Noam Chomsky made his famous speech when the United States was involved in a war in Vietnam, a South Asian country in the midst of a civil war. The United States fought on the side of South Vietnam, with the official purpose of preventing that country from becoming a communist state, which is where North Vietnam was headed. Many Americans compared the more recent war in Iraq to the Vietnam War. Other Americans insisted the two military actions were very different. Is the comparison between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War fair and reasonable?

Think about arguments you have heard about the United States’s reasons for invading and occupying Iraq. In what ways are those arguments similar to Chomksy’s claims about U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War? In what ways are they different?

Read the excerpt from shirley chisholm’s speech “equal rights for women.” as a black person, i am no stranger to race prejudice. but the truth is that in the political world i have been far oftener discriminated against because i am a woman than because i am black. prejudice against blacks is becoming unacceptable although it will take years to eliminate it. but it is doomed because, slowly, white america is beginning to admit that it exists. prejudice against women is still acceptable. there is very little understanding yet of the immorality involved in double pay scales and the classification of most of the better jobs as “for men only.” the fourteenth amendment states all persons born or naturalized in the united states, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside. no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the united states; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. how does chisholm incorporate the constitutional principle based on the fourteenth amendment in the excerpt? by comparing the unequal treatment shared by african americans and women by explaining how life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not shared by all citizens by showing that the government has made no effort to enforce the rights of all people by conveying the idea that everyone must live by the words stated in the constitution