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Today's
Stories
June
5, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
June
4, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's
Animal House
Cornwell
/ Penketh
Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy
Wayne
Madsen
Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink
Greg
Moses
Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq
Yitzak
Laor
Before Rafah
Ghali
Hassan
Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte?
Jane
Stillwater
God, the Rapture and Vera Casey
CounterPunch
Wire
D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage?
John
Borowski
Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush
Mike
Griffin
Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW
Alexander Cockburn
Has Bush Gone Over the Edge?
Website
of the Day
Aquae Urbis Romae:
Water and Empire
June
3, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Iran's Nuclear Dilemma
Dr.
Susan Block
America in tha Hood
Michael
Donnelly
The Bully and the Brahmin
John
Chuckman
Insanity in America: US Ranks Number
One in the Deranged
Christopher
Brauchli
The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome
on $12,000 a Month
Samia
Nassar Melki
Caravaggio in Iraq
Mike
Whitney
Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case
Diane
Rejman
Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead
Scott
Morris
"WMDs" in Cuba
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
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
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Weekend
Edition
June 5 / 6, 2004
The
Painful Truth
Torture
is Merely the Symptom
By
M. JUNAID ALAM
"the painful but ineluctable
truth [is] that the limits to the cure of man's soul are set
by the illness of the society in which he lives."
- Paul Baran
Our politicians and pundits have all
viewed the latest batch of photographs and videos depicting US
soldiers cruelly humiliating, beating, and torturing their Iraqi
prisoners. Their purported--perhaps even genuine--outrage and
revulsion has been duly noted and conveyed time and again to
the whole world; domestically the same professed horror has been
repeated endlessly in the press, mostly at the expense of thoughts
from the victims themselves. Yet even as our elite line up to
express their outrage at soldiers grinning next to leashed and
chained detainees, their own criticism is leashed and chained
to an extremely narrow ideological spectrum, one in which deeper
questions about the torture scandal are safely locked away in
the dark corners of that Abu-Ghraib-like entity known as "mainstream"
debate.
Within this limited spectrum,
the only acceptable questions concern the degree to which higher-level
military officials are responsible for the depraved acts carried
out by lowly military police. Since internal army and government
reports show that both sickening sadism on part of the accused
soldiers and a friendly nod from higher-ups contributed to the
cruelty at Abu Ghraib, each group commands some amount of evidence
to fling blame across the table to save their own skins. But
all this intrigue does nothing to further our understanding of
why and in what social context torture was
carried out. It only lends the event the sensationalistic hue
of an unfolding Hollywood drama, obscuring pressing realities
beyond the cameras and behind the set.
Moving past superficialities,
several crucial questions immediately emerge: What is so "scandalous"
about the torture? What ideological rhetoric laid the groundwork
for treating Iraqis as sub-human? What modern examples lent such
attitudes an air of credibility? Which reservoirs of American
hatred and prejudice were tapped into to unleash such a flood
of pain upon the victims of our 'liberation'?
The first question may appear
strange at face value: the torture is scandalous because torture
itself is cruel and horrific. But it turns out that this is no
explanation at all, since many other aspects of the Iraq war
and the 'war on terror' in general fall into this category--at
least by the standards of any rational society. Countless incidents
of US soldiers raiding and breaking into homes, spraying gunfire
in all directions during guerrilla attacks and gunning down demonstrators
have been recorded since Iraq came under occupation. The siege
of Fallujah left about 600 people dead, half of them civilian,
as US forces wrought havoc on the city of 300,000 with massive
shelling and bombardment.
The military does not even
bother to conduct body counts of its many victims, regardless
of whether they are civilians or militants. Nor does it care
if the victims are civilians or militants, as illustrated
by the pathetic and surreal denials issued over the recent aerial
bombardment of an Iraqi tribal wedding which left dozens dead.
Moreover, the kind of treatment displayed in the Abu Ghraib photos
has long been reported by lawyers, survivors, and eye-witnesses
not only from Iraq but also Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan.
But there is one crucial difference
between all these crimes and the ones committed at Abu Ghraib:
the latter have been clearly captured in hundreds of damning
photographs, and therefore cannot be dismissed with an arrogant
sleight of hand. Thus for our leaders and commentators, it is
not the crime itself which is scandalous but rather the fact
that the US has been caught red-handed in committing them.
Rumsfeld provided us a resounding confirmation of this when he
recently issued an order banning all mobile phones equipped with
digital cameras from military installations in Iraq--the source
of many of the torture photos. (AFP, May 24, 2004)
If it is not the actual torture,
killing, and oppression of Iraqis or Arabs and Muslims in general
which pierces America's collective conscience, but rather the
reality of being caught in the act, we must assume that some
kind of ideological apparatus has been pumping out a deluge of
hate, prejudice and disinformation to justify the dehumanization
of these groups in the first place. To find this apparatus, we
need look no further than those who authored this war--the neoconservatives.
Here are a few choice quotes from the leading ideologues of neo-conservatism,
quotes which in and of themselves do more to reveal the trajectory
of American imperialism than any outside analysis:
"We should have no misgivings
about our ability to destroy tyrannies. It is what we do best.
It comes naturally to us, for we are the one truly revolutionary
country in the world, as we have been for more than 200 years.
Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically,
and that is precisely why the tyrants hate us and are driven
to attack us."
Michael Ledeen
"By total war, I mean
the kind of warfare that not only destroys the enemy's military
forces, but also brings the enemy society to an extremely personal
point of decision, so that they are willing to accept a reversal
of the cultural trends that spawned the war in the first place.
