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

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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bases, etc. All of this is, of course, utter nonsense. The fact that the
“symmetry” can be discussed without eliciting ridicule is another tribute
to the efficacy of “brainwashing under freedom.”
In fact, there is a “symmetry,” but not one discussed in the press. In
both cases, terrorist forces are carrying out large-scale torture and
massacre and in both cases these terrorist forces (the army of El
Salvador, the contras) are organized and controlled by the lord and
master of the region.
US reporters who visited contra camps report that they ‘‘appear to be
an exclusively military force with almost no political direction other than
the goal of overthrowing the Sandinistas.” In this respect, they reflect
the commitments of their masters, apart from rhetoric provided by
domestic apologists for state terror. Their political leadership explains
that “We don’t need to have our own political organization,” because
they can “rely on [the] work” of the domestic political opposition, 134
largely business and landowner-based and hence by definition
“democratic” and “moderate” in US political terminology. This domestic
Nicaraguan opposition was permitted to function with few constraints,
as the US press has observed, despite the fact that it was the political
arm of the US proxy army attacking Nicaragua from Honduras. We
might ask how a political organization would fare in the United States if
it had a similar relation to an army directed and supplied by the USSR
(or to be more accurate, some unimaginably awesome power) attacking
the US from Mexico and Canada.
The US has sought, with some success, to block aid from other
sources to Nicaragua. As noted earlier, military aid from US allies was
blocked, compelling the government to rely on the USSR, as required for
the purposes of justifying the aggression. The US vetoed technical
assistance to agriculture in 1982 and for roads in 1983, and voted
against loans for municipal development, fishing cooperatives and