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April 12, 2002
John Chuckman
Tom
Friedman's Fabrications
April 11, 2002
Patrick Cockburn
Battle of St. Petersburg Zoo
Jeff Halper
After
the Invasion:
Now What?
Falk / Krieger
Taming the Nuclear Monster
Steve
Perry
The
Good Life of
Nellie Stone Johnson
Nick Ring
Efficiency and Occupation:
Terrorism vs. Taylorism
Alexander
Cockburn
From
the West Bank to BBQ
to Old Sparky, And Beyond
April 10, 2002
M. Junaid Alam
Blaming the Victims:
Hating the Palestinians
George
Monbiot
World
Bank to West Bank
Fran Schor
US-Sponsored State Terror
David
Vest
Political
Color Schemes
Jack McCarthy
Florida State Radicals:
The Berkeley of the South
Rises Again
Doreen
Miller
A
Tale of Two Warring Tribes
Michael Neumann
Israelis and Indians
April 9, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
Colin
Powell's Table Talk
Matt Vidal
Thomas Friedman,
Another Wasted Pulitzer
Ron Jacobs
Buyer
Beware
Robert Jensen
I Helped Kill a Palestinian
Vijay
Prashad
Memories
of Barbarity:
Sharonism and September
Wayne Madsen
Anthrax and the Agency:
Thinking the Unthinkable
April 8, 2002
David
Vest
From
Birmingham to Nashville:
The Making of Tammy Wynette
Rick Giombetti
Paxil, Suicide and Science
Dr. Neve
Gordon
Letter
to an IDF Colonel:
How Did You Become
a War Criminal?
Dave Marsh
DeskScan:
This Week's Top 10 CDs
Jordy
Cummings
Not
in My Name Anymore
Gavin Keeney
Bush and the Middle East:
Mouth Wide Shut
Edward
Said
The
Future of Palestine
April 7, 2002
Beth Daoud
Accompanying Ambulances
in Bethlehem
Nancy
Stohlman
After
the Invasion:
The Search for Bread
Among the Ruins
Thomas Mountain
"Yellow Peril" In Hawai'i:
Judge Orders Chains and Shackles for Chinese Witnesses
Tariq
Ali
Who
Killed Daniel Pearl?
April 6, 2002
Philip Farruggio
War, Snake Oil and Circuses
Viktor
Litovkin
Russian
Generals Raise Questions About Pentagon Victories in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
CIA Survey of Iraqi Airfields
May Herald Attack
Walt Brasch
Oil
Slick George:
Bush-whacking the Environment
Ralph Nader
Campaign Finance Sham
Sam Bahour
The
Blind Leading the Criminal
Bill Christison:
A Former CIA Official on
Oil and the Middle East
April 5, 2002
Charmaine
Seitz
In
Ramallah: The Grueling Reoccupation Grinds On
Nancy Stohlman
The Invasion of Bethlehem
and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Beth Daoud
The
Siege of Bethlehem:
"What Do You Mean God Is Punishing Me?"
Fareed Marjaee:
Demonizing Iran
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Philip
Morris to Canada:
"Drop Dead"
Alex Lynch
Tampa Campus Mirrors
Middle East Strife
Alexander
Cockburn
Sharon's
Wars: How the
News Gets Through
April 4, 2002
Ray Hanania
Sharon's Latest Lie About the Church
of the Nativity
Mike Leon
Rightwing
Assault on Madison Progressives Misfires
Tom Turnipseed
Stop the Killing Now!
Nancy
Stohlman
An
American Under Siege in a West Bank Refugee Camp
Christopher Reilly
Kissinger, Chile and Justice
at Long Last?
