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

The Challenge Ahead
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
388
under the cover of Western silence or deception. But some barriers were
placed in the way of the consummation of genocide. The Red Cross was
finally permitted to enter—intermittently—after four years, and some
relief flowed. The murderous assault was limited though not ended.
Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people were saved. This was the
result of the dedicated work of—literally—a handful of young people,
who devoted their lives to bringing the facts to the public, ultimately
reaching parts of the government and the press. The personal costs have
not been trivial. They will receive no notice or thanks, any more than the
courageous war resisters of Vietnam days, certainly not the Nobel Peace
Prize they richly deserve. But they have a different reward, the
knowledge of what they have accomplished. Many of us can share in
such rewards, if we choose to do so.
Intervention in Timor, or even in Indochina or Central America, is a
rather peripheral concern of the managers of the US global system,
despite the enormous resources sometimes devoted to such enterprises
and the genuine fears of “contagion” and “rotten apples.” Liquidation of
these projects of terror and coercion will not seriously affect the
domestic order or the Fifth Freedom, and therefore committed popular
efforts can make a real difference. Other tasks are much harder, those
that begin to touch the structure of power and privilege; serious efforts
to confront the military system are a case in point.
The drift towards mutual annihilation has a seemingly inexorable
quality. The factors that impel it forward appear to be out of control,
beyond our ability to influence or constrain them. We can only hope that
this perception is false. Whether the tide can be turned in this case is
not clear, though it is plain enough that it will not long flow on its
present course. One effect of the development of nuclear weapons has
been to induce a feeling of powerlessness on the part of much of the
population, and at the same time, to reinforce the doctrine that the state