home / subscribe / donate / tower / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
|
Hysteria, Exploitation and Witch Hunting In the Age of Internet Sex
|
|
Today's Stories April 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn April 27, 2007 Eva Liddell Phyllis Bennis Mike Whitney Michael F.
Brown Jordan Flaherty Margaret Kimberly Christopher Brauchli Jacob Mundy Website of the Day
Andrew Cockburn Franklin Lamb Patrick Cockburn Roger Morris Henry Siegman Alevtina Rea Paris Nikolas Kozloff Alan Farago Matthew S. Miller Website of
the Day
Sharon Smith David Price Diana Johnstone Brendan Cooney Sonja Karkar Brian Concannon Lee Gaillard Leah Fishbein Dave Lindorff Neal Galloway Website of the Day
April 24, 2007 Ishmael Reed Lila Rajiva Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Mike Whitney Website of the Day
April 23, 2007 Saul Landau Patrick Cockburn Robert Fantina Sam Husseini Corporate Crime Reporter Elizabeth Lalasz Harvey Wasserman Dave Lindorff Gary Leupp Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Fred Gardner Kristoffer Larsson Barbara Rose
Johnston Manuel Garcia, Jr. John Scagliotti Marjorie Cohn Patrick Cockburn Diana Johnstone Ron Jacobs Evelyn Pringle BANCO Paul Richards Dan Bacher Ben Terrall Sherwood Ross Remi Kanazi Aseem Shrivastava Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 20, 2007 Doug Peacock Diane Farsetta Tom Clifford Amira Hass Nicole Colson Sonja Karkar Heather Gray Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban Agustin Velloso Matthew Koehler Website of
the Day
April 19, 2007 Emad Mekay
/ Patrick Cockburn Larry C. Johnson Norman Solomon Saul Williams Sunsara Taylor Harvey Wasserman Christopher
Brauchli Anthony Papa Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
April 18, 2007 Lila Rajiva Landau / Hassen Charles Fisher
/ Diane Christian Kevin Prosen China Hand Peter Rost,
MD Justin Akers Chacón Jerry Kroth Sherwood Ross Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alice Cherbonnier Website of
the Year?
April 17, 2007 Jean Bricmont
/ Paul Craig
Roberts Frida Berrigan Alison Weir John Walsh Jason Hribal Evelyn Pringle Ben Terrall Stan Cox Soren Ambrose Website of the Day
April 16, 2007 John F. Sugg Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Carl G. Estabrook Paul Craig Roberts Uri Avnery Ralph Nader Eamon McCann Lee Sustar Mike Whitney Don Fitz Stephen Lendman Website of the Day
April 14 / 15, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Jorge Mariscal Jeffrey St. Clair Dave Marsh Dr. Trudy Bond Joe Bageant Fidel Castro Alfredo Molano Alan Farago Michael Neumann Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Gail Dines Linda Ford Missy Beattie Dan La Botz Giuliana Sgrena Laura Carlsen Abu Spinoza Elizabeth Schulte Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Stephen Soldz George Ciccarriello-Maher Laith al-Saud Dave Zirin John Ross Ramzy Baroud Harvey Wasserman Lopez, Olivo and Garcia Dols, Fukumori,
Judd and Tillett-Saks Website of the Day
April 12, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski Paul Craig
Roberts Marjorie Cohn Evelyn Pringle Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Joe DeRaymond Nicola Nasser Nikolas Kozloff William S.
Lind Siegfried L. Sassoon Website of
the Day
R. T. Naylor Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Jack Balkwill Alan Farago Russell D.
Hoffman Peter Rost, MD Mike Whitney Dave Lindorff Susie Day Website of the Day
April 10, 2007 James G. Abourezk Earl Ofari
Hutchinson Joshua Frank Lee Sustar Joseph Grosso Nirmal Ghosh Robert Jensen Ramzy Baroud Paul Rockwell Mario Joseph
and Fred Wilhelms Website of
the Day
April 9, 2007 Saul Landau Uri Avnery Nicole Colson Gideon Levy Corporate Crime Reporter Evelyn Pringle Hill Kemp Martha Rosenberg Keith Rosenthal Jane Stillwater Website of the Day
Alexander Cockburn Sara Roy Arno J. Mayer Jeffrey St.
Clair Vicente Navarro Fidel Castro Fred Gardner Ralph Nader David N. Rahni Arthur Neslen Pratyush Chandra Missy Beattie Marc Levy Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
April 6, 2007 Franklin Lamb Gloria La Riva Corporate Crime Reporter Ron Jacobs Felice Pace Walter Brasch David Swanson Sylvia Syracuse
Patrick Cockburn Tom Barry Richard W. Behan Nicola Nasser Bernadine Dohrn Laray Polk Helen Redmond
April 4, 2007 Col. Dan Smith Joshua Frank Margaret Kimberly Sharon Smith Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon Martin Luther
King,Jr. Bill Quigley Dave Zirin Evelyn Pringle Peter Rost,
MD Website of the Day
April 3, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Marjorie Cohn Brian M. Downing Corporate Crime
Reporter Carol Norris Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Scott Bontz Thomas Dolby Website of
the Day
Gary Leupp Uri Avnery James Petras Norman Solomon Robert Fisk Stanley Heller Sherwood Ross Monica Benderman Stephen Fleischman Anne McElroy
Dachel Website of the Day
Cockburn /
St. Clair Fred Gardner Greg Moses Gary Leupp Robert Fisk Roger Morris Conn Hallinan Kristin J.
