Noam Chomsky - Turning the Tide U.S. intervention in

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
193
1981, allowing apologists for US atrocities to maintain that the
Sandinista military build-up began prior to US operations, proof of
Sandinista aggressive intent. 100 This is transparent deceit, as the actual
record shows, quite apart from the question of how Nicaragua is to
succeed in its aggression under the US shadow. Violent intervention in
the region remains primarily the monopoly of the US, as in the past.
5.5 The War Moves into High Gear
Returning to El Salvador, with the popular organizations effectively
demolished, the war shifted to direct attacks against the civilian
population in guerrilla-controlled areas, including ground sweeps and
massacres by US-trained elite units and an expanded air war. In March
1984, it was revealed publicly that US planes were rapidly increasing
reconnaissance to provide intelligence for what the government and the
press call “military operations.” At about the same time, the rare reports
on the air war observed that “bombing attacks have become much more
accurate in recent weeks,” quoting refugees who say: “They used to
bomb and it wouldn’t land near to the houses, but now they have
something to detect exactly where we are” so “no one is safe in their
homes, no one is safe anywhere.” The reference is not to military
operations but rather to what refugees call “indiscriminate” bombing
raids that have turned villages into ghost towns where every structure
has been hit, people cannot cook or hang laundry or they will become
targets for air strikes, and the remnants who have not fled spend much
of their time hiding in holes in the ground to escape the unremitting air
attacks that have killed many civilians. Refugees also report the use of
incendiary bombs against the civilian population, either napalm or white
phosphorus according to a European doctor who inspected the wounds