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Today's
Stories
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A Journey to Rafah
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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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Weekend
Edition
March 27 / 28, 2004
Some Thoughts on Waziristan
Once
and Always a Colonial Army
By FAHEEM HUSSAIN
The propensity to serve its imperial masters is
deep rooted, one could even say it is genetic, in the Pakistan
Army. This essential nature of our armed forces goes back to
its foundation as a colonial army under the British with the
old Indian Army serving as cannon fodder in the various imperial
wars of the 19th and 20th centuries. Recall the inglorious role
of our own regiments in Iraq and Arabia in the early years of
the 20th century. This tradition was continued with the complete
alignment with US policies, during the Cold War, of our military
and political leaders. Our Army is ready to do the dirty work
whenever it is called upon, like for example against the PLO
in Jordan in 1970. One must stress that this deep sickness is
not just of the military but it pervades our English-speaking
ruling political class.
These thoughts occurred to me, from afar,
looking at the horrible pictures of blindfolded white-bearded
old men, in chappals (sandals), being pushed and dragged into
Army jeeps in South Waziristan, with captions like "captured
terrorists" "Al-Qaeda suspects". Women and children
are killed in indiscriminate bombing, our own kith and kin being
killed by our so-called defenders who excuse themselves by talking
about collateral damage. Helicopter gunships are being used to
bomb villages just as the Russians did in Afghanistan, the Israelis
do in Palestine and the US in Iraq.
Are these the models that our so-called
glorious Army follows in killing its own people? We are very
quick at learning the worst aspects of behaviour from our masters.
We know that the United States is violating all international
norms and is behaving like the barbaric country it is. Do we
have to descend to the same level of barbarity? Do we have to
be as uncivilised as them? Does not the Army feel disgusted with
the way they are treating prisoners, their own countrymen, violating
all rules of treatment of prisoners of war? Why is there not
a wave of disgust and horror in Pakistan about this? But maybe
I should not be surprised. I should not expect better from our
Army as it has always been a brutal colonial army whose real
purpose of existence has been to suppress its own people. Have
they ever defended us? How many lost wars?
Language in the Army and elsewhere in
our society always apes the language of the masters. I myself
am writing this in the language of the masters. The master's
language can be used as a subversive instrument but not by our
ruling classes, especially the Army which is still, after nearly
60 years of independence, full of the expressions of the old
Indian Army. .Just go to their officer's messes. The same with
our civil servants who continue to use the jargon of the colonial
era.
Now we are also quickly picking up the
language of our new masters. "High value targets, collateral
damage, terrorists, Al-Qaeda elements, bad guys." It makes
me sick. Continuing on the same theme it is disgusting to see
our young people aping the worst current language and dress of
the United States. If this is globalisation, God help us.
What evidence has been presented that
there were foreign fighters in South Waziristan? Does not the
government realise that it is playing with fire, with the awful
spectre of civil war by sending in the Army into the traditional
tribal areas that do not brook interference? Does not the government
understand the Pakhtoon code of hospitality? Traditionally they
do not hand over guests. Heavy-handedness will not resolve this.
What was required was a more subtle approach. Yes these are backward
regions and they need opening up and development but what has
the Federal Government done in all these years to bring schools,
hospitals and economic development to these remote poor regions?
The answer is nothing and you cannot bring modernity or development
by force of arms, just like you cannot bring democracy to Iraq
by invading the country.
That Pakistan has become a neo-colony
of the US is evident to everybody. We do not have sovereignty.
Because of the bankrupt policies of our rulers (mind you not
the mullahs) we have sold it for a mess of pottage. How can we
consider ourselves independent when we have the FBI roaming freely
inside the country, arresting people with the help of our forces
and sending them illegally without due process to Guantanamo
as well as to gulags in Afghanistan and Diego Garcia, where they
are tortured? Recently revealed CENTCOM documents reveal that
Pasni was used as a major naval and US Marine base in the illegal
attack against Afghanistan. We still have bases inside Pakistan
and in exchange for not prosecuting A.Q. Khan we have given the
US Army the right to operate inside Pakistan. Are we or are we
not an occupied country with limited sovereignty?
Who is responsible for this mess? It
is very fashionable and easy to blame the religious elements
for the malaise of the country. But this is disingenuous, as
it is a coalition of the civil services and the Army who have
been in power during the major part of the history of the country.
It was the Army and our political class which was responsible
for our involvement in Afghanistan on the side of the United
States which left us the legacy of drugs, the Kalashnikov culture,
Al-Qaeda, terrorism, etc. and which left us so bankrupt, economically,
culturally and politically that we could not resist pressure
from the United States after September 11 and we joined the so-called
war against terror, which is another name of the US attempt at
global domination. Our leaders bask in the glory of being photographed
with murderers like Bush, Wolfowitz and Powell and are proud
of being declared a "major non-NATO ally" just so that
they can have new toys like Cobra helicopters for their Army
which they can then use to bomb their own people.
What has happened to the consciousness
of our people? There is not much condemnation inside Pakistan
against the assassination of Sheikh Yassin by the Israelis. Our
newspapers carry mild editorials and even the National Assembly
dare not pass a strong resolution of condemnation. Where is the
so-called "civil society" protesting on the streets,
writing, etc. against the violation of our sovereignty? Where
are the protests of human rights groups about the prisoners taken
in Wana? Are they being interrogated, tortured, by US special
agents in Peshawar? Why are there not protests against US occupation
of Iraq, against the presence of US troops in Pakistan? Why are
these and other issues like Waziristan and Israel left in the
hands of the religious parties? The so-called liberal forces
in Pakistan have no chance if they do not take up these issues
that touch the very core of our independence. Otherwise the people
of Pakistan will quite rightly consider us as stooges of imperialism.
Faheem Hussain
is a Pakistani physicist. He can be reached at: faheem@counterpunch.org
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
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