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Recent
Stories
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
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 16,
2003
Dancing to Sharon's
Beat
The Road to
Unilateral Pre-emption
by
STEPHEN GREEN
When Messrs. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld and their
aides decided to make Arik Sharon's foreign, security and military
policy America's foreign, security and military policy, they
may not have foreseen where this would take us. In the months
after the events of 9-11, "pre-emption,"--unilateral
if necessary-- was proclaimed to be the way in which we would
in the future deal with potential foreign threats to our national
security.
Henceforth, we alone would decide whether,
how and when to take the necessary military action to "take
out" such threats. The UN Charter did not apply; NATO was
irrelevant. Even the Geneva Conventions, which had guided the
conduct of American soldiers for 150 years, would be ignored
if they impeded operations. The torture convention? Scrapped.
Sometime around 2002-2003, the U.S. adopted Israel's security
policy, and the rest of the world became the West Bank and Gaza.
Iraq, it was decided, would be the first test case.
So now we have pre-empted. Our laser
guided bombs and our 19, 20 and 21 year old soldiers have acquitted
themselves remarkably well, in that they have achieved what they
were manufactured and trained, respectively, to do. The war fighting
is pretty well finished. The embedded American and British journalists
have done what they were expected to do: they have recorded and
reported in detail each triumph as it occurred, live and in color.
Now come the problems. The urban areas
of Iraq have more people in them than Israel, the West Bank and
Gaza combined. After more than a decade of infrastructure decline
under the UN sanctions, they have just been decimated by American/British
bombs and soldiers. Over 10 million people in those urban areas
are starting to suffer and die in large numbers.
Many of them have no power or water,
and little food or sanitation facilities. Their hospitals and
health centers have exhausted their meager supplies of medicines
or have been destroyed or looted. The 10 million do have weapons
and ammunition, however, and scores to settle among each other.
So, without police authorities to intervene, they are starting
to loot and kill each other in violent waves of disorder and
anarchy. The International Committee of the Red Cross, present
through the worst of the fighting in Somalia, Angola and the
Congo, have begun to withdraw from much of Baghdad.
The journalists are still doing their
jobs, and are reporting the human cost of pre-emption, live and
in color, to a very attentive audience in the Middle East, Europe
and the rest of the world. The vast majority of that audience
opposed the war from the beginning, of course, and feel little
responsibility for what they are reading and watching, as they
do not believe they were consulted through diplomatic means,
the United Nations, NATO, etc., in the run-up to the invasion.
The American/British soldiers, too, are
still doing their jobs, to the best of their ability. But their
training and the laser guided bombs are largely ineffective
to deal with urban anarchy. And they are beginning to realize
that while they were equipped with superior everything: preparation,
weapons, transport, communications, macro-intelligence, etc.,
they were sent in to do a job lacking several very important
things--situational awareness; context; history.
If the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding
in Iraq develops as now appears, the microphones and cameras
will be in place to cover mass population flows, as people in
the many tens or hundreds of thousands move into the countryside
and toward Iraq's borders, fleeing not war-fighting, but revenge
killings, civil disorder, disease, hunger and thirst. The face
of pre-emption, which had been that of handsome, confident 19,
20 and 21 year old soldiers, will soon be--is already--that of
dirty, terrified women and wounded or dead children.
Gone are the special supplements in the
newspapers with pictures of mobile howitzers and stealth aircraft.
We no longer want to be reminded of what they can do, so our
media have stopped doing it. Gone is the icon of the falling
statue. Very quickly. In the place of these graphics are new,
hard questions. It won't even make a great deal of difference
if a few canisters of nerve gas or anthrax are found in the ground.
The writers and pundits will be asking the questions.
Why Iraq, and why now? Why "shock
and awe," instead of diplomacy and containment? Why did
we not foresee the humanitarian outcome of the invasion, and
plan the peace, when we planned the war? How did Iraq--and perhaps
soon much of the Middle East--become America's West Bank and
Gaza? Are pariah states obliged to attack first, or do nations
become pariah states when they attack first? Why are we
beginning to hear so much about Syria and Iran from the White
House and Defense Department--are they next?
Which brings us back to Bush, Cheney
and Rumsfeld and their aides, and the supplanting of U.S. foreign
and security policy with Arik Sharon's. How, by whom, and by
what process did that happen? Whose are the individual faces
of pre-emption?
The State of Israel has practiced pre-emption
in its most virulent form--unilateral pre-emption--for decades.
If America does continue to apply this doctrine we will discover,
as Israel has, that it is destructive of our most important
foreign relations, and the international laws and institutions
which support those relations. The Bush Administration has done
this in the name of internal security and will find, as has Israel,
that unilateral pre-emption is the antithesis of internal security....it
is in fact the road to isolation.
In the coming months, as the fighting
and chaos continue in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Bush, Cheney
and Rumsfeld urgently make the case for carrying the war into
Syria and Iran, Americans will be asking how, why and at whose
urging we have taken this road. We will begin to have a public
conversation about the individual faces of unilateral
pre-emption--a number of senior aides in the Executive Branch,
particularly in the Pentagon, White House and State Department.
These individuals share a radical view of America's role in world
affairs and very close intellectual, emotional and financial
ties to the right-wing Likud Party in Israel.
Ironically, several of these individuals
who have advanced the case for unilateral pre-emption in the
name of U.S. national security, have themselves faced formal
investigations for violation of U.S. national security laws,
over the past three and a half decades. The foreign government
involved in each instance was the State of Israel.
Stephen Green
is the author of Taking
Sides and
"Living
by the Sword", and has spent over 15 years establishing,
managing, evaluating and conducting policy research on international
humanitarian operations for, primarily, the United Nations.
He can be reached at: green@counterpunch.org
Today's
Features
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
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