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Today's
Stories
August 21 /
22, 2004
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
August 20,
2004
Jennifer Van
Bergen
National
Security Courts and Torture Warrants
Lisa Taraki
Boycotting the Israeli Academy
Greg Bates
Racial
Profiling and National Security: Back with a Vengeance
Joshua Frank
Monkeywrench Hope: an Interview with Jeffrey St. Clair
John L. Hess
Play It Backward
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Return
Diane Christian
Holy
Places
Website of the Day
Go Tell Cerebus: 50,000 Dogs Slaughtered for Olympics?
August 19,
2004
Lance Selfa
To
ABB or Not to ABB?
Christopher
Brauchli
The Edicts of President Bush
Mike Whitney
The "Rebel Cleric" and the Siege of Najaf
Jason Leopold
The
Oily Parachute: How Cheney Got Away with $35 Million Before the
Feds Launched a Probe into Halliburton
Jeff Nicholson-Owens
Why We Need "Free Software" Voting Machines
Bill Linville
If
the Republicans Are Funding Nader, Who is Funding the Democrats?
Well, Try Halliburton for Starters
Diana Barahona
In the Minds of the Rich, the Venezuelan Poor Aren't Even Members
of Society: Guess Who's Laughing Now?
Alan Cisco
The
Discreet Charm of the Venezuelan Opposition
Dave Lindorff
Gitlin
Tells Anti-Bush Protesters to "Cool It"
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 18,
2004
Amy Goodman
An
Interview with Mordechai Vanunu
Adrian Kuzminski
The
Death of American Politics: Why Perot Was the Last Serious Challenger
of the Political Duopoly
Uri Avnery
Israel
and the US Elections
Dave Lindorff
Librarians as Wimps: "Sorry, Sir, Some Readers May Find
Your Book Inflammatory"
Toni Solo
After the Venezuela Referendum: Bush's Dien Bien Phu?
John L. Hess
Laying Odds on Armageddon: a Midtown Hiroshima?
Rodney Thomas
Patti Smith, Another Take
Sean Donahue
Kerry
and Bolivia: To the Right of Bush?
Website of the Day
Presidential Polls: David Cobb (at 0%) is Exceeding Expectations
August 17,
2004
Norm Dixon
Darfuris
Made Pawns in Western Power Play for Oil
Alan Farago
In
Charley's Wake: Opportunity from Misfortune
John L. Hess
The
Meaning of Venezuela
Lisa Taraki
/ Omar Barghouti
Presbyterian Church Divests from Israel
Allen Thompson
Et Tu, Patti? An Open Letter to Patti Smith
John Ross
Mexicans
Dying in Bush's War
Website of the Day
List of Civilian Contractors Killed or Missing in Iraq
August 16,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Attack on Najaf: the Ultimate Stupidity
Ron Jacobs
Iran
Through an Iraqi Mirror?
Mike Whitney
The
Guantanamo Mock Trials
Zvi Bar'el
Theater
of the Absurd in Iraq: Chalabi, Feith and Israel
John Blair
A
Culture of Waste
Sharmini Peries
Chavez
Triumphs; Crushes Opposition
Tariq Ali
The Importance of Hugo Chavez
Website of
the Day
Hurricane City
August 14 /
15, 2004
Justin Delacour
/ Diana Barahona
The
Venezuela Referendum: Can the Carter Center's McCoy be an Impartial
Observer?
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results
Saul Landau
God and Botox
John Ross
Echoes of Mexico City, 1968
Fred Gardner
Is California Spying on Pro-Pot Doctors?
Jonah Girdin
The Opposition Strategy in Venezuela: Subvert Democracy in the
Name of Democracy
Katherine Lahey
"Uh!
Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela
Medea Benjamin
Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela
Yves Engler
The Media and the Venezuela Referendum
Zeynep Toufe
The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias
Mike Whitney
The Trouble in Najaf: What Was al-Sadr's Crime?
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Zirin
Olympic Sized Horror in Greece: 150 Workers Died Building the
Facilities
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
Wayne Madsen
The McGreevey Scandal: an Israeli Connection?
David Krieger
Nuclear Disarmament in a Time of Globalization: the US Double
Standard
Tracy McLellan
The Illegality of Pot is a Crime: a Personal Account
Christina Gerhardt
Confronting Capitalism: What Has Changed Since Seattle 1999?
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert Vijayalakshmi, Gilliam
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
August 7 /
8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
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August
21 / 22, 2004
The
Bush Team in Iraq
Moral
Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
By
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
It is acknowledged almost everywhere
except in official Washington and London that Iraq and Afghanistan
have gone to hell in a hand cart, thanks in the main to appallingly
poor planning by the Pentagon of Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith,
an arrogant trio of silly asses whose combined allocation of
common-sense would fit comfortably in a peanut shell. Their incompetence
is almost matched by that of their former representative in Baghdad,
L Paul Bremer, who was masterly in his uncanny ability to make
decisions that were exactly opposed to what would have worked
in restoring the country to some sort of order.
