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We Are All Fill in the Blank

Noam Chomsky

chomsky.info, January 10, 2015

The world reacted with horror to the murderous attack on the French
satirical journal Charlie Hebdo. In the New York Times, veteran Europe
correspondent Steven Erlanger graphically described the immediate
aftermath, what many call Frances 9/11, as a day of sirens,
helicopters in the air, frantic news bulletins; of police cordons and
anxious crowds; of young children led away from schools to safety. It
was a day, like the previous two, of blood and horror in and around
Paris. The enormous outcry worldwide was accompanied by reflection
about the deeper roots of the atrocity. Many Perceive a Clash of
Civilizations, a New York Times headline read.

The reaction of horror and revulsion about the crime is justified, as is

the search for deeper roots, as long as we keep some principles firmly
in mind. The reaction should be completely independent of what one
thinks about this journal and what it produces. The passionate and
ubiquitous chants I am Charlie, and the like, should not be meant to
indicate, even hint at, any association with the journal, at least in the
context of defense of freedom of speech. Rather, they should express
defense of the right of free expression whatever one thinks of the
contents, even if they are regarded as hateful and depraved.

And the chants should also express condemnation for violence and
terror. The head of Israels Labor Party and the main challenger for
the upcoming elections in Israel, Isaac Herzog, is quite right when he
says that Terrorism is terrorism. Theres no two ways about it. He is
also right to say that All the nations that seek peace and freedom
[face] an enormous challenge from murderous terrorism putting aside
his predictably selective interpretation of the challenge.

Erlanger vividly describes the scene of horror. He quotes one surviving

journalist as saying that Everything crashed. There was no way out.

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There was smoke everywhere. It was terrible. People were screaming.

It was like a nightmare. Another surviving journalist reported a huge
detonation, and everything went completely dark. The scene,
Erlanger reported, was an increasingly familiar one of smashed glass,
broken walls, twisted timbers, scorched paint and emotional
devastation. At least 10 people were reported at once to have died in
the explosion, with 20 missing, presumably buried in the rubble.

These quotes, as the indefatigable David Peterson reminds us, are not,
however, from January 2015. Rather, they are from a story of
Erlangers on April 24 1999, which made it only to page 6 of the New
York Times, not reaching the significance of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
Erlanger was reporting on the NATO (meaning US) missile attack on
Serbian state television headquarters that knocked Radio Television
Serbia off the air.

There was an official justification. NATO and American officials

defended the attack, Erlanger reports, as an effort to undermine the
regime of President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Pentagon
spokesman Kenneth Bacon told a briefing in Washington that Serb TV
is as much a part of Milosevics murder machine as his military is,
hence a legitimate target of attack.

The Yugoslavian government said that The entire nation is with our
President, Slobodan Milosevic, Erlanger reports, adding that How the
Government knows that with such precision was not clear.

No such sardonic comments are in order when we read that France

mourns the dead and the world is outraged by the atrocity. There need
also be no inquiry into the deeper roots, no profound questions about
who stands for civilization, and who for barbarism.

Isaac Herzog, then, is mistaken when he says that Terrorism is

terrorism. Theres no two ways about it. There are quite definitely
two ways about it: terrorism is not terrorism when a much more
severe terrorist attack is carried out by those who are Righteous by
virtue of their power. Similarly, there is no assault against freedom of
speech when the Righteous destroy a TV channel supportive of a
government that they are attacking.

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By the same token, we can readily comprehend the comment in the

New York Times of civil rights lawyer Floyd Abrams, noted for his
forceful defense of freedom of expression, that the Charlie Hebdo
attack is the most threatening assault on journalism in living
memory. He is quite correct about living memory, which carefully
assigns assaults on journalism and acts of terror to their proper
categories: Theirs, which are horrendous; and Ours, which are virtuous
and easily dismissed from living memory.

We might recall as well that this is only one of many assaults by the
Righteous on free expression. To mention only one example that is
easily erased from living memory, the assault on Falluja by US forces
in November 2004, one of the worst crimes of the invasion of Iraq,
opened with occupation of Falluja General Hospital. Military
occupation of a hospital is, of course, a serious war crime in itself,
even apart from the manner in which it was carried out, blandly
reported in a frontpage story in the New York Times, accompanied
with a photograph depicting the crime. The story reported that
Patients and hospital employees were rushed out of rooms by armed
soldiers and ordered to sit or lie on the floor while troops tied their
hands behind their backs. The crimes were reported as highly
meritorious, and justified: The offensive also shut down what officers
said was a propaganda weapon for the militants: Falluja General
Hospital, with its stream of reports of civilian casualties.

Evidently such a propaganda agency cannot be permitted to spew forth

its vulgar obscenities.

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