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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS Peter Kwong gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the "millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes to one of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on the planet. How China's leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn on What's wrong with the U.S. left. They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq. John Ross takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. 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 11, 2006 Raed Jarrar July 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn
Stephen Green Paul Craig
Roberts Greg Moses Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Conn Hallinan John Chuckman Fred Gardner Dr. Tod Mikuriya Pierre Tristam Lucinda Marshall David Swanson Heather Gray Dave Zirin
/ John Cox Mark Engler Michael Lettieri Ron Jacobs Jamal Juma' Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
July 7, 2006 John Ross July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden John Stanton Ralph Nader Laray Polk Saul Landau Joshua Frank William S. Lind Adelman / Lindorff Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
Mike Whitney Saul Landau Ramzy Baroud Missy Comley Beattie Arthur Neslen Vincent Maruffi Paul Cantor Paul D. Johnson David Price
Col. Dan Smith Chris Floyd Marjorie Cohn James Brooks Medea Benjamin Matt Reichel Elisa Salasin Rick Wilhelm Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Dr. Bouthaina Shaban Julia Olmstead Dave Lindorff Andres Gomez Alan Singer Alexander Cockburn
Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen T.
Banko Daniel Cassidy Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jeff Taylor John Ross Greg Moses Laura Carlsen Justin E.H.
Smith Brian Cloughley Anthony Papa Mike Ferner Jerry Tucker Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement
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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July11, 2006 Mr. Crumpton's ComplaintStop Blaming PakistanBy BRIAN CLOUGHLEY Whose side is Washington on when it comes to Pakistan? The messages are confusing. On one hand the Pentagon submissions to Congress on June 28 concerning supply of F-16 combat aircraft to Pakistan state "Given its geo-strategic location and partnership in the Global War on Terrorism, Pakistan is a vital ally of the United States . . . This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States . . .", but the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, Henry Crumpton, declares that Pakistan hasn't "done enough" in the fight against terror. I have to declare an interest because I lived in Pakistan for a long time and know President Pervez Musharraf to the extent of calling on him when visiting Islamabad, which I do regularly. I don't disguise the fact that I like the country and most of its peoples, although I write critically about various aspects of its governance, not least in the latest edition of my book about the Pakistan Army in which I criticize, among other things, the invasion of Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1999. But what confuses me are accusations and flat statements that Pakistan isn't serious about dealing with terrorists. Pervez Musharraf has narrowly escaped being killed in three attempts on his life by members of extremist Islamist groups. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was uninjured in a suicide attack while he was electioneering. It is unlikely that a person who has had survived assassination efforts by terrorists could be other than extremely serious about combating them. The religious loonies in Pakistan are virulently and violently anti-Musharraf and anti-Aziz because they seek to spread acceptance of "moderate Islam" in the spirit of the Koran. Musharraf would be extremely unwise to adopt other than an uncompromising attitude to the terrorist fanatics who are intent on killing him and taking over the country. Musharraf very much wants to foil the ferocious bigots who want to make Pakistan a fundamentalist Islamic state like Saudi Arabia whose citizens (or at least the non-Royal ones) are at the mercy of religious police; where women have no right to vote or even drive a car; and which, according to the US State Department, is "governed on the basis of Islamic law" and has "no political parties or national elections". (Condoleezza Rice demanded last week that "There has to be, the world expects there to be, democratic, free and fair elections in Pakistan in 2007", which is a fair comment. But it would be even-handed to make similar demands about Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing Gulf monarchies.) To claim that Musharraf is not doing as much as he can to rid his country of terrorists is to ignore the essentiality of doing just that, not only from a personal point of view (as he obviously wants to keep on living and is under threat from all sorts of barbaric Islamists), but from the aspect of his nation's very survival as a non-fundamentalist nation. Here's a Reuters' report about the US official stance on Pakistan : "Most al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably on the Pakistan side of the border, said Henry Crumpton, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism . . . Afghan officials have complained insurgents were able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory. Violence has intensified in parts of Afghanistan in recent months to its worst level since US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. "Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is 'no'," Crumpton told a news briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul [on May 6, 2006]. "Not only al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that," Crumpton added." For the information of Mr Crumpton, since 2004 Pakistan has lost 700 para-military and army soldiers killed in action in North West Frontier Province while combating Taliban fighters and the tribes which support the Taliban (which is almost all 6 million of them). By any definition of "doing enough", this would appear to be a reasonable sacrifice on the part of Pakistan in its support for the Bush crusade in Afghanistan. And I can state that the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps, whose soldiers have died in support of US objectives, are not altogether impressed by people like Mr Crumpton who deride their sacrifice and have no idea whatever of the complexities of life in the border region and no notion of how difficult it is to deal with the tribes. Here is what I wrote elsewhere about the tribal areas:
