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Today's
Stories
September 25,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
C'mon
Ralph, You've Got Nothing to Lose
September 24,
2004
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
The
Value of One Life: Keeping Up Appearances and Leaving Hostages
to the Wolves
William S.
Lind
Destroying
the National Guard
Mike Whitney
The Bush Tent Show
Nancy Welch
What's
at Stake for Women in 2004?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Logical Limbo
Joshua Frank
Fear Mongering 101
Victor Kattan
An Interview with Afif Safieh
Ben Terrall
Kerry and Haiti: Will He Stand Up?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
"Finally
It Broke My Heart": Random Impressions from Palestine
September 23,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Are They Still Holding "Mrs. Anthrax?"
Christopher Brauchli
Ashcroft's "Distressing Lack of Care": Hamdi and the
Phony War on Terrorism
Derek Seidman
Fighting for a Union at Starbucks: an Interview with Daniel Gross
Michael Neumann
Three
Years and Counting? How Time Flies
September 22,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Zarqawi's
War: the Mysterious Sadist from Jordan
Neve Gordon
The
Wall, the Court and Sharon
Joshua Frank
History Repeating: New York, 1832 and Now
Ron Jacobs
Stormy Seas on the Citizen Ship
Jack Random
Defending Dan? Rather Not
Tarif Abboushi
Kerry's Final Straw: Confessions of a Despairing Voter
Mickey Z
Stupid White Guy Quiz
John L. Hess
Faking the Difference: a Serious Debate?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: The House Rules
September 21,
2004
Gary Leupp
"We
Are Not Secure": Kerry's "Unwavering Commitment"
to Securing a Middle East Realm
Robert Jensen
Large
Dams in India: Temples or Burial Grounds?
Elaine Cassel
Fourth Circuit to Moussouai: Ask Your Questions; Prepare to Die
Stanley Heller
Reagan and the Killing Fields of Lebanon
Adam Federman
America Will Disappoint the World, Again
David Whitehouse
What's Behind the Horror in Darfur?
M. Junaid Alam
How to Avoid Becoming an Anti-American
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
Website of the Day
True American War Heroes: the Iraq Refuseniks
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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
September 25 / 6, 2004
Bombs, Ahoy
Iraq:
From Clinton to Bush
By
JOSHUA FRANK
Despite what John Kerry may say along
the campaign trail, the Democratic Party is largely to blame
for laying the groundwork the Republican hawks needed to justify
attacking Iraq and waging Bush's greater "war on terror."
This of course is not something
you will be likely to hear sputter off the lips of Kerry this
year: but it was under Clinton's dutiful watch when bin Laden
allegedly masterminded the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center
(WTC) in New York City. The CIA claimed the strike was carried
out by the same ring of thugs that hit the USS Cole in October
2000, as well as the horrific terror attacks in September of
2001. And intelligence officials concur that the September 11
hijackings were being planned well before Al Gore's defeat in
2000.
According to Laurie Mylrone,
Bill Clinton's Iraq adviser in 1993, Clinton himself responded
to the first attack on the WTC by bombing Iraq. "He said
publicly that the U.S. strike on Iraqi intelligence headquarters
was retaliation for Saddam's attempt to kill [ex-president] George
Bush," NewsMax reported Mylroie as saying in October 2002.
"[But] he also meant it for the Trade Center bombing.
"Clinton believed that
the attack on Iraqi intelligence headquarters would deter Saddam
from all future strikes against the United States," she
disclosed, and then conceded, "It was hopelessly naïve."
In 1996, Clinton bombed Iraq
yet again. Orchestrated in early September 1996, the bombings
walloped several civilian targets and military facilities --
without the approval of the U.N. or any international alliance,
for that matter. The Iraqi government reported dozens of deaths,
and millions of dollars worth of damages. Sound familiar?
Of course, these attacks were
not a first for Clinton, who had already been viciously callous
to the citizens of Iraq. As the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization reported a year earlier in 1995, as many as 576,000
Iraqi youth died as a result of United Nation sanctions that
the US had imposed and supported since 1991. This conservative
tally did not even include the over 90,000 annual hospital deaths
that the World Health Organization estimated would have not happened
had Clinton not compelled the UN to enforce harsh sanctions against
the Iraqi people. Sadly, it seems the litmus test for U.S. presidential
aspirants must include the will to brutalize Iraqis.
Then in 1998, Clinton retaliated
for an East African U.S. Embassy bombing by firing 70 cruise
missiles at a suspected bin Laden terrorist training camp in
Afghanistan and heaving another 17 missiles at a pharmaceutical
plant in the Sudan. The plant was destroyed, and most likely
was responsible for thousands of deaths.
