Cockburn
/ St. Clair"s Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today"s
Stories
July
3 / 4, 2004
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam"s
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush"s Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain"t Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush"s Damaged Mind: the Madness
in His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush"s Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker"s Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America"s Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft"s
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
June
29, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
The Cloak-and-Dagger Handover
Robert
Fisk
Alice in an Iraqi Wonderland
Troy
Selvaratnam
New York Times Boosts Pet Developer
Harry
Browne
Bush in Ireland
Ray
McGovern
The CIA According to Anonymous
Elaine
Cassel
Hamdi, Padilla & Rasul: Who Really
Won?
June
28, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn / Leyla Linton
Grisly Rituals in Iraq
Amira
Hass
Confronting Myths and Deadly Power
June
26 / 27, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Venezuela: the Gang"s All Here
Patrick
Cockburn
Iyad Allawi, the CIA"s New Stooge
in Iraq
Dennis
Hans
Once They Were Sweethearts: Cheney,
the NYTs and the Myth of an Iraq Link to 9/11
Ben
Tripp
Adventures in Fuel Efficiency
Dave
Lindorff
That State Department Terrorism
Report: What They Knew, But Didn"t Tell You
Chris
Floyd
Cold Irons Bound: the Russian Gambit
Ali
Tonak
Contamination at Berkeley: Profit Motives,
Academic Freedom and the Case of Ignacio Chapela
Keith
Rosenthal
The Withering of the Anti-War Movement
Bryan
Sacks
The Failure of the 9/11 Commission
Wayne
Madsen
Another Case of Blowback
Thomas
St. John
L. Frank Baum, Racist: Indian-Hating
in the Wizard of Oz
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
American Swadeshi
June
25, 2004
Stephen
Gowans
US to North Korea: "Trust Us"
Saul
Landau
2006 Pentagon Budget as Sacrilege:
Bush Invests the National Treasure in Death and Destruction
Amir
Butler
Iraq: the Deadly Embrace
Jack
McCarthy
Another Times Plagiarism Scandal?
Did Maureen Dowd Lift from the World Weekly News?
Greg
Bates
Chomsky and Zinn Plan to Vote Nader
June 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
John
Lehman on the Iraq / al-Qaeda Links
Patrick Cockburn
A
Day in the Life of Col. Abu Mohammed: Defusing Bombs, Facing
Death Threats
Harry Browne
On
the Rebound: Bush Bounces Back...in Europe
Bill Kaufman
Another
Marxist for Kerry: Joel Kovel"s Sad Smear of Ralph Nader
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush,
Cheney and the 9/11 Commission: What Did They Know? What Did
They Tell?
Rick Gioimbetti
Andrea Yates: Victim of Psychiatric Violence?
John Chuckman
Call Center ID Hypocrisy
Diana Johnstone
Kerry
and Kosovo: the Lie of a "Good War"
June 23, 2004
Laura Carlsen
Bush
and Castro Face Off
Dave Zirin
Barry
Bonds vs. Boston: "A Flea Market of Racism"
Kurt Nimmo
From
Saddam, With Love
Patricia Wolff
Foundation Wars
Mahboob A. Khawaja
"They Had Me Arrested and Shackled My Son"
Patrick Cockburn
The
Pretense of an Independent Iraq
Website of the Day
The Road to Abu Ghraib
June 22, 2004
Dave Lindorff
The
Meaning of Putin"s Pronouncement: Mutually Assured Pre-emption
Ron Jacobs
Nuclear Plants in US Protectorate of Iraq?
