Rough Draft One.

According to gallup.com in 2009. 45% of the American public feel that Guantanamo Bay ‘no, should not’ be closed down, even though it is generally known to be a detention camp that violates international human rights law. (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 it’s national interest and how torture techniques developed from it, 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. In Noam Chomsky’s opinion piece, “Our unending war on terror,” the author uses historical rhetoric, logical rhetoric, and repetition of the phrase “abuse of reality” 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.