In a series of interviews conducted in the weeks after the September 11 attacks, Noam Chomsky places the events in the broader context of American foreign policy, arguing that the United States has long engaged in its own forms of state terrorism in places such as Nicaragua, Sudan, and the Middle East. He condemns the attacks while contending that a military response risked escalating the cycle of violence and that treating the crime as a matter for international law rather than open-ended war might have been a more effective path.

The book is a blunt, polemical snapshot of Chomsky’s long-standing critique of U.S. power, delivered with characteristic force and historical detail. While its interview format leads to some repetition and its perspective remains highly controversial, it offers a sharp dissenting voice that challenged the dominant narrative of the moment and continues to provoke debate about the causes and consequences of 9/11.