Vanessa Jones
Coogee, Peter Garrett and Valium Earrings
Mickey Z
An Open Letter to the People of Iraq
John L. Hess
Clinton Exhales
Pedro Marset/Ex-Solidarity
Committee for Pacho Cortés
An Exchange on the Case of Pacho Cortés
Bruce Jackson
Saying
No to Prosecutors: Why Steve Kurtz"s Colleagues Refused
to Testify
Website of the Day
From Boot Camp to Boot Hill
June
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Putin"s Helpful Remarks
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti After the Press Went Home: Chaos
Upon Chaos
Cockburn
/ Khan
Saddam May Face Death Penalty
Uri
Avnery
Irreversible Mental Damage
June
19 / 20, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Inside the Green Zone: US is Paranoid
and Isolated
Bruce
Anderson
Frozen Gringos
Diane
Christian
Morality and Death: a Meditation
on Bush and Blake
Walter
A. Davis
Passion of the Christ in Abu Ghraib
Josh
Frank
How Democrats Helped Bush Rape Mother
Nature
Col.
Dan Smith
Respectable Genocide?: the Crisis
in Sudan
Brian
Cloughley
A Profound Disruption of the Senses
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Timken Plant, a
Year Later
Prudence
Crowther
Mr. Ashcroft, Deport Me!
Poets"
Basement
Iqbal/Alam, Krieger and Albert
Kathy
Kelly
Dying to See Their Kids
June
18, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Blood Victory
Dave
Zirin
Danielle Green, Basketball Player
& Disabled Vet, Speaks Out Against War
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Christian Question in American
Politics
Gary
Leupp
The "Long-Established" Link?:
Iraq, al-Qaeda, and al-Zarqawi
June
17, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
18, 2004
Noel
Ignatiev
Zionism, Anti-Semitism and the People
of Palestine
Kurt
Nimmo
The Bush-Kerry Conundrum
Ed
Cardoni
The Persecution of Steve Kurtz
Ron
Jacobs
Power Relations: Rounding Up Everyone Who Knows More Than They
Do
Dave
Lindorff
Philly Daily News: "Four Wasted Years"
Greg
Moses
Geneva Ignored
Norm
Dixon
How Reagan Armed Saddam with Chemical
Weapons
June
16, 2004
Lenni
Brenner
A Question for Kerry Supporters
Davey
D
Hip Hop Reflections on Reagan
Daniel
Wolff
Why Did Michael Moore Withhold Video Evidence of US Prisoner
Abuse?
Bruce
Jackson
Harry Levin and the Penultimate Manuscript of Finnegans Wake
Patrick
Cockburn
Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights: Bombings Target Oil and Power
Facilities
Gary
Handschumacher
Mourn Ben Linder, Not His Killer: Reagan"s Death Squads
JG
Turning Haiti into One Big Sweatshop
Mario
Benedetti
Obituary with Cheers
Vicente
Navarro
Meet the New Head of the IMF: Who
is Rodrigo Rato?
Website
of the Day
Iraqi Oil Revenue Watch
June
15, 2004
Harry
Browne
Ireland Adds a Brick to Fortress Europe
Neve
Gordon
The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited
David
Palmer
Richard Armitage, Abu Ghraib and CACI
John
Blair
Lovelock"s Misguided Call: Nukes Are No Solution to Global
Warming
Dave
Lindorff
God Wins in TKO
Bill
Quigley
Blood-Pouring Peace Activists: State Charges Dropped; Feds Step
In
Patrick
Cockburn
Carbombs and Street Dances: 13 More Killed in Baghdad Blast
John
Chuckman
John Kerry, Political Placebo
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.
|
Weekend
Edition
July 3/4, 2004
One
Law for Us, Another for the Rest of You
Fortress
Bush and the One Law Doctrine
By
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
Fortress Bush, determined to continue
its aggressive, swaggering, Cheney/Rumsfeld-dominated policies
and the "with us or against us" theology (which now
impels every initiative in foreign relations, to the despair
of State Department professionals), has had a dire effect on
America's international credibility, and thus on its capability
to exercise long-term influence in world affairs. The vainglorious
and exultant 'Them and Us' attitude to anyone espousing contrary
views to those of the White House has alienated far too many
of America's friends.
