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Today's
Stories
February 8,
2006
Stan Cox
Making
and Unmaking History with General Myers
February 7,
2006
Edward Lucie-Smith
An
Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis
Robert Fisk
The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning
Paul Craig Roberts
Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man"
Neve Gordon
Why Hamas Won
Joshua Frank
The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War
Peter Montague
The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation
Jackie Corr
The
Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Rumsfeld's
Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone
Website of the Day
Negroes with Guns
February 6,
2006
Christopher
Brauchli
Spilling
Blood: Two Sentences
Robert Fisk
Don't
Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism
John Chuckman
What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win?
Jenna Orkin
Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air
Paul Craig
Roberts
Who
Will Save America: My Epiphany
February 4
/ 5, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
"Lights
Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run
Mike Ferner
Pentagon
Database Leaves No Kid Alone
James Petras
Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia
Alan Maass
Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance
Fred Gardner
Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's
Office
Ralph Nader
Bush's
Energy Escapades
Bill Glahn
RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues
Saul Landau
Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms?
Laura Carlsen
Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez
James Brooks
Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors
Mike Roselle
Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas
John Holt
Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy
Sarah Ferguson
Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops
William S.
Lind
Beware the Ides of March
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech?
Seth Sandronsky
The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry
Derrick O'Keefe
Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy
Michael Donnelly
Hop on the Bus
Ron Jacobs
Religion and Political Power
Elisa Salasin
RSVP to Bush
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Stew Albert
God's Curse: Selected Poems
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Killer
Tells All!
February 3,
2006
Toufic Haddad
A
Parliament of Prisoners
Heather Gray
Working with Coretta Scott King
Tim Wise
Racism,
Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates
Conn Hallinan
Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm
Eva Golinger
Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela
Daniel Ellsberg
The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration
Dave Zirin
Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink
Robert Bryce
The
Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East
Website of
the Day
The Chavez Code
February 2,
2006
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Pentagon
Pork: How to Eliminate It
Stan Cox
Outsourcing
the Golden Years
Rachard Itani
Danes
(Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons)
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up
Amira Hass
In
the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya
Norman Solomon
When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind
Words
Michael Simmons
Stew Lives!
Christopher
Reed
Japan's
Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves
Website of the Day
State of Nature
February 1,
2006
Sharon Smith
The
Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster
Jason Leopold
Enron and the Bush Administration
Cindy Sheehan
Getting
Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened
Joseph Grosso
Oprah
and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality"
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife
Steven Higgs
Life After Roe. v. Wade
Robert Robideau
"God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America
R. Siddharth
Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with
Henry Ford
Jim Retherford
Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
The Legacy of Coretta Scott King
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
True State of the Union
Website of
the Day
Candide's Notebooks
January 31,
2006
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Revolutionary
for the Hell of It: the Good Life of Stew Albert
Clancy Chassay
US
Prods Lebanon Towards Civil War
Dave Lindorff
The Democrats' Alito Debacle
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Alito: Harry-Kerry in the Senate
Oren Ben-Dor
Hamas' Victory: a New Hope?
Winslow Wheeler
Pentagon
Pork: What is It? Who Cooks It Up?
John Ryan
Canada: a Chilling Echo of Bush's Republicans
Mike Marqusee
Privatizing
Health Care: the Poor Pay the Price
Ron Jacobs
For Stew
Andrew Cockburn
Why Bush Probably Won't Attack Iran
Website of
the Day
Celebrating Stew Albert
January 30,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush,
Fox News and the Coming War on Iran
Winslow Wheeler
Inside
the Pork Shop: the Defense Budget and Congressional Earmarks
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Development Interrupted
Marcus Dam
"The Real Threat is from Imperial Fundamentalism":
an Interview with Tariq Ali
John Bomar
Message to Democrats: the Case Against Pre-War Lying is a Slam
Dunk, Stupid
Ben Beachy
Swindling the Sick: the IMF Debt Relief Sham
Gideon Levy
The Good News About Hamas' Victory
Michael Carmichael
Alito and Opus Dei
Missy Comley
Beattie
Of Losses and Lies
Norman Solomon
The Question Journalists Refuse to Ask Bush
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Finally Some Good News From Haiti
Michael Ratner
Tomorrow is Today; the Time for
Resistance is Now
Website of
the Day
"I'm So Bored with Capitol Hill"
January 28
/ 29, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
Nicholas
Kristof's Brothel Problem
Ralph Nader
The Impeachable Mr. Bush
Col. Dan Smith
Spying and Lying by the Pentagon
Paul Craig Roberts
Blind Ignorance: Polls Show Many Americans Simply Dumber Than
Bush
Tammara Rosenleaf
Homefront War Diary: On Monday, My Husband Didn't Call
Ron Jacobs
Google This!