The US army must take its share
of blame, because after defeating a disorganized and ineffective
enemy its orders were to arrest hundreds of 'wanted' people under
civil law, a task for which it was manifestly unprepared. It
went about its task in a brutal and inflammatory fashion, treating
the civil population as it would its enemies on the battlefield,
where utmost force is the rule. By its tactics of crash, smash
and bash, and menacing cowering families in their bedrooms at
dead of night, it alienated even the most fervent US-supporting
Saddam-haters. Its exultant and swaggering attitude was ludicrous,
but this was how the troops had been taught to behave. Their
violations of culture, customs and religion were only to be expected,
because these soldiers had no idea how to conduct themselves
in the policing role, especially in a country inhabited by people
whose history and values are not only complex but totally alien
to anything with which they were familiar. There was no intention
by their superiors, uniformed or civilian, Pentagon or field,
to provide them with instruction and information concerning the
country whose ancient national habits and traditions were grossly,
and, as it transpired, dangerously trampled in the mire of conquest.
The aim of Bush was to destroy
Saddam Hussein. He and his war-happy minions imagined that after
that objective was achieved the whole of Iraq and indeed the
world would pour blessings on his name, and the United States
would be regarded as the benevolent protector of justice for
the entire globe. It didn't matter, in the Bush Crusade conjured
up by the bunch of charlatans surrounding him, that there were
countless thousands of totally innocent people who would suffer
terribly from their combined lunacy. It didn't dawn on any of
his coterie of war-mongering zealots that the citizens of a country
that had been humiliated by an invader would object to exultation
and brutality on the part of the conquering heroes. No matter
how wicked their former dictator might have been, Saddam Hussein
was an Iraqi. The majority of his country-folk hated him ; but
the actions of the jubilant victor in replacing him with an equally
malevolent scoundrel to rule them has been the final straw in
national humiliation.
The Bush people lacked the
moral fiber to permit elections, because they thought the results
might not suit them, and there is no point in saying that mechanisms
did not exist for elections, because there were extensive records
of all citizens, as there always are in a police state. And there
had been an election in Iraq only a year before the invasion
; it had been fiddled, of course, but the point is that everything
was in place for the holding of democratic elections. Had the
Bush administration not feared their outcome, Iraq would now
have a legal government.
Although it was largely the
US army's bizarre and barbaric conduct that impelled thousands
of young Iraqis to rise up against the occupiers of their country
and to rebel against the Iraqi apparatchiks appointed by the
conquerors, responsibility for the present disaster must be shared
by the foolish Bremer and his masters who refused to permit the
majority of Iraqis to be employed in transport, construction,
defence and civil community tasks after the invasion. The legions
of unemployed young men, many of them former civil servants,
public works' employees, police and military who owed no loyalty
to Saddam Hussein, would have been happy to work for the occupation
forces had the opportunity been given them. But instead of being
awarded the dignity and much-needed wages of gainful employment,
they were treated with casual contempt. Most of them were declared
to be untrustworthy and therefore unemployable. They then saw
mass importation of tens of thousands of highly-paid, low-grade,
semi-skilled workers from all over the world, which fueled their
sense of humiliation and frustration.
The awarding of lucrative contracts
to mainly US firms, especially to Halliburton, whose employees
conducted a major scam involving millions of dollars, was yet
another slap in the face for ordinary Iraqis. These people aren't
ignorant savages, as they are regarded by the most American citizens
(and especially by the US soldiery). They are quite as sophisticated
as the inhabitants of the countries that invaded them, and they
know very well what is going on in their own country, courtesy
of the conquerors' machinations. They are only too aware that
Cheney is associated with Halliburton, and they don't care about
Washington's tap-dancing official apologias about the relationship.
The fact that Cheney receives
hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from Halliburton yet
is in some mysterious manner not associated with Halliburton
cuts no ice in downtown Baghdad, or anywhere else, for that matter.
The Iraqis realize they have been taken for a humiliating ride,
and that the vice-president of the United States is personally
involved in their degradation. The best thing that multi-millionaire
Cheney could have done for his country was to say that he wouldn't
take Halliburton's million dollars. ("Cheney's financial
disclosure filings with the Office of Government Ethics listed
$205,298 in deferred salary payments made to him by Halliburton
in 2001 and another $162,393 in 2002. The filings indicated that
he was scheduled to receive more payments in 2003, 2004, and
2005.") Rather he should have announced that he would forfeit
it in the interests of personal honor and America's dignity.
