Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
July
6, 2004
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
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
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang's All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA's New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn't Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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.
|
July
6, 2004
If
Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
The
Legacy of Deceit
By
WILLIAM A. COOK
" the hypocrite's outward
appearance shines brightly and passes for holiness, but under
that show lies the terrible weight of his deceit which the soul
must bear through all eternity."
(from John Ciardi's notes,
Canto XXIII, The Inferno by Dante)
Dante approached the injustice and corruption
of his day by creating a concrete and graphic image of the Medieval
visualization of Hell in The Inferno; he then populated
its sundry levels of excruciating punishment with the politicians,
clerics, militarists and businessmen who caused that injustice
and corruption. It occurred to me that Florence in 1300 mirrors
in microcosm the injustice and corruption of Washington, D.C
in 2000. As I watch the President, the Vice President, other
administration officials and FOX news anchors, in direct contradiction
to the findings of the 9/11 Commission, regurgitate the lies
they told to send 850 American soldiers to their deaths, to cripple
and maim more than 4000 others, and to murder an as yet undetermined
number, estimated at about 10,000 Iraqi civilians, I could not
help but reflect on the legacy these men must leave to future
generations. With that in mind I attempted to find the appropriate
circle of Hell in which to place these leaders of the "free"
world. Given the religious intensity of this administration,
proclaimed by the President repeating without end his known truism
"it's not our gift that we bring to the nations of the world
but God's gift of freedom that belongs to every man and woman
on the earth," the medieval mentality that permeates Dante's
vision of Hell seemed an appropriate place to begin.
But in which circle of Hell
do they belong? The Opportunists, those souls that lived without
regard for good or evil but only for themselves, certainly described
the reality of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz, Libby
and the whole crew at the American Enterprise Institute and the
Project for the New American Century, but they were housed in
The Inferno in the Vestibule experiencing only the sting
of wasps and hornets as they run round and round through the
dirt infested air, their bodies flowing with the putrid smell
of pus and blood feasted upon by worms and maggots, hardly, I
confess, an adequate retribution for their crimes. After all,
Dante understood the wasps and hornets to image a guilty conscience,
but these men have no guilty conscience, indeed they have no
conscience at all. I decided to withhold judgment.
Circle two and three offered
promise at first sight, circles devoted to those who in life
gave themselves to carnal desires and gluttony, but this administration
is composed of many "born-again" believers, like Bush
and Ashcroft, who have foresworn the sensual life for bigger
and more fulfilling sins. Hoarders occupy circle four, those
who destroyed God's light within their souls by thinking of nothing
but money. That seemed most appropriate for Cheney and the merchants
of death who make money from war profiteering, the Halliburton,
Bechtel, Titan, CACI corporations and their ilk that sit on the
edge of the ravaged plains like carrion birds awaiting the appropriate
time to fly in for their meal. But certainly they deserve more
punishment then hurling great weights at each other, the retribution
Dante conceived for Hoarders, especially since hoarding money
represents only a fraction of their sins. Circle seven promised
more. Here reside murderers and war makers, tyrants and dictators,
those violent against their neighbors. Perhaps no place is more
appropriate than to have Bush and Rumsfeld reside side by side
with Saddam and Sharon! What a fitting place where the inhabitants
wallow in boiling blood forever, a constant reminder of the butchery
they inflicted on the innocent in life.
Dante did not provide for a soul to spend time in one circle
before moving on to
another, a decided flaw in his conception when one has sinners
of the like we have in DC. Consider the value of moving Bush,
Rumsfeld, Rove, and Cheney, after an appropriate number of centuries
in the boiling blood of circle seven, to circle eight where the
fraudulent and malicious are driven at an endless walk by horned
demons, a punishment that mirrors their crime: in life they prodded
others to serve their fraudulent and illegal ends so now they
in turn are goaded in an endless walk in the eighth ditch. Crammed
in that same ditch, perhaps with an opportunity from time to
time to wiggle their feet at each other, belong the tele-evangelists
Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Pastor John
Hagee among others, who are placed there because they sold ecclesiastical
favors and offices for personal gain. These are the corruptors
of God stuffed upside down in tube-like holes, feet jutting out,
a veritable mockery of the baptismal font, the source of the
water they used as their instrument of fear to push their congregants
to their will. This ditch, packed wall to wall with their ilk
from Moses to the present day, provides an oily fire that licks
at their feet, a just retribution for their crimes against their
respective Gods, Yahweh and Jesus. Dante understood that the
greatest disaster to afflict the church came as a result of its
corrupt quest for wealth; things have not changed.
Only two circles remain, but
they are the most graphic in representing the
Eternal retributions due our leaders. Hypocrites tread the forlorn
track of the bolgia that is their home for all eternity in circle
eight. Robed in leaden monk's habits, glowing in gilded splendor,
the outward show of holiness, they carry the terrible weight
of deceit beneath these garments, "so heavy that we, their
weary fulcrums, creak and groan." Here is an appropriate
circle for our band of hypocrites: politicians, military fawners
and churchmen. But they are more than hypocrites; they are thieves
as well having stolen the citizens' wealth for decades to come.