Over to you, Mr Crumpton. Let's have your solution as to how Pakistan can do more to meet your demands concerning anarchy along the Afghan border where Pakistan has lost five times as many soldiers killed in action as the US has in Afghanistan. As to Mr Crumpton's statement that "insurgents [are] able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory", he may not have included a major factor in his deeply intellectual analysis. This concerns Afghan citizens resident in Pakistan. The UN High Commission for Refugees estimates that there are still over one and a half million Afghan refugees in camps in Pakistan. (Down from a total of some 2.5 million in the 1980s when the United States paid Afghans to fight against Soviet troops who occupied the country with the agreement of the Afghan leader of the time.) Perhaps Mr Crumpton could explain exactly how Pakistan is expected to stop Afghans in Pakistan returning to their country should they wish to do so. There is nothing Pakistan would like more than to be rid of a million and a half Afghans who occupy so much of its land, soak up its depleting water, contribute nothing to Pakistan in taxes or any other dues expected from its own citizens, engage in bloodthirsty feuds and widespread criminal activity, and are the majority of those who make forays over the border to combat those whom they regard as invaders and illegal occupiers of their country, just as they did the Soviets. Any solutions, Mr Crumpton? If Musharraf tried to confine them to the camps or, as he would much prefer, make them return to Afghanistan, there would be a war in Pakistan that would make the present conflict in Afghanistan look positively tranquil. In the three years of US and other western forces' occupation of Afghanistan there has been no improvement in social or economic conditions that would encourage refugees to return, in spite of all the efforts of Pakistan and the UN High Commission for Refugees, a saintly organisation that gets a lot of undeserved criticism. The announcement by Bush on May 27 that Afghanistan is now a "democracy" and an ally "in the cause of freedom and peace" was mendacious humbug intended to mislead the American public into believing that the US invasion had created stability. In fact the country has rarely been so dangerous, even in the days when US-supported guerrillas were attacking Soviet forces in exactly the same way as present-day guerrillas attack US forces and their surrogates. What has happened is that US air attacks on Afghan villages (and at least one tribal hamlet inside Pakistan, blitzed by a remotely piloted aircraft), together with Iraq-style military brutality by ground troops have led the majority of Afghans to detest Americans and, by association, all foreign troops in their country. There isn't anything Pakistan can do about that. And neither can Pakistan control those Afghans and Pakistanis who see the present Afghan war as yet another crusade against Muslims. Nobody can claim that Afghanistan is an easy country to govern. It has never been stable and has for centuries been the playground of the strongest thugs with the most weapons. Tribals from Afghanistan and Pakistan have always moved freely across the border, mainly because those who live in that region have relatives on both sides. A partial solution might be a (vastly expensive) border fence, but the Afghan government formally rejected Pakistan's fencing proposal two weeks ago. Many tribal chiefs, the 'warlords' as they are called by the media, who were bribed by the US to topple the Taliban ands are now prospering through production of opium and heroin, are not in any way averse to the situation in Afghanistan as it helps them become richer. They have fooled the Americans into believing that they will help them fight against extremist Islamists, while laughing up their sleeves at the ingenuousness of the invader. It is absurd to imagine that Pakistan welcomes the massive flow of drugs across the border from Afghanistan, and in all the years in which western troops have occupied Afghanistan the traffic has not diminished by even a tiny fraction. "Coalition" troops have not even tried to stop or control poppy growing and heroin production; this was simply not a priority. Drug money funds Afghan militias who are determined to maintain the trade. There is nothing whatever that Pakistan can do about that. During the four years of foreign occupation of Afghanistan in the 'global war on terror' Pakistan has experienced Islamic terrorism to the extent of dozens of bombings, one assassination attempt against its prime minister, and three assassination attempts on its president. There has been a resurgence of Taliban who detest the central government and regard it as unIslamic and are prepared to fight to the death against it. The tribes on both sides of the border have been alienated, infuriated, and made even more violent by US-Pakistan military attacks on their homelands. A crisis has developed over angry Afghan refugees who refuse to go home because their country remains in chaos in spite of the west occupying it for years and, according to Bush, bringing it "democracy". The deaths of 700 Pakistani soldiers have caused even the loyal army to wonder what the cost of supporting America might eventually entail. A growing domestic drug problem has caused enormous social problems and caused even more corruption. And there is criticism from the US State Department and other US officials that the government of Pakistan isn't "doing enough" to control Afghan and Pakistani guerrillas who say they regard the invasion of the region as a Christian Crusade against Islam. The current edition of The Economist carries an excellent survey of Pakistan that ought to be read by those who want to understand its problems, and its observations about Islamic extremists are chilling. It is in the best interests of Pakistan to combat terrorism if its president and government are to survive, and it is untrue and indeed absurd to claim that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and President Pervez Musharraf, both modernist moderates, are not doing their utmost to counter terrorism in all its aspects. Their very lives depend on their success. They deserve support rather than carping criticism. Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
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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.                    |