Harry Browne
Irish "Peace" Process at Recriminations Stage
Fred Gardner
Grover Norquist, Drug Policy Reformer?
Christopher
Reed
North Korean Forgeries
Bernard Chazelle
France's Colonial Blowback
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money, 2005: How Entergy Gets Its Way at Indian Point
Tom Kerr
Small Fry: If You're Not in Power, You'd Better Not Lie
Asad Abu Khalil
The Demise of Fatah
Chris Murphy
The Medicare Disaster
Dr. Susan Block
America Wants a Divorce
Kathy Deacon
Hippocratic Oaf
St. Clair /
Walker / Palmer / Shields
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Laymon, Engel, Holt, Davies and Buknatski
Website of
the Weekend
Your Child Can Be a NSA Spook!
January 27, 2006
Suren Pillay
Making
the World Safe for Nuclear Violence, Again
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The
NYT and Alito: Journalistic Schizophrenia
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr
The
Cold Hard Truth: Marching Backwards on Civil Rights
Uri Avnery
To
Talk with Hamas
Gary Leupp
Hamas's Victory: "the Power of Democracy"
Samar Assad
A New Political Landscape in Palestine
Jeffrey St.
Clair
King
of the Hill: Sen. Ted Steven's Empire of Corruption
Website of the Day
Bush Jobs Program: You Too Can Be an FBI Snitch
January 26,
2006
Robert Robideau
An
AIM Activist's View of Jack Abramoff: Another Racist Out to Defraud
Native Tribes
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bolton
Orders Syria to Do the Impossible
Gilad Atzmon
Hamas'
Victory
Jason Leopold
A Vaster Conspiracy?: Fitzgerald Probes Niger Forgeries
Joshua Frank
Iran, Nukes and Oil
Dave Lindorff
Bush Calls Hamas Kettle Black
Susan Lee
An Open Letter to the State Dept. on the Cuban Five
Missy Comley Beattie
A Plea to the Marines: Stop Sending Recruiting Letters to Our
House!
Michael Carmichael
Extraordinary Alito
Michael Neumann
The
Core of Zionism
Website of
the Day
Who Will Stop the Slaughter of Yellowstone's Bison?
January 25,
2006
Saul Landau
Domestic
Spying, Now and Then: When Hoover Bugged Phone Calls with My
Father
James Petras
Is Chile's Bachelet Washington's Best New Ally?
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Alito
and Roberts' Self-Gag Rule is a Phony
Vijay Prashad
From Chennai with Love
Kevin Zeese
Gen. William Odom Supports the Empire, But Opposes the War
Alison Weir
When a Mother Gets Killed Does She Make a Sound? Anatomy of a
Cover-Up
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bush War Economy: Exporting Jobs and Security
Joan Roelofs
Military
Contractor Philanthropy
Website of
the Day
Bob Marley Does Dylan
January 24,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Patriot Police: the Unfathomed Dangers of Patriot Act Reauthorization
Kathy Kelly
Liberation
and Deliverance
Jorge Mariscal
Bush's War Viewed from the South
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Smoke
and Mirrors in the Defense Budget
John Walsh
Why We Picket John Kerry: Join Us Friday in Boston
Youmans / Muaddi
The Growing Israel Divestment Movement
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Evo Morales: Original Mandate for Social Revolution
Fr. Gerard
Jean-Juste
Letter from a Haitian Prison
Noam Chomsky
The Terrorist in the Mirror
Website of
the Day
Big Brother Watch
January 23, 2006
Uri Avnery
Pity
the Orphan: Israel, Hamas and the Palestinian Elections
Susan Pynchon
Diebold in Florida: "I Saw It Hacked"
William Loren
Katz
Harry Belafonte Reaffirms a Proud Tradition
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's IRS: Squeezing the Poor
Chris Floyd
The Goon Show
Joshua Frank
Tre Arrow and ELF: Environmentalism on Death Row
Norman Solomon
The Other Shoe Drops: Classified Leaks and Journalists
Jackie Corr
Working for the Railroad: Racicot and the Burlington Northern
Paul Craig
Roberts
Inside
Cheney's War Workshop
Website of the Day
Arms Against War
January 21/22,
2006
Tim Shorrock
Why
the Buses Didn't Come: Bush-Linked Florida Company and the Katrina
Evacuation Fiasco
Ralph Nader
Congressional
Ethics After Abramoff
Peter Feng
Casualties of War: Neoliberalism, Katrina and the Asian Tsunami
Brian Cloughley
CIA Bombs Pakistan, Hits America
Michael Donnelly
Tapes and Snitches: Feds Hand Down Eco-Sabotage Indictments
Tom Kerr
Crackdown in San Quentin: Why are They Rounding Up Tookie Williams'
Friends?
