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Recent
Stories
April
17, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashahibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagalitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
April
16, 2003
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton's Bloody History: They'll
Work for Anyone
Kurt
Nimmo
The Destruction of Iraq: Hey, It's
Good for Business
Stephen
Green
Dancing to Sharon's Beat: the Road
to Unilateral Pre-emption
Diane
Christian
The Devil in Bush's Details
Carol
Norris
Mourning Iraq
Anthony
Gancarski
They Call Themselves Economists?
Michael
Sells
Nero in Baghdad
Alexander
Cockburn
Contract with Iraq
Ninan Koshy
India's Devious Middle Path Through the Iraq War
Brenda
Norrell
Lakota Leader: World Must Resist
American Empire
Wallace
Gagne
End of History; More in a Moment
Stew
Albert
On the Road Again
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/16
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
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April 17,
2003
Placating the
Reactionaries?
Iraq After the
War
by
HAROLD A. GOULD
As the military phase of the campaign against
Saddam Hussain's Iraq approaches its denouement, the experts
are now turning their attention to what comes next. The steps
by which this next phase has at last become inevitable have proved
to be far less sanguine than was originally anticipated. Much
has been said and written about the miscalculations that beset
the original scenario. The Pentagonists, who trumped the proponents
of a more massive and prudent preparation for Mr Bush's war,
and who failed to adequately factor the power of anti-colonialism
and strident Islamism into their strategic calculations, appear
to have carried the day despite themselves, but at a greater
cost in lives, treasure and social chaos than anybody wanted
or anticipated. The latter, in fact, i.e, social chaos, may turn
out to be the greatest cost of all.
Because of the considerable disparity
between words and deeds, the search is on for scapegoats. There
are reputations to be protected and egos to be saved. The outcome
of this struggle will have a major bearing on which factions
will become the designated arbiters of the shape that Iraqi society
and politics will take once the guns are finally silent. Everybody,
of course, is paying lip-service to democracy. It has become
practically a cliche that it is the Iraqi people who must be
allowed to choose their own post-Saddam political path. There
is a closet war underway between the State Department, the CIA
and the Pantagonists over whose scenario for achieving these
worthy ends will prevail. Right now, the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz-Cheney
team appears to have the upper hand, since nothing succeeds like
apparent success. The trouble with all of the proposed scenarios,
however, is that none appear to be overly cognizant of the fact
that democracy is a system of government that by definition cannot
be imposed from above. It must be grown from below. Proof of
this is provided by the case of Pakistan. Over the past half
century, with the US acting as facilitator, four Pakistani military
dictators assured their people and their US sponsors that popular
government can be imposed from the top. The result is there for
all to see. General/aka-President Pervez Musharraf and his military
predecessors have ruled, and rule today, Pakistan from their
residences in the army cantonments, not from the parliament building..
In the case of Iraq, achieving the open
polity in a place where democracy has never really been tried,
where for thirty years what potentiality for accommodational
politics existed was ruthlessly crushed by one of this century's
most vicious dictators, where inter-ethnic racism has been an
unremitting fact of life, will try the patience of the gods.
These facts alone will inevitably tempt Iraq's conquerors, good
intentions to the contrary notwithstanding, to incline toward
political shortcuts, especially since the American President
is already on record as regarding "nation-building"
(i.e, slow, patient, and expensive socio-political reform) as
a repugnant enterprise with which no self-respecting neo-con
should soil his hands. The fruits of that repugnance have already
been demonstrated in the shameful neglect of Afghanistan's reconstruction
since the Taliban blight was excised.
One must then add the sorry record which
American diplomacy has rung up all the way back to the Cold War
where the underlying challenge repeatedly was promoting the very
nation-building processes that Mr Bush finds so unpalatable.
