"People can look at the same thing and see different realities."

Liberals know that, but Conservatives refuse to believe it.

Chomsky is supposedly a fine linguist and semantician, but he has a one-track mind when it comes to politics. I also believe nations act out of political motives, which in turn are driven by economics. But I also believe other factors come into play also,
some of them are even commendable.

I don't agree with him on the war on drugs, but neither do I think it is a crusade from the Lord either. It is a combination of self-interest (drugs cause crime which costs money and lives), morality (both legitimate and of the loony tunes fundamentalist variety)as well as culture (drugs cause hippies, Communism and sex). And let's not forget all the people getting rich supplying the weapons for the war on drugs. Hell, even the drug gangs themselves don't want drugs legalized. Like Al-Quaeda, they need a war to justify their existence and their methods! I don't think imperialism plays a major role, but I don't deny it may help to get funding in Congress.

In other words, national policy is often driven by a variety of constituencies and agendas, and many different interests, and often has its own bureaucratic inertia that exerts pressure long after all the players have become disillusioned. Sometimes these factors are so intertwined it takes historians generations to sort them all out--and by then, its too late to verify the truth. History is to a great extent powered by its own internal logic, it isn't all conspiracies and Great Men.

To blame something like the War on Drugs on American Imperialism is overly simplistic. That does not mean it doesn't play some role.

Cubans have a saying: No tan calvo que se le vean los sesos. Not so bald the brains are visible.

You're right about Krauthammer.
But that don't mean he's stupid.