The final years of the millennium witnessed a display of exuberant self-adulation that may even have surpassed its no-too-glorious predecessors, with… - Noam Chomsky

Those who want to face their responsibilities with a genuine commitment to democracy and freedom - even to decent survival - should recognize the barriers that stand in the way. In violent states these are not concealed. In more democratic societies barriers are more subtle. While methods differ sharply from more brutal to more free societies, the goals are in many ways similar: to ensure that the "great beast," as Alexander Hamilton called the people, does not stray from its proper confines.

"قصه يرويها "نعوم تشومسكي " في مقدمة كتاب قراصنة واباطرة تلخص محتوى الكتاب
اذ يروى قصة قرصان وقع فى اسر الاسكندر الأكبر، الذى سأله، كيف يجرؤ على ازعاج البحر؟، "كيف تجرؤ على ازعاج العالم بأسره؟ ، فأجاب القرصان: "لأننى افعل ذلك بسفينة صغيرة فحسب، أدعى لصاً، وأنت الذى يفعل ذلك بأسطول ضخم، تدعى امبراطوراً ."

I think the basic question you ask is a good one: if we were to withdraw our own beating people over the heads with clubs, would it necessarily follow that somebody else would take that role, or are there other alternatives? Well yeah, there are other alternatives. For example, the alternatives that are favored by the overwhelming majority of the population of the United States. I mentioned one piece of it: let the UN function. The UN isn't perfect, a lot of things wrong with it, just like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights isn't perfect... But one step would be to pay some respect to the "decent opinion of mankind", to quote the famous author, and let international institutions function so as to reduce the likelihood that anybody will use force...