9-11: Was There An Alternative?

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9-11: Was There An Alternative? is a collection of essays by and interviews with Noam Chomsky first published in November 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. 9-11: Was There an Alternative? includes the entire text of the original book, 9-11, together with a new essay by Chomsky, "Was There an Alternative?"[1]

Content

"Was There An Alternative?"

Chomsky's new essay, written in June 2011, examines the impact and consequences of US foreign policy up to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and reflects on what may have resulted if the crimes against humanity committed on 9/11 had been "approached as a crime, with an international operation to apprehend the likely suspects."[2]

9-11 (first edition)

In the original edition of 9-11 from November 2001, Chomsky placed the September 11 attacks in context and traced the history of American intervention in the Middle East and throughout Latin America as well as in Indonesia, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan – at the same time warning against America's increasing reliance on military rhetoric and violence in its response to the attacks, and making what he felt was a critical point that the mainstream media and other public intellectuals were failing to make: any escalation of violence as a response to violence will inevitably lead to further, and bloodier, attacks on innocents in America and around the world.[3]

A "Surprise Best Seller," to quote the title of an article about it in the New York Times, 9-11 has been published in more than two dozen countries and has appeared on multiple bestseller lists, including the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the New York Times. An article about it in The New Yorker stated, "9-11 was practically the only counter-narrative out there at a time when questions tended to be drowned out by a chorus, led by the entire United States Congress, of 'God Bless America.' It was one of the few places where the other side of the case could be found."[4]

References

  1. Seven Stories Press, 2011
  2. Chomsky, Noam. 9-11: Was There An Alternative? Seven Stories Press, September 6, 2011
  3. Seven Stories Press, 2011
  4. Louis Menand, "Faith, Hope, and Clarity: September 11th and the American Soul," The New Yorker, September 16, 2002

External links