Renowned political activist and author Noam Chomsky denounced the Iraq war and “imperialistic” American foreign policy of the Nixon, Reagan and Bush administrations at Roxbury Community College last night.
Chomsky, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist often noted as one of the nation’s leading leftist intellectuals, condemned Gens. David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker’s abusive actions against the Iraqi state to the crowd of more than 500.
“Lord Petraeus has initiated tyrannically destructive policies, including, but not limited to, the surge proposed on Sept. 11, 2007 in a despicably theatrical manner before Congress,” Chomsky said. “Great sectarian violence, particularly in the Anbar Province, has all but consumed a once prosperous nation.”
Chomsky drew comparisons between U.S. foreign diplomacy and the conduct of the Nazi Party within Germany, referencing the Nuremberg trials as a parallel to contradictions in U.S. political speech and government-sanctioned action.
“I think the ironies of United States deployed treacheries in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are self-evident,” he said.
Chomsky said “Ronald Reagan’s conservation coalition” caused the overthrow of the legally elected Sandinista-regime in Nicaragua in 1984.
“Reagan was a thug and a coward,” he said. “He managed to physically diminish a democratically-elected government and throw a nation into civil chaos for well over a decade . . . because the Sandinistas didn’t back U.S. trade policies.”
Kim Foltz, executive director of Bikes Not Bombs, the peace-activism group that sponsored the lecture, said the group supports Chomsky’s provocative political outlook.
“This is a week of protest as the world economic elite gathers in Switzerland to further manipulate the global markets,” she said. “Professor Chomsky, the greatest intellectual in the nation right now, is dead on in his assessments.”
Audience responses, while animated, sometimes drew disagreement. Some attendees said Chomsky’s presentation confused them because of awkward comparisons and lapses in chronology.
“I wish he had provided some solutions instead of an endless stream of problems,” said Emerson College junior Anna Murphy. “I came out feeling overwhelmed and queasy because of all the pessimism and hopelessness.”
Emerson sophomore Julie Morse said though she acknowledged Chomsky’s intelligence, she felt slightly lost in his rhetoric.
“I’ve read some of his work, like Chomsky on Anarchism,” she said. “While I respect his ideas and admire his stamina, that work came across as dry, dense and convoluted.”
Still, Chomsky is undeniably knowledgeable, said Vietnam veteran Joe Kebartas.
“He was right about Vietnam, and he’s right about Iraq,” he said. “The man is a prophet in his own right.”