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Today's
Stories
February 19, 2004
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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February
19, 2004
How Far Will Bush
Go?
The
Bloody Price of US Primacy in Iraq
By TARIQ ALI
The whole world knows that Bush and Blair lied
to justify the war, but do they know the price being paid on
the ground in Iraq? First, the blood price--paid by civilians
and others this week as every week. More than 50 people died
on Tuesday [2/12] when a car bomb ripped through Iraqis queuing
to join the police force. The US military blamed al-Qaida loyalists
and foreign militants for this and other suicide bombings. But
occupations are usually ugly. How then can resistance be pretty?
Second, the price of internal conflict.
Religion is the politics of the unarmed opposition to the occupation.
What we are witnessing on the streets of Baghdad and Basra is
a struggle for power within the Shia community. What should be
the character of the new Iraqi state? And, as the UN continues
to dither over the timing of elections, when will this come about?
Third, and related to this most pressing
question of elections, is the price of confusion. An intricate
web of pacts and pay-offs is being constructed between the American
occupiers and their assorted interest groups, but how long this
will last is an open question.
As the events of this last week have
shown, the key issue now is the one of direct elections. Kofi
Annan is ready to go into action. The United Nations security
council has recognized the puppet government in Iraq. Two weeks
ago a gathering in Munich brought France and Germany back on
board. The occupation of an Arab country is now backed by most
of the northern hemisphere. All that
is needed is an official UN umbrella to pretend that it isn't
an imperial occupation and try to effect a compromise with the
Shia religious leaders.
Their position is awkward because the
armed resistance has forced them to organize mass mobilizations
and put forward their own alternative to the occupation. They
have demanded immediate elections to a constituent assembly whose
members will frame a new constitution. So what might be the result
of such elections?
In the past secular politics cut across
sectarian and ethnic divisions. The Ba'ath party itself was founded
in Basra and its pre-Saddam leadership consisted of many people
of Shia origin. It was the combination of Saddam's repression,
the post-1989 turn to religion in north and south and US opportunism
(in the shape of money and weapons to the anti-Saddam religious
groups) after the first Gulf war that led to the total dominance
of the religious leaders in the south.
The two principal leaders of the unarmed
opposition, Ali al-Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr, are vying for
popular support. Al-Sadr is hostile both to the occupation and
plans to federate Iraq, which he sees as the first step towards
Balkanization and western control of Iraqi oil.
Sistani, who represents the interests
of Teheran and is friendly with the Foreign Office in London,
has been collaborative but, fearing that he might lose support
to his rival, he has demanded an immediate general election.
It is he who wants to talk to Kofi Annan so that he is not seen
as talking to the despised occupiers.
If Annan tells him that elections should
be delayed, he might be more willing to fall into line. But if
elections are held and result in a Shia majority, might not Iraq
go the way of Iran in the late-70s? In terms of religious laws
it undoubtedly will. Both Sistani and al-Sadr have demanded the
imposition of the sharia.
But it's not just about politics and
religion. Power leads to money and clientelism. There are members
of families and tribes linked to the main clerical groups in
the south and they are impatient. A great deal will depend on
two key issues: who controls Iraq's oil and how long US/UN troops
should remain in the country. As a result of the invasion and
occupation of Iraq, the clerical regime in Iran has become a
key player. Once part of the "axis of evil", its close
ties with Sistani necessitate a Washington-Teheran rapprochement.
And how better to facilitate this than
by dredging up the bogey of the Wahhabite al-Qaida? The US may
have sought to blame it for this week's car bomb attacks. But
this ignores the fact that "if you collaborate, then be
prepared to pay the price" has been the message of virtually
every national struggle over the last century.
In Vichy France and occupied Yugoslavia
and later in Vietnam, Algeria, Guinea and Angola, collaborators
were regularly targeted. Then, as in Iraq today, the resistance
was denounced by politicians and the tame press as "terrorists".
When the occupying armies withdrew and the violence ceased, many
of the "terrorists" became "statesmen".
Some of us who were opposed to the war
argued that while US military occupation of Iraq would be easy
they would face a resistance on different levels. And, as becomes
plainer every day, the achilles tendon of the occupation is its
incapacity to control a hostile population. Hence the need for
collaborators. Destroying states by overwhelming military power
is one thing. State building is a more complex operation and
requires, at the very least, a friendly if not a docile population.
Can US primacy be maintained indefinitely
in the face of overwhelming hostility? Obviously not, but neither
can the US, regardless of which party is in power, afford a setback
in Iraq. That would be a major blow against the "empire"
and weaken its ability to control other parts of the world. Add
to this a small irony: under Saddam, al-Qaida was not present
in Iraq. If a few of its members are there now it is because
of the Anglo-American occupation.
The occupation authorities are trapped.
The occupation is costing $3.9bn a month. Politically, if they
permit a democratic election they could get a government whose
legitimacy is unchallengeable and which wants them out of the
country. If they go for a rigged, Florida-style vote, it would
be impossible to contain Shia anger and an armed resistance would
commence in the south, raising the specter of a civil war.
Militarily, the capture of Saddam has
not affected the US casualty rate, and the number of nervous
breakdowns and suicides in the US army occupying Iraq has reached
unprecedented levels. Sooner than anyone could have predicted
the occupation has become untenable. Regime changes in Washington
and London would be small punishment compared to what is being
inflicted on Iraq.
Tariq Ali's
latest book, Bush
in Babylon: The Re-colonisation of Iraq, is published by
Verso.
He can be reached at: tariq.ali3@btinternet.com
Weekend
Edition Features for February 14 / 15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
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