Culture of Terrorism by Noam Chomsky

Author:Noam Chomsky
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Political Science, Current Affairs
ISBN: 978-1-60846-439-5
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2015-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

8

The Reality That Must Be Effaced: Iran and Nicaragua

While the damage control project requires that we shake our heads in dismay over the foolishness and incompetence of those who have strayed from the American Way in their passion for democracy, the real world suggests a rather different picture. Here we find that the policies of the planners for whom Reagan serves as a figurehead are simply adaptations of traditional practice and principles to current conditions, and they have been anything but stupid. It should be recalled that as the Reaganites took command, there appeared to be real possibilities for democracy and social reform in Central America, with meaningful participation on the part of normally suppressed segments of the population. But these dangers were successfully overcome. Honduras was converted into a U.S. military base and the power of the domestic military and the oligarchy was further entrenched, while in El Salvador and Guatemala, state terror succeeded in protecting the rule of similar elements from any popular challenge. There were also substantial achievements in deterring significant reform and economic progress in Nicaragua and punishing it for its departure from “the Central American mode” of subordination to U.S. power, though the further goal of “restoring democracy” in the approved sense remains elusive. Furthermore, the bloodshed and torture were largely removed from American eyes—a remarkable accomplishment, given its scale and character—and the costs at home were limited. All in all, not an unimpressive chapter in the annals of international terrorism.

More generally, the application of the Reagan Doctrine reveals considerable sophistication, and a global vision that is impressive, in formulating and executing projects that are broadly supported by the elite consensus. The conclusion holds of both of the components of the operations partially exposed in late 1986: (1) the attack against Nicaragua, and more generally, the international terror network constructed to carry out this and other covert actions; and (2) the dealings with Iran, linked to these terrorist operations, but conducted for quite different purposes. Let us turn to these topics, now departing from the historical amnesia that is a condition of respectable discourse. With even a cursory look at recent history, essential details of what has been revealed—most of which, in fact, was long known, apart from details— fall into place within the normal spectrum of planning and execution.

Both Nicaragua and Iran were ruled until 1979 by U.S. clients—brutal, barbarous, corrupt murderers and torturers—who had been placed in power by U.S. violence (the Shah, by a CIA coup in 1953; the Somoza dynasty, by the Marine intervention of the late 1920s) and kept in power by the U.S., in the last years, with the aid of Israel in both cases. Furthermore, Nicaragua and Iran each played a leading role in U.S. strategic planning, so that the loss of these client states in 1979 was a serious matter.

Nicaragua under the Somozas had been the major base for U.S. subversion and terror in the region. Iran was part of a tripartite alliance (Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia)

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