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- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
- Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!mont!pencil.cs.missouri.edu!daemon
- From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
- Subject: Nicaragua Series -- comments and replies (1/4 ; intro)
- Message-ID: <1992Sep12.021547.6952@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.activism.d
- Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Organization: ?
- Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 02:15:47 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 127
-
-
- Nicaragua Series -- comments and replies (1/4 ; intro)
-
- Allen Scherzer writes that he has "condemned" contra atrocities and
- asks whether I will "condemn Sandinista abuses." His protestations
- about principled opposition to human-rights abuses -- precisely what
- the "conservative" (and mainstream "liberal" apologists for U.S.
- terror I might add) camp vehemently opposes -- are so densely filled
- with Double-Think that to adequately address them we have to slow down
- to the point of proceeding inch by inch to unravel the inherent lies.
-
- I note in the passing that Scherzer's trustworthiness on these matters
- is comparable to those of such ideologist extremists as the Reagan and
- Bush state department, whose strategy of lies upon lies have made them
- notorious, earning them the infamous distinction of repeated and harsh
- condemnation of their constant lies by the real human rights
- monitors, including for example the report dedicated to part of this
- disinformation policy, _Guatemala Revisited: How the Reagan
- Administration Finds ``Improvements'' in Human Rights in Guatemala_ by
- Americas Watch [Use GET (see bottom) with FSLN MISKITOS].
-
- The latest(?) example is Scherzer's assertion that "Americas Watch
- says the same thing about the Sandinistas" following an
- Americas/Helsinki Watch quote on the terrorist proxy army, the
- "contras." In this joint statement the chairmen of Americas Watch and
- Helsinki Watch state that the contras were carrying out "a planned
- strategy of terrorism" along the Honduras border. Actually there is a
- familiar ring to a state carrying out a "planned strategy" or terror
- against its population -- Amnesty International's term is "a
- `Death-Squad' Strategy" carried out by El Salvador against its own
- population. This planned terror strategy by El Salvador is reviewed
- below, and the excerpts are available with the GET command (see
- bottom) on the file AI_REPT ELSALV. Death Squads run by the state,
- army, and security forces (under pretense of being carried out by
- "right wing extremists" *outside* the regime, beyond the government's
- control, a pretense repeated by the mainstream media) against the
- domestic population are reported upon in nearly identical terms by
- Amnesty in the case of Guatemala; the 200K+ report is in AI_REPT
- GUATMALA (or by email, harelb@math.cornell.edu, the Conclusions
- section, or paper mail address for report). There is nothing remotely
- comparable for Nicaragua under the Sandinistas (or even for the far
- more serious repression under Somoza, as far as I know), no
- "Death-Squad Strategy" by Nicaragua against its peasants,
- church-workers, human-rights workers, members of cooperatives, etc,
- who are trying to organize, carry out land reform, and other high
- crimes under Democracy, U.S.-Style.
-
- We similarly learn of Nicaragua's economy having been in "one of the
- best" conditions when the Sandinistas came to power, this
- after having read my footnoted post mentioning such trifles as
-
- When the Sandinista leaders entered the capital, Managua, they
- [..] faced tremendous problems. 50,000 people had been killed and
- 100,000 wounded in the revolutionary war. Before fleeing the
- country, Somoza had bombed schools, hospitals, factories, and
- housing.
-
- Somoza had looted the national treasure and left the country with
- one of the world's highest per capita debts.
-
- The picture of economic health inherited by the Sandinista government,
- which also decided to honor the debts accumulated under Somoza's
- corrupt and U.S.-backed dictatorship.
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- The first lie is in the implication that Chomsky, or I or other
- dissidents, do not "condemn" human-rights sufficiently
- broadly/equally. The second and more insidious lie is the implication
- or even statement that Scherzer *did* in fact "condemn" in any
- remotely meaningful sense the terrorism carried out by the Holy State
- (Washington).
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- The first question that arises is regarding Scherzer's "condemnation"
- of contra atrocities. A brief review of the record clarifies the
- actual position taken by Scherzer and fellow apologists for U.S.
- terrorism.
-
- [I will try to be more careful than Chomsky often is in
- clarifying the meaning of the "conspiratorial" references to a
- knowing, deliberate, support for terrorism and lies to cover
- up this support and pretend otherwise. As Chomsky notes
- carefully enough, in fact very eloquently, in the second
- chapter of _Turning the Tide_ (but not frequently enough in,
- say, articles, I feel), it is a very rare human being indeed
- who believes that they are evil. Including Hitler, Stalin, and
- other notables -- and despite the obfuscation created by
- cartoons and Hollywood movies with the Bad Guys knowing and
- frank about their being the Bad Guys -- those carrying out
- terrorism, slaughter, etc, almost invariably tell themselves
- and on some level even come to feel that they are doing the
- right thing, saving the Soviet Union from "aggression" and
- "danger" from Afghanistan or saving the United States from the
- "extraordinary threat to [its] national security" posed by
- Nicaragua or indeed Grenada (or Indochina), or saving Europe
- from the Jews, and so on. While we are not used to speaking in
- these terms about Our Leaders, there is no need to make
- exceptions for them any more than we would, instead of
- speaking of Stalin's "support for dictatorship, slaughter"
- phrase ourselves so carefully as to explain that Stalin did
- not *believe* he was committing gigantic crimes against
- humanity. With this clarification regarding "Washington's
- support for terrorism, antipathy towards independence and
- democracy" etc, and similarly for the apologists and
- supporters of (even "only in part" for this terrorism and
- slaughter), we can proceed.]
-
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