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America's First Terror War
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Today's Stories May 28, 2007 Bill Quigley May 26 / 27, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Franklin Lamb Jean Bricmont Gary Leupp James Petras William Peace Judith and John Sharpe Saul Landau Paul Craig Roberts Democracy in Iraq, Tyranny at Home? Jonathan M.
Feldman Dave Lindorff Missy Beattie Mike Whitney Badruddin Khan Ron Jacobs Zoe Blunt Arjun Chowdhury, Heather Gray N. D. Jayaprakash Joe Allen Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
Robert Jensen David Vest John Stauber Evelyn Pringle Corporate Crime Reporter Susan Rosenthal,
MD Roberto Rodriguez Steve Fournier Patrick McElwee Robert Weissman Website of the Day
Franklin Lamb Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fantina Norman Solomon Dave Lindorff Sen. Russell
Feingold Fred Gardner Mike Whitney Kevin Parsneau, Arjun Chowdhury
and Mark Hoffman Caroline Paul Eva Liddell Website of
the Day
Patrick Cockburn Rev. William
Alberts Joe DeRaymond Sudhanva Deshpande
Paul Craig Roberts Glen Ford Rannie Amiri China Hand Zoe Blunt Nivien Saleh Website of the Day
Robert Fisk Joshua Frank Harvey Wasserman David Mos Masumoto Sonja Karkar Conn Hallinan Dave Lindorff Jeffrey Kolakowski Evelyn Pringle Jim Baumer Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Nicole Colson John Ross Stephen Fleischman M. Shahid Alam Ron Jacobs Peter Rost, MD Alan Farago Paul Buchheit Website of
the Day
May 19 / 20, 2007 Andrew Cockburn Uri Avnery Peter Gelderloos Saul Landau Robert Fantina Fred Gardner Ralph Nader Jean Daniels Reza Fiyouzat Missy Beattie Robert Alvarez Sonja Karkar Dave Lindorff Jeff Sher Julian C. Holmes Clancy Sigal Prairie Miller James Murren Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
May 18, 2007 Adam Jones Sharon Smith Christopher Brauchli Peter Rost,
MD Denise Maloney Pictou David Swanson Ali Khan Susan Rosenthal,
M.D. Samer Assad CP News Service Website of the Day
May 17, 2007 Tariq Ali Yifat Susskind Dave Zirin Brian J. Foley W. John Green Eric Johnson-DeBaufre Badruddin Khan Martha Rosenberg China Hand Dan Vojir Website of the Day
Patrick Cockburn Ashley Dawson Joshua Frank Corporate Crime
Reporter Ray McGovern Glen Ford Joe Bageant Sonja Karkar Mickey S. Huff John Chuckman Kaz Dziamka Website of
the Day
May 15, 2007 Michael Neumann Patrick Cockburn Ashley Smith Marc Gardner Dave Lindorff Ben Terrall Ron Jacobs Harvey Wasserman Marcus Mabry Dr. Susan Block Website of the Day
May 14, 2007 Jennifer Roesch Jeffrey St.
Clair George Bisharat Diane Wachtell Ramzy Baroud Rosemary and
Walter Brasch Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed Roberto Rodriguez Jonathan Culp Website of
the Day
May 12 / 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Diane Farsetta Ralph Nader Jean Bricmont Marcus Breen Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Fred Gardner Juan Santos
Eve Bachrach Missy Comley
Beattie Ron Jacobs Niranjan Ramakrishnan Susie Day Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend May 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Kathleen Christison Mike Ferner John Holt Laurie Hasbrook Christopher
Brauchli Margaret Kimberley Dave Lindorff Nicole Colson John V. Walsh Website of the Day
May 10, 2007 Tariq Ali Patrick Cockburn Neve Gordon Marjorie Cohn David Rosen Alan Farago John Hellman Kathy Rentenbach BANCO Richard Rhames Website of the Day
Jeff Leys Patrick Cockburn Glen Ford Paula Rothenberg Kathryn Weber John Chuckman Jordan Flaherty Dave Lindorff Stephen Lendman Website of
the Day
May 8, 2007 Dave Lindorff Patrick Cockburn Corporate Crime Reporter Ralph Nader Malini Johar Schueller Juan Santos Dave Zirin Joshua Frank Evelyn Pringle Eamonn McCann Website of the Day
May 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Monica Benderman Greg Moses Rannie Amiri Fitrakis / Wasserman Fred Wilhelms Ramzy Baroud Bruce K. Gagnon T. W. Croft Sonja Karkar Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn William Blum Uri Avnery Franklin Lamb Fred Gardner Lawrence R.
Velvel Missy Beattie Robert Fantina Carla Blank Linn Washington,
Jr. Stephen F. Jackson P. Sainath Anthony Papa James T. Phillips John Ross Stephen Lendman Ben Terrall CounterPunch
Newswire Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
May 4, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Azmi Bishara Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese Bob Fitrakis Janet Kauffman Website of
the Day
May 3, 2007 Jeff Halper Christopher
Brauchli Dave Zirin Corporate Crime
Reporter Robert Fisk Mike Ferner Mike Whitney Pham Binh Dave Lindorff Michael A.
Johnson Website of the Day
May 2, 2007 Saul Landau Dr. Susan Block Carla Blank Margaret Kimberly Kevin Zeese Carlos Villareal Michael Dickinson Tim Shorrock Alevtina Rea William S.
