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Today's
Stories
August 7 /
8, 2004
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
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
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.
|
August
7 / 8, 2004
Persecuted
by All, Supported by None
Who
Would be a Kurd?
By
BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
Solutions, for the zealots of the Bush
administration, are not achieved by negotiation: they are to
be imposed. So the Kurds will continue to suffer, like everyone
else in Iraq.
* *
*
Ten years ago, when I lived
in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, my evening walk took me past
the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which
has since been relocated far from the residential section of
town. The move was made so that the office could be more easily
guarded from would-be petitioners such as Kurdish refugees, some
of whom at that time had erected a neat and tidy tent hamlet
on the opposite side of the road. As I walked briskly past of
an evening, one of them, a particularly villainous-seeming fellow,
greeted me with a charming smile. His flinty blue eyes softened
as he bade me Hello, and after a few days of mutual greeting
we began to chat.
The story of his group was
of unrelieved persecution and privation. Having fled the savage
reprisals of Saddam Hussein, following the encouragement by Bush
senior for Kurds and Shias to rise against their oppressor (after
which Bush did exactly nothing to help either of them), they
made their way from Iraq across Iran to Pakistan's province of
Balochistan, and then north to Islamabad, a trek of about two
thousand miles. There, they hoped, the UNHCR would look kindly
upon them and relocate them to a land of milk and honey, or at
least to a country in which they could live like human beings,
which to them, as to the countless millions of despairing displaced
persons round the world, would be Paradise enough.
The UNHCR is a particularly
saintly, harassed and unforgivably underfunded organisation.
Its entire 2004 budget is USD 1.8 billion (almost the cost of
a B-2 bomber, at 2.2 bn), of which the US contribution is 130
million. Little wonder its dedicated officials are at their wits'
end about what to do with the millions of refugees who beg their
assistance.
Where on earth could they go,
these Kurdish orphans of Desert Storm? Who would take them?
Answer came there none, except from the benevolent administration
of the then prime minister of Pakistan, a corrupt and oily knave
called Nawaz Sharif, whose solution was to gather up the Kurds
in dead of night and transport the lot of them back to the deserts
of Balochistan, hundreds of miles away. In fact, not quite all
of them ; for left behind in one of the tents was a tiny baby,
discovered at dawn by the scavengers who quickly gathered to
see what the Kurds, the poorest of the poor, might have left
behind after they were once again hounded from one hell to another.
Horrified local Pakistanis and some of us foreign do-gooding
busybodies inquired about the fate of the child. But in spite
of our efforts we came up against the usual brick wall of bureaucratic
nonchalance. "There is no problem" we were told. No
; of course not. For the baby was only one of millions of anonymous
and helpless mites born into a world grown only too accustomed
to hideous inhumanity.
It's Boring
It's all boring. So flick to
Channel 101 : it's got the Simpsons. Or look at NASCAR's Long
Pond Pennsylvania qualifying race for Sunday's 500. Or what's
happening to Kobe . . . Anything's better than uncomfortable
pictures of dirty raghead refugees.
But what if they had been Jews?
This band of despairing, hopeless,
helpless, hounded Kurds was but a microcosm of the Kurdish problem
as a whole. There are over 20 million Kurds in the Middle East,
which is an enormous ethnic group to lack a country. (Imagine
what would have happened if they had had the good fortune to
be born as Jews.) Kurdish Human Rights Watch, which tries to
publicize the Kurdish cause, states "The international community
has never effectively addressed the Kurdish issue in Iran, Iraq
and Turkey to account for their crimes against the Kurds."
That is so. But I go further
: the rich countries of the world have done nothing atall to
try to find a solution to the appalling plight of the Kurds.
They are truly the world's forgotten people, and we should be
ashamed of our total lack of concern about their plight. (Switch
to the Simpsons, willya?)
Ironically, the 1970 Constitution
of Iraq specified that their region in the north should be officially
recognized as Iraqi Kurdistan, but Saddam Hussein's evil ""resettlement
program', which was a simple Israeli-style ethnic purging of
Kurds from their ancestral lands, made nonsense of this. They
were persecuted, and their lands taken by Arabs who were moved
there by the Iraqi regime, just as Arabs in Palestine have been
booted-out and their land stolen by Israelis. But the 1970 Constitution
was terminated by the Bush administration's foolish and disastrous
representative in Baghdad, and the Kurds have no specific rights
under the new Iraqi regime.
