Year 501 Copyright © 1993 by Noam Chomsky. Published by South End Press.
Chapter 3: North-South/East-West Segment 12/14
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As Simes had observed, one consequence of the Soviet collapse is that overt intervention became a more feasible option. It comes as small surprise, then, that Bush should inaugurate the post-Cold War era by invading Panama to save us from the arch-demon Noriega, after a carefully designed propaganda campaign to which the press lent its considerable talents, even suppressing the fact that the invasion was accompanied by the announcement of new aid for Bush's friends in Beijing and Baghdad, who made Noriega look like a choir boy in comparison. Real interests again were served: US business partners were placed back in power, the security forces were returned to US control, and the Washington was able to direct the fate of the Panama Canal. The meaning of the Cold War is once again dramatically illustrated, though the doctrinal system remains immune.33

The second act of post-Cold War aggression was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, shifting Saddam Hussein overnight from moderate-who-is-improving to reincarnation of Attila the Hun. The US-UK alliance moved quickly to bar the diplomatic track for fear that peaceful means might "defuse the crisis" with "a few token gains" for their former friend, as the Administration position was outlined by Times diplomatic correspondent Thomas Friedman in late August. Had these fears been realized, the invasion would have resembled the US invasion of Panama, an unacceptable outcome of course. The Times and its colleagues dutifully suppressed the opportunities for a negotiated Iraqi withdrawal that opened from mid-August, according to high-ranking US officials. On the eve of the January 15, 1991 bombing, the US population, by about 2 to 1, favored a diplomatic settlement along the lines of an Iraqi proposal that had been released by US officials, but were unaware of the existence of this proposal, and the instant US rejection of it, thanks to media discipline. The rascal multitude, once again, was kept in its proper place. At no time was the Administration called upon to present an argument for war rather than diplomacy -- at least one that could not be refuted instantly by a literate teenager. The doctrinal institutions succeeded brilliantly in excluding every fundamental question that would have arisen in a functioning democracy.

The war policy was also strongly opposed by the population in the region. The Iraqi democratic opposition, always rebuffed by Washington (hence the press), opposed US policy throughout: the pre-August 1990 support for the Iraqi dictator, the refusal to explore peaceful means, and finally the tacit support for Saddam Hussein as he crushed the Shi'ite and Kurdish rebellions. One leading spokesman, banker Ahmad Chalabi, who described the outcome of the war as "the worst of all possible worlds" for the Iraqi people, attributed the US stand to its traditional policy of "supporting dictatorships to maintain stability." In Egypt, the one Arab ally with a degree of internal freedom, the semi-official press wrote that the outcome demonstrated that the United States only wanted to cut Iraq down to size and thus to establish its own unchallenged hegemony, in "collusion with Saddam himself" if necessary, agreeing with the "savage beast" on the need to "block any progress and abort all hopes, however dim, for freedom or equality and for progress towards democracy" (April 9). The media suppressed the basic facts throughout with their usual discipline. Thus, immediately after Egypt denounced the US for colluding with Saddam, Times correspondent Alan Cowell informed the public of the "strikingly unanimous view" among the Arab allies in support of the US position that "whatever the sins of the Iraqi leader, he offered the West and the region a better hope for his country's stability than did those who have suffered his repression" (April 11). The Times does deserve credit, however, for Friedman's lucid explanation of why we must seek some clone of Saddam Hussein to rule with an "iron fist" rather than face the threat of freedom for the people of Iraq ("instability").

The United Nations suffered further blows. The invasion of Kuwait was unusual in that the US and UK opposed an act of international violence, and thus did not pursue their usual resort to the veto or other means to block UN efforts to reverse the crime. But under US pressure, the Security Council was compelled to wash its hands of the matter, radically violating the UN Charter by leaving individual states free to act as they chose. Further US pressures prevented the Council from responding to the call of member states for meetings, as stipulated by council rules that the United States had vigorously upheld when they served its interests. That Washington has little use for diplomatic means or institutions of world order, unless they can be used as instruments of its own power, has been dramatically illustrated in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central America, and elsewhere. Nothing is likely to change in this regard, including the efficiency with which the facts are concealed.34

In the case of Iraq, the disappearance of the Soviet deterrent was a crucial factor in the US-UK decision for war, as widely discussed. It might have been a factor in the invasion of Panama, as claimed by Reagan Latin America hand Elliott Abrams, who exulted that the US was now free to use force without fear of a Russian reaction.

Hostility to functioning democracy in Central America continued without any change. As the Berlin Wall fell, elections were held in Honduras in "an inspiring example of the democratic promise that today is spreading throughout the Americas," in George Bush's words. The candidates represented large landowners and wealthy industrialists, with close ties to the military, the effective rulers, under US control. Their political programs were virtually identical, and the campaign was largely restricted to insults and entertainment. Human rights abuses by the security forces escalated before the election. Starvation and misery were rampant, having increased during the "decade of democracy," along with capital flight and the debt burden. But there was no major threat to order, or to investors.

At the same time, the electoral campaign opened in Nicaragua. Its 1984 elections do not exist in US commentary. They could not be controlled, and therefore are not an inspiring example of democracy. Taking no chances with the long-scheduled 1990 elections, Bush announced as the campaign opened in November that the embargo would be lifted if his candidate won. The White House and Congress renewed their support for the contra forces in defiance of the Central American presidents, the World Court, and the United Nations, rendered irrelevant by the US veto. The media went along, continuing to suppress the US subversion of the peace process with the diligence required on important affairs of state. Nicaraguans were thus informed that only a vote for the US candidate would end the terror and illegal economic warfare. In Latin America, the electoral results were generally interpreted as a victory for George Bush, even by those who celebrated the outcome. In the United States, in contrast, the outcome was hailed as a "Victory for U.S. Fair Play," with "Americans United in Joy," Albanian-style, as New York Times headlines put it.


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33 DD, chs. 4-5.

34 DD, ch. 6 and "Afterword." For fuller detail, my article in Peters, Collateral Damage. "Iron fist," p. 38, above.