by Luca Mastrantonio
American linguist (Ukrainian father): For thirty years, diplomats and the CIA have warned the US government about Russian concerns
The great linguist Noam Chomsky has been following Ukraine for years. His roots are there, but no ties of blood or earth. Chomsky’s family, libertarian socialist activist, the human race. Threatened by the global climate catastrophe into which Putin’s war is dragging us. With the serious responsibility of the US and NATO, which Chomsky has denounced for years, as in the 2018 interview collected in Perch Ukraine (a book due out tomorrow at Ponte alle Grazie). With the Corriere he agreed by email to comment on the two months of war.
The latest news about the war in Ukraine
What historical precedents does this invasion remind you of?
Like the American invasion of Iraq and Hitler’s and Stalin’s invasion of Poland, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a textbook example of what the Nuremberg Tribunal called the “highest international crime,” distinct from other war crimes in that it The sum of all evils is in itself”. In the case of Iraq, this includes the incitement to ethnic strife that has torn the country and region apart, the rise of ISIS, and other horrors.
And in the case of Ukraine?
too early to speak of “evil as the sum of all evils”, but substantial, despite the horrors in Ukraine. It has undone efforts to address the global warming crisis, sparked euphoria among major oil producers, freed them from environmentalist harassment, and hailed as the savior of civilization while reaping huge profits and accelerating global catastrophe. The invasion also poses the threat of nuclear war that could quickly become deadly. There are others that are already obvious and too complex to discuss here.
Should Putin be brought to justice?
In principle, war criminals should be arrested and brought to justice. In practice, the powerful are autoimmune. Only the weak and defeated are brought to justice for their crimes.
In the face of this aggression, let’s start with the victim, the Ukrainian people and their leader Zelenskyy. Those who criticize him say he is a NATO puppet, those who glorify him consider him a modern day hero. who for her
Zelensky has shown great courage and integrity as he led Ukraine in defending against murderous aggression.
Fear of a third world war could lead to the assumption that Ukraine’s sacrifice is preferable to a possible nuclear conflict. The Ukrainians fight back and demand weapons. for sending arms to Ukraine?
Our concern should be the fate of Ukrainians. The way to save them from another disaster is a diplomatic solution. Weapons shipments should be decided based on whether they help or harm Ukrainian victims. Both scenarios are of course possible.
This muchdiscussed topic in Italy, where liberation from NaziFascism was possible thanks to the Allies and the armed aid they provided to the resistance.
The “liberation” of Italy by the Allies is a complex issue. When the Allies liberated southern Italy in 1943, they set up the Badoglio government and royal family, which, like in liberated Germany, welcomed fascist collaborators. On their way north they dispersed antifascist resistance and dismantled the local governing bodies the partisans had formed in their attempt “to lay the basis for a new democratic and republican state in the various areas which they were able to liberate from the Germans “. , I quote Gianfranco Pasquino. In the years that followed, the US intervened radically in Italy to ensure the right remained in power.
In terms of resistance, do you see more differences or similarities between the Italian resistance in Nazifascism and the Ukrainian resistance in the Russian invasion?
Of course, there are many differences between the Italian partisan resistance and the armyled Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression. The key similarity is that both are heroic and fully justified.
His family is originally from these borders. Do you feel special connections?
My mother’s family left what is now Belarus when she was a child in 1905. My father’s family fled tsarist Ukraine in 1913. But I never heard of any connection to these countries. Apparently, apart from my father’s close relatives, everyone else was exterminated, probably the entire Jewish community in their small town. The last known relative was killed by Ukrainian Nazis in 1942, according to Yad vaShem. But I have to say that widespread guilt. In 1924, the US passed its first racist immigration law, more or less against Italians and Jews, and indirectly sent many Jews to death camps.
From attacked to aggressor, Putin. a passiveaggressive bully? A geopolitical terrorist with no plan B?
There are two ways to determine what Putin has in mind. A speculation about his twisted mind. The other listens to what he has been saying for some time. For 30 years, the US administration has received strong and unequivocal warnings that it is embarking on a dangerous and troubling path by dismissing Russia’s security concerns, and particularly its explicit red lines — no NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine — at the geostrategic heart of Russia . The warnings came from the most respected diplomats (George Kennan, Henry Kissinger, Ambassador Jack Matlock), from current and former CIA directors. Clinton Secretary of Defense William Perry, who nearly resigned in protest when Clinton decided to break his predecessor’s firm and unequivocal promise to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “an inch to the east,” remains true, namely east of Germany.
Putin’s invasion has restored the weight of NATO and further weakened the UN, whose architecture is incapable of defending the charter’s fundamental principle of peoples’ selfdetermination. How can the role of the UN be revived concretely?
The UN can act to the extent permitted by the five permanent members. They have blocked any attempt by the Security Council or other UN bodies to act if it harms their own interests. To change this, popular movements must force their governments to allow the United Nations to act independently. Not an impossible dream, but it will take a lot of work.
Do we in Europe, in the West, have a limited view of the Ukraine crisis?
The clear sanctions map. Most of the world isn’t going along with it. The sanctions were imposed by the Anglosphere, by Europe and by what South African apartheid has dubbed “honorable whites” like Japan. Almost the whole world strongly condemns the Russian invasion, but adds: “So what?”. Responding that the US and its allies are engaged in shocking atrocities right now: in Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine….
How to prevent Ukraine from becoming a new Chechnya?
Wars can end with the destruction of one party, as in Chechnya or Iraq, or with a diplomatic solution. In the case of Ukraine, the outlines of a diplomatic agreement have long been clear: neutralization of Ukraine like Austria during the Cold War and an agreement along the lines of Minsk II for a federation with considerable autonomy for the Donbass region. But the US remains reluctant to seek a diplomatic solution, as does China, which could also play a constructive role if it wanted to.
April 20, 2022 (Modification April 20, 2022 | 09:11)
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