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Recent
Stories
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
April
2, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Politics of Casualties
David
Lindorff
Making America Safer...for Iraqi
Fighters
William
Blum
Some Observations on the Recent Behavior of the Empire
Gustavio
Sierra
The Morning After the Slaughter at
Nasser
Patrick
Cockburn
Playing Into Saddam's Hands
Robert
Jensen
Peter Arnett: Whipping Boy of the
Pentagon
Jeremy
Brecher
Uniting for Peace Update
N.D.
Jayaprakash
The Siege of Basra
LaDawn
Haglund
You Can Jail the Resisters, But You
Can't Arrest the Resistance
Robert
Fisk
Truth and Subterfuge
Jemima
Khan
I'm Ashamed to be British
Steve
Perry
War Web Log
Stew Albert
Total War
Website
of the Day
Traitor List: Sign Up Now!
April
1, 2003
Jason
Leopold
Rumsfeld: "Get Me Rewrite"
William
S. Lind
The Pitfalls of War Planning
Jorge
Mariscal
Latinos on the Frontlines, Again
Paul
de Rooij
Arrogant Propaganda
Jo
Wilding
From Baghdad: "I Am His Mother"
Tarif
Abboushi
Operation Embedded Folly
Lee
Sustar
Labor's War at Home
Akiva Eldar
Israeli Dreams of Iraqi Oil
Bernard
Weiner
The Vietnam Connection
Robert
Fisk
The Graveyard at Baghdad's North
Gate
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/01
Website
of the Day
A Collectible War
March
31, 2003
David
Lindorff
Liberating Iraqis from Their Homes
Neve Gordon
A Different Kind of Despair
John
Chuckman
Absurdities and Contradictions
Ron Jacobs
Bernie Sanders Voting Maybe on
War
Wayne
Madsen
The Siege of Washington
Mark Franchetti
Slaughter at the Bridge of Death
Robert
Fisk
Blood and Bandages of the Innocent
Robin Cook
Send Our Soldiers Home
Anthony
Gancarski
Investigate Perle
Uri Avnery
The Devil's Dictionary
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 03/31
March
29, 2003
Kathy and
Bill Christison
"Like Being Autistic with
Power": an Interview with Jeff Halper
Ben
Tripp
"My Empire for a Map!": Geography
American Style
Ann Harrison
The War on Protesters: San Francisco's
Berserk Cops
Kurt
Nimmo
Dead People: Don't Go There
Chris Floyd
Blood on the Tracks: Cheney the
War Profiteer
Ann
Pettifer
Israelis: Victims No Longer?
Jo Wilding
Dispatch from Baghdad: Nowhere
is Safe
Ramzy
Baroud
Horror Chamber: Inside the Al-Amiriya
Shelter
David Krieger
Perle is Gone, But the Looting
Continues
John
Gershman
Dreams of Empire; Eulogies for International
Law
Robert
Fisk
Bombing the Phone System
Brice Abel
War, Bush and the Jesus Torilla
Tom
Stephens
The Chickenhawk Circle of Hell
Alexander
Cockburn
"War Not Going According
to Plan"
March 28,
2003
Robert
Fisk
Bitter Truths About Basra
Daniel
Wolff
A Road Trip in Wartime
Chris
Clarke
We Never Spit on Any Baby Killers
David Lindorff
Saddam, a Hero Made in Washington
Pierre
Tristam
Icarus on Crack: American Hubris
and Iraq
Jason Leopold
Richard Perle: the Enterprising
Hawk
Saul
Landau
Technological Massacre
Carol Norris
The Mother of All Bombs
Riad
Abdelkarim, MD
Iraq War Lingo 101
Adam Engel
Schlock and Awe
Steve
Perry
War Web Log
March 27,
2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Somebody Blew Up Baghdad
Rahul
Mahajan
The New Humanitarianism: Basra as
Military Target
Simon Jones
A Letter from Uzbekistan
William
S. Lind
No Exit
Diane Christian
A Day of Reckoning
The
Black Commentator
Onward
Embedded Soldiers: the Press and the War
Mickey
Z.