The treatment of Kurds has
been horrific. As noted by Reggie Rivers in the Denver Post of
September 6, 2001:
"There's no doubt the
Kurds lead a tough life. They've basically been told to assimilate
or die. They don't have political rights, freedom of speech or
even the right to speak their own language. Nearly 2,000 Kurdish
villages have been destroyed, forcing more than 2 million Kurds
to flee into the mountains. Even there they are not safe, because
the army pursues them for miles and miles and weeks at a time.
The Kurds have been shot, bombed, gassed, raped, tortured, burned
and dismembered, and tens of thousands have been killed.
And that's just what Turkey
has done during the past decade."
* *
*
The US/UK bilaterally and illegally
imposed a ""No-fly Zone' in northern Iraq in 1991 which
was supposedly to protect Kurds, but this was at best a secondary
motive. The vast areas of north and south Iraq (more than two
thirds of the country) were declared ""No-Fly' by Washington
and London because they intended to destroy Iraq's military capabilities
before invading the country. US and British strike aircraft flew
thousands of yippee patrols over Iraq, during most of which they
indulged in rocket and bombing attacks that increased in number
and ferocity in the seven months before the Bush/Blair war on
Iraq in 2003. (There was no threat of effective ground fire or
aerial interception. On occasions, Iraqi radars tracked the incursions,
many of which went well over the US/UK-imposed boundaries of
the ""No-Fly' zones. The radar sites were promptly
bombed and rocketed without a single US/UK aircraft being in
the slightest danger throughout the best free-fire training area
in the world.)
It was coincidental that the
psychotic and genocidal Saddam Hussein was thus unable to get
at the Kurds, but the allegedly protected area in the north was
violated countless times by Turkish air and ground strikes against
Turkish (and Iraqi) Kurds within Iraq. There was never a word
of protest from Washington or London to Ankara concerning these
atrocities, about which the American and British governments
were well aware from their own pilots' reports.
During the Iran-Iraq war of
the 1980s the United States supported Iraq against Iran, which
was was obvious from Rumsfeld's cordial handshake with Saddam
Hussain in the course of that conflict, as shown many times on
Fox News. (It hasn't been? Well, goodness me ; I am so surprised.)
But in these years various Kurdish factions misjudged the political
and military situation and made the error of helping Iran against
Iraq and also Iraq against Iran. Consequently, all Kurds in both
countries paid a heavy price, with Iraq's 4 million being as
foully treated as their brethren across the eastern border.
In Iran there are said to be
5 million Kurds. (There are probably many more, but Iranian census
figures are as credible as a Tom Ridge media briefing.) Because
they are Sunni Muslims, and relaxed Muslims at that, with civilized
ideas about women's rights and education, just as espoused by
the Prophet Mohammad and recommended in the Qu'ran (Koran), they
are deeply distrusted by Iran's bigoted Shia bossmen and persecuted
accordingly. They are subject to organised state oppression involving
disgusting brutality, including extra-judicial killings and prison
conditions even worse than those in US-run hellholes in Iraq
and elsewhere. (Although, to be fair, there are no recorded incidents,
even by the most critical observers, of Iranian cigarette-drooping,
rubber-gloved, leash-wielding, grinning female guards prodding
the genitals of helpless Kurdish captives ; that sort of thing
is left to the military representatives of Christian Bush, the
God-appointed super-Fuhrer of the world.)
Syria has some 1.5 million
Kurds who are treated in similar fashion to other unfortunate
citizens of that unpleasant land. The worst-off are in the north:
a community of about 200,000 Kurds who were declared "alien
infiltrators" over forty years ago. They have no rights
whatever, and cannot marry a Syrian citizen; they cannot even
be admitted to a public hospital. The west has lifted not a finger
to help them.