Lind Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Fred Gardner Chase Madar Ralph Nader John V. Walsh Joshua Frank Leslie Radford Shaun Harkin Dave Lindorff Peter Rost,
MD Peter Linebaugh Website of
the Day
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May 28, 2007 The Paranoid and the DeadA Different Memorial Day RemembranceBy Col. DAN SMITH
Every national holiday develops traditions that pass from generation to generation. Except for Armistice Day--now called Veterans Day--no holiday is observed with more melancholy than is Memorial Day. But this day, unlike, say, July Fourth, seems to have developed two traditions depending on whether or not the United States is at peace or the armed forces are in a hot war when the last weekend of May arrives. On the surface, the rituals are the same: flags flying and wreaths laid at monuments and tombs by officials from president to mayors or, where even these latter do not exist, by organizations of veterans, by individuals, and always--always--by relatives of the dead. While the symbols may be unitary and unchanging, the tenor of the rhetoric at "official"" ceremonies has tended to follow one of two traditions depending on whether the nation is at war or at peace. In years when the country is at peace, speeches traditionally dwell on previous generations whose "ultimate sacrifice" preserved the freedom and liberties enjoyed by present generations and the obligation of today's citizenry to safeguard this heritage for following generations. In that orators can range across past "glories" and sweep the broad horizon of future national greatness when the country is at peace, these are the easy years. Unfortunately, we have not experienced such a year since Memorial Day 2001, as reflected in the more than 3,820 U.S. military dead in Afghanistan and Iraq or--as noted by former assistant defense secretary John Hamre--in the transformation of the nation's spirit from "confident and proud to paranoid and angry." So what should, what can, what needs to be said on Memorial Day in those years when the nation is in a war--particularly when the war is one a president chose to begin; when the U.S. had neither been attacked nor was in imminent danger of attack; when war was "justified" to the public and the Congress by the selective use of highly suspicious (even false) intelligence to create and then exaggerate the fiction of a threat--a war that not only was unnecessary but also was launched in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and in violation of the UN Charter? In war years, traditionally the first--or very nearly the first--theme in a speech by any public official is some variation on the need to continue "supporting the troops in the field." This might be connected with a more emotionally charged call, either implicit or explicit, for "victory" so that those who have died in the current conflict "will not have died in vain." Then comes the awkward transition from the soaring poetry of patriotism and duty answered to the melancholy prose about promising careers cut short and contributions to community and country forever unrealized. Some speakers try to finesse the transition by using a variation of General George S. Patton's comment on the occasion of his visit to the Allied Forces cemetery in Palermo, Italy on Armistice Day 1943: "In my mind, we came here to thank God that men like these have lived rather than to regret that they have died." Others choose a theme echoing that on a tombstone in the American Cemetery at Colleville-sur Mer in Normandy (Omaha Beach): "Think not upon their passing but remember the glory of their spirit." While Patton esteems the dedication that once moved those buried at Palermo to answer the nation's call in its time of peril--and died--the marker at Omaha Beach suggests the need to move beyond esteeming lives lived and lost for liberty and seek to identify and live in harmony with the highest principles of shared humanity. This Memorial Day, young men and women will have been dying in combat in Iraq for more than four years. As emotionally devastating as is death whenever it happens, the poignancy seems intensified in communities (especially within the military community) when the loss comes just before Memorial Day. A death in point, one that entered the public domain in May 2007 through the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, various blogs and other unofficial sources, is that of Marine Corps Major Douglas Zembiec killed in Baghdad May 11. A 1995 graduate of the Naval Academy, his funeral was May 16 at the Naval Academy Chapel with burial in Arlington National Cemetery. The May 17 Post, under a front-page color photograph of the burial site, noted that more than 1,000 people attended the service in the academy chapel. May 11 was four months and one day after President Bush told the people of the United States that he would ignore their clearly expressed direction, recorded in the 2006 mid-term election that returned control of Congress to Democrats, to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. Instead, the president announced that he would increase the U.S. presence by five brigade combat teams (approximately 21,000 troops) through extending tours of troops already in-country and speeding the deployment of units already scheduled for duty in Iraq. From the quantity and breadth of tributes and reminiscences one can find from Zembiec's friends and acquaintances, he will be remembered for his dedication to the Marines, his professional leadership as a warrior, the welfare of those in his unit, and his care and compassion for his troops. And he deserves to be remembered for his unwavering insistence that no matter the situation, no matter how terrible the fighting and how severe the losses, nothing justifies unlawful conduct:
To say all the above is, however, to say only that humanity has been able to place some minimal limits on how an essential inhumane activity is performed. After the bloodiest 100 years of recorded history, disputes continue to be settled predominately through the application of the technology of death rather than through the arts of mediation, conciliation, and reconciliation that are the silent plea of all of the victims of war-- warriors, civilians, families, friends, all of humanity. In the end, only when this silence is broken will humankind begin to move beyond the recurring cycles of war and the rhetoric that elevates "dying for" (so that others will not "have died in vain") above "living for" in the hierarchy of human principles. It is past time to break this silence, to declare that "support for the troops" is not demonstrated by continuing to increase the number of tombs and monuments on which flags and flowers will be placed next year. In short, 2007 is an opportunity to reintegrate the two rhetorical traditions that have evolved out of Memorial Day observances. To die for a cause is easier than to live for and in accordance with a principle. But only when the majority of humans are willing to make the effort for life will Memorial Day become a memorial to the end of warfare. Col. Dan Smith is a military affairs analyst for
Foreign Policy In Focus ,
a retired U.S. Army colonel, and a senior fellow on military
affairs at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Email
at dan@fcnl.org.
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