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HOW HADITHA HAPPENED; WHY IT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN "You live like an animal. You learn to like killing. .. Hate civilians. Can't trust the bastards. You hate taking prisoners. You'd rather kill them. Why?" Read Vietnam vet Marc Levy's extraordinary Primer on the Whys and Wherefores of PTSD and understand what is happening in Iraq. PLUS Andrew Lack on the incredible frauds of the bottled water industry. Why you should drink tapwater out of a glass and save your money PLUS Jeffrey St Clair on the deadly secrets of America's oldest bomb factory PLUS Chris Reed on Eros and Militarization: how Japan's sexpot schoolgirls fit into the right's Re-Arm agenda. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories July 1, 2006 Stephen T.
Banko June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Heather Williams Burbach / Cantor Nick Dearden Michael J.
Smith Brian Concannon Virginia Tilley
Bill Quigley Ron Jacobs Paul Craig
Roberts June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff William S.
Lind Mike Ferner Zoltan Grossman
Marjorie Cohn Benjamin /
Jarrar William Hughes Doug Giebel Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn
June 26, 2006 Don Santina Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz Evelyn Pringle Jonathan Cook
June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Col. Dan Smith
June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Winslow T.
Wheeler Tanya Reinhart Mike Marqusee William Blum
June 21, 2006 Ramzy Baroud Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Greg Moses
June 20, 2006 Fred Gardner Omar Waraich Christopher Reed CP Newswire Jonathan Cook
June 19, 2006 Bill Quigley John Walsh Mike Whitney Alexander Cockburn
June 16 / 18,
2006 Kathy / Bill
Christision Joseph Nevins Farrah Hassen Greg Moses Nicole Colson John Scagliotti Mokhiber / Weissmann
June 15, 2006 Kathy Kelly Norman Solomon Ron Jacobs Sam Bahour Ramzy Baroud CounterPunch Wire Gabriel Kolko Website of the Day
June 14, 2006 Nicole Colson Jonathan Cook Joseph Schechla Michael Carmichael Evelyn Pringle Ward Churchill Rev. William E. Alberts Website of the
Day
June 13, 2006 Medea Benjamin Anthony Alessandrini Paul D'Amato Dave Lindorff John Ross Gabriel Garcia Hilton Obenzinger Yitzhak Laor Juan Antonio
Ocasio Rivera Jennifer Van
Bergen Website of the
Day
June 12, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Mike Marqusee Lee Sustar Robert Fisk Michael J. Smith Felice Pace Jennifer Loewenstein Website of the Day
June 10 / 11,
2006 Robert Fisk Diane Christian Joe Allen Ralph Nader Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin /
John Cox Dennis Perrin Greg Moses John Chuckman Michael J. Smith Roger Burbach Ira Moskowitz Sam Bahour Seth Sandronsky Michael Berg Kirsten Roberts Ron Jacobs Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
June 9, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Eric Ruder Evelyn Pringle Mickey Z. Michael J. Smith Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
June 8, 2006 Chris Floyd Michael Dickinson Ron Jacobs William S. Lind Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Lloyd Williams Bill Christison Website of the Day
June 7, 2006 Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor John Walsh David MacMichael Mickey Z. Evelyn Pringle Myles Palmer Laura Ribeiro Website of the Day
June 6, 2006 Diane Christian Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Norman Solomon Darmont / Genovali Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Subcomandante Marcos Patrick Cockburn Website of the Day
June 5, 2006 Bruce Jackson Chris Floyd Michael Neumann Heather Gray William Hughes David Swanson Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
June 3 / 4, 2006 Robert Fisk James Petras Rosemary Radford Ruether Harry Clark Jeffrey St. Clair Ron Ridenour Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner Peter Montague John Walsh Greg Moses Sean Donahue Mike Whitney Dave Patten Ali Khan Robert Dotson,
MD Hammond Guthrie St. Clair / D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Day
June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly Alan Maass Mickey Z. Dave Lindorff Chris Kutalik Sunsara Taylor Sam Husseini Mike Ferner Website of the
Day
June 1, 2006 Brian Cloughley David Peterson Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Paul Rockwell Clifton Ross Kevin Zeese Website of the
Day
May 31, 2006 Dave Lindorff Joshua Frank Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz P. Sainath Ramzy Baroud Seth Sandronsky Mickey Z. Ralph Nader Jeffrey St. Clair Website of the Day
May 30, 2006 Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Gary Leupp John Ross Robert Jensen Michael Dickinson Michael Carmichael Tim Wise Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 27 / 29,
2006 Paul Craig Roberts Kathleen Christison Kathy Kelly Christopher
Reed Lawrence R. Velvel Tom Barry Gary Leupp Col. Dan Smith Ron Jacobs Don Fitz Fred Gardner Peter Montague Raymond Garcia John Farley Seth Sandronsky Tia Steele Lenni Brenner Dr. Susan Block Scott Michael Perey Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Recipe of the
