Chomsky On the Ongoing Arab Spring

"The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world. The reason is very simple. Across the region, an overwhelming majority of the population regards the United States as the main threat to their interests. In fact, opposition to U.S. policy is so high that a considerable majority think the region would be more secure if Iran had nuclear weapons. In Egypt, the most important country, that’s 80 percent. Similar figures elsewhere. There are some in the region who regard Iran as a threat—about 10 percent. Well, plainly, the U.S. and its allies are not going to want governments which are responsive to the will of the people. If that happens, not only will the U.S. not control the region, but it will be thrown out. So that’s obviously an intolerable result." Noam Chomsky in an interview for democracynow.org

The numbers mentioned by Chomsky may seem overdone at first sight, especially the 80% figure. But if you take a look at the annual survey performed by the Brookings Institute (http://www.brookings.edu), it becomes clear that he could have cited from this poll.

click here to download the whole 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll in pdf format

Nevertheless, this 80% Egypts allegedly believing that the region would be better off if Iran possessed nuclear weapons cannot stem from this survey. According to the 2010 Brookings Poll, 35% of the interviewed answered that they believe Iran to conduct a nuclear program only for peaceful purposes, while 57% said it would be for developing nuclear weapons. The survey proceeds with the following results concerning each of these two subgroups:

click here to download the whole 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll in pdf format

click here to download the whole 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll in pdf format

So, if we add up finally there are 39.33% (peaceful) and 31.15 (weapons) = 70.48% of the interviewed saying that the Middle-East would be better off if Iran would have nuclear weapons. Not so much difference to Chomsky.

-------------------

"Die USA und deren Verbündete werden alles tun, um echte Demokratie in der arabischen Welt zu verhindern. Der Grund ist simpel: Überall in der Region glaubt die Mehrheit der Bevölkerung, dass die USA die größte Bedrohung für ihre Interessen sind. Die Opposition gegen die US-Politik ist so enorm, dass eine beträchtliche Mehrheit sogar der Meinung ist, die Region wäre sicherer, wenn der Iran im Besitz von Atomwaffen wäre. Im wichtigsten Land - Ägypten - glauben dies 80 Prozent. In anderen Ländern finden sich ähnliche Zahlen. Nur Wenige in der Region sehen im Iran eine Bedrohung - rund 10 Prozent. Es ist offensichtlich, dass die USA und deren Verbündete keine Regierungen wollen, die auf den Willen des Volkes hören, denn falls dies eintritt, werden die USA nicht nur die Kontrolle über diese Region verlieren sondern auch hinausbefördert werden. Natürlich wäre ein solches Resultat für sie intolerabel." [translation into German by Andrea Noll --> das ganze Interview hier]