Even worse, the Bush fixation
with confrontation has solidified distrust among nations already
suspicious of Washington's motives and ambitions. Worse yet,
it has spurred vicious extremists who are intent on murdering
US citizens and humiliating the world's most powerful country.
The world is a much more dangerous place for all of us since
the Bush war on Iraq began. He has created thousands more terrorists
who hate America, and, by extension, the west in general.
At the time when Bush began
his war in March last year I ended an article titled 'One
Law for America' by observing that "We have seen the
future and it is terrifying, because international laws and agreements
mean nothing to Bush and his officials. When useful, they are
quoted. When inconvenient they are ignored. There is one law
for America--and none, in the eyes of Bush, for those who dare
disagree with him."
There has been no change since
then. There is no fading, not the slightest reduction, in the
Bush administration's obstinate and blinkered zeal for total
control at home and saber-brandishing supremacy abroad. Forget
the Bush claim on June 26 that "the bitter differences of
the [Iraq] war are over" so far as Europe is concerned.
The governments of the most important European countries (and
by far a majority of all European peoples) will not forget the
sneers of White House hacks about their accurate warnings concerning
the war on Iraq. Last week's few words from a panicking president
whose sole concern is his election in November can't be considered
an initiative towards rapprochement with those who are only too
willing to be allies of America--if Bush could bring himself
to act in a less domineering and didactic manner. He will not
apologize for his conduct or for the insults of his officials,
and his wishy-washy statements attempting to prove that all is
well between him and the Europeans are indicative of ineffable
stupidity.
The Bush pronouncement that
Nato "must" come to his assistance in the shambles
he has created in Iraq is typical of the clownish insolence with
which he regards the world. There is no "must" about
it, but he ignored the resentment this caused, and in a clumsy
attempt to pressure Turkey to influence its fellow Nato members
in his favor he had the nerve to tell Prime Minister Erdogan
that "I believe you ought to be given a date by the European
Union for your eventual acceptance into the EU." For once
his uncouth arrogance drew public rebuke, and President Chirac
stated bluntly that Bush "not only went too far but went
on to territory which is not his own . . . It's as if I was advising
the US on how they should manage their relations with Mexico."
Quite so ; and we can imagine how self-righteously choleric the
White House would be if a European politician declared that illegal
Mexican migrants to the US should be granted amnesty. (This was
promised, incidentally, "for consideration" by Bush
in January, in order to sway Latino voters, but he has never
mentioned it since, because it didn't play well with the hard
Right.) Bush is incapable of perceiving unpalatable reality,
and his lack of sensitivity has had dire consequences for us
all.
His conduct is reminiscent
of Hitler in the final weeks of his Reich. In 1945 Hitler believed,
almost to the last, that he had total national support ; that
his armies would defeat the Allies ; and that his sycophants
were providing him with facts rather than fantasy. Hitler, too,
was in a fortress ' a bunker ' in which he was surrounded by
deceitful jackals who barred him from reality. He was trapped
by self-deception, by his contempt and hatred for the rest of
the world, and by the Messianic conviction that only he could
save his country.
Bush is not concerned about
his enormous personal unpopularity in Europe, and on June 27
when asked about this sad manifestation of international distrust
replied "I must confess, the first polls I worry about are
those that are going to take place in early November this year".
Ho hum. It's politics as usual for the Fortress, even when most
of the world is seething with despair, resentment or hatred because
of what Bush has done to all of us lesser beings out here. In
a small-scale but important international indication of this
resentment, his 18 hour visit to Ireland was a tragicomedy.