Weekend Website of the Weekend
May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas
MacGregor Brian J. Foley Michael Dickinson Missy Comley Beattie Pierre Tristam Joe Allen Kona Lowell Roger Burbach Website of the
Day
May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Jeff Halper Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Bob Wing Elise Gould Robert Bryce Website of the Day
May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
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Weekend
Edition Mexico's ElectionsA Choice for ChangeBy LAURA CARLSEN Mexico´s three major candidates ended their campaigns Wednesday in emotional rallies throughout the country. During the few days left before the July 2 elections all campaigning is prohibited. With the proposals on the table, the test now will be to see if voters can cut through the media hype and mud-slinging to choose a direction for the next six years of the nation's future. Never in the modern history of the country has so much been at stake. The rotation of presidencies throughout the rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party was carried out with the trappings of democracy and little of the substance. Policies were guaranteed to continue without a change in course, since the outgoing president hand-picked the incoming one. The 2000 elections offered a change in parties without changing policies. But this year a candidate has proposed at least modifications to the political and economic orthodoxy. The largest event yesterday was the rally of leading candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador held in the heart of Mexico City. The center-left candidate spoke to over 200,000 supporters waving yellow flags and fervently chanting his name. Unlike previous campaign speeches and the rallies of his opponents, the speech laid out the policies that would guide his presidency and responded only indirectly to the accusations of his opponents. In the forty-minute address, it hit the obligatory points expected by followers--with special emphasis on programs for the poor--and sought to allay the fears expressed by big business and the opposition. The message to defend against privatization of the state-run oil industry drew strong cheers as did the program defined for a "new social pact." The candidate promised to tour the country following elections to draw up a pact based on free healthcare, universal access to public education, pensions for the elderly and recognition of indigenous rights as defined by the San Andrés Accords, which were signed by the federal government but largely rejected in Congress. Perhaps no message so consistently hit a chord among the dense crowd in Mexico's central plaza as the call to end the privileges of the rich. The extreme polarization of wealth that has occurred in Mexico over the past decade has fed resentments that found expression in Lopez Obrador's "first the poor" platform. His calls for lower government salaries, an end to huge pensions for ex-presidents (as usual, the mention of ex-president Carlos Salinas garnered boos and whistles) and elimination of tax breaks for the wealthy clearly resonate among the poor. Having established credentials among center-left supporters, the leading candidate then offered reassurances to a business community that has accused him of reckless populism. The ill-defined accusation of populism has been a constant among business opposition both in Mexico and abroad. In its editorial on the Mexican elections the Wall Street Journal used the fear-charged immigration debate in the United States to warn against Lopez Obrador: "(I)f they revert to the populist habits of yore, no American wall will be high enough to keep the flood of desperate workers out." Lopez Obrador sought lay to rest these accusations to rest during his closing rally. "We will not act irresponsibly, there will be no crisis," he stated emphatically. He repeated a commitment to control the deficit and inflation, respect the autonomy of the central bank, follow a path of "development without debt" and assure "technical, not ideological, management of the economy." The alarm sounded by the rightwing of an increase in immigration is ironic, given that to date precisely the opposite has been true. During the period of greatest adherence to "modernization" under the NAFTA, migration to the United States skyrocketed as peasants were displaced by agricultural imports and workers suffered decreases in real wages and rising unemployment. In referring to foreign policy, López Obrador reiterated the tenets of Mexican foreign policy: non-intervention, respect for the right to self-determination, dialogue and a development focus. He promised a low profile in international affairs, a foreign policy based on an extension of domestic policies and a refusal to be subordinated to outside interests. "We will not meddle in the internal affairs of other nations. The next president will not be a straw man for any foreign country." President