Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's Stories
June 25, 2004
Jack McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal? Did
Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel's Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diane Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin's Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz's Colleagues Refused to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
Putin's Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June 19
/ 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation on
Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother Nature
Col. Dan
Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets'
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June 18,
2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player &
Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan's Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock's Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
June
14, 2004
John
Stanton / Wayne Madsen
Torture, Inc: Oliver North Joins
the Party
Kathy
Kelly
Requiems: What Happens When Compassion Dies?
Bruce
Jackson
Bush Gets Testy About Torture
Lee
Sustar
Strikers Defy Visteon's Company Thugs
Kurt
Nimmo
The Desperate Censors: the Republican Plot to Kill Farhenheit
9/11
Jim
Davis
Hard Right Nativism
Eliot
Katz
Death and War
Uri
Avnery
The Nightmare Comes True
Website
of the Day
Instruments of Statecraft
June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
| June
25, 2004
2006 Pentagon
Budget as Sacrilege
Bush Invests
National Treasure in Death and Destruction
By
SAUL LANDAU
“For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," Jesus said
in Matthew 6:19-21. The United States, the most Christian nation on
earth, has placed its treasure in destruction and death. As Associated
Press’ Dan Morgan reports (June 12 2004, Tallahassee Democrat),
the Pentagon “plans to spend well over $1 trillion in the next
decade on an arsenal of futuristic planes, ships and weapons with little
direct connection to the Iraq war or the global war on terrorism.”
The
2005 defense budget – the word “defense” has become
a joke in the post Cold War world – will reach $500 billion (counting
the CIA), $50 billion higher than 2004. The Congressional Budget Office
estimates that over the next ten years, the armada of aircraft, ships
and killer toys will cost upwards of $770 billion more than Bush’s
estimate for long-term defense.
Morgan
reports that Bush wants “$68 billion for research and development—20
percent above the peak levels of President Reagan's historic defense
buildup. Tens of billions more out of a proposed $76 billion hardware
account will go for big-ticket weapons systems to combat some as-yet-unknown
adversary comparable to the former Soviet Union.”
The
mantra heard in Congress, “we can’t show weakness in the
face of terrorism,” fails to take into account the fact that when
the 9/11 hijackers struck, the US military--the strongest in the world--failed
to prevent the attacks. So, logically one would ask, how does a futuristic
jet fighter defend against contemporary enemies, like jihadists who
would smuggle explosives into a train station or crowded shopping mall?
Rather
than face the nasty facts of cancerous corruption, which translates
immediately as war profiteering in Iraq, the political class accepts
defense uber alles as an axiom. Congress accepts this dubious assumption
and then squanders the taxpayers’ money and America’s heart
on useless weapons of mass destruction.
Congress,
following the President’slead, hardens the American heart by making
weapons a priority over housing, health, education and jobs. The budget
they pass each year awards billions to the swindlercorporations that
produce the lethal instruments: General Dynamics, Lockheed and the other
household names of mass weapons production. Think of the fortunes by
the schnorrers who sold SDI to the late President Reagan! Or how Reagan
took money from the hungry and homeless – “it’s their
choice,” said Reagan – and handed it to the fakirs who pretended
that could stop incoming missiles.
The
Bush presidency has taken military spending (wasting) to new heights
(depths). More frightening, a military culture has emerged that includes
military language in everyday speech – yes sir. The military that
carried low social prestige until World War II has become a highly respected
institution. Its recruiters have become as ubiquitous on high school
and college campuses as ivy on the walls. At graduation ceremonies,
some high school administrators don military garb alongside those with
traditional black robes. But, wait a minute! In a republic, a professional
military merits minimal status. Indeed, republics need citizens’
militias, not standing armies at a time when a foreign state poses no
immediate threat to US security.
Indeed,
Vice President Dick Cheney, a warmonger, liar and draft dodger -- “I
had better things to do” than serve in Vietnam -- represents the
new heart of the nation. Without disclosing his evidence, he continues
to insist that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction
and links to Al Qaeda and keeps secret his minutes – executive
privilege -- with the dishonest Enron officials, one of whom laughs
about overcharging "those poor grandmothers" in California.
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who will use such evidence
on tape to prosecute Enron officials for rigging energy prices to bilk
Californians, claims "this is further evidence of the arrogance
that was so fundamental to the business practices of Enron and the other
energy pirates who acted so rapaciously” (Business Report, 6/06/04).