Tim Matson
Best Not Drive While Black on I-91
(But Walk Tall With the Bloody Chainsaw You Just Topped Your
Neighbor With)
Dave Lindorff
Rumsfeld: Venezuela "Overspending" on Military
Daniel Wolff
Hour of Reckoning: the Gospel Roots of Wilson Pickett
Fred Gardner
"Metabolic Syndrome" is to "Clinical Depression"
as Acomplia is Prozac
Jason Leopold
How Cheney Used the NSA to Spy on Americans Prior to 9/11
Matthew Koehler
Betting on Biscuit: Does Post-Fire Logging Make Ecological (or
Economic) Sense?
John Bomar
The Emperor's Clothes: from Bonaparte to Bush
Ron Jacobs
When Miners March: Struggle and Lose, Struggle and Win!
Becky Akers
Debunking Democracy
Joanne Mariner
Security, Terrorism and Human Rights
St. Clair / Walker / Pollack
CounterPunch Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Holt, Engel and Davies
Website of the Day
Osama's Book Club: Featured Selection
January 20, 2006
Brian J. Foley
What
Kind of War Doesn't Allow for a Truce?
Richard Gott
Revolution in the Andes
Joshua Frank
Israel and US Threats Against Iran
Pierre Tristam
Imperial Mongers: From Gladstone to "King George"
Bernstein /
Allegretto
Hourly Wages Have Fallen in 18 of the Last 20 Months
Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion
Before Roe
Website of
the Day
This Dog Bites
January 19,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Political
Machines: Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Bill Simpich
Those Damn Democrats: To End War, Don't Ask for What You Don't
Want
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Reclaiming King Day (From the NAACP)
Sam Husseini
Rot at the Top: If the Democrats Really Want to Stop Bush, They
Need New Leadership
Sam Smith
The Real Chocolate City
Monica Benderman
Dare to Make a Stand
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Just
How Big is the Defense Budget?
Website of the Day
Leave My Child Alone
January 18,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
Gore's
Speech: a Challenge That Cannot be Ignored
Norman Solomon
The Crime of Giving the Orders: Executing Clarence Ray Allen
Jonathan M.
Feldman
The System Doesn't Work Anymore
Michael Carmichael
"Extraordinary Circumstances": the Case Against Alito
Paul D'Amato
The Crimes of Jimmy Carter
Cynthia McKinney
King's Mission Endures
Norman Finkelstein
Why
an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified
Website of the Day
The Planetary Movement
January 17,
2006
M. Shahid Alam
"Real
Men Go to Tehran": Has al-Qaeda's Gambit Paid Off?
John Ross
Latin
America's Indians on the Move--in Different Directions
Tariq Ali
God, Blood, Oil and Iraq
Michael Donnelly
Killing Anna Mae Aquash, Smearing John Trudell
Amira Hass
No Child Left Unharassed: the Obstacle Course to School in Palestine
Doug Giebel
Alito's CAP: Either He Lied on His Resumé or There's a
Cover-Up
Bill Quigley
MLK Day in a Haitian Prison
Ron Jacobs
Meet the Son of Jim Crow: MLK Day Below the Mason/Dixon Line
Mike Stark
Governor on a Killling Spree
Werther
The Liberties of the Subject
January 16, 2006
John Walsh
Tears
of a Neocon: The Good News from Daniel Pipes
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Black
Students Under Fire: Racial Profiling in Public Schools
Roger Burbach
Bachelet's
Victory: Leftward Drift in Chile?
