Chomsky: Torture has been America’s ‘routine practice’ since ‘early days’

Left-wing social critic and political activist Noam Chomsky is not surprised that Americans felt “shock and indignation” when the Bush administration torture memos were released — but he is surprised that anyone would consider them surprising.

“Torture has been routine practice from the early days of the Republic,” Chomseky writes in Z Magazine’s June issue. “Accordingly, it is surprising to see the reactions even by some of the most eloquent and forthright critics of Bush malfeasance: for example, that we used to be ‘a nation of moral ideals’ and never before Bush ‘have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for’ (Paul Krugman). To say the least, that common view reflects a rather slanted version of history.”