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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Chomsky, for all his intellect and raw brainpower still falls prey to American exceptionalism. I don't fault him either, but the United States is - for now - not a party to this conflict and if they are not willing to guarantee a cease fire they have no place at the table. It has already been proven that any treaty with Russia regarding Ukraine is worth zilch so without a very large stick to back it up there is no point to even go there.

Also, I think the analogy of Mexico joining China is way off base, and an overly simplistic view of everyday reality in Europe.

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> Chomsky ... still falls prey to American exceptionalism.

i think that's wrong, but i think you could say he believes in a type of american exceptionalism if your definition of that phrase is something like

    - "unique in the world among nations to be able to act with near-total impunity in any way they/we please -- including committing obvious and ongoing war crimes."

We got away with invading Iraq (2004). Russia invades Ukraine (2022) and a world of sanctions come down on it.

Where were the sanctions against the US? They didn't happen - at least, not large ones. Why? Because the US is, by definition, exceptional. We can do what we want.

> the United States is - for now - not a party to this conflict

hasn't, and isn't, the US providing BILLIONS of military and financial aid and training, diplomatic, ideological, and media support, and more, to Ukraine -- for years already?

do you not believe that the US largely controls the world, including Europe, largely runs Nato as a private army to guarantee US supremacy in trade and other geopolitical interests?

do you claim that Nato, in spite of all its offenses and offensives, is for defense only?

> Also, I think the analogy of Mexico joining China is way off base, and an overly simplistic view of everyday reality in Europe.

i'm not sure what is so complicated about the comparison, or Europe today.

was the cuban missile crisis also too complicated?

He and Mearsheimer fall into the same trap of thinking only the Americans have free will. Everything else is just the natural reaction to what America does, the people in other countries always simply act in response to America provocation or encouragement. Or they react to other countries acting the only way they possibly can to American or provocation or encouragement

He sounds like Bismarck in this interview: casually discussing the US and Russia carving up Ukraine. Pretentious ideologue.

Yes, this is indeed what is irritating, as though Ukraine isn't a sovereign entity that has the ability to make up it's own mind about what it wants. Ukrainian people are the only party that should have a say in any of that. Neither Russia nor the United States have a legitimate interest there other than what the Ukrainians are willing to let them have.

i'm legit baffled every time i see this type of comment.

i don't understand how you listen to, or read, what chomsky says -- and come away with the idea that chomsky thinks the US and/or Russia carving up a country is a _good_ thing, or that he's in _favor of it_, etc.

that's just weird.

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