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Recent
Stories
April
15, 2003
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
April
14, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush's War Without End
Uri Avnery
Gunboat Democracy: This is Only the Beginning
Wayne
Madsen
Americans: The New Mongols of the Mideast?
Shahid
Alam
Iqra: Iraq is Free
Hani
Shukrallah
Day of the Chicken Hawks
Terry
Jones
The Iraq Gravy Train
John
Chuckman
The Iraq War's Trashiest Piece of Propaganda
Patrick
Cockburn
US has a Lot to Answer For: Violence,
Misery and Poverty in Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/14
April
12 / 13, 2003
Carol
Lipton
Wag the Kennel: the Kenneth Joseph
Story
Wayne
Madsen
Meet the New Butcher of Baghdad: Maj.
Gen. Buford Blount III
John
Brown
"They Got It Down": the Toppling
of the Saddam Statue
Kathy and
Bill Christison
Final Thoughts from Palestine
William
Blum
Our Vulnerable Warmongers' Rush to Justify Devastation
Wallace
Gagne
Let the Stealing Begin
Ann
Harrison
Rosenthal Update: Judge Delays Ruling in Medical Pot Mistrial
Case
Henry Miller
What is the Greatest Treason?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Render Unto Cesar
Zeljko
Cipris
Mocking Militarism: On Ishikawa Jun's Song of Mars
Ishikawa
Jun
The Song of Mars
Jamey Hecht
Chairman of the Sandwich Board
Adam
Engel
Hell of a Town: Mayor Bloomberg and
the News
Poets'
Basement
Chang Yang-Hao, Adam Engel and Hammond Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/12
April
11, 2003
Omar
Barghouti
From Saddam to Uncle Sam
Ron
Jacobs
Greed is Rewarded
David
Vest
The Corporate War on Iraq
Paul
de Rooij
Propaganda Stinkers: Fresh Samples from the Field
Anthony
Gancarski
Foreign Aid: Embezzlement as Public Policy
Mas'ood
Cajee
Franklin Graham: Spiritual Carpetbagger
Michael
Neumann
Now What?
Michael
Berry
The Neo-Cons Have a Dream
Stew Albert
Oh Freedom
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/11
Website
of the Day
About Those Dancing Crowds
April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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April 18,
2003
What's in a
Name?
Support Our Euphemism
by
CARL ESTABROOK
Americans who support the invasion of Iraq are
offering three reasons for their acquiescence to the Bush administration's
imperial plans.
First is the dire threat of Iraq's "weapons
of mass destruction" -- which slid back and forth from nuclear
bombs to mustard gas, as the occasion demanded. Eventually, with
more than a hundred thousand Brits and Americans busily killing
Arabs, British Home Secretary David Blunkett casually admitted
publicly on 5 April what everyone knew, that no chemical, biological
or nuclear weapons are likely to be found.
This original excuse for the war now
seems specious and even rather quaint, so the administration
has quickly moved to a second, the liberation of the inhabitants
of the country we're attacking -- the cry of conquerors throughout
history. But many Iraqis and much of the rest of the world are
rightly skeptical of the liberation to be brought by American
oil companies, pro-Israel proconsuls and military bases for further
war. The "moderate" Secretary of State, Colin Powell,
insisted that the US would play a "dominating" role
in post-war Iraq but not stop there. "In a strongly worded
speech to the pro-Israel lobby [AIPAC], Powell bracketed Iran
and Syria with Iraq as promoters of terrorism and suggested they
faced grave consequences," reported the Associated Press.
As people around the world see through
these ruses, the defenders of the American war answer truculently
that we're "defending freedom" -- ours and the Iraqis'
-- and press on triumphantly to their third and final reason
to justify the killing of Iraqis: we have to "support our
troops."
The invocation of American siblings,
parents, and children in uniform worked wonders. The "opposition"
party -- feckless Democrats who had generally shrunk from any
criticism of the administration's foreign adventure -- fell immediately
into line. On Thursday 20 March Senate Democratic leader Tom
Daschle announced, "The President is the commander-in-chief,
and today we unite behind him."
One hopes that Sen. Daschle is familiar
enough with the Constitution to know that the president is not
his commander in chief, nor mine -- nor yours, unless you happen
to be a member of the armed forces. Article 2, section 2 of the
present US Constitution holds that the President is the commander
and chief of the army and navy -- not of the populace as a whole.
The construction of that army and navy and their use are supposed
to be under the control of Congress.
Suppose you were talking to a German
expatriate in the middle of World War II, and he said to you,
"Now, I'm not taking a position on the war, but I certainly
do support our boys over there!" Even if he weren't vigorously
waving his national flag, you'd probably conclude that he was
being a bit disingenuous; you might even inquire rather pointedly
what "his boys" were doing over there. But awkward
questions about what "our troops" are doing -- and
whether there's any justification for their doing it -- are avoided,
and politicians vie with one another to profess their support.
The "pro-troops" line echoes
what is perhaps the most successful rhetorical strategy in modern
politics, "pro-choice." In each case attention is shifted
away from a questionable action toward the actor, for whom sympathy
is solicited. But everyone knows that "pro-troops"
is an assertion of the legitimacy of the war, just as "pro-choice"
is a contention that abortion is ethical. In neither case does
the argument have to be made explicit. Both involve ending human
life (obvious in the case of war, but rejected as a description
of abortion by some of its defenders; others however admit that
abortion ends human life but is nevertheless justified, and their
position is closer to the "pro-troops" position).
There's another similarity. Noting that
many of the invading US troops cannot legally buy an alcoholic
drink in the US, one commentator has spoken of Bush administration
plans' being carried out by "brutalized 19-year-olds."
(It's true that the American sniper quoted last week as saying
he killed a female civilian because "...the chick was in
the way," was a 28-year old Marine sergeant.) The presumed
beneficiaries of pro-choice policies could also often be described
that way. Most people considering abortion feel that they have
little "choice" -- the decision seems necessary in
a society that doesn't provide medical care, education, housing
or income. In the same way "our troops" are often constrained
by economic necessity. Nineteen-year-old Pfc. Jessica Lynch from
West Virginia was celebrated throughout the media after her rescue;
her father was quoted as saying, when he first heard that she
had been captured, that she had enlisted only because there were
no jobs for 19-year-olds, even at McDonald's...
It's a vicious society that offers abortion
and enlistment as palliatives for poverty. To force people young
and old into situations in which they have no choice but to stain
their consciences with the deaths of others is a great crime,
one that can't be covered with euphemisms. The beginning of wisdom
is often to call things by their right name.
Carl Estabrook
is a Visiting Scholar University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and a CounterPunch columnist. He can be reached at: galliher@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Today's
Features
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Robert
Jensen
Self-Determination in Iraq? Then the
US Must Leave
Dr.
Susan Block
The Rape of Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Aiming at Syria: Stop Them Before They Kill Again
Robert
Fisk
The Final Sacking of Baghdad
Col. Dan
Smith
Post-War Iraq: Asking the Right Questions
Ali
Abunimah and Hussein Ibish
A Cycle of Chaos and Confrontation: Misadventures of the NeoCons
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/15
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