Acts of Aggression - Softcover

What constitutes the behavior that gets a nation labeled a "rogue state"? If, Noam Chomsky suggests, we consider a state to be acting in an "outlaw" fashion when it refuses to heed the articles and resolutions of the United Nations, then the United States is as much a "rogue state" as Saddam Hussein's Iraq--if not more. Chomsky presents a brief outline of America's attempts--once the cold war was over--to reconstruct Iraq as an enemy after years of turning a blind eye to Saddam's activities and even supplying him with aid. He also considers how the broader "war" on terrorism fits into this post-cold-war strategy. Noted commentator on Middle Eastern affairs Edward Said supplements Chomsky's argument with a consideration of the severity of U.S. sanctions against Iraq and what he views as a growing disregard for the interests of other Arab nations in the region. And Ramsey Clark offers a brief coda on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Chomsky himself delivers a more elaborate consideration of this theme in another book in the Open Media series, The Umbrella of U.S. Power. --Ron Hogan

Noam Chomsky lives in Cambridge MA. Ramsey Clark served as Attorney General of the United States during the Johnson Administration. Edward W. Said is the Old Dominion Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.