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Today's
Stories
March 29, 2004
Kathy Kelly
Crossing Lines
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A
Journey to Rafah
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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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March
29, 2004
War or Shabby PR Ploy?
Rejecting
the Language of Terrorism
By MIKE WHITNEY
I don't believe this is the Third World
War. Nor is it a "war on terror". Nor is it a "war
of civilizations". But our own leaders are willfully leading
us into a period of appalling suffering because they will not
address the causes of injustice in the Islamic world.
Robert Fisk
The War on Terror will persist until its flawed
logic is challenged. As long as the root of the deception remains
unexposed the global situation will continue to deteriorate.
The driving force is ideas, not bombs.
The Bush Administration has carefully disguised these ideas in
the language of deception.
Of the many misleading notions propagated
by the Bush Administration, the most lethal has been the War
on Terror. It is an idea that is every bit as fraudulent as "preemption"
(which is the legitimizing of unprovoked aggression) or Israel's
"Security Barrier"; the patently dishonest description
of the 20 ft. high behemoth that snakes through Palestine, savaging
all hope of a just solution to the ongoing crisis.
The War on Terror is the truest expression
of the calculated dishonesty of the Bush White House. It is grounded
on "unproved assumptions" and, then, disseminated by
an aggressive campaign of fear mongering. These are the weapons
of choice for controlling a timorous public, and Bush has proved
to be quite adept in their application.
Terror is an inescapable reality in the
modern world; a world where a small fraction of the population
will respond violently to grievance and injustice. This is a
situation that has been dealt with quite successfully through
normal "investigative-police" work. Even Mr. Bush admits
this, although only when it suits his purposes.
Consider this; Abu Zubayda, Khalid Sheik
Muhammed and Ramsi bin al Shibh (alleged Mastermind of 9-11),
have all been captured and imprisoned through conventional detective
work. The results of their interrogations have undoubtedly provided
a clear understanding of the inner workings of al Qaida.
This is how you measure success. This
is how you get to the root of terrorist organizations.
Additionally, according to the Administration's
own admissions, more than two-thirds of the al Qaida leadership
has been caught and incarcerated.
Again, conspicuous success.
These achievements are much more impressive
then the poorly conducted Afghanistan war where the principle
characters (bin Laden and Mullah Omar) were able to escape and
thousands of innocent Afghanis were either killed or displaced
in the hostilities.
So, why does the administration conceal
its own successes?
And, why do they downplay the methodology
that is putting a dent in terror?
The reasons are obvious.
Without the War on Terror, that source
of all demagoguery, the real political objectives of the administration
would never be realized.
They need a credible "Monster"
to continue their drive to secure the world's dwindling resources
and to abridge the rights of American citizens.
The idea that we are combating "terror"
suggests that we are dealing with an irrational force that cannot
be appeased, only defeated. The Bush Administration has done
everything in its power to cultivate this now widespread belief.
The terrorist attacks on America have been stripped of all their
political significance and translated into the ravings of bloodthirsty
Islamic fanatics, whose sole purpose in life is to kill innocent
Americans.
Even the al Qaida communiqués,
(which are offered regularly in the European press) are scrupulously
omitted from American media, so that any vestige of "reason"
will not attach itself to the terrorists.
The perpetrators must be demonized in
the harshest, medieval terms. ("Evildoer")
This is in direct odds with what we already
know.
For example, following the Madrid bombings,
al Qaida sent this message:
"Stop targeting us, release our
prisoners and leave our land, we will stop attacking you. The
people of US allied countries have to put pressure on their governments
to immediately end their alliance with the US in the war on terror
(Islam) If you persist we will continue."
Regardless of what we think of the terrorists,
this is a straightforward political directive that expresses
a "reasoned" approach to injustice. We do not agree
with the bombings, but we certainly don't dismiss these claims
as the ravings of religious maniacs who "hate our freedoms."(Bush's
painfully inane assessment of the cause of terrorism)
Instead, their claims match up quite
nicely with those of reasonable American's who entertain the
notion that we should simply pay for oil, rather than stealing
it; that we should stop occupying Muslim countries, and that
we should look for sensible alternatives for negotiation rather
than pelting the desert with Cruise Missles.
The idea that we are at war works to
the advantage of the Bush Administration. We have already seen
how the war on terror conveniently morphed into the war on Iraq.
Mr. Bush never misses an opportunity to conflate the two in his
attempts to confuse the public.
But is it a war, or just a shabby public
relations ploy to achieve an alternate political objective?
We have already demonstrated how the
real progress in dismantling terror cells has been through routine
police work. So why is the War motif invoked?
First, it suggests that we are responding
to aggression.
But, is that the case?
Was 9-11 a flagrant act of unprovoked
hostility, or was it retaliatory?
We can see from the communiqué
above that the architects considered it "striking back"
not "striking out".
This does not vindicate the action, but
at least it points to the fact that there are underlying grievances
that motivated the attacks. It wasn't simply blind rage.
This implies that there may be some type
of remedy.
Mr. Bush has no remedy.
He is Armstrong Custer charging into
harms way with the full might of the US military machine at his
beck and call.
We cannot afford such transparent stupidity.
Our life as American's is threatened
by the idea that we are at war. It vindicates the policy decisions
that Bush has made that are reshaping the social contract.
If we accept the language of Mr. Bush's
crusade, we must accept its logic. That means that we must accept
the further curtailing of civil liberties;
We must accept the increased and "unchecked"
power of the Presidency;
We must accept the idea of permanent
war.
This is the devil's bargain we make when
we accept the "language" of the War on Terrorism.
We should be more focused on the language
of resistance; a language that articulates our stubborn resolve
to thwart Mr. Bush's desperate plan; a language that rejects
a vision of a world order that is predicated on lies and murder;
a language that points us towards reconciliation with the world
community and away from further carnage.
As for terrorism; the most effective
tool in undermining terrorism is justice; justice that applies
beyond our borders and is not circumscribed by the petty limitations
of nationalism.
Mike Whitney
may be reached at: fergiewhitney@msn.com
Weekend
Edition Features for March 20 / 21, 2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
A
Journey to Rafah
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
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