Norman Solomon
Ted Koppel, NPR and Henry Kissinger: a Natural Fit?
Robert Jensen
Dreams and Nightmares: How Would King Judge America?
Sam Husseini
Martin Luther King and the Deeper Malady
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush
Crosses the Rubicon
Website of the Day
MLK: Beyond Vietnam
January 14
/ 15, 2006
Alexander Cockburn
What
the FBI Repairman Wore When He Tried to Bug Edward Said
JoAnn Wypijewski
What
is an Antiwar Movement?
James Petras
The State of the Empire, 2006
Ron Jacobs
Fifteen Years of War: Who's Better Off?
Brian Cloughley
Fly Boys and Lie Boys: Smart-Bombing Iraqi Families While They
Sleep
Marianne McDonald
The Madness of Ajax: a Play for Our Time
Bruce Tyler Wick
Bush on Torture Echoes Charles I on Arbitrary Imprisonment
Fred Gardner
A Last, Desperate Plea to Stay in Canada
Flavia Alaya
Victory at Passaic County Jail
Gary Leupp
A Neocon Plan to Plant WMDs?
Dr. Susan Block
Peeping Tom in the Bush: Nonconsenual Voyeurism and the NSA
Nicole Colson
The House Jack Built: The Abramoff Giude to Buying Friends and
Influencing Politics
Jeffrey Kolakowski
Senator as Illusionist: the Hypocrisies of John McCain
Missy Comley
Beattie
The Stepford Hearings of Samuel Alito: The Senator, the Weepy
Wife and a Secret Annoiting
Charles Thomson
Is Serota Dead in the Water?: the Ofili Scandal at the Tate
St. Clair /
Walker / Vest
Playlsts: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
Historians Against the War
January 13,
2006
Ralph Nader
The
Two Questions the Senate Should Have Asked Alito
Leonard Weinglass
The
Singular Story of the Cuban Five
Amira Hass
Prisoners in Their Own Land: 800,000 Palestinians Sealed Off
by IDF in West Bank
Chris Kutalik
/ Jennifer Biddle
Airline Workers Fight Back
Lawrence R. Velvel
Alito and the Democrats
Dave Lindorff
Eight Who Dared: a (Short) Congressional Honor Roll
Mike Whitney
Countdown to War with Iran?
David Price
How
the FBI Spied on Edward Said
January 12,
2006
Jennifer Van
Bergen
The
Unitary Executive: Why the Bush Doctrine Violates the Constitution
Jeremy Brecher / Brendan Smith
Command Responsibility: Torture and Legal Accountability
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Alito
Refuses to Answer Fundamental Questions
Ralph Nader / Robert Weissman
Corporations, Originalism and the Bill of Rights: an Open Letter
to Justice Scalia
Jackie Corr
Killing the Big Sky's Golden Goose: Marc Racicot and the Deregulation
of Montana Power
Jared Bernstein
The Wage Doldrums
Russell D.
Hoffman
New Horizons in Space, New Lows in Government
Aubrey Streit
I Was Born in a Small Town: the Fate of Rural America
Clancy Sigal
Hugh
Thompson and My Lai: He Broke Ranks; He Did the Right Thing
Website of the Day
Nukes in Space
January 11,
2006
Kevin Zeese
NSA
Spied on Baltimore Peace Group (And They've Got the Documents
That Prove It)
Ray McGovern
The
Big Wiretap
Allan Maass
/ Joe Allen
Schwarzenegger's
Hit List: Smearing Mandela, Killing Tookie
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Snatching at King's Legacy: Mythmaking, Profiteering & Outright
Distortions
Annie Murphy
Evo Morales' Sweater
Allan Lichtman
Abramoff's
Kind of Big Government
Ramzy Baroud
Politics of Chaos: Gaza's Turmoil in Context
Joshua Frank
MoveOn Surrenders to Hillary
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Eating
Palestine for Breakfast": the Real Sharon
Website of
the Day
Memoirs of Rummy's Geisha
January 10,
2006
Uri Avnery
The
Post-Sharon Landscape: Three Fingers, No Fist
Saul Landau
Different
Americas
Noam Chomsky
Beyond the Ballot: Iraq, Iran and China
Brian J. Foley
Playing with Fire: Congress and Executive Power
Lenni Brenner
The War Within the Antiwar Movement
Ronan Sheehan
Sheehan to Sheehan: Cindy Sheehan's Irish Interview
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Con Jobs
January 9,
2006
Behzad Yaghmaian
Who
is to Blame for the Deaths of the Sudanese Refugees?
