The American 'idea'

          According to gallup.com in 2009, 45% of the American public feel that Guantanamo Bay should be closed down, even though it is generally known to be a detention camp that violates international human rights laws. (U.N Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9). In “Our Unending War on Terror" an opinion piece written by world renown linguist, social activist, and historian, Noam Chomsky, takes on the topic of torture, terror and its' legality by deeply examining its' current use in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and its' roots in American history dating back to the nations’ infancy. The opening parts of the opinion piece analyzes the historical context in which the United States adopted imperialist policy for its’ national interest and how torture techniques developed from these imperialist policies, but more importantly how fundamental American ideas and goals of our country differed greatly from the reality at that time. The opinion piece then proceeds to elaborate on how both the Bush, and Obama administration continue to tolerate torture techniques in Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere and how the practice of ‘torture’ is creating negative repercussions. In Noam Chomsky’s opinion piece, “Our unending war on terror,” the author uses ethos, historical rhetoric, and repetition of the phrases and main points in order to convey the message that American perspective on foreign policy of freedom, and justice is completely skewed from the reality of the situation, the American public is smoke screened from the greater truth.


          Throughout Chomsky’s opinion piece, historical rhetoric was employed in order to convince the reader that even in the founding years of the United States, when the constitution and “ ‘national purpose’ ”(Chomsky) was laid in its’ foundation, it was merely an idea that the country would strive for, however what happened was completely different, it was an “ ‘abuse of reality’ ” (Chomsky). As explained by Chomsky, a great example of this would be the eradication of Native Americans by the Colonists, Chomsky quotes John Quincy Adam’s perspective on the slaughter of Native Americans, “that hapless race of native Americans, which we are exterminating with such merciless and perfidious cruelty … The merciless and perfidious cruelty continued until the West was won. Instead of God's judgment, the heinous sins today bring only praise for the fulfillment of the American ‘idea.’, ” the quote clearly explained how greater truth was ‘put under the rug,’ and the hypothetical American ‘idea’ was emphasized in order to show only the ‘good’, not ‘the ugly’ of American history. This hypothetical American ‘idea’ of freedom and liberty was yet again employed in the colonization of the Philippines as explained by Chomsky “ ‘the blessings of liberty and civilization upon all the rescued peoples of the Philippines’ (in the words of the platform of Lodge's Republican Party), however as Chomsky explained these “blessings of liberty and civilization”(Chomsky) only reached out to those who weren’t murdered or killed by the collateral damage the Philippine-American war caused, and yet again, the bigger picture of what the American ‘idea’ has directly caused, which is death, was simply buried under the dirt. By using historical facts backed up by quotes from reliable sources, Chomsky effectively builds trust with the reader, and also makes the reader feel that they are reading the truth.


          Chomsky gives the reader an interesting perspective on how the U.S used ‘torture’ techniques in historical chronology but more importantly gives the reader an understanding on how ‘torture’ is still practiced to this day by the Obama administration; only now, the practice is less transparent. This fits in together with the greater message Chomsky is trying to convey to the readers throughout the article, that the greater truth in American foreign policy is masked and hidden. Chomsky makes a strong argument in the beginning of the paragraph on ‘torture’ by paraphrasing a theme from a book written by a credible historian Alfred McCoy, his main point being, that torture techniques developed from the 1950’s by the CIA in comparison to the torture in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, has not changed. Even though Chomsky explains how ‘torture’ techniques has not changed, he then gives the reader a revelation that even though ‘torture’ techniques on prisoners has not changed in the past 50 years, the way the U.S is enforcing ‘torture’ has. Chomsky explains, “In ordinary American practice, torture was largely farmed out to subsidiaries, not carried out by Americans directly in their own government-established torture chambers,” (Chomsky) the quote explains how ‘torture’ is carried out by Americans, just not in a direct way. Chomsky then continues with the use of historical rhetoric and the use of credible sources in order to back up his main point. Chomsky says in the same paragraph, “Sometimes the American engagement in torture was even more indirect. In a 1980 study, Latin Americanist Lars Schoultz found that U.S. aid "has tended to flow disproportionately to Latin American governments which torture their citizens… Not surprisingly, U.S. aid tends to correlate with a favorable climate for business operations, commonly improved by the murder of labor and peasant organizers and human rights activists and other such actions,” (Chomsky) in that quote Chomsky clearly explains how the U.S uses ‘torture’ indirectly but also uses it for its’ national interests. As mentioned earlier this argument is backed up by credible sources such as Lars Shoultz who is a famous professor, and it also uses historical facts by quoting something that happened in the 1980’s. Again, throughout the opinion piece, Chomsky makes the reader feel that his point is valid and verifiable, because he quotes from reliable sources backed up by historical facts, even though his argument can be debated and scrutinized. This eliminates the thought of doubting his rhetoric, questioning his reasoning and sources, and makes the reader feel that he is reading the truth.