Other than NATO, the tendency over and over was and continues
to be to opt for the easy way out and either tolerate, encourage
or subsidize military-dominated governments in the name of "efficiency"
and realpolitik. When the Democracy Movement erupted in China
in the 1980s, the US not only stood passively by while hundreds
of youthful idealists were slaughtered, but ultimately put their
implicit seal of approval on the perpetrators by doing business
with them in the aftermath. It was called "constructive
engagement", whose rationale was (and continues to be) trying
to leverage a country away from dictatorship and political repression
by whetting the leadership's appetite for the riches of the free
market. The cost was (and continues to be) a regime that makes
a mockery of human rights, knowing that it can get away with
it as long as it plays ball with the mughals who run the global
economy.
We have already alluded to Pakistan.
Instead of employing America's very considerable power and influence
to encourage and promote democratic forces in that country from
Independence onward, one US administration after another instead
chose to placate the reactionary military and other extra-parliamentary
groups there who had nothing but contempt for the open society,
and did their utmost to subdue and repress every attempt by those
who desired to grow democracy to do so. The excuse was and is
always the same: One must be "realistic."
If the Bush administration proves to
be sincere about doing what is necessary to facilitate Iraq's
transition from the totalitarian society it has been to the democratic
society everybody says they want it to become then there is available
a model for undertaking that transition. It is India.
Why India, and not Bulgaria or Romania
or Latvia? Because India is a country which has successfully
accomplished what Iraq would have to accomplish. And India has
done it in a comparable socio-cultural-historical environment.
Let us briefly recall how politically India got from there to
here.
At Partition, India inherited one of
the most pluralistic social worlds on earth. It was Europe with
a central government, compelled to accommodate and assimilate
into an encompassing polity populations as ethnically diverse
and demographically formidable as the French, the Germans, the
Italians, the English, the Czechs, the Poles, the Scandinavians,
etc. They created the Indian nation from these diverse cultural-linguistic
building blocks by proceeding on the premise that India must
be a secular state which (a) acknowledges the sanctity of diversity,
(b) embodies diversity in a federal constitution that assures
equal rights under the law, (c) adopts the universal adult franchise,
(d) regularly holds fully free elections, and (e) governs by
political consensuses that are fashioned in one central parliamentary
body and numerous provincial parliamentary bodies, each of which
coterminates with one of the country's major sub-nationalities.
Although not identical, especially in
scale, striking parallels abound between the Iraqi and the Indian
cases. An imaginative and dedicated "transitional government"
should be able to fashion a governmental system for Iraq that
follows the Indian model. Iraq can be constructed as a loose
confederation of sub-nationalities owing allegiance to a central
system that is secular, democratic and politically flexible.
Ethnically coherent provincial structures certainly can be fashioned
that confer a culturally reassuring measure of local sovereignty
on each, not unlike India's federality and, for that matter,
not unlike the USA's.
Indian specialists could be recruited
to participate in Iraq's constitution-building process. They
could provide guidance and insights into how through nearly a
century of dialogue and confrontation between Indian political
groups and the British colonial regime a process of constitutional
development took place which reflected the accommodations and
consensuses needed to enable a highly pluralized, fellow Asian
society of continental proportions to create a political structure
able to keep the military out of politics and establish a federalized
political arena where diverse identities and interests could
work out their differences and govern their country in a parliamentary
fashion rather than on the battlefield and in the torture chamber.
Yes, the task of accomplishing this will
be daunting in the extreme. But by no means impossible. Especially
if the United States decides to get serious about nation-building
and is willing to spend the time, the money and the expertise,
in concert with the international community. The greatest danger
lies in that ominous record of past failures that haunts American
international statecraft. If it loses patience and walks away,
as it has repeatedly done in Afghanistan. If it lapses into its
past proclivity to take the easy way out and makes backing military
dictators the political short-cut of choice, as it has done in
Pakistan, and elsewhere. Then it will not be long before victory
on the battlefield will have been all for nought.
Harold A. Gould
is a Visiting Scholar in the Center for South Asian Studies at
the University of Virginia. He can be reached at: gould@counterpunch.org.
Today's
Features
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashahibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagalitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
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