He doesn't need the money, after all, being already a very wealthy
man. But he is also a stubborn, dark and nasty-minded creep to
whom the very notion of backing down from a morally indefensible
position smacks of personal surrender rather than a pragmatic
and honorable decision. In this he epitomizes the entire Bush
administration ethos, right down to the rotten core of its basic
moral cowardice.
The Bush-Blair war on Iraq
was illegal and unnecessary, but their violent subjugation and
brutal occupation of a sovereign nation has been cataclysmic
in terms of long term effects. It was marked by a series of blunders
made by bumbling dunderheads who paid no attention to the wise
advice proffered by the State Department and the British Foreign
Office, whose experts were treated with suspicion and contempt
by their own governments, unlike the con-men expatriate Iraqis
who are now discredited as lying fraudsters and in the most high-profile
cases as deliberate provokers of war.
These grubby tricksters, some
of whom were pathological liars, were paid vast sums by the US
administration (let's be blunt : the US taxpayer) to purvey their
fairy-tales about non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction to
the armchair vandals in the White House and Downing Street who
were all too anxious to believe their fantasies. Governments
in Moscow, Paris and Berlin didn't believe a word of all this
rubbish. They were right, and Bush Washington was wrong ; and
for that they will never be forgiven by the Bush coterie. The
moral cowardice evident in this attitude is as intriguing as
it is despicable, because it reveals the deep streak of vindictiveness
that runs though the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld foreign policy. (Forget
Powell ; he neither contributes to foreign policy nor exercises
influence in the White House. Only misplaced loyalty keeps him
from resigning following a series of immensely humiliating incidents
in which he has been sidelined and ignored.) But the world, with
the exception of the British, Italian and Australian governments
and a few other hangers-on, now knows exactly what to expect
from the Bush administration : deviousness, disloyalty, deception
and moral cowardice. The notion of a Bush-led America that could
be morally courageous in its foreign policy is dismissed as preposterous
by most countries, for Bush and his people have shown, over and
over again, that they prefer confrontation to confabulation,
and that their word is worthless.
Moral cowardice is evident
in Washington-endorsed official reporting of deaths and casualties
in Iraq and Afghanistan. When two Polish soldiers were killed
and five wounded on Thursday their HQ issued a detailed description
of what happened, and the country's newspapers covered the action
in depth. When a US Marine was killed on the same day, here's
what was reported : "One U.S. marine was killed in action
in the southern city of Najaf, the center of a two-week uprising
led by radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, the U.S. military
said on Thursday. The marine, assigned to the First Marine Expeditionary
Force, was killed on Wednesday while conducting security and
stability operations, a statement said."
This laconic release was an
insultingly banal public epitaph for a member of the US armed
forces. You might think that he deserved a bit more than that,
because, after all, the military and the White House were only
too eager to provide lots of details about operations in Iraq
only a year or so ago, and it would be reasonable for the world
to know exactly what happened to him. The American public, in
fact, has a right to know in what circumstances a US Marine gave
up his life for . . . . Well, for what, exactly?
This is the rub. Bush's war-obsessed
whizkids don't want to release details about soldiers dying because
US citizens might become concerned about what is going on in
Iraq, and would ask why so many US citizens are being killed.
In the unlikely event of a prominent newspaper or television
company getting details of how this Marine was killed, they would
spread it as an important story (except Fox, of course). But
they don't know (or want to know?) what is going on, and, therefore,
neither does the American public, because sure as eggs the Bush
administration isn't going to tell them.
Marine John Doe died as if
he had never lived. He is mourned by his family, comrades, and
hometown friends. But even when his name is made public, after
his family have been told (that dreaded knock on the door by
a uniformed figure . . .) the rest of America won't know why
and how he died. Especially why.
It is official Pentagon policy
to give only the briefest notification of US deaths in Iraq,
and incidents of hideous injury are covered in exactly the same
fashion. This is not because publication of the circumstances
in which soldiers die or are blinded or lose a leg or are emasculated
might betray their comrades or their country. The reason for
the terse press releases is quite simple : the Bush administration
doesn't want stories about dead Marines to hit the headlines.
The Brits, of course, wouldn't stand for any of this sort of
crap. When a British soldier is killed the tabloid press are
onto the story before his last heartbeat, in as mawkish, maudlin
and Diana-mode a fashion as can be expected from papers that
prosper because of their grubby sensationalism. But at least
the British public is told the details of how their soldiers
die, and are not kept in the dark by use of impudently patronizing
PR phrases like "The marine, assigned to the First Marine
Expeditionary Force, was killed Wednesday while conducting security
and stability operations".
Bush and the rest of the Washington
warriors don't want America to know the details, because they
would have to answer questions about why these kids are dying.
They lack the moral courage to admit that the deaths are futile,
just as their whole war was futile.