When an American president
needs to be guarded in the Emerald Isle by 4000 police, 2000
troops and 500 of his own security agents, armed to the teeth,
there is something tragically unmistakable about the way the
world as a whole is looking at the United States. This wasn't
deepest Afghanistan, after all. When over 10,000 citizens of
Ireland demonstrated in the streets against the visit of a US
president, who has to be spirited away to a troop-surrounded
castle ' a fortress ' where he could not meet any ordinary Irish
people, there was a message coming loud, strong and clear that
Bush, personally, is not welcome in the country where the US
is so much admired. Bush, in complete contrast to his predecessors,
snapped rudely at an Irish television interviewer and then cancelled
a TV appearance scheduled for his wife, in case she was asked
any awkward questions. That's the fortress mentality.
Fortress Bush has decided,
irrevocably, that there is One Law for Bush America, and one
for the rest of the world (and especially for US Democrats).
But sometimes one can have a deep belly-laugh at the mindset
that created the One Law Doctrine, if only because its exponents
are so obsessive that their self-deception has become as ludicrous
as it is dangerous. Their posturing is not just illogical but
decidedly funny, albeit it in a manner suited to the Theatre
of the Absurd, in which mankind is held to inhabit a universe
with which it is doomed forever to be out of synchrony.
The playwright Eugene Ionesco
mused that "I look and see pictures, creatures that move
in a kind of timeless time and spaceless space emitting sounds
that are a kind of language I no longer understand or ever register."
And so it is with the inhabitants of Fortress Bush, for they
do not, cannot, will not relate to real time, extant space, or
meaningful language. They are doomed, in their own Theatre of
the Absurd, forever to be out of synchrony with the universe.
One splendid piece of irony
that exemplifies the One Law Doctrine of Fortress Bush might
have been crafted by Ionesco himself. It is from a well-written
piece by Andrew Zajac in the Chicago Tribune on June 20, and
I imagine he was splitting his sides as he described the circumstances
in which the recently-departed, disastrous, incompetent and failed
US viceroy of Iraq, Paul Bremer, gave the job of senior economic
adviser to one Michael Fleischer.
Mr Zajac reported that "With
an assist from his brother, Ari [the former spokesman for Bush],
who "got my resume to Bremer," [Michael] Fleischer
landed interviews that led to his appointment [as Bremer's economic
king-pin]. Among Fleischer's key tasks is training more Iraqi
businessmen in the ways of U.S.-style procurement . . . Competitive
bidding "is a new world for the Iraqis," Fleischer
said. Under Saddam Hussein, "it was all done by cronies.
The only paradigm they know is cronyism. We are teaching them
that there is an alternative system with built-in checks and
built-in review"."
To my sorrow and despair I
realize that people like Fleischer and his buddies in the Bush
administration (and millions of others, alas) will find it impossible
to detect anything uproariously funny in such wondrous juxtaposition
of contradictions. Michael Fleischer got his job via a well-placed
brother, in an openly-admitted display of nepotism ("he
got my resume to Bremer"), yet solemnly pronounces that
for Iraqis there must be an "alternative system" to
"cronyism". To be sure there is : but, by all the heavens,
it does not exist in the mind of little brother Fleischer or
in Bush Washington, which is the very foundation and fortress
of the empire of cronies.
The essential building blocks
of Fortress Bush ('you are with us or against us') are composed
of cronies. We won't even begin to talk about Cheney-Halliburton
scams, the Bush family and the Saudis, or the pork-engendered,
election-cash-oriented Bills approved by almost every legislator
in Washington. Iraqi businessmen and politicians will doubtless
receive much benefit from advice by little brother Fleischer
who, incidentally, has a five year contract and can't be fired
by the 'sovereign' government of Iraq.
The Fortress mentality of the
Bush administration is such that its defenders, who are becoming
increasingly desperate, vindictive and aggressive, must try to
counter-attack at any cost. But that cost, unfortunately for
them, is increasingly in their own credibility. Here is part
of a Washington Post talk-back on June 25 that featured one David
Bossie, the attractively-named Chief of a Republican propaganda
organization called Citizens United.
