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Noam Chomsky Receives Peace Award
Award
Greg McGlone ‘03
Villanova University presented Noam Chomsky,
prof. of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, with the Adela Dwyer--St.
Thomas of Villanova Peace Award for 2002. “Indoctorated in 1990,
the award is given to a person or group in recognition for outstanding
contributions to the understanding of the meaning of justice and peace
in human communities,” said Dr. William Werpehowsi, director of
the Center of Peace and Justice. “It is in the way Chomsky’s
approach has yielded a morally critical and concretely relevant understanding
of the power in our world that we find his contribution.”
 After
he was presented with the award, Prof. Chomsky gave a lecture titled “Emerging
Frameworks of World Order.” The first subject he spoke about was
the Sept. 11th attacks. “Well before Sept. 11, technical papers
were being published, to quote one, which showed how a well planned operation
to smuggle weapons of mass destruction into the United States could have
a 90 percent chance of success, far higher than any conceivable missile
attack without missile defense,” said Chomsky. “In 1993, there
was an attempt to blow up the World Trade Center, with much more ambitious
plans to get to the FBI building, the tunnels under the Hudson River,
and it came very close to succeeding. World Trade Center engineers estimated
that with slightly better planning, it could have killed tens of thousands
of people. Since then, there has been no question that these possibilities
exist. Well, on Sept. 11, they were realized with wickedness and awesome
cruelty, to quote Robert Fisk, the leading Middle East correspondent who
captured the world reaction of shock and horror and sympathy for the innocent
victims. For the first time, the United States suffered the kind of atrocities
that are all too common elsewhere.” He went on to say that the consequences
and repercussions of the attacks. “What the consequences will be
will of course be determined by policy choices by the United States. If
we hope to understand anything, we will begin with an investigation of
United States power, how it has been exercised in the recent past, and
how it is interpreted within the political culture.”
Chomsky then went on to talk about the
so called “War on Terror,” and more specifically, the current
situation in Iraq. “In the case of Blair, Bush and others recording
the crimes of Saddam Hussein, it’s also interesting to see what
is omitted. Three simple words: with our help. He committed all those
crimes, and we thought it was just fine, and we helped him. We continued
to support him, knowing perfectly well about the crimes. In fact long
afterwards, the United States continued to support Saddam Hussein with
the means to develop weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical.”
He gave some options on how to deal with
current world situations. “One choice is to understand reality to
be reality, and to ask whether the unpleasant record of reality is just
some kind of a flaw in pursuit of history’s purpose, or whether
it has more mundane purposes as in the case of every other great power,
past and present.”
Chomsky also commented on the recent demonstrations taking place in Washington
D.C. in regards to the United States current situation with Iraq. “What
they are protesting makes good sense. With their every action and every
protest, their will always be fringes. But I feel the basic thrust behind
it is reasonable.”
When asked about how he felt about receiving
the Adela Dwyer--St. Thomas of Villanova Peace Award, he simply said,
“What can I say, it’s an honor."
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