George Bisharat
US
Aid to Israel is Out of Hand
Dave Lindorff
How the US Press Squelches Bush Impeachment Drive
Norman Solomon
Smoke a Marlboro, Then an Iraqi: How Media War Images Distort
Not Inform
Christopher Brauchli
The Generosity of Credit Card Companies
Aharon Shabtai
A Poet's Letter on the Occupation
Andrew Cockburn
How
Many Iraqis Have Died Since the US Invasion in 2003?
January 7 /
8, 2006
Lawrence Velvel
The
NYT's Unconscionable Decision to Sit on the NSA Story for a Year
James Petras
AIPAC on Trial: Them or US
J.L. Chestnut
Racism and Injustice in Alabama's Courts
Mike Ely
The Dead Miners in Sago
Andrew Wilson
The Dying of Ariel Sharon
Lila Rajiva
Two Moms Go to Capitol Hill
William Cook
The Rape of Palestine
Ramor Ryan
The Sub Motorcycle Diaries: On the Road with the Zapatistas
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
An Interview with Michael Scheuer on the CIA's Rendition Program
Peter Montague
Inherit the Wind: the Global Spread of GMO Crops
Ron Jacobs
Would Ethan Allen Pay to Protest?
Neve Gordon
Images of Real Eco-Terrorism in Twaneh
Fred Gardner
Business as Usual in San Diego
Josh Mahon
Idaho Timber Industry Leader Advocates Violence Against Green's
Mom
Dr. Susan Block
Abramoff Family Values: the Lobbyist Who Screwed Us All
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of the Weekend
Bush Crimes Commission
January 6,
2006
José
Pertierra
Posada
Carriles May Soon Hit the Streets
Joe Allen
Gary Freeman's Struggle: a Black Radical from the 1960s Fights
Extradition to the US
Winslow T. Wheeler
Huge Defense Budget, Lousy Equipment
John Bomar
A Former NSA Officer on Snoopgate: the Squawkers Should be Congratulated
Jason Leopold
Snoop and Shred
Norman Solomon
Axis of Fanatics: Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad
Robert Pollin
Remembering
Harry Magdoff: the Man Who Explained the Empire
January 5,
2006
Scott Boehm
Big
Profits, Buried Lives: Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans
Zoltan Grossman
New
Challenges for the Antiwar Movement
Heather Gray
Whistling
Dixie Yet Again
Haninah Levine
Simple
is Dangerous: the Pentagon's Plan for a Manhattan Project on
IEDs
Pierre Tristam
The Sham of Homeland Security: a West Virginia Parable
Remi Kanazi
Stroke of Luck?: Political Hemorrhage in Israel
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon
Meets His Maker
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
What Hillary Clinton Doesn't Know About Palestine
January 4,
2006
Ron Jacobs
Pity
the Miner: A-Diggin' My Bones
Lila Rajiva
Terror
Hits Bangalore
Huibin Amee
Chew
Why
the War is Sexist
Pat Williams
How the West Turned: Biting the Hands That Steal
Linda Milazzo
The House That George and Jack Built: Ownership Society Meets
the Entrepreneurial Style
Nick Dearden
The Fantasy of "Even-Handedness": Blair's Cynical Policy
on Palestine
James Petras
Evo
Morales: All Growl, No Claws?
Website of
the Day
Rat Out a Lobbyist for Jesus
January 3,
2006
James Ridgeway
Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and 9/11: How Much Did the Bush Administration Know?
