Noam Chomsky Quotes About Crime

• If something is right (or wrong) for us, it’s right (or wrong) for others. It follows that if it’s wrong for Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and a long list of others to bomb Washington and New York, then it’s wrong for Rumsfeld to bomb Afghanistan (on much flimsier pretexts), and he should be brought before war crimes trials.

  Noam Chomsky

  New York, War, Long

  "On Terrorism". Interview with John Bolender, chomsky.info. January, 2004.

• The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mother, People, Drug

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

• For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, Political, Crime

  Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian (2010). “Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World”, p.73, Macmillan

• The crimes committed against the people of West Papua are some of the most shameful of the past years. The Western powers have much to answer for, and at the very least should use their ample means to bring about the withdrawal of the occupying Indonesian army and termination of the shameful exploitation of resources and destruction of the environment and the lives and societies of the people of West Papua, who have suffered far too much.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Army, Past

• Nothing can justify crimes such as those of September 11, but we can think of the United States as an innocent victim only if we adopt the convenient path of ignoring the record of its actions and those of its allies, which are, after all, hardly a secret.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, September 11, Secret

  Noam Chomsky (2001). “9-11 [neuf-onze]”, p.35, Seven Stories Press

• The new crimes that the US and Israel were committing in Gaza as 2009 opened do not fit easily into any standard category—except for the category of familiarity.

  Noam Chomsky

  Israel, Gaza Strip, Fit

  Noam Chomsky, Ilan PappŽ (2014). “Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel's War Against the Palestinians”, p.101, Haymarket Books

• The September 11 attacks were major atrocities. . . . This was a horrendous crime . . . The primary victims . . . were working people: janitors, secretaries, firemen, etc. It is likely to prove to be a crushing blow to Palestinians . . . It is also likely to lead to harsh security controls, with many possible ramifications for undermining civil liberties and internal freedom.

  Noam Chomsky

  Crush, Blow, People

• Take any country that has laws against hate crimes, inspiring hatred and genocide and so on. The first thing they would do is ban the Old Testament. There's nothing like it in the literary canon that exalts genocide, to that extent. And it's not a joke either. Like where I live, New England, the people who liberated it from the native scourge were religious fundamentalist lunatics, who came waving the holy book, declaring themselves to be the children of Israel who are killing the Amalekites, like God told them.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Religious, Children

  Talk at the University of Houston, Texas, October 18, 2002.

• Our crimes, for which we are responsible: as taxpayers, for failing to provide massive reparations, for granting refuge and immunity to the perpetrators, and for allowing the terrible facts to be sunk deep in the memory hole. All of this is of great significance, as it has been in the past.

  Noam Chomsky

  Memories, Past, Church

  Noam Chomsky (2001). “9-11 [neuf-onze]”, p.46, Seven Stories Press

• The invasion of Iraq was simply a war crime. Straight-out war crime.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Iraq, Invasion

  "On the Election". "Real Time" with Bill Maher, chomsky.info. November 10, 2004.

• Naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk... It's as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes 'Jew' and 'Gypsy.'

  Noam Chomsky

  Weapons, Gypsy, Fighter

  "Noam Chomsky: My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death". www.guernicamag.com. May 6, 2011.

• The intellectual world is deeply conformist... We talk a lot about the crimes of others. When it comes to our own crimes, we are nationalists in the Orwellian sense.

  Noam Chomsky

  Intellectual, World, Crime

  "The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System". Interview with Gabor Steingart, www.spiegel.de. October 10, 2008.

• In November 2004, U.S. occupation forces launched their second major attack on the city of Falluja. The press reported major war crimes instantly, with approval.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Cities, Occupation

  Noam Chomsky (2007). “Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy”, p.46, Macmillan

• There was a really monstrous and almost literal genocide in the Mayan area, specifically under Ríos Montt. By now it has been recognized somewhat by Guatemalan society. In fact, Montt was under trial for some crimes. But the U.S. prohibits people from fleeing here.

  Noam Chomsky

  People, Fleeing, Trials

  Source: thehumanist.com

• The basic principle is that the losers have to confess, not the victors. When they do it, it's a crime. When we do it, it's not. And more generally, it's the defeated who are tried, not the victors.

  Noam Chomsky

  Principles, Loser, Defeated

  Source: progressive.org

• There's a War Crimes Act in the United States passed by a Republican Congress in 1996, which says that grave breaches of the Geneva Convention are subject to the death penalty. And that doesn't mean the soldier that committed them - that means the commanders.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Mean, Soldier

  Interview with M. Junaid Alam, www.counterpunch.org. December 27, 2004.

• Suppose that I see a hungry child in the street, and I am able to offer the child some food. Am I morally culpable if I refuse to do so? Am I morally culpable if I choose not to do what I easily can about the fact that 1000 children die every hour from easily preventable disease, according to UNICEF? Or the fact that the government of my own "free and open society" is engaged in monstrous crimes that can easily be mitigated or terminated? Is it even possible to debate these questions?

  Noam Chomsky

  Children, Government, Disease

  Source: www.publicanthropology.org

• What matters is the way we Americans think about ourselves. We think about ourselves as incapable of committing crimes. Everything we do, we make a lot of errors, you know, you can't help it. Mistakes all over the place, but out of naïveté or, you know, misplaced kindness or something like that.

  Noam Chomsky

  Kindness, Mistake, Thinking

  Source: www.truth-out.org

• Some international law specialists compare the invasion of Iraq to the 'crimes against the peace' for which Nazi leaders were indicted at Nuremberg.

  Noam Chomsky

  Law, Iraq, Leader

• The "prophets" were what we would call dissident intellectuals. They provided critical geopolitical analysis, condemned the crimes of the powerful, called for justice and mercy for those who needed help, etc. I wouldn't personally endorse everything they said, any more than I would for critics of power and its crimes today. But rather generally I think they played an honorable role - and suffered accordingly.

  Noam Chomsky

  Powerful, Thinking, Justice

  Source: chomsky.info

• The US cannot be brought to the World Court for major crimes, for example the supreme international crime, invasion, or violation of the UN Charter, or violation of the Genocide Convention, these are things the US is exempt from, because they exempted themselves from being subjected to international treaties in World Court proceedings.

  Noam Chomsky

  Example, World, Invasion

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• As far as U.S. intelligence knows, Iran is developing nuclear capacities, but they don't know if they are trying to develop nuclear weapons or not. Chances are they're developing what's called 'nuclear capability,' which many states have. That is the ability to have nuclear weapons if they decide to do it. That's not a crime.

  Noam Chomsky

  Iran, Trying, Nuclear

  "Noam Chomsky: Talking About Iran Sanctions Is ‘Surreal’" by Andrew Perez, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 23, 2014.

• The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it's likely to harm them.

  Noam Chomsky

  Doe, Lebanon, Territory

• If you look back to the anti-intervention movements, what were they? Let's take the Vietnam War - the biggest crime since the Second World War. You couldn't be opposed to the war for years. The mainstream liberal intellectuals were enthusiastically in support of the war. In Boston, a liberal city where I was, we literally couldn't have a public demonstration without it being violently broken up, with the liberal press applauding, until late 1966.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Boston, Years

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• If in fact, the US story is correct, if it is true that Syria used chemical weapons, then it wouldn't be a major crime to send a kind of shot across the bow saying you can't do this anymore. Not the best thing in the world, but not a major crime, either. So, I think at the very least there should have been an inquiry into what happened. But just joining the bandwagon about how we're finally standing up to crimes in Syria, that's ridiculous.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Should Have, Stories

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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