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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
4, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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May
4, 2004
How to Stop
the War
Demostrate Against
John Kerry
By SONALI KOLHATKAR
With the launching of the new fiercely
partisan and influential liberal radio network nationwide, Air
America, John Kerry seems poised to whisk the presidential nomination
for the Democratic Party and could even win simply because he
is not Bush.
According to an unnamed former
Bush official, "Kerry might wage a more effective war on
terror than Bush because he was likely to take a more complex
approach, looking at broader threats while coupling military
force with "soft power" such as alliance building and
a battle for hearts and minds" (Reuters, 05/03/04 "Bush
or Kerry, 'War on Terror' Unlikely to Change").
What is the massive anti-war
movement in the United States to do when the difference between
the two major candidates extends to the use of "soft power"?
While there are certainly some
differences between the two candidates and Kerry is likely a
shade better than Bush, should we settle for his Bush-like stand
on the war? The common Democratic refrain goes like this: "I
trust John Kerry to do what's right for America. After all, his
record in Vietnam and the amazing antiwar speech he gave after
returning from Vietnam spoke to all the things that need to be
done to bring this country back on track. And anyway, I'll vote
for Anybody But Bush".
But why should we trust our
leaders? What role does trust play in a democracy? I trust my
family and my friends and even they screw up sometimes and break
my trust.
Perhaps we ought to judge Kerry
by his more recent speeches rather than what he said 30 years
ago when he was an anti-war activist, war veteran, and someone
less invested in the current establishment. Kerry whole-heartedly
embraces Bush's "war on terror" as a legitimate concept.
We laugh at the simplistic rhetoric of Bush's "good vs.
evil". But John Kerry calls it "a clash of civilization
against chaos". Bush's rhetoric may be more religious and
emotional, but Kerry's is just as judgmental and generalized.
Certainly the "war on
terror" is not all we should judge candidates by. George
Bush's domestic economic policies have ravaged the poor and middle
class. But lest you thought that Kerry's economics would be kinder
and gentler than Bush's, Warren Buffet, Kerry's economic advisor
downplays any difference between the two saying the election
will simply be a "referendum on George Bush". He even
said, "The Kerry campaign is quite unimportant compared
to how people feel about Bush when they go into the voting booth".
Consider the presidential poll results which consistently hover
around 43-46% for either candidate. Any lead falls within the
statistical noise.
If John Kerry wants our votes,
John Kerry ought to earn them. By this I mean it is up to us
in the anti-war, or pro-justice movements to demonstrate that
we weren't kidding when we marched in the millions against the
war in Iraq. It is up to us to send a warning sign to John Kerry
or whoever turns up as the alternative to Bush that he has to
work to earn our votes. Simply being ABB (Anybody But Bush) does
not qualify him.
When ten million people marched
against Bush's war in Iraq last year, he glibly dismissed us
as a "focus group" simply because he could: Bush does
not need us to get re-elected he already has support of
about 40% of the voters. But why should the other 40% hand over
our votes to Mr. "Bush-lite" Kerry without a fight?
Imagine a march of over a million voters all across the United
States, not against the idiot Bush who has not earned the right
to be a public servant anyway, but against John Kerry. Imagine
hundreds of thousands of voters demanding that Kerry adopt an
anti-war and anti-occupation position publicly and fast if he
wants any assurance of beating Bush at the polls. Imagine these
voters insisting Kerry adopt a progressive agenda on Iraq, Afghanistan,
Palestine, the USA PATRIOT Act, welfare reform, and other life-and-death
issues.
This will accomplish two things:
it will remind public officials everywhere that voters will not
succumb to a "lesser of two evils" approach which often
means that candidates need only be a shade better than their
incumbent opposition. And, it will remind public officials that
once in power, that same constituency will not hesitate to take
to the streets again to hold them accountable to their promises.
One only has to look at the
recent election in Spain to see this in action. When the Spanish
incumbent prime minister, Jose Maria Asnar stood for re-election
after defying his people's wishes, he was promptly ousted and
replaced with the socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero whose
campaign platform was based on a pullout of troops from Iraq.
What's more, once elected, even more Spaniards than expected
turned out for the anti-occupation demonstrations of March 20th,
reminding Zapatero that his election was not based on an act
of faith he would be held to his promises. As a result,
Spain has taught us a lesson in democracy: the electorate determines
the actions of its elected representative. The electorate's relationship
to the elected after all, is supposed to be a master-servant
relationship. Hence the term "public servant".
We have to hold Kerry accountable
before he gets elected while he is still in the position of having
to court voters. Rather than "backing Kerry", we need
to stand in front of him, to remind him who's boss: the people
of the United States of America, not a Democratic presidential
candidate who thinks he can mimic an idiot (Bush) and laugh his
way into the White House.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and co-producer of Uprising, on KPFK 90.7
fm, Pacifica Radio. She is also the co-Director of the Afghan
Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit working in solidarity
with Afghan women.
Weekend Edition
Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
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