M. Shahid
Alam
The
Lies of Thomas Friedman
April 3, 2002
Don Henley
Dear Loathsome Trade Hacks
Bernard
Weiner
An
American Jew Talks
About His Shame
David Vest
Sting of Stings
Gabriel Ash
America's Bravest
John Chuckman
Of
War, Islam and Israel
Robert Fisk
The Siege of Bethlehem
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Sins of the Church
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
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Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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April 11, 2002
The Middle East Quagmire
By Rep. Ron Paul
We were warned, and in the early years of our
Republic, we heeded that warning. Today, though, we are entangled
in everyone's affairs throughout the world, and we are less safe
as a result. The current Middle-East crisis is one that we helped
create, and it is typical of how foreign intervention fails to
serve our interests. Now we find ourselves smack-dab in the middle
of a fight that will not soon end. No matter what the outcome,
we lose.
By trying to support both sides we, in
the end, will alienate both sides. We are forced, by domestic
politics here at home, to support Israel at all costs, with billions
of dollars of aid, sophisticated weapons, and a guarantee that
America will do whatever is necessary for Israel's security.
Political pressure compels us to support
Israel, but it is oil that prompts us to guarantee security for
the western puppet governments of the oil-rich Arab nations.
Since the Israeli-Arab fight will not
soon be resolved, our policy of involving ourselves in a conflict
unrelated to our security guarantees that we will suffer the
consequences.
What a choice! We must choose between
the character of Arafat versus that of Sharon.
The information the average American
gets from the major media outlets, with their obvious bias, only
makes the problem worse. Who would ever guess that the side that
loses seven people to every one on the other side is portrayed
as the sole aggressor and condemned as terrorists? We should
remember that Palestinian deaths are seen by most Arabs as being
American-inspired, since our weapons are being used against them,
and they're the ones whose land has been continuously taken from
them.
Yet there are still some in this country
who can't understand why many in the Arab/Muslim world hate America.
Is it any wonder that the grassroots
people in Arab nations, even in Kuwait, threaten their own governments
that are totally dominated by American power and money?
The arguments against foreign intervention
are many. The chaos in the current Middle-East crisis should
be evidence enough for all Americans to reconsider our extensive
role overseas and reaffirm the foreign policy of our early leaders
- a policy that kept us out of the affairs of others.
But here we are in the middle of a war
that has no end and serves only to divide us here at home, while
the unbalanced slaughter continues with tanks and aircraft tearing
up a country that does not even have an army.
It is amazing that the clamor of support
for Israel here at home comes from men of deep religious conviction
in the Christian faith, who are convinced they are doing the
Lord's work. That, quite frankly, is difficult for me as a Christian
to comprehend. We need to remember the young people who will
be on the front lines when the big war starts - which is something
so many in this body seem intent on provoking.
Ironically, the biggest frustration in
Washington, for those who eagerly resort to war to resolve differences,
is that the violence in the Middle East has delayed plans for
starting another war against Iraq.
Current policy prompts our government
on one day to give the go-ahead to Sharon to do what he needs
to do to combat terrorism (a term that now has little or no meaning);
on the next day, however, our government tells him to quit, for
fear that we may overly aggravate our oil pals in the Arab nations
and jeopardize our oil supplies. This is an impossible policy
that will inevitably lead to chaos.
Foreign interventionism is bad for America.
Special interests control our policies, while true national security
is ignored. Real defense needs, the defense of our borders, are
ignored, and the financial interests of corporations, bankers,
and the military-industrial complex gain control - and the American
people lose.
It's costly, to say the least. Already
our military budget has sapped domestic spending and caused the
deficit to explode. But the greatest danger is that one day these
contained conflicts will get out of control. Certainly the stage
is set for that to happen in the Middle East and south central
Asia. A world war is a possibility that should not be ignored.
Our policy of subsidizing both sides is ludicrous. We support
Arabs and Jews, Pakistanis and Indians, Chinese and Russians.
We have troops in 140 countries around the world just looking
for trouble. Our policies have led us to support Al Qaeda in
Kosovo and bomb their Serb adversaries. We have, in the past,
allied ourselves with bin Laden, as well as Saddam Hussein, only
to find out later the seriousness of our mistake. Will this foolishness
ever end?
A non-interventionist foreign policy
has a lot to say for itself, especially when one looks at the
danger and inconsistency of our current policy in the Middle
East.
Ron Paul, M.D.,
represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas in the United
States House of Representatives.
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