The U.S. is, after all, the only country condemned by the World Court for international terrorism - for "the unlawful use of force" for political ends, as the Court put it - orderint the U.S. to terminate these crimes and pay substantial reparations. The U.S. of course dismissed the Court's judgment with contempt, reacting by escalating the terrorist war agains Nicaragua and vetoing a Security Council resolution calling on all states to observe internation law (and voting alone, with Israeil and in one case El Salvador, against similar General Assembly resolutions). The terrorist war expanded in accordance with the official policy of attacking "soft targets" - undefended civilian targets, like agricultural collectives and health clinics - instead of engaging the Nicaraguan air space by the U.S. and the advanced communications equpiment provided to them by their supervisors.

It should also be recognized that these terrorist actions were widely approved.
Even more dramatically, the idea that Nicaragua has the right to defend itself was considered outrageous across the mainstream political spectrum in the United States. The US pressured allies to stop providing Nicaragua with arms hoping that it would turn to Russia, as it did; that provides the right propaganda images. The Reagan administration repeatedly floated rumors that Nicaragua was receiving jet fighters from Russia - to protect its airspace - as everyone knew, and to prevent US terrorist attacks against soft targets. The rumors were false, but the reaction was instructive. The doves questioned the rumors, but said that if they are true, of course we must bomb Nicaragua, because it will be a threat to our security. That tells us quite a lot about the deep-seated "culture of terrorism" that prevails in Western civilization.

This is by no means the most extreme example, I mention it because it is uncontroversial, given the World Court decision, and because of the failed efforts of Nicaragua to pursue lawful means. Nicaragua was but ONE component of Washington's terrorist wars in Central America in that terrible decade, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and four countries in ruins.