The question and answer session
concerned the film Fahrenheit 9/11, made by an unappealing fellow
called Michael Moore, who is as coarse and grubby a citizen as
might be met in many days' journey. He might even be vice-president
of the United States, given the crassness of his language, general
vulgarity and total self-obsession. But in spite of this he
has made a world-class film about which the Leader Bossie complained
that "Moore has stated his motivation is to remove President
Bush from office."
From the turrets of Fortress
Bush, in which there can be but one interpretation of world events,
the Bossie-man cannot understand why anyone might want to get
rid of Bush. And this fascinating dialogue ensued:
Questioner : 'Moore has stated
his motivation is to remove President Bush from office. Aren't
you motivated to keep Bush in office?'
Bossie Boots : 'I totally support
President Bush and I wish I could run ads against John Kerry
to help him. But I can't. If the laws and rules limit my speech
they should limit Michael Moore's as well because he is running
anti-Bush ads. Plain and simple.'
Then Bossie declared that "Michael
Moore has never let the facts get in the way of a good story
; his movie is nothing more than left wing propaganda,"
which prompted a query from a listener in Thomaston, Georgia,
who asked "Have you seen the movie?" Pause. Then the
Bossie reply was "No, but I am planning to."
The normal "laws and rules"
don't apply to the Bush coterie and their unquestioning Bossie-style
supporters. They don't need facts in order to condemn the thoughts
and ideas of those who disagree with them. And this mind-shutting
goes even further.
The laws and Constitution of
the United States are regarded as awkward obstacles standing
across the righteous path of Bush domination. They are given
lip service, because it would be electoral suicide to insult
them openly, but, as pointed out by Ruth Wedgwood of Johns Hopkins
University, the recently exposed memorandum about torture, written
at the request of the White House, did not look at "the
law governing torture", but at "what can we do and
remain within the law?" which, as The Economist points out,
"ignores or glides over American and international laws
that ban or limit torture". You can say that again, and
surround it in neon lights, for this is exactly what the Bush
administration is all about : they look for ways around the laws
of their country and the world, and if they can't get their way
around the laws, they avoid them and try to camouflage their
actions.
Here is an extract from an
Order issued by Bush on February 7, 2002, in which he stated
: "our values as a nation, values that we share with many
nations in the world, call for us to treat detainees humanely,
INCLUDING THOSE WHO ARE NOT LEGALLY ENTITLED TO SUCH TREATMENT."
[Emphasis added.] So, according to Bush, there are people in
the world who are not legally entitled to humane treatment. They
might be foreigners, they might be Americans. Who knows?
There is no other interpretation
that can be put on his grotesque pronouncement.
Can you think of a law that
has been passed by any civilized country, and endorsed by anyone
in possession of their senses, that allows inhumane treatment
of detainees? Bush declared in his Order that he might permit
those who are not worthy of being treated humanely to be treated
humanely. But into what category of humanity fall the people
whom Bush regards as "not legally entitled to such treatment"?
It was only under extreme external pressure that the White House
released this document, and a swag of others (although who knows
what clever papers advocating avoidance of decency remain unrevealed
in the deep and fetid bowels of Bush Washington). For this gesture
we may be truly thankful, because, even if by oversight, it highlights
the One Law Doctrine in all its squalid singularity. There is
one law, under Bush, that says some detainees are not legally
entitled to treatment as a human being, and it is only by gracious
presidential decree that pitiless maltreatment was supposed to
have been waived. But of course it wasn't.
As we know, now, and only because
a few hideous photographs were obtained by the media, a host
of Bush administration captives in Iraq were treated in a manner
that beggars description. They were tormented not just inhumanely,
but with spiteful and vile cruelty. They were sadistically bullied
to the point of ultimate release by merciful death after gross
humiliation by malevolent savages who are successors to the jack-booted
beasts of the Nazi regime. Their humiliation and persecution
stemmed from the One Law Doctrine that some detainees are not
"legally entitled" to humane treatment under US or
international statutes.
