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

The Fifth Freedom
economic development in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan. We should
have no difficulty in understanding their self-image and picture of the
world, if we can look honestly at ourselves. Not only state planners, but
the educated classes generally, are given to sincere belief in the most
astonishing (and self-serving) fantasies, a fact of little relevance to the
study of policy formation. In the case of official enemies or precursors in
imperial aggression we readily understand that true interests are
disguised in propaganda, perhaps even disguised to those who propound
it. Only in studying the record of our own state is such elementary
rationality proscribed.
There is, however, a related point that is of some significance for the
study of state policy. A system of rationalizations and propaganda, once
constructed and internalized, may come to be a factor influencing policy
decisions as ideology overwhelms interests. The same may be true of
other irrational factors—e.g., heroic posturing, and the like. A close
analysis of policy will generally unearth a structure of rational calculation
based on perceived interests at its core, but in the complex world of
decision-making and political planning, many other elements may also
intervene, sometimes significantly, including the system of self-serving
beliefs that is regularly constructed to disguise—to others, and to
oneself—what is really happening in the world.
Failure to understand the roots of US foreign policy, and a curious
unwillingness to perceive its highly systematic nature over many years,
makes it appear that this policy is confused and is failing, when it is
succeeding brilliantly. Thus conservative British correspondent Timothy
Garton Ash finds a “striking inconsistency” in the way the US “has
pursued its principles in Central America,” Nicaragua being a “prime
example.” 28 The inconsistency is that the US is devoted to pluralism,
respect for human rights, and other good things, and to persuading the
Sandinistas to cut their ties with the USSR. But the “contra aggression”
Classics in Politics: Turning the Tide Noam Chomsky
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