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Today's
Stories
April
28, 2004
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
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
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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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April
28, 2004
Splendid Little
War; Long Bloody Occupation
Iraq, the US
and an Old Lesson
By WILLIAM LOREN KATZ
Weapons of mass distruction, a slam-dunk
war followed by a no-end-in-sight occupation? We've been here
before when a century ago the U.S. first sent an army overseas
to accomplish regime change and liberate a resource-rich land
from tyranny.
It began in February, 1898
when an explosion sunk the U.S. battleship Maine in Havana harbor.
Since Cubans lived under a cruel Spanish colonialism, a pro-war
U.S. press felt free to claim that Spain unleashed a weapon of
mass destruction, and to whip up "Remember the Maine"
fever. No weapon was ever found -- it was a boiler explosion
that sank the Maine -- and though Spain agreed to President McKinley's
main demands, Congress declared war with a promise to free Cuba.
Secretary of State John Hay
called it "a splendid little war" because in less than
a hundred days the U.S. liberated 13 million people and 165,000
square miles of colonies from Puerto Rico to Guam and the Philippines,
and with only 379 combat deaths. But disease and embalmed meat
war profiteers sold to the Army killed another 5,462 U.S. soldiers.
Leading the hawks in 1898 was
a young, flamboyant Teddy Roosevelt, an assistant secretary of
the Navy who claimed war stimulated "spiritual renewal,"
and the "clear instinct for racial selfishness." Not
a man to hide in the National Guard, TR personally led his "Rough
Riders" at San Juan Hill, and returned from Cuba with one
regret -- "there was not enough war to go around."
No w he was riding to the White House.
For two years General Emilio
Aguinaldo and his freedom-fighting guerilla army had fought Spain's
cruel occupation fully ready to govern a free Philippines. But
before he left for Cuba, TR sent Admiral George Dewey's U.S.
fleet to Manila Bay where it sank the Spanish fleet. Dewey assured
Aguinaldo the U.S. "had come to . . . free the Filipinos
from the yoke of Spain." But U.S. troops landed on Luzon,
prevented Aguinaldo from entering Manila, and Washington appointed
a puppet government.
Filipinos first welcomed Americans
as liberators. But in June when Aguinaldo issued a declaration
of independence, the pro-war U.S. press began to demonize Aguinaldo,
and a U.S. general told Congress that Filipinos who wanted freedom
had "no more idea of its meaning than a shepherd dog."
President McKinley said he
spent many sleepless nights agonizing about the Philippines until
God told him to keep the islands and "uplift and civilize
and Christianize them." The President called his program
"benevolent assimilation." The influential San Franciso
Argonaut was more candid: "We do not want the Filipinos.
We want the Philippines. The islands are enormously rich, but
unfortunately, they are infested with Filipinos."
A U.S. army of 70,000 [including
6,000 Black troops] was sent to pacify the islands and, as more
than one white soldier said, "just itching to get at the
niggers." General William Shafter told a journalist it might
be necessary to kill half the population to bring "perfect
justice" to the other half. After General Jack Smith promised
to turn the Philippines into a "howling wilderness"
most casualties were civilians. Smith defined the foe as any
male or female "ten years and up," and told his soldiers:
"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more
you kill and burn the better it will please me."
U.S. officers encouraged the
use of torture, murder of prisoners, and massacre of villagers,
including women and children. A Kansas soldier wrote "The
country won't be pacified until the niggers are killed off like
the Indians." Another white soldier reported brutal "sights
you could hardly believe" and he reached this conclusion:
"A white man seems to forget that he is human."
The U.S. had entered a quagmire.
"The Filipino masses are loyal to Aguinaldo and the government
he leads," conceeded U.S. General Arthur MacArthur. He thought
the foe "needed bayonet treatment for at least a decade."
His time assessment proved prophetic. In early 1901 a U.S. journalist
concluded "that the Filipino hates U.S. . . permanent guerrilla
warfare will continue for years." He reported endless guerilla
attacks that took one or two U.S. lives at a time and created
a "spirit of bitterness in the rank and file of the army."
A U.S. Red Cross worker reported "American soldiers are
determined to kill every Filipino in sight" and said he
saw "horribly mutilated Filipino bodies."
In March, 1901 U.S. officers
saw victory when Aguinaldo was captured, agreed to swear allegiance
to the United States, and to persuade his officers to accept
amnesty. But quagmires can sink fond hopes. Six months later
guerillas on Samar attacked a U.S. garrison and massacred 45
U.S. officers and enlisted men with bolos and bare hands. The
occupation's most shocking defeat exposed U.S. propaganda about
a defeated foe and a easy occupation. The U.S. media comp ared
Samar to General Custer at the Little Big Horn, pro-imperialist
editors talked about being "hoodwinked," and The San
Francisco Call reminded Americans "a conquered people"
do not remain conquered for long. "It is utterly foolish
to pretend . . . the end is in sight," admitted General
Adna Chaffee.
By 1902 U.S. Senate hearings
and scores of Army court martial trials found that U.S. occupying
forces were guilty of "war crimes." General Robert
Hughes admitted he ordered the burning of villages and murder
of women and children. When asked by a Senator if this was "civilized
warfare," he answered, "these people are not civilized."
The Baltimore American wondered why the U.S. carried out "we
went to war to banish."
President Teddy Roosevelt followed
McKinley to the White House and continued to justify the occupation,
dismiss Filipinos as "Chinese half-breeds," and to
insist this was "the most glorious war in our nation's history."
Congress spent $170 million on its occupation.
Mark Twain, two former presidents
and other prominent citizens formed an Anti-Imperialist League
that had tens of thousands attending protest meetings and signing
petitions that denounced U.S. atrocities and imperial designs.
One prominent African American bravely declared:"We shall
neither fight for such a country or with such an army" and
many others spoke out as well. The African American press stood
united against a U.S. government that exported its racist "deviltry"
overseas, and some labor unions began to connect the dots betw
een overseas imperialism and government suppression of strikes
at home. 2,800 military actions continued until 1911, took
200,000 Filipino lives, and the U.S. suffered 4,234 combat deaths.
More than a dozen US servicemen defected to Aguinaldo, and half
of these were African Americans although soliders of color comprised
less than ten percent of the US army of occupation.
Filipino independence came
in 1945 but bitterness continued with Washington support for
brutal dictators such as Ferdinand Marcos who looted his country
for twenty years. Vice President George Walker Bush arrived in
Manila to praise Marcos' "adherence to democratic principles"
and the next year a massive, nonviolent uprising forced Marcos
to flee.
On October 18, 2003 President
George W. Bush came to Manila to promote his war on terrorism.
For the Philippine Congress, he rewrote history when he said:
"Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines."
Our first overseas venture
a hundred years ago offers insights into our occupation of Iraq.
People always prefer self rule to a foreign master. Resisting
self-determination was unpleasant long ago, and it has not and
will not be pleasant now. Presidential lies come around to bite
again.
William Loren Katz is the author forty books, and he
adapted this essay from his new book, THE
CRUEL YEARS: AMERICAN VOICES AT THE DAWN OF THE 20TH CENTURY
[Beacon Press, 2003]. His website is: williamlkatz.com
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
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