The total moral detachment
from what you and I regard as normal human inter-relation is
exemplified by evidence given at a trial in Baghdad on June 24
: "Capt. Donald Reese said that one night in November 2003,
he saw the bloodied body of an Iraqi prisoner who had died during
interrogation inside a shower stall in a prison cellblock. He
said a number of officers were standing around it, discussing
what to do." Why discuss? What's to discuss? A man was murdered,
and the one and only honorable course is to investigate and publicly
prosecute. The mere fact that there could be discussion about
what to do is demonstrative of the fact that these people have
had their moral senses blunted, even destroyed, by the influence
of Fortress Bush, which believes it is not subject to normal
laws. We should remember, as the NY Times pointed out on July
2, that "Mr. Bush has declared himself free, at times of
his choosing, from the Geneva Conventions, following advice from
Attorney General John Ashcroft".
The pack of lies retailed in
the administration's annual report on 'Patterns of Global Terrorism'
shows what we have to guard against. On the well-tried propaganda
principle that headlines catch the eye and subsequent corrections
are buried on inside pages (and are not reported atall by some
sections of the media, for their own reasons), the newly-created
Terrorist Threat Integration Center produced a concoction of
nonsense purporting to show that Bush was winning his 'war on
terror'. Another Hitlerian principle employed was that the bigger
the lie, the more readily it would be accepted ; but for once
this didn't work. The lies were so poorly constructed that simple
arithmetic showed they were baloney.
But the fall guy was Powell,
as usual, and he had to apologize because the politically-motivated
Center told American voters, and the world at large, that the
number of deaths caused by terrorism had fallen in 2003 while
in truth they had risen massively (307 became 625), while the
number of wounded suddenly increased from 1593 to 3646. The report
was announced with great fanfare to try to show that the 'War
President' was winning, but, curiously, the other news at the
end of April, when the report came out, included awkward items
that did not suit Fortress Bush. It was discovered that there
were prisoners being tortured by US soldiers ; eight soldiers
were killed by a car bomb ; a 'roll-call' of US war dead was
about to be shown on US television ; occupation troops were forced
to quite Falluja ; and Bush was facing the 9/11 inquiry. What
better time to announce, as the egregious Armitage did, that
the Center's report provided "clear evidence that we are
prevailing in the fight".
The only clear evidence provided
by this septic episode is that Fortress Bush cooked the books
and was found out.
But even after the lies were
exposed, an oaf called Cofer Black ('State Department Coordinator
for Counterterrorism with the rank of Ambassador at Large'),
who was ultimately responsible for the debacle, had the barefaced
chutzpah to announce on June 22 that although his report was
"marred by significant errors," the "most important
things in the report continue to be valid", and "we
have made significant progress". On July 1 Cheney joined
in and declared "our nation has made dramatic progress in
the war on terror". These claims show Fortress Bush at
the outer edge of double-think. The report was absurdly invalid,
and Cheney's claim is demonstrably incorrect and silly. The main
progress made by the Fortress-bound upholders of the One Law
has been in expanding means of deceiving the world about every
matter that might possibly show them for the bunch of despicable
hypocrites that they are.
But according to Nicholas Kristoff
in the New York Times on Wednesday, it isn't nice of us to describe
Bush as a liar. The lead to his article went "Simple-mindedly
vilifying the president for dishonesty only polarizes the political
scene and impedes understanding." His exact words were "I'm
against the 'liar' label for two reasons. First, it further polarizes
the political cesspool, and this polarization is making America
increasingly difficult to govern. Second, insults and rage impede
understanding." With apologias like that it isn't difficult
to see why Bush has gotten away with being a liar for so long.
The political cesspool in Washington is already polarized, and
speaking the truth is not insulting (although calling people
simple-minded for doing so is a tad rude, at that). Bush is a
liar, but, Kristoff says, perhaps with a straight face, "there's
some evidence that Mr Bush carefully avoids the most blatant
lies--witness his meticulous descriptions of the periods in which
he did not use illegal drugs". Well, that's all right, then.