Vicente Fox is widely viewed within Mexico as a sycophant to U.S. interests. Lopez Obrador holds a slight lead over Felipe Calderón, the candidate of the rightwing National Action Party (PAN). The competition between the two has been fierce, and their supporters form opposing camps in a highly charged debate over the country's future and the personal character of the two men. But now that the campaign has ended, for both candidates the real challenge will be fulfilling the many promises they have made should they win. The Mexican public is weary of promises and in a growing democracy either will face a stronger demand for accountability than past governments have. For Calderón the problem is not in implementing the policies but attaining the results promised for those policies. Since he has proposed a continuation of the same policies enacted throughout the last two decades of PRI and PAN governments, he would have the support of vested national and international interests. But "trickle down" to the majority has been slight or nil and people are highly skeptical of the capacity of current economic policies to satisfy the demands of the poor--with due reason. For Lopez Obrador, the problem will be implementing the policies announced. With the entire Senate and House also up for reelection, he would face a divided Congress and open hostility from a business class intent on retaining current privileges, as well as external pressures from international financial institutions, the U.S. government and the transnational corporations that now control much of the domestic economy. Inverting priorities from the rich to the poor in a country both economically and politically polarized will require a firm hand, active support from the citizenry and carefully designed and timed reforms. Mexico faces the question posed in all the Latin American countries now under the mantle of center-left governments-can change in the economic model to prioritize the poor really happen through elections? Lopez Obrador repeated two proposals in his last campaign speech that mark the parameters of political action in this field. They define both the minimum the left can offer to retain credibility among the poor majority and probably the maximum that the Lopez Obrador government would or can offer in a world globalized by the powerful. The first is the promise to cancel a clause in NAFTA that liberalizes corn and beans in 2008. The U.S. government has adamantly refused to reopen this clause. Not only is Mexico an important market for its surplus production in these products, but also renegotiating the clause would set a precedent that violates the U.S. government's trade strategy to call the shots for economic integration. While legally possible, it will be an early showdown in relations with Mexico's major trade partner and a test of presidential will and strength for Mexico's long-suffering agricultural sector. Renegotiation of the liberalization clause in agriculture forms part of a reorientation away from an economic policy based solely on market forces to greater state involvement and includes proposals to offer guarantee prices on some agricultural products, preferential credit rates and support to small producers. The second is the promise not to privatize the oil industry. Here popular resistance to privatization is so strong that success is virtually assured, as evidenced by the failure of a pro-privatization Fox government to carry out this constitutional change. But maintaining state control over oil resources will face strong resistance from international lending institutions, part of the national private sector and the U.S. government. In this area, however, Mexico will find support from the south among Latin American governments seeking to gain greater control and benefits from national resources. In the end, winning the election may prove to be the easy part. A "new social pact" will have to be built within a society that has been divided by the elections and by economic policies that have even more starkly separated the interests of the top and bottom rungs. Years of false democracy and empty promises have created a lack of confidence in formal politics that cannot be overcome in the short term. Higher expectations will build pressure from the majority that have been excluded from the benefits of globalization. If Lopez Obrador wins, powerful forces on the right will regroup to oppose many of his policies. If Lopez Obrador wins the election on July 2, he sets out on a tight-rope walk that will require both balance and audacity. The challenge is huge but that doesn't mean that stability means remaining on the platform. The current platform is anything but stable. With policies oriented to national development and the active backing of the majority of the population, Mexico's determination to change has a good chance of leading to a stronger, more just society. Laura Carlsen directs the Americas Program of the
International Relations Center. She can be reached at: laura@irc-online.org
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