Anderson Jason Hribal John Ross Christopher Brauchli David Underhill Elizabeth Schulte Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Sonja Karkar Daniel Wolff David Vest Ron Jacobs Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
Subscribe Online
|
"Mission
Accomplished" Weekend Edition Lying as Art FormThe Rhetoric of Dick CheneyBy ROBERT FANTINA "My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." So said Vice-president Dick Cheney on March 16, 2003 as U.S. soldiers marched toward Baghdad at the start of America's Iraqi disaster. Nearly six months later, on Meet the Press, Mr. Cheney, not generally compared to Pollyanna, seemed to adopt her type of viewpoint: "Well, I think we have (been greeted as liberators) by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you'll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did." Mr. Cheney takes the term 'spin' and causes his topic to rotate at a most dizzying speed. Since prior to President Bush's immoral misadventure in Iraq, Mr. Cheney has demonstrated not only a willingness, but an apparent eagerness to state whatever seemed convenient about Iraq, with little regard to the truth. Prior to the invasion of Iraq, Mr. Cheney often spoke of that country's alleged ties to al-Queda. This falsehood was tied darkly to Iraq's purported possession of weapons of mass destruction and efforts to obtain or develop nuclear weapons. Despite the fact that U.N. weapons inspectors found no evidence of either, Mr. Cheney and the rest of the Bush administration decided that the threat to America from non-existent weapons justified a pre-emptive strike, in violation of international law and against the wishes of most of America's oldest and most trusted allies. After the 9/11 Commission issued its report stating that it found 'no credible evidence' that Iraq was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, and that there was no collaborative relationship between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, Mr. Cheney continued to sing his familiar, if discordant, tune. On June 18, 2004, he stated that "[t]here clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming." He even added a new verse, stating that the 9/11 Commission found such evidence! It has been said that the telling
of one lie leads to ten more. Mr. Cheney seems determined to
prove the accuracy of this theory. Following his It appears that to all the members of the Bush Administration, 'supporting the troops' means having a war for them. One can hardly blame Mr. Cheney for this misunderstanding; during the Vietnam era, when 58,000 young Americans died in Vietnam, he claims he did not serve because he had 'other priorities' and thus did not trouble himself with the work of war. Years later he seems to have now engaged in it as play. So a misunderstanding of what it means to 'support the troops' is natural. On March 24, 2007, after the House of Representatives voted to fund the war until September 2008, and require redeployment by then, Mr. Cheney said "[t]hey're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them." It is difficult to see how providing all requested funding for an eighteen month period, and assuring that a plan is in place to end the war by that time, is undermining the troops. As the debate about withdrawal dates intensified, the vice-president's deceitful declarations have not ceased. After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forcefully pressed for a withdrawal timetable, Mr. Cheney, on April 25 2007, said the following: "Some Democratic leaders seem to believe that blind opposition to the new strategy in Iraq is good politics." The vice-president seems to have forgotten the endless Congressional debates about Iraq that have been held since the Democrats came to power, the negotiations to achieve consensus on the bill that will be sent to Mr. Bush, and the years of frustration as Mr. Reid and the rest of the country watched the Iraqi disaster unfold. For Mr. Reid and many other members of Congress to hear Mr. Bush dismiss the recommendations of the non-partisan Iraq Study Group and repeat the escalation mistakes that proved so disastrous during the Vietnam War, and then oppose those policies, cannot under any circumstances expect in Mr. Cheney's oil and blood drenched world be seen as 'blind opposition.' Mr. Cheney's ability to lie becomes more skillful as he hones it with practice. In the same speech that he referred to 'blind opposition,' he said the following: "It is cynical to declare that the war is lost because you believe it gives you political advantage." This in response to Mr. Reid's statement of a few days earlier that the war is lost. One can easily agree that it is cynical to declare the war lost in order to gain political advantage. However, that is not what Mr. Reid has done. Unlike Mr. Cheney, Mr. Reid does not dismiss the opinion of experts that Iraq, without a central government to provide it with any semblance of cohesion, has descended into a state of civil war. Unlike Mr. Cheney, Mr. Reid apparently listens to the opinions of experts who say that a military victory cannot be achieved in Iraq; a political settlement must be sought. Based on his own observations, the opinions of experts and the clearly stated will of the American citizenry, Mr. Reid has led Congress to do what Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush refuse to do: cut American losses and exit Iraq. If it were reasonably possible to believe that Mr. Cheney was simply deluded in his beliefs, one could almost excuse him. Almost, but not quite. The vice-president of the world's last remaining super-power, one that has run amok on the world stage to the detriment of millions of people around the world, should have a tighter grip on reality. And perhaps a less tight grip on the oil industry. While the vice-president fails to recognize or chooses to ignore the facts that are clear to much of the world, the suffering of innocent Iraqis and dedicated American soldiers continues. In a war built upon lies he told, nearly 4,000 Americans are dead and the death toll of Iraqis climbs towards one million. As he criticizes those who are striving, however ineffectually, to end the war, the entire Middle East is threatened with destabilization, and Iraq's civil war intensifies. At a time when leadership is desperately needed, Mr. Cheney appears to pursue 'other priorities.' Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion and the American Soldier: 1776--2006.'
|
The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! ![]() Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal ![]() Click Here to Order! ![]() Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |