home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

New Edition of CounterPunch The Return of Robert Rubin: Kerry, Jobs and the Economy by Alexander Cockburn; Party Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Kill Zone: Caring for the Wounded in Fallujah by David Martinez. In April, CounterPunch Online was read by 16.1 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Cockburn / St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Now Available! Today's Stories May 6, 2004 Werther The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas Casino Game Robert Fisk "Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded Men Being Shot by US Helicopter Alan Farago Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish William S. Lind On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq May 5, 2004 Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba Complete US Army Report on Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners Kathleen and Bill Christison Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives? Will Youmans Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian Zionist and the End of the World Patrick B. Barr Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label Lawrence Magnuson Nightline's All-American Morgue Greg Moses Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals Niranjan Ramakrishnan Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing Truth Lee Ballinger Cinco de Mayo and Unity Gilbert Achcar Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire Website of the Day Operation Phoenix & Iraq   May 4, 2004 Human Rights Watch A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations and Responses Kurt Nimmo The CIA Privatized Torture David Peterson CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq Barry Lando CACI's Private Torture Chambers Patrick Cockburn Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised Dr. Susan Block Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say Fidel Castro A Mindless, Unnecessary War Mike Whitney Empire of Torture Sonali Kolhatkar How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against John Kerry Josh Frank The Lost Sierra Club Stan Goff The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq Agustin Velloso Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics Stew Albert American Know-How Website of the Day Scenes from a Cover-Up   May 3, 2004 Virginia Tilley Let the Wall of Silence Fall May 1 / 2, 2004 Patrick Cockburn An Army in Disgrace, a Policy in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat Robert Fisk "Good Guys" Who Can Do No Wrong Alexander Cockburn Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders, Useless Spies, Angry World Heather Williams Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin American Troops Flee Iraq Diane Rejman An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq: Abu Ghraib as My Lai? Diane Christian Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and Sharon Speak the Same Language Patrick Cockburn Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah Dave Lindorff Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked, Shocked, Shocked Chris Floyd Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists and Annihilation April 29 / 30, 2004 Dave Zirin A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome Death of Pat Tillman Kathy Kelly The Warden's Tour Greg Weiher Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the Banality of Evil Michael S. Ladah Terrorism and Assassination: the Ultimate Depception Patrick Cockburn The Fallujah Mutinies     April 28, 2004 Christopher Brauchli Meet Congressman Know-Nothing: Tom Tancredo Wendy Brinker The Politics of the Numb Faisal Kutty The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence John Chuckman Seeking the Evil One Mike Whitney Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times Tom Mountain Rwanda and the F***** Word Graeme Greenback The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production Tracy McLellan The War Comes Home M. Junaid Alam We are the Barbarians William Loren Katz Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson   April 27, 2004 James Davis The Colombia 3 Acquitted Dave Lindorff Chalabi as Prosecutor Bruce Schneier Terrorist Threats and Political Gain Cockburn / Sengupta British Generals Resist Calls for More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq Walt Brasch Presidential Letters: The Day I Was Asked to Feed an Elephant Saul Landau The Empire in Denial and the Denial of Empire April 26, 2004 Patrick Cockburn Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops Prepare to Enter Najaf Wayne Madsen Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR? Grover Furr Protest, Rebellion, Commitment Elaine Cassel Lies About the Patriot Act Mickey Z. Inspired by Pat Tillman? Greg Moses Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit Gila Svirsky Anarchy in Our Souls Uri Avnery Vanunu and the Terrible Secret April 24 / 25, 2004 William A. Cook Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry and Bush Melt into One Jeffrey St. Clair Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank Brandy Baker A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So Robert Fisk A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free Speech Ben Tripp October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios Nelson Valdés "Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg Lucson Pierre-Charles Haiti's Return to the Future Kurt Nimmo The CIA Killed Pat Tillman Mark Scaramella Does Anybody Know Anything? Patrick Cockburn The Return of Saddam's Generals Gary Engler Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas Col. Dan Smith Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush Greg Weiher Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam... Elaine Cassel Life on the Outside: a Review Vanessa Jones Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney Jim French Agriculture's Bullied Market Hammond Guthrie Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles Poets' Basement Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella April 23, 2004 Ron Jacobs The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal Dave Lindorff Imagination Deficit Disorder Mokhiber / Weissman Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster Norman Solomon Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?" Cynthia McKinney All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization CounterPunch Wire A Bitch Called Wanda Karyn Strickler Sierra Club, Inc. Hammond Guthrie Yellow Caked in the Face Paul de Rooij Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary of the Iraqi Occupation   April 22, 2004 Patrick Cockburn When Terror Came to Basra: "I Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire" Tanya Reinhart The Wall Behind Disengagement Lance Selfa Why is Kucinich Still in the Race? Josh Frank Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches Sen. Robert Byrd Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq William S. Lind Why We Get It Wrong Mickey Z. Undoing the Latches Robert Jensen Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank John L. Hess The New York Times from 30,000 Feet   April 21, 2004 Gary Leupp Yeats on Iraq Alfredo Castro Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners Dr. Susan Block Bush's Taliban Drug Deal William A. Cook George 1 to George 2 Jack Random Iraq and Vietnam Jean-Guy Allard Alarcon Meets the Editors Mike Whitney Charade in the Desert Bill Christison Only Major Policies Changes Can Help Washington Now     April 20, 2004 Dave Lindorff Bush and Kerry Share a Problem Stan Cox Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers Bruce Anderson On Listening to Air America Joseph Kalvoda Czech Mate for Condi Greg Moses Yesterday's Intelligence Stan Goff The Democrats and Iraq Website of the Day Santorum Happens     April 19, 2004 Kurt Nimmo The "Central Hand" of the Resistance Mike Whitney Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles Douglas Valentine 52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1 Rule John Chuckman The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often Triumph Doug Giebel Welcome to the Club Rahul Mahajan Hospital Closings and War Crimes     April 16 / 18, 2004 Robert Fisk Bush Legitimizes Terror Saul Landau Subverting Brazil and Cuba Dave Lindorff Paying for War: $2,150 per Family and Counting Brandy Baker Fallujah's Collateral Damage Mickey Z. The Left Attacks from the Right Bruce Jackson The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit Uns Norman Solomon How the "NewsHour" Changed History Alexander Cockburn Bush, Kerry and Empire   April 15, 2004 Greg Moses Follow the Families, Not the Script Virginia Tilley The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt: Just Change the Channel Ron Jacobs They Coulda Been Champions of the World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic Michael Neumann A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail   April 14, 2004 Tom Reeves Return to Haiti: an American Learning Zone Reza Fiyouzat Japan and Iraq Ron Jacobs What Bush Really Said Diane Christian The Real Passion   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.     Subscribe Online

May 6, 2004 Bush on Arab TV Worthless and Demeaning By SAM HAMOD One of the problems with American ethnocentrism is that many Americans assume that because others don't speak English as well as us, that they don't think as well as us. President Bush, Rumsfeld and General Myers have all fallen victim to this nonsense. Bush especially showed this ignorance in his speeches today on Al Hurrah (an American sponsored propaganda TV station that few Arabs watch) and Al Arabiyah (a Saudi TV station that gets only 24% of the Arab market). In addition, Bush pointedly refused to speak on Al Jazeera TV, the station that has over 60% of the Arab market overseas; thus, he cut off his nose to spite an independent, critical Arab TV station. Add to these things that Bush, Rumsfeld and others think that their excuses of "just a few committed these evil deeds," " this is not the American way," will be believed about the atrocities at Abu Ghraib, when the same torture and inhumane treatment is going on at Guantanamo Prison and in prisons in Afghanistan. Somehow, Bush was not smart enough to realize that Arabs and Muslims throughout the world relate the two, as well as the thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails (and all Arabs and Muslims know that Bush is 100% behind Sharon of Israel); Arabs and Muslims are outraged because up to now, there were never photos of the inhumane treatment, though Arabs and Muslims have been complaining about these matters for the past two years, with no response from America or the West. Our American leaders and military officers have used the Israeli style of not allowing the Red Cross to have free access; they have not charged the prisoners with crimes, but have held them under captivity; the Americans have arrested hundreds of Iraqi women, not allowing them to see their families, again, without charges or without sanitation, many of them being abused by American soldiers; they have hooded prisoners, have beaten them and threatened them and in many cases sexually abused them, killed some of the prisoners_all with no apology, not even today from President Bush. How bizarre for our nation, we the nation that was held up as a moral leader, as a nation who believed in fairness, ethics, morality and freedom. What is ironic is that this is all coming out at the same time the Supreme Court is hearing two cases on American citizens, Lind and Padilla, who have been held without charges in solitary confinement without being given the right of habeas corpus, and have not been allowed to even talk with an attorney. Yet, the case is being tried at the Supreme Court_without the two men being allowed to even help their cases. The report of torture by General Taguba, which was sent out in early February to the U.S. government and the military. But it is in conflict, with the new man, General Miller , who is to be in charge of the Iraqi prisons, in his report, from last year, that he wanted to "exploit the prisoners to the full in their interrogations." General Miller is the same cruel taskmaster who has led the abuse of prisoners and the brutality of those prisoners at Guantanamo in Cuba. Thus, there is nothing coming from America at this time that looks as if anything is going to change for the better in the Iraqi prisons. But mark my word, this will not go down well with the Iraqi people, nor the 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Until CBS News broke the story, the Pentagon and the U.S. Government had tried to keep Taguba's report secret so that our troops could continue torturing and abusing prisoners (none of this stopped until the CBS TV News report). Lest, anyone wonder, one must remember that Iraq has a 5000 year old civilization; they are a learned people, not heathens who live in the mud and dirt of illiteracy. Baghdad for centuries had one of the world's finest libraries; the works of the early Christians were collected there, as well as the Persians and Greeks before them, then the work of the great Muslim thinkers and scientists (many of whom practiced in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and Kerbala). America, this late comer to civilization is now led by uneducated dolts, a president who had never traveled outside the U.S. before he became president and thought that he could impress foreign leaders by taking them to his "ranch" (a converted pig-farm that still smells of feces and death, this according to correspondents who have been there on a hot Texas day). But it is because he is so ignorant of civilized people, such as the Muslims who have always been concerned with modesty, covering their body parts, their sexual modesty and their sense of honor, that he has little grasp of just how much damage these photos have done to the image of America not only in the Arab world, but in the larger, 1.6 billion, Muslim world. Add to this the way the other Asians view the American behavior that is in conflict with their own sense of dress and modesty and you can see that even non-Muslims in the East and sophisticated Europeans were shocked and upset with American uncivilized behavior. Then, the fact that Bush did not deign to go on Al Jazeera compounded his visible ignorance and lack of political sophistication. This mistake made clear that he didn't really want to explain or apologize, but to make points and to smooth matters over. But little does he realize that he made matters worse, not better by his feeble attempt to con the Iraqis, Arabs, Muslims and others in the world who were aghast at the American military and mercenary behavior. Of course, Bush and others will try to punish the woman in charge of the prison and some of the others who smiled in their evil behavior in the photos_but the penalties must go up the line and the heads that must roll are those that allowed this, who want to get away with this, and to continue the brutality in Guantanamo_namely, General Abizaid, General Myers, General Kimmit, Wolfowitz and finally, Rumsfeld himself. Rumsfeld's and Myers' excuses that "they hadn't read the report" that had been sitting on their desks since February is clearly fraudulent_downright lies. Unless this is done, then no one in the Muslim world will believe in the American promise to "correct" the problem. In addition, if they really want to "solve the problems with the Muslim world" then it is time for Bush to divorce America from Israel and Sharon, and tell Israel to either work for peace or lose American support. If America continues giving Israel carte blanche, then there will be even further conflict and anger from the Muslim world toward America, and no speech will overcome that problem. America must also void the contracts that have been made by the puppet Iraqi Governing Council, by Bremer and by others in the American government that will take money from the Iraqi nation. Those contracts were made illegally and under duress by the occupying American and British powers; no court in the world will uphold them. Thus, it is best that America disown and void them before they are voided in the world court or by continued Iraqi military and political resistance. Finally, America must turn to the Arab and Muslim nations of the world to work with the UN, to the exclusion of America and Britain, and allow the UN to take the lead in repairing Iraq, physically, psychologically, economically, socially and politically. If America thinks it can keep troops in Iraq for another decade, as Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute thinks, then they are barking up the tree of defeat. The Iraqis will never stand for this. And, as I commented to Dr. O'Hanlon, the Iraqis have defeated the Persians, the Greeks, the Byzantines, the Mongols, the Turks and the British_and they have stood strong, even with minor weapons against the might America, the world's allegedly greatest military power. The Iraqis will fight to the last person, men, women and children to drive the U.S. out of Iraq and no think tank speaker who says differently just shows that he or she doesn't understand the power of Islam and the sense of determination in Iraq. These disclosures of abuse do but toughen Iraqi and Muslim resolve. And yes, the Iraqi will find thousands upon thousands of other dedicated Muslims coming to their aid if America does not pull out. Unfortunately, for all of us ordinary American citizens who abhor what has been done, and that Bush most likely will not clean up, the battlegrounds will be restricted to cities in Iraq, but to cities around the world, wherever militant Muslims can attack America and its allies. The situation is very dire, and it is going to take more than soft pedaling comments from Bush that he's "Ordered the Sec. of Defense to make a full investigation of the matter." That's like asking the fox to investigate his attack on the chicken house. But before I finish, allow me to state that if the American troops go further into Karbala or Najaf, our troops will face a bloodbath of a type they haven't seen since the Civil War or what met the British troops in WWI. Come now, wake up, my fellow Americans. As a veteran of two wars, I tell you that what men fought for in WWI and WWII is missing; we are now the "bad guys", those who are abusing the rights of others, we are the Nazis who want to control the land of others and to put them into prisons where their citizens are tortured, and when they fight back, as the Jews fought back in the Warsaw Ghetto, the American media label them as "terrorists" or "insurgents" or "foreign fighters!" Unfortunately, as I said, America has it all upside down, including the ignorance of Bush trying to gloss over with America's misdeeds in Muslim lands. Sam Hamod is a former advisor to the U.S. State Dept; founder of 3rd World News (Wash, DC);Director of The Islamic Center (Wash, DC); Professor at Princeton, Michigan, Howard and Iowa (ret.); he may be reached at shamod@cox.net Weekend Edition Features for April 24 / 25, 2004 William A. Cook Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry and Bush Melt into One Jeffrey St. Clair Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank Brandy Baker A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So Robert Fisk A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free Speech Ben Tripp October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios Nelson Valdés "Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg Lucson Pierre-Charles Haiti's Return to the Future Kurt Nimmo The CIA Killed Pat Tillman Mark Scaramella Does Anybody Know Anything? Patrick Cockburn The Return of Saddam's Generals Gary Engler Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas Col. Dan Smith Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush Greg Weiher Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam... Elaine Cassel Life on the Outside: a Review Vanessa Jones Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney Jim French Agriculture's Bullied Market Hammond Guthrie Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles Poets' Basement Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella WWW http://www.counterpunch.org   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /