IRAQ WAR: interview noam chomsky
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Noam Chomsky Interviewed
By Michael Albert



Albert: (1) Why did the U.S. invade Iraq, in your view?

Chomsky: These are naturally speculations, and policy makers may have
varying motives. But we can have a high degree of confidence about the
answers given by Bush-Powell and the rest; these cannot possibly be
taken seriously. They have gone out of their way to make sure we
understand that, by a steady dose of self-contradiction ever since last
September when the war drums began to beat. One day the "single
question" is whether Iraq will disarm; in today's version (April 12):
"We have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction --
that is what this war was about and is about." That was the pretext
throughout the whole UN-disarmament farce, though it was never easy to
take seriously; UNMOVIC was doing a good job in virtually disarming
Iraq, and could have continued, if that were the goal. But there is no
need to discuss it, because after stating solemnly that this is the
"single question," they went on the next day to announce that it wasn't
the goal at all: even if there isn't a pocket knife anywhere in Iraq,
the US will invade anyway, because it is committed to "regime change."
The next day we hear that there's nothing to that either; thus at the
Azores summit, where Bush-Blair issued their ultimatum to the UN, they
made it clear that they would invade even if Saddam and his gang left
the country. So "regime change" is not enough. The next day we hear that
the goal is "democracy" in the world. Pretexts range over the lot,
depending on audience and circumstances, which means that no sane person
can take the charade seriously.