Fortunately, thieves, too, reside in circle eight wrapped in
pits of monstrous reptiles that twist and curl about their loins.
What an apt retribution since they borrowed Nietzsche's corrosive
philosophy, used ironically by the Nazis against the Jews, to
gain power by blindly following Strauss' negation of morality:
use religion Zionism and Christianity to manipulate
millions by invoking fear on one side and prophecy on the other
instinct and superstition as motivating drives to
empire. Perhaps Dante would allow them to experience the retribution
of both sins since, as followers of Strauss, they are bound by
no morals whatsoever, only power.
Now there will be those who
would draw a distinction between Bush as
Puppet and his handlers, the evil counselors that use his dim
wit to their advantage. Should we accept that distinction, we
must separate Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and the cabal
of neo-cons from their shadow boss as they enter the ditch set
aside for evil counselors where they will move about endlessly,
hidden inside enormous flames. Hidden forever, consumed by flames
that represent the destruction of the gifts given to them by
God, the perversion of their intellects from seeking what is
good to manipulate others by wiles and stratagems, they sinned
by glibness of tongue and so are consumed by tongues of flames.
Conscious deceit corrupts both the deceiver and the deceived:
the deceiver decays into demonic decadence, the deceived into
an unreasoning pawn inflicting the deceivers will on the innocent.
Circle eight, however, does not end with tongues of flame. Below
that ditch
circles a group of hideous and mutilated souls, the sowers of
discord. Certainly, the whole army of this administration must
join this parade of deceivers. They tore asunder the very threads
of unity that God had created to bind all peoples into one so
they, for all eternity, must be hacked apart by the bloody sword
wielded by demons. Day after day they drag their torn bodies
through the pit as their wounds heal only to be hacked again
and again by the demons, a continuing circuit of constant torment
and mutilation. What an awful band they are! Sowers Of Religious
Discord, Sowers of Political Discord, Sowers of Discord between
Kinsmen, the reapers of the whirlwind. Here reside all the clerics
of the evangelical right, sowers of prophetic discord, liars
who deceive by proclaiming communication with God Almighty as
they interpret the Book of Revelation and drive their respective
congregations to invest in terrorism in Israel; here beside them
crawl the Zionist right-wing members of Sharon's brigade of fanatics
who deceive the Jews even to accepting the deadly Christians
for political expedient reasons; here Karl Rove worms his way
hacked by demons, the very face of deception and discord; here
stumble beneath the blows all who used their kinsmen, their fellow
Americans, as fodder for their wars, the lowest of all in Hell,
an incestuous legion driven to fratricide to attain their ends;
and here, no doubt, we will see George W. Bush cry out, as Mosca
dei Lamberti did to Dante from this deepest abyss, "Remember
me; see what a sentence has been passed upon me, and search all
Hell for one to equal this! I set son against father, father
against son and since I parted those who should be one in duty
and in love, I bear my brain divided from its source within this
trunk; and walk here where my evil turns to pain." And so
he walks for all eternity holding his severed head by the hair
before him like a lantern as it weeps in its despair.
All of these await entrance
into the final ditch in circle eight, a ditch reserved for the
falsifiers. Since they corrupted society through their falsifications
they exist in darkness, filth, disease, din, and stench, the
sum of the corruptions they inflicted on humankind. But there
is one final ditch, the ninth, a bolgia designed for those treacherous
to country, an apt accommodation for our crew of sinners. Here
they remain locked in ice, in close proximity to their lord,
Satan, only half their faces above the ice, where even tears
freeze in the sockets making impossible the relief that comes
with tears of remorse.
Our righteous indignation might
revel in the potential Dante provides in The Inferno
for our criminals, but my cynicism doesn't allow for it. No,
I'm afraid that "W" will retire from office to Crawford
where the next Presidential Library will be built, albeit the
smallest of all since he does not read or write and most, if
not all, Presidential papers will either be classified or non-existent.
The only point of comparability between this library and others
will be its silence. Perhaps cynicism is a cry of despair? After
all there is a legacy created by this administration, a legacy
of deceit that hovers like a dark shadow above all America.
The good Prayer Book (5:6)
observes "The Lord will abhor both the bloodthirsty and
deceitful men," perhaps as comfort for those who have had
to live through their vileness, but I do not believe that they
will suffer their due rewards. We will and our children will.
Consider the real and painful legacy these men have bequeathed
to all Americans. The most insidious legacy and the most corrosive
for a democracy is the dissembling of trust in our fellow men,
those we must select as our leaders. Erode trust and the very
pillars that support consent by the governed crumbles. This administration
has eroded trust. But there's more, there is erosion of belief
in the perceived values that are the bedrock of America's uniqueness
in the world honesty, fairness, and equality for all. Act illegally,
attack with overwhelming power, and impose beliefs where they
are unwanted and the substance of the American experiment evaporates.