Remembering the Real Moynihan:
Genocide in East Timor
Richard
Thieme
The Problem of Empathy
Jason Leopold
Energy Scams: Bilking California
Out of Billions
Tariq
Ali
A Naked Display of Imperial Power
Alexander
Cockburn
Up the Creek
March 26,
2003
Bruce Jackson
A Battlefield from Hell
Pablo
Mukherjee
Watch
Their Lips
David Krieger
Shock But Not Awe
Linda
Heard
Winning
Hearts and Minds Bush-Style
Imad Jadaa
The Beautiful Face of America
Adam
Engel
Buckets
of Blood
Patrick
Cockburn
Kurds Unimpressed
David
Lindorff
POWs,
Torture and Hypocrisy
Robert
Fisk
The Coup That Didn't Happen
April
Hurley, MD
A
Doctor's Outrage in Baghdad
Gloria
Bergen
Chretien's Shame
Reema
Abu Hamdieh
The
Smell of Death Surrounds Me
March 25,
2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Life During Wartime
Gary
Leupp
What
Democracy Looks Like: the Streets of Cairo
Bill and
Kathleen Christison
An Interview with Hanan Ashrawi
Bruce
Jackson
Why
Protest? Why Write?
Uri Avnery
Bitter Rice: Thoughts and Warnings
on the War
Jason
Leopold
Blood
Indicator: Casualties and the Stock Market
Ralph Nader
A Pre-emptive War on a Defenseless
Country
March 24,
2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Ominous Signs
David
Lindorff
Peacekeepers
at Ground Zero
Diane Christian
Blood Sacrifice
Kathy
Kelly
The
Morning After Shock and Awe
John Stanton
US Bombs Iran
Wayne
Madsen
How
to Live with a Rogue Superpower
Anthony
Gancarski
Iraq and the Death of the West
David
Vest
Earth vs. Bush
Ahmad Faruqui
The Liberation of Iraq in Perspective
Robert
Fisk
We
Bomb, They Suffer
March 22 / 23, 2003
Edward Said
The Other
America
Saul Landau
The Threats of Empire
Kathleen and Bill Christison
On the Road in the West Bank
Joanne Mariner
Suing Seymour Hersh
Ann Harrison
The Battle of San Francisco
Robert Fisk
A Cauldron of Fire
Hani Shukrallah
The Gates of Hell
Chris Floyd
Memory Lane
Kathy Kelly
Imagine Chicago Under This Kind of Attack
Ramzi Kysia
Bombing Away a Chance for Joy
Linda Heard
Baghdad Burns While Bush Does Lunch
Bradley Burston
Could the US be at War for Years?
Salvador Peralta
Mass Murder as Liberation?
Tom Gorman
Now That's a Coalition!
Jorge Mariscal
Johnny Mack, When Are You Coming Back?
Cindy Milstein
The Grassroots Go Global
Josh Frank
Blocking Portland's Bridges
Elaine Cassel
The Case of Elizabeth Smart: Kidnapping and Insanity
Gordon Solberg
Drowning in Niceness: the Lessons of Elizabeth Smart
Tom Crumpacker
Getting to Know the Real Havana
Poets' Basement
Dobie, Guthrie, Alam, Wechsler
March 21, 2003
Ben Tripp
Blood
for Oil: the Exchange Rate
Cathy Breens
Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits
Scott Handleman
Fourth
Generation Protesting: Shutting Down San Francisco
Vanessa Jones
Paint
Them Red
Brian J. Foley
Patriotic
Protest for Professors
Zoltan Grossman
After Saddam, a War on Iraqi Rebels?
Philip S. Golub
Inventing Demons
Richard Lichtman
On the Current Experience of Terror
Milan Rai
Blitz-Coup
Pepe Escobar
A Cheap Family Farce
Floyd Rudmin
The Nightmare at the Back Door: Nuclear Plant's as Terror Targets
Chris Floyd
See Rome (poem)
Website of the War
Iraq
Body Count
March 20, 2003
Jo Wilding
From
Waiting to War: a Day and a Night in Baghdad
Stephen Banko
I Was
a Soldier Once
Kevin Alexander Gray
How Did
We Become an Outlaw Nation?
Shane Claiborne
Nomadic
Solidarity: Glimpses of Life in Baghdad on the Eve of War
Kathy Kelly
Waiting on the Baghdad Skies to Crack
Anthony Gancarski
Michelle
Makin's "Liberty Shields"
Rahul Mahajan and Robert
Jensen
Myths
and Facts About the War on Iraq
Jason Leopold
Cheney's
Lies About Halliburton and Iraq
Ron Jacobs
If War is Business as Usual, There Should be No Business as Usual
Chuck O'Connell
Predictions About the Iraq War
Douglas Herman
US Air Force Veteran on the Coming Air Campaign
Ralph Nader
Come
On Democrats, Stand Up for Peace
William Hughes
War is Theft
Sima Saeedi
Dispatch
from Iran
Hammond Guthrie
John Philip Sousa
Website of the Day
Iraq
Body Count
Hot Stories
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Francis Boyle
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Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 4,
2003
Day
By Day We Are Becoming More Hated
The Meaning
of Victory
By DAVID KRIEGER
"Day by day we are moving closer
to Baghdad. Day by day we are moving closer to victory."