It would certainly be uncomfortable
to be told something on the lines of :
"An American soldier screams
as medics hoist him into a helicopter on a stretcher, his face
twisted with pain from shrapnel wounds to his arm and head. Roaring
rotor blades drown out the young man's cry as the Blackhawk lurches
upwards, its wheels seeming to brush the flat roofs of central
Baghdad in a full-throttle race to hospital. For US medics riding
to the airborne rescue of the wounded, a surge in fighting in
Iraq since Aug. 5 has shattered weeks of relative calm at their
base. Working round-the-clock, crews have tripled their missions
since the clashes erupted between US forces and militia loyal
to Shi'i Muslim cleric Moqtada Al Sadr in Baghdad and Najaf.
The leap in activity not only points to a sharp increase in US
casualties, but provides an insight into the cost in life and
limb to the men doing the fighting. "It's not like anything
in the movies," said Major Christopher Knapp, 40, a pilot
and commander of the 45th Medical Company based at Taji, just
north of Baghdad. "There's torn flesh, blood everywhere.
There's no way to be able to describe it, it's just horrific,"
he said on Tuesday at the base housing Blackhawk transports and
Apache gunships. At least US soldiers can expect to be whisked
to surgeons in Iraq, or if necessary, treated at US bases in
Germany. For wounded Iraqis, medical facilities are often makeshift
at best. As the helicopter banked towards the US military hospital
in Baghdad, a medic in a bulky flying helmet and visor searched
the wounded soldier's wrist for a pulse. There was none. A roadside
bomb blast that morning appeared to have severed an artery, draining
the life from the man's arm, swathed by his comrades in bandages
stained with dried blood. On the stretcher stacked beneath him
lay an Iraqi man who had been working alongside the soldier as
a translator, his knees bandaged to cover less serious shrapnel
wounds . . . " And so on.
Horrible, isn't it? But you
say you didn't see that report of August 12? I'm not surprised,
because it was from Reuters, and was picked up by al Jazeera
and the Jordan Times, and nobody else printed it.
There is little wonder that
the new dictator of Iraq, the bloodstained mega-thug Allawi,
has closed down the al Jazeera office. Reuters' correspondents
produce excellent, indeed absolutely outstanding reports, but
they might as well be farting into the wind, because descriptions
like the one above are decidedly uncomfortable and won't see
mainstream US publications. In contrast, here's the Washington
Post of August 6 : "Since the beginning of July, the city
of Baghdad, through a grant from the U.S. Agency of International
Development (USAID), has spent $12 million hauling off the garbage.
The program has two goals: to clean up the city and to create
jobs for the unemployed." Oh wow.
And here is the New York Times
of the same day, with a different helicopter slant, as it were,
describing a casevac without quite as much blood : "But
from the air, too, more starkly than on the ground, there is
also the new world of Iraq beyond Mr. Hussein, a world where
almost every roof has a satellite television dish, banned by
the ousted dictator except for his acolytes; where markets that
were once nearly deserted for lack of spending power are now
crowded from dawn to dusk; where almost every open space, as
the sun sets, is busy these days with men and young boys playing
pick-up games of soccer. "Down there, right now, that's
the new Iraq", said Capt. Roderick P. Stout, 28, of Gainesville,
Fla., commanding a flight that carried the soldier from Abu Ghraib
to the Ibn Sina hospital. "They're out there playing, they're
out there shopping. That's good"."
But here's what really happened
that day : "Lance Cpl. Larry L. Wells, 22, of Mount Hermon,
La., was also killed Friday August 6 in An Najal Province, Iraq.
He was assigned to Unit Battalion Landing Team 1/4, 11th Marine
Expeditionary Unit, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton,
Calif." And, as Associated Press reported (on the same level
as Reuters ; these people are good) : "Assailants and militiamen
loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr wounded 15 American troops
in four separate attacks in Baghdad, the U.S. command said Friday.
The attacks took place over a six-hour period late Thursday,
the military said, as fighting raged separately with al-Sadr's
Mahdi Army militia in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of
the capital. The military had earlier reported seven U.S. soldiers
wounded in violence in Baghdad on Thursday . . ."
The place is hellish (Afghanistan
is, too, and we hear almost nothing about the quagmire there),
and US soldiers are being maimed and murdered every day. But
unless they search the net for Reuters, AP and al Jazeerah the
American public cannot know what is going on, and this suits
Bush and the warniks just fine. The truth hurts people like that.
The trouble is that it doesn't hurt them as much as those who
suffer "torn flesh, blood everywhere. There's no way to
be able to describe it, it's just horrific." But there is
certainly a way to describe the Bush policy of deceiving the
American public and the world : downright moral cowardice. And
that's horrific, too.
Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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