Do you think there will be
""No-fly Zones' to protect Kurds in Iran and Syria
from their dictatorial governments, just as there were imposed
by Washington and London on Iraq? Or might there be US/UK-dictated
No-fly Zones in Turkey's border regions to protect Kurds from
the atrocities of the Ankara government's brutal military? In
our dreams.
Turkey's 12 million Kurds have
suffered as grievously as those elsewhere, with their villages
being destroyed on the orders of Turkey's generals who are determined
to eradicate the Kurdish ""problem'. Language is a
powerful determinant of nationalism, so until 1991 the Kurdish
language was forbidden by Turkey in a failed attempt at what
might be called linguicide. This failed, so, recently, permission
was given for government-controlled radio broadcasts to be made
in some dialects of Kurdish in order to gain favor with the European
Union which Turkey hopes to join.
(Unfortunately for Turkey its
aspirations were dealt the kiss of death a month ago when Bush
arrogantly told the countries of the European Union that they
should permit Turkey to join their number. If there was one thing
guaranteed to set back Turkey's application for EU membership
it was a demand by Bush that it be favorably regarded. Bush cannot
understand that quiet discussion and courteous negotiation work
better than belligerent confrontation when dealing with other
nations. He and his zealots imagine that solutions to the world's
complexities are achievable only through their hubristic imposition
of non-negotiable terms.)
In other efforts by Turkey
to persuade the EU that there is nobody in Ankara but human-rights-loving
pussy cats, there have been other gestures towards the persecuted
Kurdish minority that constitutes a fifth of Turkey's population.
It is doubtful these are genuine, although, as the Kurdish writer
Abdullah Kiran noted, "The Turkish government is putting
on a show, but for us this marks the start of a new process,
a new return for the Kurdish people to the Kurdish language,
to Kurdish traditions and to Kurdish culture. We will have to
make an effort to broaden the scope of this process."
The Kurdish search for justice
in Turkey was frustrated by the European Union's ban on the Kurdistan
Workers' Party, the PKK, just at the time when the EU was insisting
that the Ankara government enter into dialogue with Kurdish groups.
One can always count on the EU to move any complex problem closer
to impossibility of solution, but the most vigorous blow against
Kurdish aspirations was struck by the Bush administration. The
US-sponsored UN Security Council resolution passed in June that
provided for post-war planning in Iraq made not a mention of
Kurdish rights in the new ""democratic' Iraq. The matter
was too difficult for a decision to be made, so Bush ignored
the whole subject and thus gave a signal to religious thugs in
Iraq and elsewhere that the Kurds don't matter. Nobody knows
what the policy of the present US-imposed Iraqi regime will be
concerning the Kurds ; and if democratic elections are ever permitted
in Iraq the Shias will win and promptly continue marginalization
of Kurds on the lines of Turkey, Syria and Iran. It might be
just like Old Times for Iraq's Kurds, and it would be strange
were they not to take up arms to counter persecution, just like
Palestinians.
There are many experts on the
Kurdish question in the US State Department, but their erudition
and sage advice was ignored and continues to be so by those who
are immensely less qualified to make recommendations and decisions
about the region. The State Department had prepared a post-conflict
set of options that would have been at least a starting-point
of negotiation for all concerned, following Bush's war on Iraq.
But US foreign policy is directed by Cheney and the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz
Pentagon, so the counsel of State Department professionals was
contemptuously ignored.
Solutions, for the zealots
of the Bush administration, cannot be achieved by negotiation
: they must be imposed. When they are too difficult to decide
upon, as dictated by domestic considerations (switch to the Simpsons,
I keep tellin' ya) , the problem is ignored ; and in few cases
is this potentially more devastating than in the plight of the
Kurdish nation.
So : who would be a Kurd?
Persecuted by all, supported by none, their lot is vile. If Bush
and Blair of the US and Britain devoted some of their energy
and seemingly limitless war-making cash to bringing pressure
to bear on Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran to create an autonomous
""Kurdistan' from areas of these countries that actually
belong to Kurds, the world would be a better place.
But there's no chance of that.
Neither glamour nor domestic votes can be obtained by solving
terrible international humanitarian problems.
It's much more exciting to
go to war.
Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
Weekend Edition
Features for July 31 / August 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
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