George W. Bush, March 31, 2003
With these words, Mr. Bush sought to reassure
the American people that his war plan is working, moving us closer
to "victory." As the United States continues its heavy
and unrelenting bombing of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, inflicting
death and suffering on the Iraqi people who we are supposedly
liberating, we would do well to explore the meaning of victory.
Thus far, few journalists, at least in the corporate mainstream
US media, appear ready to do so. Those concerned with the path
the war is taking might have added the following observations
to Bush's statement.
Day by day we are killing more Iraqi
civilians. One day US forces bomb a marketplace, killing 62 civilians.
Another day a car carrying women and children is fired on by
US troops, killing seven. An Iraqi mother describes watching
her young children's heads severed from their bodies. According
to news reports, some 500 to 700 Iraqi civilians have died thus
far, and many more Iraqi soldiers have been slaughtered.
Day by day the "untold sorrow"
mounts. One Iraqi man, whose family was killed by US bombing,
cries out in pain, "God take our revenge on America!"
Day by day more of our young soldiers
are dying and being maimed in battle and military accidents.
Between US and British troops, more than 60 coalition soldiers
are dead. Is this our victory, killing more of "them"
than they kill of "us"?
Day by day we are spending more of our
wealth on instruments of war as we relentlessly bombard Iraqi
cities. Bush has asked for supplementary budget approval of $75 billion as a down payment
on this war. This is in addition to the $400 billion already
allocated for our military forces.
Day by day we are destroying more of
the infrastructure of Iraqi cities that we are already allowing
US companies to bid on to rebuild. Perhaps we should return to
less deadly ways of transferring taxpayer wealth to favored corporations.
Day by day we are becoming more hated
in the Middle East. Middle Eastern newspapers are printing these
headlines, "Monstrous martyrdom in Baghdad" (Jordan),
"Dreadful massacre in Baghdad" (Egypt), and "Yet
another massacre by the coalition of invaders" (Saudi Arabia).
Egyptian novelist Ezzat El Kamhawy writes, "This war is
affecting civilians primarily. I did not expect to see civilians
bombed and I feel exceedingly angry." Throughout the Middle
East, the people don't seem to be celebrating our presence or
our war, let alone our "victory."
Day by day we are creating more terrorists
intent upon attacking the US and American citizens. "When
it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible consequences,"
says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek. "Instead of having
one [Osama] bin Laden, we will have 100 bin Ladens." Does
this fit with Mr. Bush's concept of "victory"?
Day by day we are seeing the arrogance
of the rush to war by the Bush administration. We have yet to
see the Iraqis surrendering in large numbers and greeting the
Americans as "liberators," as the administration boldly
claimed would happen. Perhaps Mr. Bush, so focused on victory
and so lacking in historical perspective, has forgotten the US
experience in Vietnam and the potency of nationalism in the defense
of one's country from outside invaders.
Day by day the Bush administration is
continuing to alienate most of our key allies. The members of
the "coalition of the willing" that have actually provided
troops in Iraq consist of only the UK, Australia, Poland and
Albania in addition to the US. Not even the three members of
the Security Council that supported the war Spain, Italy and
Bulgaria are providing military support.
Day by day polls throughout the world
are showing overwhelming opposition to the US invasion of Iraq,
even in most of those countries where the governments are nominally
supporting the US.
Day by day we are watching the erosion
of our constitutional system of government. Congress has shirked
its constitutional responsibility to declare war, and it seems
poised to give the president all the funds he is requesting for
his war.
Day by day, laws pressed by the Bush
administration, such as the misnamed USA Patriot Act and planned
supplements to this legislation, are undermining our Bill of
Rights.
Day by day Americans are being misled
by our mainstream corporate media, which seems comfortable acting
as cheerleaders for the war. When veteran war correspondent Peter
Arnett said on Iraqi television what he took to be the obvious
truth, that the US timetable was falling by the wayside in Iraq,
he was summarily fired by NBC.
Day by day Americans are expressing their
support, but also their ignorance about the war. The polls inform
us that 72 percent of Americans support the war, but at the same
time 51 percent of Americans believe that Iraq attacked the World
Trade Center, which is not true. Sixty-five percent of Americans
cannot find Iraq on a map.
