Noam Chomsky says something true - America "is officially committed to international terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shame"

[zen at freedbms.net (Zenaan Harkness)]

Chomsky says a lot of things, and some of the things he says are
actually true, such as this fact:

  Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor at MIT, said, â??There are many
  terrorist states in the world but the United States is unusual in
  that it is officially committed to international terrorism, and on
  a scale that puts its rivals to shameâ??.


When you've finished with the depressing facts of reality, here's a
song to lift us all up:
  A Better Place _ Playing For Change _ Song Around The World
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVHOqrw3Jks




US topping polls of â??greatest threat to world peaceâ?? to continue
http://theduran.com/us-topping-polls-greatest-threat-world-peace-continue/
  by Shane Quinn
  October 6, 2017, 22:05
The United States will expand its already enormous military outlay,
sending a clear message to the world.

Last week Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro described the United
States as, â??the most criminal empire in the history of mankindâ??.
Whether such a statement is true, one cannot deny the US has
repeatedly topped polls of international opinion on the subject:
Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the
world today?

Time and again the global community have overwhelmingly
http://brilliantmaps.com/threat-to-peace/
voted the US as â??the greatest threatâ?? to their existence. In one such
WIN/Gallup poll from less than four years ago, the US garnered three
times the votes of second-place Pakistan.

Such decisive results are hardly reported in the Western mainstream,
it would be ill-advised to inform unsuspecting Westerners of useless
facts â?? instead they are disappeared down George Orwellâ??s memory
hole.

As a consequence of the predictable survey results, perhaps the
question should be framed rather differently â?? â??How can nations be
secured in the face of the US threat?â?? Seeing as how pollsters such
as the Gallup company and Pew Research Centre are headquartered in
Washington, that seems unlikely.

The investigative journalist John Pilger wrote of
https://books.google.ie/books?id=HU0iOB0CLxEC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=pilger+%E2%80%9CThe+trail+of+blood+is+endless:+from+the+subjugation+of+the+Philippines+and+Central+America&source=bl&ots=n2qm7FRvN7&sig=2fWV52_uteKJgDnQpGZ1NPnyegQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiere
American aggression, â??The trail of blood is endless: from the
subjugation of the Philippines and Central America, to the greatest
terrorist attacks of all, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; from
the devastation of Indochina, such as the murder of 600,000 peasants
in neutral Cambodia, and the use of chemicals and starvation against
civilian populations, to the shooting down of an Iranian passenger
plane, and the bombing of prisoners of war in a mud fort in
Afghanistan. The documentation of American terror is voluminousâ??.

The US is the only nation to have ever been convicted by the World
Court for international terrorism (in 1986), against Nicaragua during
the Ronald Reagan era, under the old â??war on terrorâ?? pretext. The
destruction wrought against Nicaragua by US-backed contras â??
terrorists â?? was so severe that the World Court had no other option.
These unwelcome facts have again been consigned to historical
oblivion.

Backing up the claims Noam Chomsky, Emeritus Professor at MIT, said,
â??There are many terrorist states in the world but the United States
is unusual in that it is officially committed to international
terrorism, and on a scale that puts its rivals to shameâ??.

In the Middle East, the perception
https://electronicintifada.net/content/poll-israel-us-greatest-threats-middle-east/7461
of America is even worse â?? with about two-thirds of respondents
saying they hold a â??very unfavourableâ?? view of the US. Israel, the
USâ??s right arm in the region, has also long been viewed negatively in
the Middle East. Examining the respective grisly records, this is
hardly a revelation, while Iran barely features on its neighboursâ??
threat scope.

The US has repeatedly invaded Iraq and Afghanistan, while Israel has
attacked Lebanon, Egypt and Syria, all with US support â?? not to
mention Israelâ??s occupation of much of the Golan Heights (Syrian
land) and Palestinian territories, and their treatment of the
inhabitants there.

Pilger again reveals that, â??Palestinians have been denied a right to
return to their homes, in breach of numerous UN resolutions and
international lawâ?¦ The BBC refers to Israelâ??s policy of assassination
as â??targeted killingâ??, the euphemism used by Israeli spokesmen. It is
rarely reported that of the hundreds killed and thousands wounded in
the Second Intifada [Palestinian uprising], 90% have been Palestinian
civilians, 45% have been under 18, and 60% were shot in their homes,
schools and workplacesâ??.

In November 2003, before the Iraq warâ??s implications became clear,
Europeans viewed
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1445904/Israel-is-No-1-threat-to-peace-says-EU-poll.html
Israel as â??the No. 1 threat to world peaceâ??. Such were the results of
a survey conducted by the European Commission, which prompted
â??outrageâ?? from the Israeli embassy in Brussels, and much apologising
from squeamish European politicians. It is unwise to upset the master
across the Atlantic.

In the time since, citizens in the US, Britain and Canada often claim
Iran to be the biggest threat to peace on earth â?? a rare insight into
how successful Western propaganda has been. Across centuries Iran
have no record of having outright invaded another country, nor do
they possess weapons of mass destruction like nuclear warheads.
Within the past century the US has attacked numerous sovereign
nations, breaching international law with little respite.

North Korea is another bogeyman of the West, but as with Iran, these
views have little basis in reality. In the last 60 years and more
North Korea have no record of having invaded another country â?? during
the Korean War more of the Northâ??s towns were destroyed (by the US)
than either those of Germany or Japan during World War II. Despite
this, most Americans currently regard the DPRK as â??a very serious
threatâ?? to their country.

Yet who is being threatened? There are thousands of American troops
situated in South Korea, perilously close to the Northâ??s border â??
along with aircraft, artillery and ships. Considering Americaâ??s
foreign policy record, and past destruction of North Korea, Kim
Jong-un and colleagues have every right to be agitated. They continue
to act out of fear.

As does Maduro, with the Venezuelan leader demanding last week that
his army â??have the rifles, the missiles, and the well-oiled tanks at
the readyâ??. Maduro expressed humanityâ??s future â??cannot lie in the
threats of nuclear strikes or military invasionsâ??. The US possesses
thousands of nuclear weapons and are the only state to have used
them, on Japan.

In 2016, the US military expenditure was 50 times bigger than Iranâ??s,
for example, a statistic that goes without mention. The US is away
into the distance when it comes to military outlay, almost three
times that of second-place China â?? and about nine times that of
Russia. The disparity is set to widen further.

Not satisfied with last yearâ??s arms budget of $611 billion, the US
Senate recently passed a $700 billion â??defence policy billâ?? â?? which
in turn â??back[s] President Donald Trumpâ??s call for a bigger, stronger
militaryâ??. The proposed $90 billion enlargement is greater than
Russiaâ??s entire military expense for 2016 ($69.2 billion).

Possessing by far the largest military machine on earth is still not
deemed substantial enough. This sends a signal and the message could
hardly be clearer: the US is set to increase its military operations.
The world has been warned.

The first major steps can be witnessed in the growing presence of
American soldiers in Afghanistan under President Trump. Bob Corker,
chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on
Sunday, â??But are we likely to have troops in Afghanistan for the next
decade? Sure.â??