Later that year when Clinton
signed into law the Iraq Liberation Act -- drafted by the same
hawkish neocons that helped thrust forth Bush's own Iraq policy
including Republican staffer Randy Scheunemann, Donald Rumsfeld,
former-CIA director R. James Woosley, and Ahmad Chalabi into
law later that year -- the US outlined its ultimate objective
for its involvement in Iraq. That is, extinguishing the life
of Saddam Hussein and his government.
It was as if D.C. already had
the champagne on ice; regime change was so close, Congress could
almost taste the after-party. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly
supported the legislation, with the Senate voting unanimously
in favor of the bill.
When Clinton signed it into
law in mid-October 1996, Republican Senator Trent Lott sang his
praises: "The Clinton administration regularly calls for
bipartisanship in foreign policy. I support them when I can.
Today, we see a clear example of a policy that has the broadest
possible bi-partisan support. I know the Administration understands
the depth of our feeling on this issue. I think they are beginning
to understand the strategic argument in favor of moving beyond
containment to a policy of 'rollback.' Containment is not sustainable.
Pressure to lift sanctions on Iraq is increasing -- despite Iraq's
seven years of refusal to comply with the terms of the Gulf War
cease-fire. Our interests in the Middle East cannot be protected
with Saddam Hussein in power. Our legislation provides a roadmap
to achieve our objective.
In what many criticized as
an effort to deflect attention from his impeachment trial, Clinton,
tried his luck with Saddam one more time a couple months later
on December 16, 1998. But unlike previous Iraqi bloodbaths --
which paled in comparison -- this attack was waged with visceral
rage. As President Clinton asserted in a national televised address
on the day of the first US offensive, "Earlier today, I
ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security
targets in Iraq. They are joined by British forces. Their mission
is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors
... Their purpose is to protect the national interest of the
United States, and indeed the interests of people throughout
the Middle East and around the world.
"Six weeks ago, he continued,
"Saddam Hussein announced that he would no longer cooperate
with the United Nations weapons inspectors called UNSCOM. They
are highly professional experts from dozens of countries. Their
job is to oversee the elimination of Iraq's capability to retain,
create and use weapons of mass destruction, and to verify that
Iraq does not attempt to rebuild that capability ... The international
community had little doubt then, and I have no doubt today, that
left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will use these terrible weapons
again.
Noam Chomsky responded, "I
think the major reasons [for the use of force] are the usual
ones. The US and its increasingly pathetic British lieutenant
want the world to understand -- and in particular want the people
of the Middle East region to understand -- that What We Say Goes,,
as Bush [Sr.] defined his New World Order while the missiles
were raining on Baghdad in February 1991. The message, clear
and simple, is that we are violent and lawless states, and if
you don't like it, get out of our way. It's a message of no small
significance. Simply have a look at the projections of geologists
concerning the expanding role of Middle East oil in global energy
production in the coming decades ... The manner and timing of
the attack were also surely intended to be a gesture of supreme
contempt for the United Nations, and a declaration of the irrelevance
of international law or other obligations; that too has been
understood. The bombing was initiated as the Security Council
met in emergency session to deal with the crisis in Iraq, and
even its permanent members were not notified.
Surely Iraq had been brutalized
for decades under the thumb of Saddam Hussein. But Clinton only
escalated the cruelty. Writing for Guardian Unlimited in 2000,
journalist John Pilger reported:
"Six other children died
not far away on January 25 last year. An American missile hit
Al Jumohria, a street in a poor residential area. Sixty-three
people were injured, a number of them badly burned. Collateral
damage,, said the Department of Defense in Washington. Britain
and the United States are still bombing Iraq almost every day:
It is the longest Anglo-American bombing campaign since the second
world war, yet, with honorable exceptions, very little appears
about it in the British media. Conducted under the cover of -no-fly
zones,, which have no basis in international law, the aircraft,
according to Tony Blair, are performing vital humanitarian tasks.,
The ministry of defense in London has a line about taking robust
action to protect pilots" from Iraqi attacks"yet an
internal UN Security Sector report says that, in one five-month
period, 41 per cent of the victims were civilians in civilian
targets: villages, fishing jetties, farmland and vast, treeless
valleys where sheep graze.
"This is a war against
the children of Iraq on two fronts: bombing, which in the last
year cost the British taxpayer £60 million. And the most
ruthless embargo in modern history. According to UNICEF, the
United Nations Children's Fund, the death rate of children under
five is more than 4,000 a month"that is 4,000 more than
would have died before sanctions. That is half- a million children
dead in eight years.
