September 3, 2013
ryan@huffingtonpost.com
Posted: 09/02/2013 5:19 pm
EDT | Updated: 09/03/2013 8:25 am EDT
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Noam Chomsky, United States
linguist and political critic, attends a talk July 26 at the press club in Geneva. Chomsky has
become well known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy, state
capitalism and the mainstream news media. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
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WASHINGTON -- A U.S.-led attack on Syria without
United Nations support would be a war crime regardless of congressional
approval, Noam Chomsky, the antiwar activist and author, said in response to
President Barack Obama's announcement that he would seek Hill approval.
"As international support for Obama’s decision to attack Syria has
collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration
has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the
credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world,"
Chomsky told HuffPost in an email.
Chomsky recently traveled to the region to learn more about the Syria crisis,
and his
comments there led some to believe he was open to military intervention if
negotiations failed to produce peace. "I believe you should choose the
negotiating track first, and should you fail, then moving to the second
option" -- backing the rebels -- "becomes more acceptable," he said.
But his comments to HuffPost indicate that he remains opposed to any
military action that came without U.N. approval.
"[T]hat aggression without UN authorization would be a war crime, a
very serious one, is quite clear, despite tortured efforts to invoke other
crimes as precedents," he added.
Liberals more associated with the establishment than Chomsky, who have
nevertheless tended to be critical of the president's foreign policy, cheered his decision to involve Congress as a step away
from an increasingly imperial presidency and toward more democratic
accountability of war making.
Chomsky upended the field of linguistics with a devastating critique of B.F.
Skinner in 1959 that changed the way people think about human cognitive
development. He has led a parallel career as a leading anarcho-syndicalist
author, historian and activist.
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