Chomsky

Brian Leiter quotes Noam Chomsky:

“Among Western intellectuals, it is a virtual axiom that the US goal — sometimes Bush’s ‘messianic mission,’ as the elite press puts it — is to bring democracy to Iraq, the Middle East, and the world. [In Iraq, however, the great majority believe] the obvious answer, dismissed with some hysteria here as a ‘conspiracy theory’ or with some other intellectual equivalent of a four-letter word: to control Iraq’s resources and to reorganize the Middle East in the interests of the US and its Israeli client.”

Chomsky appears to endorse this “obvious answer,” but his argument is weak. Lets start with the claim that the US is trying “to reorganize the Middle East in the interests of the US and its Israeli client” rather than to promote democracy. But most defenders of the war, including me, would argue that the US is attempting to do both. It is trying to establish a democratic Iraq, with the understanding that a democratic Iraq would promote individual rights, civil society, commerce, and peace, and thereby would be in the interests of the US and other democracies in the region, including Israel (and also Turkey). To my mind, this strategy is both moral and has a better chance of achieving these laudable objectives than other possible strategies do.



It is not clear why Chomsky ignores the possibility that we are furthering our self interest by undertaking the morally praiseworthy task of promoting democracy. But a large part of good statesmanship is to find policies which have this double benefit. Sadly, we are too often faced with the choice of helping ourselves or helping others. But when we can help ourselves by helping others, we should jump at the chance. That is, after all, what is so great about the invisible hand in a functioning market. Somehow, I think Chomsky missed that one, too.



Finally, consider the claim that the US “seeks to control Iraq’s resources.” While this makes it seem as if we are trying to transfer the oil fields, in fee simple, to the US, our objectives are a bit more limited and benign. Our first objective was to keep Iraqi oil (and Kuwaiti oil) out of the hands of that evil menace, Saddam. Beyond that, I am sure the US would be happy if Iraq were to leave OPEC and help undermine that cartel, but I can’t imagine many people believe this is likely to happen. For what it is worth, there is also no dishonor in that objective: again, our self interest coincides with a moral goal: We would be promoting the dissolution of a cartel, an objective we generally regard as good public policy and which would benefit not only US consumers but consumers throughout the world.