          Chomsky reiterates the point that the truth is hidden by using historical rhetoric about past presidents policies on the use of ‘torture’ to the Obama administration. He first explained how mental torture techniques versus physical torture developed by the CIA was a much more effective way of retrieving information from captives and how ‘mental’ torture was left out of International Torture Convention convened by the U.N. As Chomsky said “ ‘fly your abducted prisoners to Guantanamo and they have constitutional rights, but fly them instead to Bagram and you can disappear them forever with no judicial process’ ,” the quote clearly explains how ‘torture’ techniques are still supported by the U.S.


          The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ is mentioned over four times throughout the article, and it is a rhetorical strategy Chomsky uses in order to convince the reader his point. The phrase ‘abuse of reality’ in context of the article is understood as the nations’ national goal of freedom and liberty that overshadows the greater darker truth from the American public. As mentioned earlier, we can draw many examples of this through out our history, such as the murder of Native Americans, the Philippine-American war, ‘War on Terror’, etc… Chomsky not only gives examples of how ‘abuse of reality’ has happened in our nation, but then he continues on how ‘abuse of reality’ happened many times throughout the world in places such as the Sino-Japanese war, Algeria, and Vietnam.


          In later paragraphs of the article, Chomsky conveys another meaning of ‘abuse of reality,’ it is when a single event is focused in the public’s eye, however the greater picture is obscured because of the overwhelming focus on that single event. A better elaboration of this would be by Chomsky himself. “As long as such "exceptionalist" theses remain firmly implanted, however, the occasional revelations of the "abuse of history" often backfire, serving only to efface terrible crimes. The My Lai massacre was a mere footnote to the vastly greater atrocities of the post-Tet pacification programs, ignored while indignation in this country was largely focused on this single crime,” that quote gives the reader an idea of what has happened and what is happening today. For example, the government and the media focus on single events such as Guantanamo Bay, while ignoring the clear fact that there are thousands of civilian casualties lost under the Iraq war. The effect Chomsky is trying to accomplish by repeating the phrase ‘abuse of reality,’ is trying to make the reader focus his attention on that single idea or rhetoric, in which in this opinion piece, is that American foreign policy and the American ‘idea’ greatly differs to what we actually do and practice. The focus on that rhetoric also makes the opinion piece more coherent, and understandable; it makes the reader on task and keeps him interested.


          Chomsky’s uses many rhetorical strategies in order to convince the reader that America’s goals and foreign policy is not all in black and white, and that there are things that are covered up from the American public. He uses many historical examples to support his claim, and by using those examples backed up by credible sources, it gives the reader a better understanding of what is happening today. The greater question this article raises about our nation and the world is the question of transparency of the government from the public. It asks us if our government and if foreign governments are telling us the truth, and more importantly what is their actual goal or interest apart from hypothetical perceived purpose of the usual: ‘freedom and liberty’. A recent event that uncovered many classified documents showing how U.S government has covered up mishaps that happened in the Iraq war, was released by a private organization called WikiLeaks, and it truly uncovers the truth from obscurity.


Works Cited


Chomsky, Noam. "Our Unending War of Terror - George W. Bush - Salon.com." Salon.com - Salon.com. 19 May 2009. Web. 12 June 2011. .


Morales, Lymari. "Americans Send No Clear Mandate on Guantanamo Bay." Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. 21 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 June 2011. .