For
Cheney, rapaciousness is as American as apple pie. Indeed, Cheney belongs
in Ripley’s Believe It or Not: he may be the first man who suffered
several heart attacks and does not possess a heart. Cheney stands as
an allegorical reference to the nation’s morality in the early
21st Century.
Vice
President Cheney, although he denies this, has looked out for the interests
of his former company. As CEO of Halliburton, from 1995-2000, Cheney
made his and the company’s fortune in the national security-energy
arena, that shady area that has removed itself from accountability.
Indeed, Congress does not have clear oversight over hundreds of billions
of military dollars. $10 billion gets allocated simply for “missile
defense.” Behind such an authorization, the military demands:
“trust us.” The Founding Fathers would have scoffed at anyone
uttering these two words – especially in reference to money.
With
the sounds of scandals of tens of billions of dollars still reverberating
in the public’s ear, why would Congress cede its accountability
function to the Pentagon? The military apparatus, a killing machine,
stands for heartlessness by its very nature. And the Bush Administration
and its military spokespeople have even given prevaricating a bad name.
From the President down to key cabinet members, the Bushies link dissembling
with heartlessness as if they were the proverbial horse and carriage.
Under Bush, lying has grown deep institutional roots as well.
On
April 29, the State Department released a report on the "Patterns
of Global Terrorism.” In it, Department researchers put forth
the claim that in 2003 terrorist attacks had fallen to only 190, their
lowest since 1969. In fact, as anyone who could count knew, the number
of attacks had risen dramatically.
"It's
a very big mistake,” acknowledged Secretary of State Colin Powell
on June 13 to ABC’sThis Week. “And we are not happy about
this big mistake." Powell predictably denied that political motives
lay behind this rosy report, which could have served to support Bush’s
claim that he was winning the "war on terrorism." "Nobody
was out to cook the books," Powell said.
But
Powell had spewed a series of lies to the UN Security Council. On February
5, 2003 he presented a power point lecture of lies about the location
of Iraqi WMDs, claiming incontrovertible evidence for every fib he uttered.
The
military demands of the Iraq and Afghan Wars have obscured the crying
needs of this age. The arch Christian, George W. Bush, directs Congress
to waste the nation’s treasury on destruction and death, while
extolling the “value of human life” in his campaigns to
prevent stem cell research and abortion. He offers little to nothing
to alleviate starvation, homelessness and disease and he ignores or
exacerbates the deterioration of the environment. How will the meek
inherit the earth if they starve to death, die of exposure, bomb shrapnel
or environmental toxicity? Or does Bush think inheriting the earth means
getting buried six feet under it?
Bush’s world means publicity for a macho man image, like landing
a military jet on an aircraft carrier as he did in May 2003, when he
grabbed his dress-up-as-pilot photo-op on the USS Abraham Lincoln. It
means that he possesses an inherent right to imprison, torture or kill
anyone he chooses, while selectively enforcing international law. He
angrily explained that he had to use force against Iraq to implement
UN Security Council resolutions, avoids even linguistic coercion to
pressure Israel to abide by many UN resolutions relating to actions
toward Palestinians and flaunts the Geneva Convention relating to anywhere
the United States is involved.Bush presents himself in public as a decisive
man, but one who does not read and reflect. He claims he is humble before
God, but struts arrogantly before other men and women and has asserted
unprecedented power -- in the name of Jesus.
Bush represents American empire, an era where military spending accelerates
and social spending declines, where the President and the Attorney General
assert the “might makes right” formula to circumvent basic
liberties regarding “enemy combatants”--including US citizens
– and international agreements. The first three words of the Golden
Rule dictate Bush and Ashcroft’s policies: Do Unto Others. A good
percentage of the public here and abroad, however, have begun to grow
increasingly concerned about what others will now do to us. In Saudi
Arabia, an American engineer has apparently been kidnapped in retaliation
for the US treatment of Arab prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison.
Such events may well color the voting public’s heart; it may decide
it does not want to continue following Bush’s military treasure.
Saul Landau’s new book is THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA:
HOW CONSUMERS HAVE REPLACED CITIZENS AND HOW WE CAN REVERSE THE TREND.
His new film is SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE,distributed by
Cinema Guild (800-723-5522).
Weekend Edition June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto and Runnymede
Team CounterPunch
CP's Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel's Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets'
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
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