This administration has corrupted America's values. But there's
more, there is questioning now of the ideology that gives America
its primary position among the nations of the world a belief
that rights reside inherently in the nature of the individual,
a belief that embraces the sacredness of all and grants respect
to all. Force nations to heel to America's will and the very
concept of individual rights vanish. This administration has
destroyed the American character and its promise.
Consider also these legacies
of national distrust: distrust in the Supreme Court that steals
the vote from the people to fulfill its political obligation
to the Republican Party; distrust in the political system that
has been co-opted by corporate money; distrust in the Congress
that can impeach one President for a personal failure and let
another lie to the people in order to wage his personal war using
our soldiers' lives to achieve his end; distrust among the people
as they watch a band of Neo-Cons abscond with their government
and impose their ideology on the world's communities in their
name; distrust among the people as they witness a small group
of religious zealots attempt to force their superstitious beliefs
on the country subverting thereby the separation of church from
state; distrust of the media that has been acquiescent in the
corruption that has plagued this administration; distrust of
the government departments created to uphold and secure our safety
because the administration has refused to cooperate in the proper
investigation of the terrorist acts that resulted in 9/11; distrust
of those in our society that represent privilege, power, and
wealth as above the law while the deprived, impotent, and poor
fill our prisons; and, finally, distrust in a system that promised
individual control and consent betrayed by those who took control
and mocked consent.
Consider also these legacies
of international concern: perception of America as a nation that
will subvert and undermine the Geneva Conventions regarding human
rights and prisoner rights, a perception that destroys the very
premise of America's declaration of individual rights; cynicism
regarding America's stated motives to bring "freedom and
Democracy" to all when the worlds' communities witness this
administration impose its will by force or coercion on weaker
nations; an understanding that America is willing to lie to its
people and to the people of the world to gain its ends making
impossible trust in American policies; questioning of the logic
and sense of Democracy if it allows for such stupidity to gain
control of the most powerful nation on the planet by a few ideologues
who have no belief in the system they have subverted; awareness
that this government will inflict its retaliation on those who
do not agree with it negating thereby honest and sincere dissent;
recognition that corporate power determines the actions of America
and its foreign policy and determines the use of the world's
natural resources by control of America's might; realization
that America has locked itself irrevocably to Israel regardless
of the consequences of that allegiance to international security
and peace in the mid-east recognizing in its support of Sharon
a nation that wants instability in order to ensure Israeli theft
of Palestinian land and eventual hegemony in the "greater
middle east"; an appreciation that America under this administration
will deny any responsibility for creating conditions that breed
terrorism because it denies responsibility for ravaging the
world's resources causing endless harm to the environment and
great disparity in health and wealth around the world; and, finally,
recognition and fear that this administration has created a new
foreign policy that has opened the door to chaos and destruction
by claiming its right to pre-emptive strikes against other nations,
disengaging unilaterally from international treaties and agreements,
negating the concept and function of international law, accepting
the use of civilians as fodder for war to invoke shock and awe,
mocking the value of the United Nations as a collective body
for international peace, and, finally, and most viciously, destroying
the principle that gives meaning to government by law, acceptance
of extra-judicial execution thereby giving license to all to
kill at will negating both individual rights and belief in human
equality. This legacy of understanding by the international community
becomes our legacy as we travel the world.
Some would argue that I have
omitted the most significant legacy, the economic debt thrust
on the American people and their children. Let me recognize that
legacy as a just retribution imposed on a people (imposed unfairly
on those who fought against this administration) that let this
administration stay in power by not speaking out against the
representatives that coddled to its power, that allowed its media
to become but sounding brass for corporate voices and administration
lies, that enabled Ashcroft to cripple our freedoms with his
right-wing religious prejudices and his shackling of our rights
with his Patriot Acts, and that listened to the pseudo-prophets
of the National Church of Television as they excused Bush's lies
that has resulted in close to 900 dead American soldiers and
10,000 Iraqi civilians, countless wounded and maimed, all in
the name of the peaceful Jesus they purportedly worship. Unfortunately,
that debt may become the anchor that sinks America in time. While
the Neo-Cons extol America's world dominance both militarily
and economically, reality suggests that another power has arisen
that could undermine that dominance. With the rise of the European
Union and its currency, the Euro, America's dollar has competition.
As America's debt builds, as its losses in the military theater
become more and more obvious, as its acceptance as an international
partner continues to erode, as more nations see it and its parasite
in the mid-east, Israel, as terrorist states and the greatest
threat to peace on the planet, confidence in the dollar will
fall and the Euro will become more and more attractive. That
could be disastrous for America resulting in the worst tangible
legacy of all, an economic depression of incalculable consequences.
Perhaps we must return to the
Prayer Book (43:1), "Oh God, defend my cause against the
ungodly people: O deliver me from the deceitful and wicked man."
William Cook is a professor of English at the University
of La Verne in southern California. His new book, Psalms
for the 21st Century, was just published by
Mellen Press. He can be reached at: cookb@ULV.EDU
Weekend Edition
Features for June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
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