Chomsky "buried" America; "Are you implying that...?"; "I'm not implying, it's true"

Chomsky "buried" America; "Are you implying that...?"; "I'm not implying, it's true"

In his last interview with the British magazine "The New Statesman", the 94-year-old American analyst believes that Russia is acting restrained and moderate in Ukraine, comparing the actions with the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Chomsky claims that the large-scale infrastructure destruction seen in Iraq "didn't happen in Ukraine."

"Clearly Russia can do it, probably with conventional weapons. It could make Kyiv as uninhabitable as Baghdad was, it could launch an attack on supply systems in western Ukraine," Chomsky said.

When asked if he was implying with that statement that Russia is fighting more humanely in Ukraine than the US did in Iraq, Chomsky was emphatic: "I'm not implying, that's obvious."

"When the US and Britain smashed Baghdad to pieces, did any foreign official go to Baghdad? No, because when the US and Britain start a war, they destroy everything: communication, transport, energy... everything that drives a society" , said Chomsky.

He compared the crimes in Ukraine and in Iraq, taking into account the number of victims. "Look at the casualties. All I know are the official figures... the official UN figures are about 8,000 civilian casualties in Ukraine. How many civilian casualties were there when the US and Britain invaded Iraq?" The British magazine then states that according to the "Iraq Body Count" project, the total number of civilian casualties since the 2003 invasion is estimated to be between 186,000 and 210,000, adding that the real number is probably higher.

On the other hand, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded 8,490 killed and 14,244 wounded civilians in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion 14 months ago. However, even in the case of the war in Ukraine, it is believed that the real numbers are significantly higher.

Chomsky has other theses, in favor of Russia, against the American war action, so he points out that Ukraine is not free in relation to Russia.

"Ukraine is not a free agent; it depends on what the US decides," he says, adding that the US supplies Kyiv with weapons only to weaken Russia. "For the US, it's a bargain. For a fraction of its colossal military budget, the US is able to seriously degrade the military forces of its only real military adversary."

Chomsky further believes that the official reasons for the urgent admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO, due to the fear of Russian attacks, are actually Western propaganda, and that the real reasons are that by joining the Alliance of those two countries, NATO's military industry gets "great new market opportunities and a new approach to advanced equipment".

Asked what a peace agreement might look like, Chomsky says: "First of all, Ukraine will not be a member of NATO. That is the red line that every Russian official has insisted on since Yeltsin and Gorbachev."

He further believes that a peace agreement would include Ukraine offering "a certain degree of autonomy" to the eastern Donbass region, which is partially occupied by Russia. "As for Crimea... we postponed it for a moment. Let it be discussed later. These are the basic outlines of the solution according to the Minsk II agreement," added Chomsky.

Chomsky's criticism of U.S. foreign policy was not limited to Ukraine. Just as Washington provoked Russia by expanding NATO, it is also "openly provoking China" over Taiwan.

"The US is pursuing a program ... to surround China with a ring of states armed with advanced, precision weapons aimed at China," Chomsky said, referring to U.S. defense cooperation with countries such as Japan, South Korea and Australia. "What is the threat from China at the moment? The threat is coming from the US along with, of course, Britain. Britain is just a servant at the moment. It is no longer an independent country."

Although he admits that China is not a "nice country" and that it violates international law in the South China Sea, Chomsky believes that "talk about Taiwan comes from the West."