"The irony is that the
US helped bring Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party to power in Iraq,
and that the US (and Britain) in the 1980s conspired to break
their own laws in order, in the words of a Congressional inquiry,
to secretly court Saddam Hussein with reckless abandon,, giving
him almost everything he wanted, including the means of making
biological weapons. Rubin failed to see the irony in the US supplying
Saddam with seed stock for anthrax and botulism, that he could
use in weapons, and claimed that the Maryland company responsible
was prosecuted. It was not: The company was given Commerce Department
approval.
"Denial is easy, for Iraqis
are a nation of unpeople in the West, their panoramic suffering
of minimal media interest; and when they are news, care is always
taken to minimize Western culpability. I can think of no other
human rights issue about which the governments have been allowed
to sustain such deception and tell so many bare-faced lies. Western
governments have had a gift in the butcher of Baghdad--who can
be safely blamed for everything. Unlike the be-headers of Saudi
Arabia, the torturers of Turkey and the prince of mass murderers,
Suharto, only Saddam Hussein is so loathsome that his captive
population can be punished for his crimes."
In retrospect, it is evident
that Clinton and his Democratic cohorts did more than their fair
share of laying the groundwork for Bush's war against and occupation
of Iraq and Afghanistan. Not only did Clinton construct the political
leverage Bush needed by signing the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act,
he also provided a model for Bush's relentless bombing of Iraq
as he also led several significant strikes on Afghanistan and
the Sudan.
So when Bush began talking
about regime change in Iraq, those who looked to the Democrats
to halt the offensive, were surely seeking out the wrong allies.
****
On October 10, 2002, the House
of Representatives voted 296-133 in favor of giving Bush the
green light to punish Saddam. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with
President Bush on the White House lawn, Dick Gephardt, who helped
draft the measure, explained, "I believe we have an obligation
to protect the United States by preventing [Saddam] from getting
these weapons and either using them himself or passing them or
their components on to terrorists who share his destructive intent.
Meanwhile, Bush was amassing
support for his war in the Senate. Helping Bush's cause was Tom
Daschle, the Democrat Majority Leader at the time, who surmised
that Saddam's threat "may not be imminent. But it is real.
It is growing. And it cannot be ignored." Hitching a ride
on the war-wagon New York Senator Hilary Clinton added, "In
the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports
show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and
biological weapons stock ... his missile delivery capability,
and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and
sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members. It is clear,
however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue
to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare,
and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
Buying Bush's war propaganda
hook-line-and-sinker, the Democrats were all too eager to support
the Iraqi war. They believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
They were convinced he was a threat to U.S. sovereignty. They
even thought he had ties to Osama bin Laden. The donkeys were
bewildered.
As far back as 1998, President
Clinton articulated his concerns about a possible Iraq threat,
announcing after a Iraq Pentagon briefing, "If Saddam rejects
peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want
to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction program." It should come as no surprise that
Senators John Kerry, Tom Daschle, and Carl Levin wrote President
Clinton that same year to illuminate the threat Saddam allegedly
represented, emphasizing, "We urge you, after consulting
with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and
laws, to take necessary actions, including, if appropriate, air
and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites, to respond effectively
to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass
destruction programs."
The tide, it seemed, had a
window of opportunity to turn away from this prelude to war against
Iraq, but predictably, the Democrats, on their heels and hoping
not to lose control of the Senate in a congressional election
year, cowered in 2002. Although Rep. Dennis Kucinich perceptively
saw the looming war as a momentous error and organized opposition
in the House -- some 130 votes -- his noble effort failed. With
political interests and propaganda in mind, most establishment
Democrats ignored his rationale, leaving the millions of protestors
who took to the streets across America prior to the invasion
with few representatives in Washington, historically or otherwise.
And as the story goes, Bush easily got his way, much to the protesters,
chagrin: On March 19, 2003, US forces rattled Baghdad with a
military conquest like no other seen in history. The war-criminals
proudly dubbed their murderous deed "Shock-and-Awe.
By then, the Democrats, who
had failed to articulate any basis for citizens to vote for them
as opposed to their Republican rivals, had lost control of the
Senate as well as many seats in the House. They didn,t challenge
Bush on any major issue. They supported his invasion of both
Afghanistan and Iraq. It was a horrific display of political
ineptness. The Democrats -- unlike the millions of Americans
who knew Bush and Co. had ulterior motives for unilaterally attacking
Iraq -- had been duped.
Time will tell if John Kerry
will be punished at the polls in November for failing to articulate
a viable alternative to President Bush. Like William Blum recently
said, he may be viable, but Kerry and his Democratic brethren
are anything but an alternative.
Joshua Frank, a contributor to CounterPunch's forthcoming
book, A
Dime's Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils,
is putting the finishing touches on Left
Out: How Liberals did Bush's Work for Him, to be published
by Common Courage Press. He welcomes comments at frank_joshua@hotmail.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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