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

Patterns of Intervention
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
262
First we slaughter the misguided creatures until their vision is
cleared, then we turn to the thankless task of getting them to respect our
intentions.
To see how much our moral and intellectual life has improved since
the turn of the century, we may open the pages of the New Republic,
long the official journal of American liberalism now perhaps with a “neo-
“ affixed. Three years after they had given “Reagan & Co. good marks”
for their performance in El Salvador, the editors, surveying the carnage,
sadly observed that there is no good solution for “America’s agony” in El
Salvador, and offered some sober advice to President Reagan: 208
The Reagan Administration, if it is honest, must argue bleakly that
there are higher American priorities than Salvadoran human rights
(human rights meaning, in this context, not anything so elevated
as democracy but simply the physical security of persons who may
or may not be suspected of potential anti-oligarchical sympathies),
and that military aid must go forth regardless of how many are
murdered, lest the Marxist-Leninist guerrillas win. And indeed, the
guerrillas must not win . . .
Leaving no doubt about their intentions, the editors explain that the
aid will go to “Latin-style fascists,” but no matter: “Given a choice
between communism and war for the people of El Salvador, no doubt
the American people will choose the latter”—and it goes without saying
that it is our prerogative to choose war for them, as we suffer “the agony
of responsibility.” The editors explain further that “in the end the only
moral choice may be military intervention,” but since we are so noble,
this will be intervention “not in alliance with the death squads but in
opposition to them”—that is, in opposition to the death squads that we