Power and Terror, by Noam Chomsky: on Homeland Security

Ronald Reagan: 1980s: Focus of US foreign policy would be "War on Terror"

Shultz, who was considered a moderate within the Reagan administration, went on to say that terrorism had to be dealt with by force and violence, not by utopian legalistic means like mediation and negotiations and so on, which were just a sign of weakness. The Reagan administration declared that the fight would be focused on the 2 areas where this crime was most severe, namely Central American and the Middle East.

Noam Chomsky: 9-11 was historic event because of who the victims were

A: A horrible atrocity. But I reacted pretty much the way people did around the world. A terrible atrocity, but unless you're in Europe or the US or Japan, I guess, you know it's nothing new. That's the way the imperial powers have treated the rest of the world for hundreds of years. This is a historic event, but unfortunately not because of the scale or the nature of the atrocity but because of who the victims were. If you look through hundreds of years of history, the imperial countries have been basically immune. There are plenty of atrocities, but they're somewhere else. And that's gone on for hundreds of years.

Noam Chomsky: In Japan, "Ground Zero" evokes atomic bomb, not 9-11

A: It is.

Q: For Japanese who have experienced the atomic bomb in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, hearing the words "Ground Zero" leads to very complicated feelings. I wondered if you have any thoughts about that.

A: The interesting thing is that here, almost nobody thinks of it. Check around. I mean, I've never seen a comment in the press or the massive commentary on this that points that out. It's just not in people's consciousness.

Q: But that word.

A: That's where it comes from. Absolutely. No questions about it. It struck me right away.

Q: That's why it resonates with people.

A: I understand. But it doesn't mean that here, because here, it's the same story as before. The atrocities you commit somewhere else don't exist.