Noam Chomsky (2014): What Does National Interests Actually Mean?

what does the phrase national interest mean I mean the phrase national interest is used standardly in the academic world no international relations theory claims that states pursue the national interest that's the leading principle of all discussion what is it I mean does the CEO of General Electric have the same interest as the janitor cleanses floors they have totally different interests now there's all kinds of interests and what's called the national interest turns out to be the interest of dominant domestic forces in u.s. society so the national interest means the interests of the very rich major corporations the ones who set government policy and so on that's the national interest and not the population the population is basically irrelevant the population will often strongly opposes government policy and they're simply disregarded not just on this case many others say take Cuba for 50 years the United States has been waging a war against Cuba major terrorist war not trivial it's not these jokes about Castro's beard that the press talks about major terrorist attacks thousands of people killed and so on an embargo crushing embargo that the whole world opposes how does the US population feel about it well there have been polls since the 1970s large majority of the population thinks we should normalize relations with Cuba does anybody pay attention to them doesn't make any difference in fact the gap between a public opinion and policy is enormous on issue after issue and it takes a domestic issues for again about 40 years their regular polls asking people what they think about the tax system overwhelmingly people say there should be much higher taxes on the wealthy what happens taxes on the wealthy go down and it's the same on issue after issue we do not live in a society in which the public determines policy the public's around you know but basically disregarded unless they force themselves to into the system by serious activism and I think that's true of national interest so let's take national interest in its real sense the interest of those who are in a position of power in American society to be able to make decisions what's their interest well lots of interests some are straight strategic now you go back to 1948 the Joint Chiefs of Staff were very impressed with Israel's military performance during the 48 War and recognized as they put it that Israel could become a valuable base for American power I said it's the major military force in the region outside of Turkey and it would be a perfect ally and base for u.s. power the oil dictatorships Saudi Arabia primarily they made it very clear that they didn't mind there was not going to be any threat to US oil interests in fact they had their own Saudi Arabian Saudi Arabia's a family basically you know the royal family they made it quite clear that that even though they had to publicly condemn Israel they didn't really mean it they actually thought it was fine if Israel was there Israel their concern remember at the time was Britain the main concern of the in the Arab world was Britain it and Jordan which was a was Transjordan at the time which was a British colony and the Hashemite rule and the Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia just driven the Hashemites out of the you know the holy territories Mecca Medina they thought they might be coming back now they didn't want that they wanted a deterrent to Jordan Transjordan especially because the British were trying to set up a Hashemite system which would govern both Transjordan and Iraq which is regarded as a threat serious threat by Saudi Arabia and what are now the Emirates and Israel was a kind of a deterrence so they didn't really mind and in fact that continues Saudi Arabia and Israel have fairly common policies right now furthermore in 1967 crucial year that's when US the us-israel relationship was actually established in its current form before that it was kind of friendly but nothing unique became unique after 67 something happened in 67 Israel provided a great gift to Saudi Arabia and the United States there was a conflict has been long-standing conflict between radical Islam and secular nationalism and the United States like British Britain before it has pretty consistently supported radical Islam still continues to the center of radical Islam is Saudi Arabia the most extremist radical Islamist state in the world and also a missionary state they try to expand their wildest Salafi doctrines all over the place and they're the strongest ally the United States and Britain had similar policies in 1967 there was a war going on between Saudi Arabia and Egypt Egypt was the center of secular nationalism Israel invaded Egypt then pretty much destroyed its its basis its base in the Arab world also Syria serious blow against secular nationalism great victory for radical Islam big victory for the United States which regarded Nasser's Egypt as the main threat that's when the special relationship was established and it continued like that first time I go on it remains a major strategic base fact they want to know how serious it is that one of the most interesting of the wiki leaks was a list of the regions of the world that the United agon regards as super important have to be protected you know no matter what that one of them is right outside Haifa Rafael military industries it's a high-tech military industry right outside Haifa one of the places where most of the drone technology was developed it's so closely linked to US industry into the