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Today's
Stories
April
22, 2004
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
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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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April
22, 2004
The Cruelest Month
Bush
Owes America Answers on Iraq
By Sen. ROBERT BYRD
Senator Byrd, a senior member
of the Senate Armed Services Committee, delivered the following
remarks regarding the continued lack of security and stability
in Iraq. Mr. Byrd also addressed the claim made in a book by
Mr. Robert Woodward that the President and his Administration
shifted funds without Congressional approval from the war in
Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq.
It is the poet T.S. Eliot who reminds
us, as if we needed to be reminded, that "April is the cruelest
month." How prescient his words ring this April, as we reflect
upon the deepening crisis and the steadily mounting death toll
in Iraq. This April, this month in which millions of Americans
marked the holiest season of the Judeo-Christian calendar, has
been an unholy nightmare for American military forces and American
policy in Iraq.
April 2004, 11 months after
the President proclaimed the end of major combat operations in
Iraq, has proved to be the deadliest month for American forces
in Iraq since the onset of the war more than a year ago. Major
combat operations may have ended, as the President asserted nearly
one year ago, but major combat casualties have not. The "Mission
Accomplished" banner under which he spoke so confidently
on a May 1st, 2003, has come back to haunt us and to taunt us
many times over.
In the weeks and months leading
up to the war, Americans were assured by the President and his
cadre of top advisers - most particularly Vice President Dick
Cheney - that we would be greeted as liberators in Iraq, our
path to victory strewn with cheers and flowers. Those flowers,
it now appears, are less like rose petals tossed at the feet
of liberators and more like Eliot's mournful April lilacs - "Lilacs
out of the deadland, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull
roots with spring rain."
April has indeed become the
cruelest month. Memory and desire cannot supplant reality in
Iraq. More than one hundred American military personnel have
been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest number of
deaths in a single month since the beginning of the war. In all,
more than 700 American military members have died in Iraq since
the beginning of combat. Today, more than one year after the
fall of Baghdad, America's military forces are being greeted
in too many quarters of Iraq, not with flowers but with gunfire;
not with cheers but with jeers, not as liberators but as oppressors.
In the harsh glare of hindsight,
it is now clear that the President's preconceived notions of
the war and the aftermath of the war in Iraq were profoundly
flawed. Even the President's Secretary of Defense - one of the
supreme architects of the Iraqi offensive - has been forced to
admit that the battle has not gone according to plan, that the
level of casualties, continuing so long after the fall of Baghdad,
was neither anticipated nor planned for before the invasion.
And yet President Bush refuses
to admit any flaws in his grand strategy to invade Iraq and overthrow
the regime of Saddam Hussein without giving adequate consideration
to the potential perils awaiting America in the seething streets
and towns of post-war Iraq. Despite the fact that debate over
the war in Iraq rages worldwide, despite the fact that the American
occupation is reeling from unexpected opposition from the very
people it was intended to liberate, still the President is hard
pressed under questioning to come up with any mistakes he might
have made in dealing with Iraq.
In his press conference last
week, President Bush acknowledged "tough weeks" in
Iraq, but he clung to his oft-repeated assertion that Iraq is
mostly stable, and shrugged off the violence of recent weeks
as the work of a small faction of fanatical "thugs"
and terrorists bent on imposing their will over the popular will
of Iraq.
In this assessment, I hope
and pray that the President is right. For the sake of America's
military families, who have had to bear the burden of the increased
violence in Iraq, I hope that the President is right. I hope
that Iraq achieves stability and security soon. For while Iraq
and the world may indeed be better off with Saddam Hussein behind
bars, alas I do not believe that an Iraq in turmoil is either
a boon to the Middle East or an asset to the security of the
United States.
Instead of reflecting candidly
on the current challenges in Iraq, President Bush would prefer
to focus on his grandiose vision for reforming the Middle East.
In this he speaks in ideological, almost messianic, cadences
as he paints a picture of Iraq as a central front not just in
the war on terror but also in a battle of Biblical proportions
pitting "good" against "evil."
President Bush is a man of
absolutes. Either we stay the course in Iraq, or we cut and run.
Either we fight terrorists on the streets of Iraq, or we fight
them on the streets of New York or Washington. Either we support
the President's policies absolutely, or we give aid and comfort
to the enemy.
No, no, a thousand times no.
Either-or propositions like those invoked by the President to
describe the war in Iraq are nothing more than politically inspired
slogans, like last year's ill-advised "Mission Accomplished"
banner, designed to whip up emotions while masking the complexity
of national security considerations.
Fighting in the streets of
Iraq has not prevented terrorists from striking in Saudi Arabia
or Bali or Madrid, and there is no guarantee that it will prevent
them from striking again in the United States. Just this week,
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge disclosed the formation
of a federal task force to respond to heightened threats that
al Qaeda will strike again in the United States sometime before
the November elections. Significant events, including the dedication
of the World War II memorial in Washington and the political
conventions in New York and Boston, are among those viewed as
prime targets for a new al Qaeda offensive.
This is the sobering reality.
Osama bin Laden remains at large, and his minions appear to be
multiplying, not diminishing. If anything, the war in Iraq has
served as a rallying cry for anti-American and anti-democratic
extremists in the Middle East and beyond. Sadly, given the distraction
from the war on terror that the war in Iraq has proved itself
to be, the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, when and if
it comes, is likely to be an anti-climactic footnote to a widening
and ever more deadly surge in international terrorism.
Despite the often invoked and
patently misleading conclusion drawn by the Bush Administration,
"cutting and running" is not the only alternative to
staying the course in Iraq, especially when that course is fraught
with disaster. Altering a flawed and dangerous course of action,
seeking meaningful support from the international community,
is another alternative, one that this President is loath to acknowledge
but evidently more than willing to embrace in the face of the
calamity that has befallen his own roadmap for Iraq.
