular leader of Haiti.

Nevertheless, Chomsky gives us hope for the world. Cuba and Venezuela still oppose the American government's way of doing things.

Although this book was published several years ago and the world is evolving, things seem to be deteriorating.

Our current president openly admits to spying on us and foreign countries (in many cases our supposed allies) and fails to understand why there is widespread public disapproval on this issue.

Wow..

The America that exists now is not the one I learned about in school.

It is truly a disturbing realization that perhaps it never was.

In school, we are often taught a sanitized and idealized version of American history and society. We learn about the nation's founding principles, its great achievements, and its role as a beacon of freedom and opportunity.

However, the reality we see today is far more complex and often at odds with this idealized image. There are deep divisions, social inequalities, and political unrest.

The America we thought we knew seems to be fading away, replaced by a more fragmented and uncertain landscape.

It makes us question what we have been taught and forces us to look more closely at the true nature of our country.

Perhaps it is time to reevaluate and重新define what it means to be American in this new era.

Mind... Blown.

I am truly astounded by what I have discovered. It's a compilation of all the facts we are already aware of, the political truisms that are often overlooked. America's attempts to uphold its hegemony globally instead of focusing on promoting democracy both at home and abroad. The Iraq war, along with all the other so-called 'wars on terror', have actually led to an increase in the number of terrorists rather than a complete eradication of terrorist organizations. Moreover, America's governmental decisions and foreign policies do not necessarily reflect the majority opinion of its people. This is like a slap in the face of America, shattering its false democracy-promises and the actions of the states that pretend to be the role models for the rest of the world, yet again, America.

Booya! Noam Chomsky is indeed a hero. He is direct, fearless, and extremely wise. His wisdom oozes from every sentence of the book. By now, I'm at a loss for words as to what more I can tell you. The book covers a wide range of topics, from the Iraq War to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Vietnam War, and the Indonesian Wars, delving into the political details rather than just the historical aspects. But I can assure you that it is an essential read.

It's not as dull as most diplomacy books; in fact, it offers so much more than it initially claims.

I'll now go and fangirl over Noam Chomsky.

Bye.

This piece comes across as less of a proper book and more of a rant. The structure is severely lacking, and the argument seems to be made simply by dumping huge blocks of information as detailed by Chomsky.

To be honest, it is most useful for someone like myself who grew up during or after these events and thus required some context for that era. However, Chomsky could have done a great deal of editing and structuring if he had wanted to center his argument rather than just sarcastically describing instance after instance that irritated him.

I can't deny that there were many times while reading this that I felt a sense of unease because of how accurately he predicted the terrible things that were to come in the US and globally. It is extremely disturbing to read, knowing that so many future atrocities were known in advance and were part of a trajectory that could potentially have been halted.

Read with the help of Read More on Youtube!

Tedious, repetitive, unending buffet of red meat.

I'm certain that the content holds great significance. However, I simply couldn't maintain my attention on the audiobook. I found it impossible to follow the intricate threads of thought. It felt as if I was being violently yanked around, from 2003 Iraq to 1990's Palestine, then to drug company advertising, on to Vietnam, and finally to Cuba and Venezuela, all within the span of just a few minutes. And then, just as suddenly, it all began over again.

This constant barrage of information, jumping from one topic to another at breakneck speed, left me feeling disoriented and frustrated. I wanted to engage with the material, to understand the connections and the deeper meaning. But the disjointed nature of the presentation made it extremely difficult.

Perhaps a more structured approach would have been beneficial. Maybe if the author had taken the time to build a more coherent narrative, rather than bombarding the listener with a chaotic jumble of facts and ideas, I would have been able to stay focused and gain a better understanding of the subject matter.

Great! This article offers an in-depth examination of the USA's terroristic foreign policy and the limitations on democracy that facilitate it.

Chomsky demonstrates remarkable conciseness, considering the scarcity of material and extensive sourcing. Despite the often overwhelming topics such as genocide and global poverty, he manages to inject humor, making sarcastic remarks about the hypocrisies within corporations' power-seeking.

The primary focus is on the Bush-era invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, yet it also provides a wealth of historical context and looks forward to conflicts. Since the book's publication in 2006, we can observe these conflicts unfolding with Venezuela, Iran, and China.

The outcome is a dire warning to people worldwide to seize power from the interests of the wealthy to avert future catastrophes.

This analysis not only sheds light on past and present events but also serves as a call to action for a more just and democratic world.

The United States has no friends, it has interests.

Edward Gibbon in his book "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" expounds his theories on the fall of the Roman Empire. Now Chomsky shows us with hard and verifiable data those parallel signs that show when empires enter into decline.

The citizens of the US do not consider themselves the empire of this contemporary world, but Chomsky exhibits the imperialist behaviors of the country. For example, when the government decides that the rules of international treaties do not apply to them, but demands their compliance from all other members.

