Noam Chomsky

Chomsky makes his arguments with passion and with much documentation. He thoroughly convinces this reader of the fact that U.S. policy has indeed been thoroughly anti-democratic in Central America, and has been based on the attitude that the U.S. had the right to do whatever it needed to do there in pursuit of its own national interests. The U.S. has pursued such an imperialist policy without regard for the desires of the people in those countries. In addition, the U.S. has supported any leadership in those nations as long as it regarded communism as an enemy, regardless of that leadership's own attitude toward democracy and human rights. In short, Chomsky paints a portrait of a U.S. policy in Central America which i

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that we should never take for granted that out government is telling us the truth or that its policies are based on what is good for us or for other nations. Chomsky writes that the truth will perhaps eventually set us free but it will not be easy or pretty in the meantime: We live entangled in webs of endless deceit, often self-deceit, but with a little honest effort, it is possible to extricate ourselves from them. If we do, we will see a world that is rather different from the one presented to us by a remarkably effective ideological system, a world that is much uglier, often horrifying (1). We ourselves are, says Chomsky, in part responsible because we have allowed ourselves to be deceived and have therefore been passive co-conspirators in the imperialist policy of our government overseas. We "live in a society," says Chomsky, which is "relatively free and open," and "we are fortunate . . . in the range of opportunities we enjoy for free inquiry and effective action" (1). If we are ignorant of the damage U.S. foreign policy does, in other words, and if we do nothing about it, then we have nobody to blame but ourselves. If we continue to live in the dark, it is because we choose to do so. In his overview of U.S. history
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Approximate Word count = 1611
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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