The Bush declaration of "full
and complete sovereignty" in the shambles he has created
in Iraq is yet another lie and an even more blatant one than
usual. It didn't take long for that to be apparent in basic terms,
as reported by London's Financial Times on the day Bremer quit
the country. "Iyad Akmush Kanum learnt the limits of sovereignty
on Monday when US prosecutors refused to uphold an Iraqi judges'
order acquitting him of attempted murder of coalition troops.
US prosecutors said that he was being returned to . . . Abu Ghraib
prison because under the Geneva Conventions they were not bound
by Iraqi law. A few hundred metres from where outgoing administrator
Paul Bremer formally ended the US occupation of Iraq on Monday,
Mr Kanum--prisoner number 27075--cowered handcuffed on a backroom
floor in the Central Criminal Court, where Iraqis are tried for
attacks against coalition forces."
If this wasn't such a squalid
example of conqueror's arrogance, it would be screamingly funny.
The boys from Fortress Bush had the gall, the sheer brass-necked,
copper-bottomed, brazen impertinence to claim exemption from
Iraqi law by quoting the Geneva Conventions that have been worked
round, ignored, contravened and violated by this administration
and its imperial representatives for three dark years. The prosecutors
defied Iraq's judges with contempt, which is practicing the One
Law Doctrine with a vengeance (literally), and makes a public
mockery of Bush's deceitful declaration of "full and complete
sovereignty".
The shameful humbug of quoting
regulations to try to justify illegal policy was commented on
by the NY Times on Wednesday when it pointed out that "Mr.
Rumsfeld's handling of another issue, the Red Cross reports on
Iraq, is the most outrageous example of the administration's
bad faith on the prison scandal. The Bush administration has
cited Red Cross confidentiality policies to explain its failure
to give up the reports. The trouble is, the Red Cross has repeatedly
told the administration to go ahead and share the agency's findings
with Congress, as long as steps are taken to prevent leaks .
. . . the Red Cross in Geneva has got it figured out : the administration
has no intention of cooperating."
Of course it hasn't. Fortress
Bush has hunkered down, and the drawbridge has been raised. Boiling
oil is being poured over the parapets at representatives of the
Red Cross and every human rights organization on the planet.
The One Law Doctrine is being enforced at every turn, and the
world stands aghast at the destruction of America's support for
international accords. The Theatre of the Absurd lives and has
its being in Fortress Bush.
Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
Weekend
Edition Features for June 12 / 13, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Remembering the Common Hood: Soweto
and Runnymede
Team
CounterPunch
CP"s Favorite Albums
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Troy, Now and Then
Gary
Leupp
Not Really a Puppet Government in Iraq?
Brian
Cloughley
US Military in Crisis
Antonio
Ponvert, III
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse: the Connecticut Connection
Ben
Tripp
The Polls Get Stupider
Joe
Bageant
Mash Note to the "Girl with the Leash"
Ron
Jacobs
The Return of the Hip Hop Insurgency
Forrest
Hylton
Object Lessons from the Case of Francisco Cortés
Christopher
Brauchli
Federal Bureau of Errors
Kurt
Nimmo
Going After Qaddafi, Again
Wayne
Madsen
Israel"s Slap at Reagan
Anthony
Loewenstein
Al Jazeera Awakens the Arab World
Michael
Donnelly
A Lightship in the Forest: Greenpeace Docks in the Siskiyous
Greg
Moses
Who Will Tell Us More About the Workers of Nasiriyah?
Susan
Davis
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
Joseph
Ramsey
Weather Report: a Review of The Weather Underground
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The 18th Brumaire in the 21st
Century
Wayne
Saunders
The Gipper, D-Day and the Stanley Cup
Poets"
Basement
Richey, Ford, La Morticella, Albert
Website
of the Weekend
Insurgent Music
Keep
CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home
/ subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|