All of the US foreign policy is based on maintaining territorial, economic, military, and cultural power, from the coups d'état in Latin America to the establishment of the largest military base that it established in the Middle East and named Israel.

The American dream was an illusion, just part of the marketing technique to maintain a good image towards the outside and be able to use it when necessary.

None of us will witness the fall of this empire, we only look back at the quarters that Chomsky points out to us.

It is called a failure.

Why?

Because of its ability to implement democracy and the elements of freedom.

It is the authoritarian states around the world that are tied to the strings of their masters in Washington.

Chomsky provides us with many examples of those countries, mainly in the United States.

Events that have been glorified historically.

And lies in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Iraq, Palestine. And we will not count every place where American civilization has reached.

It is a book that preserves many aspects, except that it is an important and very important book.

I came across this book after watching an old video of William F. Buckley, Jr. debating Noam Chomsky. In that debate, Buckley was snarky and condescending in his patrician style. Chomsky, on the other hand, replied with a calmly insistent appeal to facts and logic. This encounter remained firmly in my mind. So, when I saw "Failed States" in one of Eugene's many Little Free Libraries, I seized it without hesitation.

Noticing that the book was published in 2006, I didn't anticipate it to be overly timely. And indeed, it wasn't, at least to the extent that it was largely dedicated to the actions of the George W. Bush Administration during the invasion of Iraq following the 9/11 attacks. While another review here criticizes Chomsky's reliance on facts and figures from "obscure" journals, a scan of the book's endnotes reveals sources that are, in fact, unknown to me. However, there are also a significant number of reports from well-known news media and academic presses such as the New York Times, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Sunday Times (London), the Oxford University Press, Columbia, Princeton, and Cambridge, among others. Chomsky's positions regarding American foreign policy failures at that time seem to have been very well researched and presented with the aforementioned calm insistence on facts and logic. Since I didn't have the luxury of time to review and confirm each of Chomsky's cited sources, I relied on my own memory of events. Generally, if not in every particular, I sided with Chomsky's view that America was a failed state, but only in the sense that the Bush Administration's actions failed the American people by resorting to the wrong response for the wrong reasons, with disastrous short- and long-term consequences for the United States, the Middle East, and the wider world.

My memory, which is neither complete nor crystal clear, generally aligns with the following: Al Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, a Saudi national, admitted responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Bush had been warned in advance that an attack of such a nature was a possibility. Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were Saudis, and the rest were from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, and Yemen. There was not a single Iraqi among them. However, George W. Bush claimed that Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaeda and argued for action against Iraq, alleging that it was a terrorist hotbed and in possession of weapons of mass destruction. When Bush sought a United Nations resolution supporting such action, France objected, citing a lack of evidence. This was met with a great outcry, and Congress wanted to change "French fries" to "freedom fries." There was also a fiery editorial by a writer in Fort Wayne, Indiana, asserting that Americans who questioned Bush's response were traitors and should be shot. I responded by asking why the Fort Wayne writer should take advantage of freedom of the press while depriving his countrymen of their freedom of speech as well as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I also asked that, since Congress was at it, why not return the Statue of Liberty to France and erase from American history all references to the 2,112 Frenchmen who died fighting for American Independence in the Revolutionary War? While waiting for a reply from Fort Wayne (which I have yet to receive), I searched for and found online dated photographs of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein together in tuxedos, smiling like prom dates. Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney emerged from hiding in an undisclosed location and, channeling his inner Darth Vader, said in connection with getting America on a war footing, "We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows of the intelligence world." Coming from a guy who evaded action in Vietnam because, in his own words, he had "other priorities," I had to wonder if Cheney lost his principles in the same place he left his backbone.

After U.S. forces thoroughly defeated the Iraqi army - similar to Andre the Giant body slamming an old guy like me - and the bow tie that Saddam Hussein once wore with his tuxedo was replaced by an ill-fitting rope, cleanup crews scoured the country for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. And they found none. George W. Bush admitted as much. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which routinely endorsed Bush when he ran for Governor of Texas and then President of the United States, did the right thing, more or less, when it duly reported Bush's admission. However, it was on page 13, among the advertisements in the Home and Gardens section. Imagine that.

So, where was I? Oh, yeah, Noam Chomsky! That guy. His book is far more methodical, well-documented, and even-tempered than anything you'll read in this review. You might be more likely to find something of value in it. Because part of "Failed States" actually is timely. If you read the portions addressing U.S. relations with Israel, especially with respect to UN support after the Oslo Accords involving Palestine, you'll come to appreciate that although the U.S. and Israel expressed their surprise at Hamas's actions in October of 2023, Chomsky saw something like the conflict as inevitable as early as 2006. This suggests that one might also want to read what Chomsky is writing now.