With an Iraq war becoming more and more inevitable, it is easy for peace advocates to feel like their efforts have failed. Noam Chomsky commented today on this feeling of impotence within the movement. Here’s what he had to say:

Q: Assuming that war comes, should the anti-war movement be depressed about its ineffectuality?

A: That’s like suggesting that abolitionists, or advocates of rights of working people or women, or others concerned with freedom and justice, should have been depressed about their inability to attain their goals, or even make progress towards them, over very long periods. The right reaction is to intensify the struggle. In this case, we should recognize that the anti-war movement was unprecedented in scale, so that there is a better base for proceeding further. And that the goals should be far more long-term. A large part of the opposition to Bush’s war is based on recognition that Iraq is only a special case of the “imperial ambition” that is widely condemned and rightly feared; that’s the source of a good part of the unprecedented opposition to Bush’s war right at the heart of the establishment here, and elsewhere as well. Even the mainstream press now reports the “urgent and disturbing” messages sent to Washington from US embassies around the world, warning that “many people in the world increasingly think President Bush is a greater threat to world peace” than Saddam Hussein (Washington Post lead story). That actually goes back to the Clinton years, but it has become far more significant today. With good reasons. The threat is real, and the right place to counter it is here. Whatever happens in Iraq, the popular movements here should be invigorated to confront this far larger and continuing threat, which is sure to take new forms, and is quite literally raising issues of the fate of the human species. That aside, the popular movements should be mobilized to support the best outcomes for the people of Iraq, and not only there of course. There’s plenty of work to do.

The rest of the interview, which was conducted by Cynthia Peters of ZNet, is available here.