Noam Chomsky Quotes About Nuclear Weapons

• As long as nuclear weapons exist, the chances of survival of the human species are quite slight.

  Noam Chomsky

  Long, Survival, Nuclear

  "Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war" by Edward Wilson, www.theguardian.com. October 27, 2012.

• When people know we are ready to use nuclear weapons, they're going to back off if we do something aggressive. So basically, nuclear weapons are always being used.

  Noam Chomsky

  People, Nuclear, Use

  Source: www.salon.com

• North Korea and China have proposed what sounds like a pretty sensible option that North Korea should end its development of nuclear weapons, the US should stop carrying out hostile military maneuvers on the North Korean border. The US immediately rejected it. Modernization program is a very clear example of how security doesn't matter. There is no gain in security but massive overkill of the adversary's deterrent capacity. The only consequence of it is to elicit the likelihood of a preemptive attack. And a preemptive attack leads to a nuclear winter world.

  Noam Chomsky

  Military, Winter, World

  Source: www.truth-out.org

• Israel has a couple of hundred nuclear weapons and also chemical and biological weapons. This stockpile is not only a threat in itself but encourages others to proliferate in reaction and in self-defense. Is anybody saying anything about this?

  Noam Chomsky

  Couple, Israel, Self

  Interview with David Barsamian, progressive.org. May 1, 2004.

• With regard to nuclear weapons, it's kind of hard to say. [Donald Trump] is said lots of things. The national security experts are terrified. But they're more terrified by his personality than by his statements.

  Noam Chomsky

  Personality, Experts, Nuclear

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• What can you do to mitigate the likelihood that Iran will develop nuclear weapons? There's a very simple method: move towards establishing a nuclear-weapons-free zone, which everybody in the world wants, but the US blocks.

  Noam Chomsky

  Block, Moving, Simple

  Source: www.truth-out.org

• Iran has been calling for it for years, and the Arab countries support it. Everyone except the United States and Israel support it. The U.S. won't allow it because it means inspecting Israel's nuclear weapons. The U.S. has continued to block it, and in fact blocked it again just a couple of days ago; it just wasn't widely reported. Iran's nuclear program, as U.S. intelligence points out, is deterrent, and the bottom line is that the U.S. and Israel don't want Iran to have a deterrent.

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Couple, Block

  "Noam Chomsky on the 2016 Republicans: "I Have Never Seen Such Lunatics in the Political System". Interview with Simone Chun, www.alternet.org. March 11, 2016.

• Arab public opinion does not regard Iran as a hostile entity. In fact it's so supportive of Iran that a majority would think the place would be better off if Iran had nuclear weapons. The main enemies are the United States and Isreal, in the 80, 90 percent range.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Iran, Enemy

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

• I don't think that the United States cares. They just assume that North Korea will soon have nuclear weapons.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Korea, United States

  "Noam Chomsky on the 2016 Republicans: "I Have Never Seen Such Lunatics in the Political System". Interview with Simone Chun, www.alternet.org. March 11, 2016.

• That's a point that Dan Ellsberg has made for years. He said it's kind of like if you and I go into a grocery store to rob it, and I have a gun. The guy may give you the money in the cash register. I'm using the gun even if I don't shoot. Well that's nuclear weapons - essential to post-war deterrence - they cast a shadow over everything.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Gun, Years

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• I don't think that any deal was needed: Iran was not a threat. Even if Iran were a threat, there was a very easy way to handle it - by establishing a Middle East Nuclear Weapons Free Zone, which is something that nearly everyone in the world wants.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Iran, World

  "Noam Chomsky on the 2016 Republicans: "I Have Never Seen Such Lunatics in the Political System". Interview with Simone Chun, www.alternet.org. March 11, 2016.

• Over the years, there's been case after case when there were very narrow decisions that had to be made about whether to launch nuclear weapons in serious cases. What is this guy [Donald Trump] going to do if his vaunted negotiating skills fail, if somebody doesn't do what he says? Is he going to say, "Okay we'll nuke them? We're done?"

  Noam Chomsky

  Skills, Years, Guy

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• If you want to find weapons of destruction, you can find them all over the place. Take, say, Israel. There is a very great concern right now about proliferation of nuclear weapons, as there should be. Israel has a couple of hundred nuclear weapons and also chemical and biological weapons. This stockpile is not only a threat in itself but encourages others to proliferate in reaction and in self-defense. Is anybody saying anything about this?

  Noam Chomsky

  Couple, Israel, Self

  Source: progressive.org

• It's easy to put [serious threats] aside, and the media don't talk about them. Other things are more important. How am I going to put food on the table tomorrow? That's what I've got to worry about, and so on. It's very serious, but it's hard to bring out the enormity of these issues, when they do not have the dramatic character of something you can show in the movies, with a nuclear weapons falling and everything disappears.

  Noam Chomsky

  Fall, Character, Media

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• Surely no rational or realistic person will discount the possibility that [during wartime] the United States might suddenly resort to nuclear weapons. Those who retain the instinct for survival, not to speak of minimal concern for their fellow man, will seek ways to act before rather than after the event.

  Noam Chomsky

  Men, Survival, Church

• Israel produces and stores chemical weapons. So therefore the US will prevent the Chemical Weapons Convention from being imposed on the Middle East. But it's necessary to evade this by misrepresenting the convention, and I think maybe 100 percent of the media, or close to it, go along. But that's a critical issue. Actually, Syria's chemical weapons were developed largely as a deterrent to Israeli nuclear weapons. Also, not mentioned.

  Noam Chomsky

  Thinking, Media, Issues

  Source: www.truth-out.org

• That's our nuclear weapons strategy [going to frighten people], as of the early post-Cold War years. And I think this is a real failure of the intellectual community, including scholarship and the media. It's not like you had headlines all over the place. And it's not secret, the documents are there. And I think that's probably the right picture.

  Noam Chomsky

  Real, War, Thinking

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

• The [Ronald] Reagan administration picked up the rhetoric of the anti-nuclear movement; they said "Yyeah, you're right." We have to eliminate nuclear weapons.

  Noam Chomsky

  Nuclear, Movement, Weapons

  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 Iranian issue I don't think has much to do with nuclear weapons frankly. Nobody is saying Iran should have nuclear weapons ­nor should anybody else. But the point in the Middle East, as distinct from North Korea, is that this is center of the world's energy resources. Originally the British and secondarily the French had dominated it, but after the Second World War, it's been a U.S. preserve. That's been an axiom of U.S. foreign policy, that it must control Middle East energy resources.

  Noam Chomsky

  War, Thinking, Issues

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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