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On Western Terrorism
Reviewed by Sudhirendar Sharma
30 Nov 2013Has the world gone mad?
So, it would seem! Else, all dreams for better arrangement of the world would
not have been attacked, poisoned, discredited and ridiculed. From Cuba to Rwanda
and from Congo to Iraq, countries refusing to Western dictate have succumbed to
atrocities unleashed in the guise of ensuring 'political stability'. Accumulated
evidence indicates that western terrorism has consumed lives of some 55 million
people around the world since the end of World War II.
The shocking reality is that such global arrangements have not only gone
unchallenged in the West, it has often been accepted without much opposition in
rest of the world too. The conversation between a renowned social critic and an
investigative photo journalist offers a painful reflection on how millions of
'un-people', a term George Orwell had coined for people who do not matter,
continue to be victims of the neo-colonial whip.
In 173 pages, the conversation traverses across the world to unveil the
footprints of imperialist brutality. The facts are devastating and so are the
manipulative designs of the powers that be. There is not much to choose between
Europe's brutal colonial legacy and America's neo-colonial hegemony. The form
may have changed, from armed combat to drone warfare, but the content and the
intent remain the same. The West, despite few setbacks, seems to be trying to
consolidate its control over the world. It is seemingly not done yet!
The trouble with this otherwise absorbing conversation between two
intellectuals who are in the prime of their career is that both have similar
insights on the geopolitics of organised crime by the West. Consequently, one
doesn't get to the depth of why-the-world-is-the-way-it-is and
how-it-could-be-different-from-what-it-is? Exposing the hypocrisy of the
imperialist forces, however, the conversation takes a definite shot at the media
reinforced argument which presents terrorism in relation to Islamic extremists
only. Since terrorism refers to a methodology of using violence and terror to
serve political ends, the world ought to be worry more about ‘western
terrorism’!
On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare
by Noam Chomsky and Andre Vitchek
Pluto Press, UK
Extent: 192, Price: Rs. 1,022
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