For months, I and others have
implored the President to return to the United Nations and to
seek a greater role for the U.N. in the occupation, administration,
and reconstruction of Iraq. Long before the war, we begged the
President to seek the support of the U.N. Security Council before
invading Iraq. Our pleas fell on deaf ears. This Administration
was confident it could go it alone, with only a threadbare coalition
of the willing to paper over its unilateral action.
How hollow that confidence
now rings. In the face of disaster, in the face of mounting doubts
among members of the coalition, the President has now been forced
to seek shelter under the wings of the United Nations. The Iraqis
have rejected every plan for transition of power put forward
by the President's Coalition Provisional Authority. Our only
hope left is that they will embrace a plan put forward by the
United Nations, the very body that the United States spurned
when the President chose to invade Iraq without the support of
the U.N. Security Council. Irony scarcely begins to describe
the current state of affairs.
The fact is, while espousing
hard-line rhetoric and iron-clad resolve, this Administration
has ducked and bobbed and weaved at every opportunity. In the
Administration's ever-shifting explanation for the war in Iraq,
the face of our enemy has ricocheted over the past 12 months
from Saddam Hussein and his Republican Guard to disgruntled Baathist
dead-enders to foreign terrorists taking advantage of the unrest
in Iraq to pursue their agenda of jihad to today's vague assortment
of thugs and fanatics opposed to democracy for Iraq.
We hear the refrain: Stay the
course. Stay the course. Exactly what course is it we are supposed
to be staying in Iraq? The President failed to explain that to
the American people at his press conference. How did we get from
protecting the United States from the threat of weapons of mass
destruction to the vague notion of fighting extremists opposed
to democracy in Iraq? The President failed to explain that fact
as well. Where were those extremists before the invasion? Why
is it that they are emerging in force only now, a full year after
the fall of Baghdad. Could it be that this Administration has
created America's own worst nightmare because of its colossal
arrogance, clumsy mistakes, and painful misjudgments on virtually
every aspect of the war in Iraq?
These are not the questions
of an unpatriotic or reckless opposition. These are not questions
intended to demoralize America or hearten our enemies. Rather,
these are the questions that a free and open society - the kind
of democratic society we envision for Iraq - is expected to pose
of its leaders. And these are the kind of questions that a democratic
nation's leader is beholden to answer. Dogmatic admonitions and
grandiose allusions will not suffice. In a democratic society,
the people demand and deserve the simple and unvarnished truth.
So do the people's representatives
in government. Congress also demands and deserves the simple
and unvarnished truth from the Executive Branch. As a co-equal
branch of government, as the body in which the Constitution vests
the power of the purse, Congress requires the truth from the
President. This is what makes the recent allegations in Bob Woodward's
new book regarding the redirection of appropriated funds into
clandestine preparations for the war on Iraq so disturbing. If
the President, as alleged in this book, made the decision to
wage war against Iraq and secretly spent appropriated funds to
prepare for that war without prior consultation with Congress,
then the letter of the law, the intent of the law, and the Constitutional
power of the purse, have been subverted. This would be not only
a very grave breach of trust on the part of the Administration,
but also a very grave abuse of power.
I hope with all my heart that
Iraq will emerge from the current chaos to become a free and
democratic nation. I hope with all my heart that the sacrifices
that America's military forces have endured in Iraq will be validated
by reality, and not justified merely on the basis of wishful
thinking. The path forward is not yet clear, but this I do know.
President Bush led America into a preemptive war that was neither
dictated by circumstances nor driven by events. He led America
into a war of choice that might well have been avoided with patience
and prudence. Would that we could read that "April is the
cruelest month" without reflecting on the cruel and terrible
toll that the war on Iraq has taken on America's men and women
in uniform in Iraq during this sorrowful month of April.
It is said in the Bible that
of those to whom much is given, much is required. Much is required
of this Administration and this President with regard to Iraq.
The American people expect answers, they expect a judicious strategy,
and they expect a well thought-out military and diplomatic campaign.
On all fronts, the American people have been let down. A President
who wages war, and manages the aftermath of war, by the seat
of his pants is not what the American people either expect or
deserve, and that is what I fear they are seeing in Iraq.
The President, having blundered
into this war in Iraq, does not have much time left to get the
stabilization of Iraq right. We have spent our blood and treasure
in Iraq, and it is now time - past time - to aggressively explore
ways in which the burden on Americans can be mitigated. It is
time to abandon the go-it-alone attitude established by this
President. It is time - long past time - for the President to
admit to mistakes made, to forsake his divisive either-or rhetoric,
and to seek a way out of the deepening morass of Iraq with the
full partnership of the United Nations, the region, and the international
community.
President Bush needs to drop
all pretensions that the war in Iraq and the battle for stability
are going according to plan. Only by accepting the fact that
a bold new direction is needed to untangle the mess in Iraq can
this President extricate the United States from what is fast
becoming a quagmire. It is time for the President to set aside
his pride and to convene an international summit on the future
of Iraq, composed of representatives of the Iraqi people, their
Arab neighbors, NATO, and the United Nations. Then and only then
will the Iraqi people be in a position to chart their own future
with the help of the international community. Then and only then
will the United States be able to relinquish ownership of the
tiger it now holds by the tail.
America must alter its course
in Iraq to deal with the volatile vacuum left by the fall of
Saddam Hussein's regime. America must be prepared to fight terrorism
wherever it rears its ugly head, and not be lulled into the false
belief that attacking terrorists overseas will stop them from
attacking America on its homefront. And above all, Americans
must never be cowed into believing that questions are somehow
"unpatriotic" or that presidents, even war-time presidents,
are ever above answering them.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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