"A total war strategy
does not have to include the intentional targeting of civilians,
but the sparing of civilian lives cannot be its first priority
... The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will
onto another people group.
"Limited war pits combatants
against combatants, while total war pits nation against nation,
and even culture against culture."
Adam Mersereau
'"Afghanistan and other
troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign
administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in
jodhpurs and pith helmets."
''In centuries past, the wild
and unruly passions of the Islamic world were kept within tight
confines by firm, often ruthless imperial authorityThese distant
masters [British and French] did not always rule wisely or well,
but they generally prevented the region from menacing the security
of the outside world.''
Max Boot
"''This [Arab land] is
a region characterised by paranoia, apocalypticism, tyranny,
and violence, a region where differences are settled by the sword."
Joshua Muravchik
''The elementary truth that
seems to elude the experts again and again--Gulf War, Afghan
war, next war--is that power is its own reward. Victory changes
everything, psychology above all. The psychology in the region
is now one of fear and deep respect for American power."
Charles Krauthammer
These are not the kinds of
statements with which one can argue with or even begin to approach
with any hope of rational discourse: every word is soaked in
the blood of colonialism; every phrase drenched in the arrogance
of empire; every sentence spitting upon the darker hues of humanity.
So deeply rooted in the most ahistorical assumptions bizarre
caricatures, these positions perfectly exemplify the power of
the dictum that the bigger the lie, the harder it is to refute;
one can only look upon the neoconservative proclamations with
the awe reserved for natural disasters or nuclear explosions.
And let there be no confusion
about the role of neo-conservatism in American foreign policy:
it constitutes the intellectual, political, and military vanguard
of the movement to project, deepen, and entrench American power
into every corner of the globe. We were assured of this fact
not too long ago by the most highly revered dispenser of wisdom
in the liberal media, Thomas Friedman, according to Ari Shavit's
account of his interview with him:
"Is the Iraq war the great
neoconservative war? It's the war the neoconservatives wanted,
Friedman says. It's the war the neoconservatives marketed. Those
people had an idea to sell when September 11 came, and they sold
it. Oh boy, did they sell it. So this is not a war that the masses
demanded. This is a war of an elite. Friedman laughs: I could
give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment
within a five-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled
them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would
not have happened."
True to pompous form, Friedman
exaggerates here, and then retracts a bit later on. But the point
is well-taken. More illuminating, however, is "liberal"
Friedman's understanding of the Iraq war (again as described
by Shavit):
"Turning to me, he says
that democracies look soft until they're threatened. When threatened,
they become very hard. Actually, the Iraq war is a kind of Jenin
on a huge scale. Because in Jenin, too, what happened was that
the Israelis told the Palestinians, We left you here alone and
you played with matches until suddenly you blew up a Passover
seder in Netanya. And therefore we are not going to leave you
alone any longer. We will go from house to house in the Casbah.
And from America's point of view, Saddam's Iraq is Jenin."
The analysis itself contains
all the hallmarks of neoconservative rhetoric, particularly in
retaining the defining characteristic of being a collection of
lies neatly arranged on top of more lies hastily thrown on top
of the victims they are meant to crush and bury. But the larger
point is that even the "non-neoconservative" mainstream
has been infected with the most basic tenet held dear by all
neoconservatives--we are like Israel, fighting a war like Israel,
fighting the same enemy, and therefore locked in the same struggle
with a common purpose.
The result is that Israel is
seen as the main model, example, and inspiration for how the
United States should perceive and treat the Arabs once all the
syrupy songs about liberating and freeing them have fizzled and
faded from increasingly bellicose throats that now cry out for
perpetual war. To rely on a racist settler-state indicted by
its own historians as guilty on the counts of ethnic cleansing,
rape, massacre, and large-scale theft of land and property is
bound to produce disastrous consequences. Immediately it becomes
clear that if torturing, disposessing, and mowing down Palestinians
defending the last few scraps of their own land with massive
weaponry is justified and acceptable for Israel, then similar
measures are perfectly alright for America in Iraq.
Perhaps more poisonous than
the adoption of Israeli tactics and methods is the absorption
of the racist and arrogant attitudes necessary to justify them.
Identifying with a brutal colonial state requires America to
look toward the darker and more shameful elements of its past
for comfort and reassurance. Undoubtedly this includes a celebration
of its own early aggressive and expansionist past: the extermination
of the Indians, subjugation of the blacks, bullying of Latin
America, and in general a "muscular internationalism"
to borrow the words of our "liberal" presidential candidate.
The drift toward reactionary attitudes in society and the power
elite is further evidenced by the alliance of neoconservatives
with Christian fundamentalism, represented by the approximately
90 million American Christian evangelists who are viciously anti-gay,
anti-women, anti-black, and anti-Islamic.
By now it should be painfully
clear that the torture at Abu Ghraib is not an isolated or bizarre
incident disconnected from the increasingly reactionary atmosphere
we find ourselves in. For it is the powerful set of right-wing
political and social forces whose battle cry has always been
"Two, Three, Many Abu Ghraibs!" that has allowed and
applauded all kinds of atrocities so long as they can be kept
more or less out of sight. If we do not act in a concerted and
principled manner to confront and battle these forces now, we
may soon find that even the worst crimes will not have to be
hidden from view; rather they will be paraded and celebrated
as shining examples of national greatness.
M. Junaid Alam, 21, Boston, co-editor of radical
youth journal Left Hook.
First published in Left Hook
Weekend Edition
Features for May 29 / 31, 2004
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
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