Pentagon that they actually shifted their management headquarters to Washington where the money is but it's it's just essentially part of US military industry and that's just the beginning it's a major player the millet for US military industry Israel's just a bonanza when the u.s. cell gives you know high-class jets to Israel of course Lockheed Martin makes a lot of money but it's more than that when Israel when they when the United States gives Israel high-tech military equipment that's a teaser because they call it in the retail business Saudi Arabia comes along says hey we want some of that stuff too and we want a lot more so Lockheed Martin is happy to sell sixty billion dollars worth of Lockheed Martin and others of second-rate equipment to Saudi Arabia so that they can don't be happy that they have a lot of this stuff to that they don't know how to use so it's a it's terrific bonanza for military industry also Israel provides special services it can try out advanced military equipment against live targets that's what they're doing all the time you can't usually do that but every was doing it constantly that when they attack as a operation of the West Bank when they invade Lebanon they've done five times they are testing advanced US equipment figuring out what works and they develop their own equipment of course they're a major supplier of advanced military equipment including equipment for suppression they trained us police forces for example plenty of work in the third world fact that when Reagan was blocked from direct support from South Africa Israel was used as a conduit and same in Central America so there's plenty of services like that but there's a lot more one reason is one factor that tends to be underestimated I think is Christian Zionism Christian Zionism goes back way before Jewish Zionism it way into the 19th century and it's a very significant a leap phenomenon in the United States they say people like Woodrow Wilson Harry Truman so on the read the Bible every day you know and are believers in the biblical prophecies while the Bible says you know God promised the land to Israel so got to give it to Israel and the Roosevelt administration one of the leading figures Harold Ickes described the return of the Jews to Palestine as the greatest event in history by now it's expanded from a lead Christian Zionism to mass popular Christian Zionism with the enormous rise of the far-right evangelical Christian movement since mainly pretty much in the 1950s it was always around but became expanded and organized the major base for the Republican Party and their super Zionists they're also extremely untie semitic their theology if you read it is you have to support israel because that'll lead to Armageddon everybody gets slaughtered and the souls that are saved rise to heaven and everybody else goes somewhere bad and including all the Jews you can't be more anti-semitic than that but a hundred and sixty thousand Jews can be saved because they're going to you know recognize Christ in time or so that's the story there are tens of millions of Americans who believe this they're a large part of the base of the Republican Party now so one of the reasons whether Republican Party is more extreme in support of Israel than the Democrats are even though you know the money in the votes mostly go to Democrats from Jews and liberal but and the another factor which i think is underestimated is what I mentioned before the u.s. is a settler colonial society it's based on extermination of the native population for the greater good of all that's the way we you know that's of course part of the background so when you see Israel doing the same thing you should support it it's just instinctive you know if we did it it's got to be right by definition and they seem to be doing it so you know it's got to be right I think that's a not negligible factor in it in addition there is a there's a significant lobby so there's an ethnic lobby which is powerful but ethnic lobbies are pretty limited in their power I mean they can be overwhelmed by the major lobbies and instantly I'm the military lobby for example Dwarfs APEC the Chamber of Commerce you know the business lobbies Dorf all of them if they really decided that their interests were being harmed they would put the lobby out of business in no time so they're there but as long as they're put their actions support the national interest in the real sense you know the interest of the powerful you know they're influential so you can get votes in Congress you know 100 senators voting recognize the capital of Jerusalem which and they don't do things like that when the lobby runs into conflict with real US power it just backs off they're not idiots and that happens in case after case but these are plenty of factors and I think they can be overcome but we shouldn't underestimate their significance

Channel: LeighaCohen

Views: 13,854

Rating: 4.9341564 out of 5

Keywords: National Interests, US Domestic Policies, People are not listed to, Class Warefare, Our Poliics towards Middle East, US polices and Cuba, US policies and Saudia Arabia, Us Polices and Supporting Radical Ismlam, Us Polices towards Eqypt, OIl interests in Middle East, US policies towards Isreal, Who is Running the US?, US people Disenfranchised from governement

Id: tbVhz5SUmtw

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Sun May 11 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Dissentologist]

I tell people all the time that there is a very distinct difference between American Interest and the interest of the American Citizen.