>The Contra Campaign in Nicaragua was another pure use
> of terror. (The Contras were of course not a Nicaraguan political force
> but a mere agent of U.S. power.)
Jeez, don't tell Paul Berman that. He still, to my knowledge, contends that the contra war was a legitimate civil war. I debated him once at the Henry George School in NY, right before the 1990 Nicaraguan elections. After my (I thought) rather tame and obvious observations that the media was pro-contra and that no one in the elite class questioned the "right" the US had to attack Nicaraguans, Berman threw down his 3x5s, rubbed his face and sighed that after listening to my pro-Sandinista rant, he had to forgo his original argument in order to take on the lies I just spewed. It was classic Berman, and we went back and forth till an older guy in the back attacked me for anti-Americanism. Berman put his hand on my arm and defended my right to be wrongheaded. Another lovely afternoon in my life.
DP