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Recent
Stories
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Edward
Said
Give Us Back Our Democracy
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/19
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
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Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
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Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
April
16, 2003
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
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Jason
Leopold
Halliburton's Bloody History: They'll
Work for Anyone
Kurt
Nimmo
The Destruction of Iraq: Hey, It's
Good for Business
Stephen
Green
Dancing to Sharon's Beat: the Road
to Unilateral Pre-emption
Diane
Christian
The Devil in Bush's Details
Carol
Norris
Mourning Iraq
Anthony
Gancarski
They Call Themselves Economists?
Michael
Sells
Nero in Baghdad
Alexander
Cockburn
Contract with Iraq
Ninan Koshy
India's Devious Middle Path Through the Iraq War
Brenda
Norrell
Lakota Leader: World Must Resist
American Empire
Wallace
Gagne
End of History; More in a Moment
Stew
Albert
On the Road Again
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/16
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
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David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
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Colin Powell Telemarketer
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Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
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From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
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April 22,
2003
About that Cuba Letter
The Democratic
Left and Castro
By
STEVEN SHERMAN
The "Democratic Left", aka Leftists
Against the Same Stuff as Bush (LASSAB for short) are at it again.
You know these folks-Leo Casey, Michael Berube, Eric Alterman,
Todd Gitlin In recent times they have bravely stood against such
forces as the Taliban and the ANSWER coalition. Now they have
found a new target. Not ones to be distracted by the chaotic
beginnings of the occupation of Iraq, police attacks on anti-war
demonstrators, or 'mass killings' (as the UN Human Rights Commission
recently described them) by the Israelis in the West Bank and
Gaza, they have zeroed in on what they seem to believe is the
major threat to freedom in the world today: Cuba.
The focus of their activism is a letter
being circulated by Leo Casey of The United Federation of Teacher
in New York. "In solidarity with the people of Cuba",
they condemn the recent detention of 80 "non-violent political
dissidents" and their closed court trials and harsh sentences.
Fair-minded as they are, the Democratic left also has some words
about US policy towards Cuba: "The democratic left worldwide
has opposed the US embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more
harmful to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to
political democratization." Nevertheless, the rest of the
three paragraph long letter is devoted to the alleged crimes
of the Cuban government, which LASSAB clearly perceives as the
greater wrongdoer. By the end, Casey declares that "Despite
(Cuba's) claims of social progress in education and health care,
(it is) just one more dictatorship."
Predictably, that great chronicler of
LASSAB, Marc Cooper, has weighed in with a column praising the
letter. Cuba is basically a society where, "say, a John
Ashcroft would be unrestrained by the niceties of constitutional
law". The people arrested by the Cuban government were doing
nothing more pernicious than meeting with US diplomats ("meeting
with delegations of foreign political leaders", in Casey's
somewhat more circumspect phrasing) and Cooper has met with Cuban
diplomats in the US without being arrested! Cooper notes that
his friends urged him not to write this column, but he dismisses
their concerns-"the actions taken by Fidel Castro.. are
guaranteed to only please the ultraright." He urges readers
to sign on to the letter being circulated by Casey, "one
of the few, too few, leftist statements on the issue", signed
by a "number of prominent leftists".
Looking over the signatories, the absence
of many leftists-both those coming out of a Marxist background,
who one might suspect are 'soft' on revolutionary regimes (Alexander
Cockburn, Mike Davis, James Petras, Tariq Ali, etc) and those
who come from more anarchistic perspectives (Michael Albert,
Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein)-is striking. One might call all those
leftists who failed to sign this letter LAUSI (Leftists Against
US Imperialism). So the leftist reader might be confused: should
she or he stand with LASSAB, or LAUSI?
Closer examination of both Cooper's column
and Casey's letter might clarify the matter. For example, members
of LAUSI probably believe that, if they are living in the US,
they are already living in a society where "a John Ashcroft
would be unrestrained by the niceties of constitutional law".
How else to explain various arbitrary detentions, attacks on
peaceful protest, and the ongoing nightmare of the 'detainees'.
Since LAUSIstas oppose the Republican parties' combination of
apocalyptic Christian fundamentalism, US pre-emptive strike doctrine,
and Enron style capitalism, they might worry about the fact that,
according to Cooper, who seems to approve, the "Bush administration's
top diplomat in Cuba.. has been quite assertive.. Publicly challenging
Castro". They might suspect that, given the lengthy history
of terrorism and blockade against Cuba that the US has sponsored,
he is trying to build a spy network to bring down the regime
or at least provide intelligence to ease the likely pre-emptive
strike.
LAUSIstas might also wonder about Casey's
claim that the "Cuban state's current repression of political
dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most reactionary
elements of the US administration." After all, since the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the US federal
government are now firmly in the hands of the aforementioned
Republican party, it is difficult to know what non 'reactionary
elements' Casey would like to see Cuba ally with. LAUSIstas might
also wonder about that description of the US embargo of Cuba
as 'counterproductive'. Most LAUSIstas would probably argue that
the embargo is meant to punish the Cuban government for building
(not 'claiming' to do so, but actually building) decent health
and education systems, and providing their citizens with some
protections against the worst ravages of capitalism experienced
by their neighbors. In this sense, they might argue, the embargo's
success at limiting the Cuban achievement has been quite 'productive'.
LAUSIstas not familiar with the guiding principles of LASSAB
might wonder where the signatories of the letter were when the
revolt in Bolivia against neo-liberalism was being violently
repressed, or when Bush announced he was sending American troops
to guard an oil pipeline and possibly fight guerrillas in Colombia
alongside the worst human rights violators in the hemisphere.
Those more familiar with LASSAB might explain that LASSAB rarely
criticizes US allies or the US government, unless its actions
might be construed as 'counterproductive' to broader goals of
US power.
While few among LAUSI are likely pleased
at the closed courts or executions in Cuba, they would likely
worry that, in the near future, the US government will set its
sights on regime change in Cuba. They may expect that the New
York Times will site Casey's letter as evidence that much of
'the left' is opposed to Castro, and in fact believes that "the
Cuban state.. is not a government of the left". They may
worry that as the US begins to move toward a military confrontation,
LASSAB will continue to scream about how awful Castro is while
offering minor bleats in objection to US unilateralism or failure
to pursue regime change through diplomacy (although, to be sure,
LASSAB's fire will probably turn away from Castro and towards
those parts of an emergent anti-war movement seen as excessively
supportive of the Cuban leader). I hope the above fairly describes
the positions of LASSAB and LAUSI, and help the reader to make
an informed choice about whether or not to sign Casey's letter.
Steven Sherman
is a resident of Chapel Hill North Carolina who teaches at UNC-Greensboro.
He can be reached at: sherman@counterpunch.org.
Yesterday's
Features
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
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of Israel's Supreme Court
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Joe
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Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
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