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Today's
Stories
June
4, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's
Animal House
June
3, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Iran's Nuclear Dilemma
Dr.
Susan Block
America in tha Hood
Michael
Donnelly
The Bully and the Brahmin
John
Chuckman
Insanity in America: US Ranks Number
One in the Deranged
Christopher
Brauchli
The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome
on $12,000 a Month
Samia
Nassar Melki
Caravaggio in Iraq
Mike
Whitney
Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case
Diane
Rejman
Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead
Scott
Morris
"WMDs" in Cuba
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
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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June
4, 2004
Inside
America's Animal House
Masked
and Anonymous
By
CHRIS FLOYD
Every now and then the mask slips, and
we see the true face of the system that marshals the world. For
an instant, the heavy paint of sober wisdom and moral purpose
falls away, and there, suddenly, with jolting clarity, is the
snarling rictus of an ape.
Last week gave us two such
moments: a quantum collision, where past and present co-exist
temporarily, their overlapping images phasing in and out of synch:
now Nixon now Bush now Kissinger now Rumsfeld, mouths, eyes,
snarls morphing and shifting, with only one image holding constant
between the eras--the twisted, shivered bodies of dead innocents.
First was the release of long-secret
phone transcripts from Henry Kissinger's heyday as Richard Nixon's
National Security Adviser. The transcripts were obtained by the
National Security Archive, the independent research center that
has uses America's remarkable Freedom of Information Act (now
under fierce assault by the Bush Regime) to unearth mountains
of death and dishonor once locked in secret government files.
Most of the news stories about
the release centered on the Nixon Gang's panicky efforts to deal
with bad publicity from the rape-and-slaughter rampage by U.S.
troops in My Lai. As in today's Iraqi torture scandal, the panic
was sparked by the existence of photographs confirming atrocities
that were long known to the top brass: in this case, pictures
of mutilated bodies in a burned-out village. And as with Abu
Ghraib, the great statesmen were concerned wholly with "containing"
the PR damage, not stopping the systematic abuses--which were,
after all, being carried out at their command. Then as now, rump-covering
was the order of the day.
But hidden in the pile of power-talk--and
virtually ignored by the press--was an extraordinary historical
snapshot of a war crime in the moment of conception. It's 1970.
Nixon is angry: the Air Force is not killing enough people in
Cambodia, the country he's just illegally invaded without the
slightest pretense of Congressional approval. The flyboys are
doing "milk runs," their intelligence-gathering for
targets is too tame, too by-the-book:. There are "other
methods of getting intelligence," Nixon tells Kissinger.
"You understand what I mean?" "Yes, I do,"
pipes the loyal retainer.
Nixon then orders Kissinger
to send every available plane into Cambodia--bombers, fighters,
helicopters, prop planes--to "crack the hell out of them,"
smother the entire country with deadly fire: "I want them
to hit everything." Kissinger dutifully calls his own top
aide, General Alexander Haig, and tells him to try to implement
the plan: "He wants a massive bombing campaign in Cambodia,"
Kissinger says. "It's an order, it's to be done. Anything
that flies on anything that moves."
"Anything that flies
on anything that moves."
That's how the system works--beneath the mask. A blustering fool
issues an order--and thousands upon thousands of innocent people
die. An entire country is ripped to shreds, and into the smoking
ruins steps a fanatical band of crazed extremists--the Khmer
Rouge--who murder a million more.
Just hours after the transcripts'
release, the image of Kissinger in 1970, jowls pressed to the
phone, calmly ordering mass death, morphed into the squinting
visage of Pentagon chief Don Rumsfeld, addressing West Point
graduates in 2004, exhorting the young cadets to a life of honor
and moral purpose-- without a single mention of the rape-and-torture
gulag he's strung across the world at the order of his own hell-cracking
master, George W. Bush. Rumsfeld also issued this stark warning
to the world: the illegal invasion of Iraq is just "the
beginning" of what is no longer merely a "war on terror"
but is now an all-out death-struggle with what Rumsfeld called--in
a major slip of the mask--"global insurgency."
Note carefully the change in
rhetoric--the change in target--from "terrorism" to
"insurgency." An "insurgent" is someone who
rises up within a given domain to resist or overthrow the ruling
power. George Washington was an insurgent; so was Pol Pot. But
a perceived "global insurgency" can only be
aimed at a global power--one whose domain encompasses
the entire planet. What Rumsfeld is clearly saying is that anyone
anywhere who resists the world-spanning will of the American
Empire will be subject to "the path of action." That's
the blood-and-iron terminology that Bush himself used to describe
his policies in the official "National Security Strategy"
he issued--just months before killing more than 10,000 civilians
in Iraq.
No doubt the definition of
"global insurgent" will prove to be every bit as elastic
as "terrorist," in a world where Iraqi prisoners--70-90
percent of them completely innocent, according to the Red Cross--were
"Gitmo-ized," treated just like the dubiously accused
terrorists in America's lawless Guantanamo concentration camp;
a world where even U.S. citizens simply disappear into the maw
of military custody, held without charges, indefinitely, on the
president's express order. If America controls your country and
you don't like it, then you're an insurgent. If you're an American
who doesn't like to control other countries, then you're an insurgent
too. And the war against you is "just beginning."
"Global insurgency. Crack
the hell out of them. The path of action. Anything that flies
on anything that moves." They should chisel these words
on the Capital Dome, spraypaint them across the pristine walls
of the White House walls, teach them in every classroom across
the land--for this is the system, this is the true constitution
of the National Security State, this is the authentic voice of
the American Establishment, the great and the good, the best
and brightest. This is what they do, what they've always done.
From the Indians to the Iraqis, anyone who gets in the way of
their power and privilege--individuals, tribes, whole nations--gets
trampled, broken, ruined, slaughtered. "Anything that
flies on anything that moves."
Then again, there's nothing
uniquely "American" about these criminal policies,
and the hypocrisy that attends them. It's how elites have behaved
from time immemorial, from the days of the apes: baring their
teeth and pounding their chests, ruling through fear and violence,
beating, biting, raping, killing--whatever it takes to maintain
their perch at the top of the tree. They disguise their savagery--even
from themselves--with masks of pomp and piety, with earnest protestations
of their "good hearts," their nobility, their enlightenment,
their altruism. But what moves them is the spirit of the beast,
the blind gut-lust for dominance, the ape-remnants that live
on in our brains. They're too weak, too stupefied with corruption
to rise above this inherent bestiality.
What should we do with such
dangerous creatures in a civilized society? Why, put them in
a cage, of course.
Chris Floyd is a columnist for the Moscow Times
and a regular contributor to CounterPunch. His CounterPunch piece
on Rumsfeld's plan to provoke terrorist
attacks came in at Number 4 on Project Censored's final
tally of the Most Censored stories of 2002. He can be reached
at: cfloyd72@hotmail.com
Weekend Edition
Features for May 29 / 31, 2004
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Alfred
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Douglas
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Chris
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Bruce
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The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
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Saul
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Kurt
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Elaine
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Will
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The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
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They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
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Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
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Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
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Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
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Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
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Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
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