7/9/2017 We Are All Fill in the Blank | Noam Chomsky

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. 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

https://chomsky.info/20150110/ 1/3
7/9/2017 We Are All Fill in the Blank | Noam Chomsky

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.

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 front-page 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.

https://chomsky.info/20150110/
CHOMSKY.INFO 2/3
7/9/2017 We Are All Fill in the Blank | Noam Chomsky

CHOMSKY.INFO

https://chomsky.info/20150110/ 3/3