Laith al-Saud
Iraqi
Intellectuals and the Occupation: an Interview with Dr. Saad
Jawad
Dick J. Reavis
Border
Walls: the View from Mexico
Joshua Frank
Hillary Clinton, AIPAC and Iran
Rochelle Gause
Inside Rafah: Collective Punishment as Normalcy
Missy Comley
Beattie
How My Mother Went from a Republican to a Screaming Progressive
Paul de Rooij
A Glossary of Dispossession
January 2,
2006
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
Gestapo Administration
Clancy Sigal
A Trip to the Far Side of Madness
Cindy Sheehan
A Tour of Europe: Friends Don't Let Friends Commit War Crimes
Alexander Cockburn
A
NYT Editorial Contemplates Iraq
|
February
8, 2006
They're Just Cartoons
Chill Out Jihadis
By CHRISTOPHER FONS
Many "leftists" have taken
the position that the cartoons published in the Danish
paper and elsewhere are primarily a representation of Western
racism and should be condemned. Nonsense.
As a leftist I thought that
our goal was liberation through thorough and robust debate and
confronting irrational ideas and superstition in particular?
This means that if someone is offended because we say that the
world is round then too bad. The truth hurts. If we are constantly
weary of offending, then truth, yes I believe in such a thing,
will never over come the backward state of affairs today that
allows gays to be treated like second class citizens, intelligent
design to be taught in schools and people in the US and Britain
to believe that the war in Iraq is being prosecuted for humanitarian
ends.
Much of the sentiment not to
offend and to side with reactionaries at times comes from a sincere
desire to defend oppressed people and expose the hypocrisy of
Western imperialism that consistently speaks of democracy and
tolerance and practices support for dictatorship and racist laws
at home and abroad. In Europe and the United States it also comes
from a desire to side with people of color who have traditionally
not assimilated into our societies as well as people from other
European countries. And this gets to the crux of the matter,
assimilation. If a society is going to function a certain set
of ideas must be widely accepted otherwise sectarian conflict
will ensue. This is not to say that Vietnamese or Algerians that
move to France should all have to become Christians or cook fancy
entrees but they should accept that women's equality before the
law or universal suffrage need to be accepted.
In the Western tradition, where
today's Left traces its roots, the American and French revolutions
put into practice universal values that have allowed us to create
political systems that now allow universal suffrage and equal
protection before the law. This is not the end of our program,
nay it is just the beginning, but it is a start that puts us,
those who embrace universal values, ahead of those who choose
a chosen group or a sacred text as the basis for society. Anticipating
the counter-argument, that the West at times uses these values
to enforce intolerance and is just as exclusive as alternative
systems, I would agree to a degree, but this does not negate
the fact that the Rights of Man or the Bill of Rights allows
ALL people to be accepted and treated as equals not just a specific
ethnic group or a divinely anointed. We should then embrace liberal
ideas when freedom will be advanced by such a defense. Not as
Confederates did to defend slavery but as Northerners did to
liberate.
The Left then should defend
the oppressed, but not blindly. Multi-culturalists in particular
have had a hard time with this idea seemingly supporting every
movement from the Nation of Islam to the Tamil Tigers. Just because
people are discriminated against doesn't mean that the movement
that they found to over come this discrimination is worthy of
support. If the movement that would come to power as a result
of victory would be worse for the women or workers of said movement,
then it is not worthy of unconditional support.
Another way of looking at the
issue is through the lens of immigration. Let's say there is
a small Scandinavian country with a functioning social democratic
system and you want to do your internationalist duty and allow
millions of people to come into your country from all over the
world where people are fleeing economic and political despotism.
If said immigrants bring with them backward ideas, like sexism,
religious superstition, belief in inequality, etc... what will
be the result for your good deed? It could transform the place
into a backward place not because said immigrants are inferior
human beings but because their cultural traditions have been
respected. Should we thus sacrifice equality and social democracy
on the alter of tolerance for oppressed groups?
To the cartoons. They may have
been published by racists to inflame. So what? Chill out Jihadis;
fly a kite, smoke a joint and flip through the pages of
Playboy if you are so uptight.
Christopher Fons lives in Milwaukee and runs the Red and the Black
website. He can be reached at: fonscy@yahoo.com
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