Day by day we are ignoring other serious
problems in the world, including the dangerous potential for
war on the Korean peninsula and the possibility of North Korea's
further nuclear proliferation. The Bush administration ignores
North Korea's pleas for negotiations with the US and its constructive
proposals for a mutual security treaty.
Day by day we are using nuclear-tipped
shells in this war to attack tanks and other armored vehicles.
The "depleted uranium" in these munitions is transformed
into fine dust particles upon impact, and the inhalation of these
particles is thought to be responsible for the "Gulf War
Syndrome" that has afflicted so many of our troops from
the first Gulf War in 1991.
Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of
the Pentagon's depleted uranium project, has argued, "There
is a moral point to be made here. This war was about Iraq possessing
illegal weapons of mass destruction yet we are using weapons
of mass destruction ourselves. Such double standards are repellent."
Day by day we are moving closer to using
nuclear weapons, the real ones. The Bush administration has promulgated
a doctrine of reserving "the right to respond with overwhelming
force including through resort to all of our options to the use
of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] against the United States,
our forces abroad, and friends and allies." The reference
to "all of our options" is meant to obliquely send
the message that nuclear weapons use is an option.
We don't know whether Iraq has weapons
of mass destruction, but we have no reason to believe that they
would not use chemical or biological weapons as a last resort
if they did. And we have no reason to believe that the Bush junta
would not follow through on their threats to use "all of
our options," including nuclear weapons.
Day by day the US economy is faltering.
Since Bush came to office, the US has moved from large budget
surpluses to large budget deficits. The stock markets have followed
one major trend, downward, and the war seems to be exacerbating
this trend.
Day by day funding is being cut for education,
health care, head start programs and other important social programs
so that we can pay for war. In 2001, 41.2 million Americans had
no health insurance. There has been a 43 percent rise in unemployment
since Bush took office. Pell grants, which have funded college
educations particularly for worthy minority students, are being
cut back from covering 84 percent of the costs to 42 percent
of the costs. While important social programs are being cut back
or eliminated, Bush is pressing for a $700 billion tax break
for the wealthiest Americans.
Day by day the Bush administration is
failing America's veterans. The House of Representatives recently
voted approval of a 2004 budget that will cut $25 billion over
ten years from veteran's health care and benefit programs. This
came just one day after Congress voted overwhelmingly to "support
our troops."
Day by day the most respected moral leaders
in the world are speaking out against a war they find to be immoral
and lacking in legitimacy. These leaders include The Pope, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
The Pope has repeatedly insisted that
a preventive war has no legal or moral justification, and has
called the war "a defeat for humanity." Nelson Mandela
has called Bush's actions in Iraq "a tragedy." "What
I am condemning," Mandela said, "is that one power,
with a president who has no foresight, who cannot think properly,
is now wanting to plunge the world into a holocaust."
As if to underline Mandela's insights
about him, Bush, according to Time magazine, told three US Senators
as far back as March 2002, "F--k Saddam. We're taking him
out."
As we race toward the "victory"
that Mr. Bush seems so confident will be achieved, what are the
consequences likely to be?
* There will be greater instability in
the Middle East as the US attempts to occupy Iraq.
* The US will be roundly hated in the
Middle East and throughout the Muslim world.
* Terrorism against the US will increase,
including terrorism in the US.
* Our guaranteed freedoms in the US Bill
of Rights will continue to be reduced.
* The US economy will be in shambles,
with few social programs left intact.
* US alliances of long duration will
be difficult, if not impossible, to rebuild.
* The likelihood of nuclear weapons proliferation
and use will increase.
Former US marine and UN weapons inspector
Scott Ritter has doubts about Bush's "victory": "We
find ourselvesfacing a nation of 23 million, with armed elements
numbering around seven million who are concentrated at urban
areas. We will not win this fight. America will lose this war."
But Mr. Bush tells us, "Day by day
we are moving closer to victory." General Tommy Franks,
the commander of the US war effort, tells us, "The outcome
is not in doubt." In all likelihood, however, it will not
be the outcome that Mr. Bush and his administration are anticipating,
but one far worse for all of us. It is past time for the American
people to wake up to the meaning of "victory."
David Krieger
is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation. He is the author of Choose
Hope, Your Role in Waging Peace in the Nuclear Age (Middleway
Press, 2002) and editor of Hope
in a Dark Time, Reflections on Humanity's Future (Capra
Press, 2003). He can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org.
Today's
Features
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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