home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

New Edition of CounterPunch Baghdad Diary: Going from Bad to Worse by Patrick Cockburn; Kerry in Vietnam: Part two; Silver Star or Simply Murder? by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; Is Your Child's Teacher Working for the Pentagon? by Jorge Mariscal. In March, CounterPunch Online was read by 15.4 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. 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 (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

CounterPunch's Scorching New History of a Decade of War Order Now / Available in April Today's Stories April 19, 2004 Douglas Valentine 52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1 Rule April 16 / 18, 2004 Robert Fisk Bush Legitimizes Terror Saul Landau Subverting Brazil and Cuba Dave Lindorff Paying for War: $2,150 per Family and Counting Brandy Baker Fallujah's Collateral Damage Mickey Z. The Left Attacks from the Right Bruce Jackson The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit Uns Norman Solomon How the "NewsHour" Changed History Alexander Cockburn Bush, Kerry and Empire April 15, 2004 Greg Moses Follow the Families, Not the Script Virginia Tilley The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt: Just Change the Channel Ron Jacobs They Coulda Been Champions of the World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic Michael Neumann A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail April 14, 2004 Tom Reeves Return to Haiti: an American Learning Zone Reza Fiyouzat Japan and Iraq Ron Jacobs What Bush Really Said Diane Christian The Real Passion April 10 / 12, 2004 Alexander Cockburn The Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age Patrick Cockburn Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq Ellen Cantarow Health Under Siege on the West Bank Tariq Ali Iraqi Resistance: a New Phase Werther Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other Delicacies Robert Fisk Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up" Gary Leupp Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy Ron Jacobs The Iranian Revolution, Cont. Jorge Mariscal Perils of the Bootstrap Phil Gasper Defying Stereotypes About Death Row Dave Zirin Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview with Lee Evans Brandy Baker The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You Mickey Z. Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin Ali Tonak Get Ready for the Million Worker March Harry Browne Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11 Gideon Samet The Sharonizing of America Conn Hallinan Remote Control Warriors Website of the Weekend Taboo Tunes   April 9, 2004 Robert Fisk This War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us John L. Hess The Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand Niranjan Ramakrishnan Condoleezza's Condescensions Christopher Brauchli Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan Don Santina Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas William S. Lind The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont. Bill Christison 9/11 Commission is Bush's New Lapdog Website of the Day What We've Done to Fallujah April 8, 2004 Wayne Madsen Rice (and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act Kurt Nimmo Will Bush Flatten Fallajuh? Patrick Cockburn Guided Missile; Misguided War Laura Flanders Steamed Rice Larry Everest What Condi Rice is Hiding Adam Federman Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia M. Junaid Alam The Iraqi Intifada Begins Norman Solomon The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence Douglas Valentine Echoes of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq Website of the Day Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics   April 7, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Those Pulitzers! Sen. Robert Byrd Deeper into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq Ron Jacobs Tet in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster? Patrick Cockburn Battles Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts Kathy Kelly Pacification: Worth the Price? Sonali Kolhatkar What Are You Doing About Afghanistan? Rahul Mahajan Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell Robert Fisk US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar Mike Whitney America Out of Iraq, Now! Sam Hamod Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger April 6, 2004 C.G. Estabrook Mercenaries and Occupiers William Blum The Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby Col. Dan Smith The Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones Dr. Bulent Gokay The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq? Lynn Landes Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do Sheila Samples What Would Royko Write? Jason Leopold Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda Mickey Z. A Reality Show with No End in Sight Robert Fisk Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy   April 5, 2004 John Farrell Lessons from El Salvador and Iraq Robert Fisk Bloodbath a Bad Omen for Bush Gary Leupp Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare Scenario"     April 3 / 4, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Anti-Depressants a Problem? We're Shocked Jeffrey St. Clair How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying Gary Leupp On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God Lawrence Davidson Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine Frederick B. Hudson Condi Rice: the Family Retainer Phillip Cryan The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising Dave Zirin Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney Ben Tripp Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard Bruce Anderson Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless Bill Fletcher, Jr. Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti Mark Scaramella Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld Quiz Sharon Smith Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay? Rick Giombetti Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time Nader/Kerry Quandary Stephen Gowans Communists for Capitalism? Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto Mickey Z Turn ON Saul Landau Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist? Richard Oxman Nader and/or Death? Poets' Basement Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp Website of the Weekend Missing   April 2, 2004 Dave Lindorff Barbaric Relativism: the Press and Fallujah Kurt Nimmo Wherever Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow Emma Miller The Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide Dr. Susan Block Same Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition Norman Solomon Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick Sacha Guney The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey Christopher Brauchli The Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee Website of the Day Mercenaries, Inc.   April 1, 2004 Ron Jacobs Dying in Vain in Iraq Harry Browne No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree Chris Floyd Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons Nicole Colson Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo Charles Arthur Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers Laura Flanders Elaine Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son March 31, 2004 M. Junaid Alam Israel: Suicide Nation? John L. Hess Condi Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters? Fernando Suarez del Solar A Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq Sofia Perez Spain's U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action David Vest Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath Tanya Reinhart As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination Mike Whitney Time to Dump the Pledge Donald Kaul Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI Milt Bearden Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great Marjorie Cohn The Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and International Law Website of the Day New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks     March 30, 2004 William S. Lind An Occurrence in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't Ron Jacobs Assassinations, Hate Mail & Justice Mickey Z. Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine" Neve Gordon Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination Mark Scaramella The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way John Chuckman The Countessa of Empire: Condi Rice's Idea of Democracy Greg Moses Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order Rai O'Brien What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power in Venezuela Bill Christison The 9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future Website of the Day Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl   March 29, 2004 John Maxwell Crisis in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold J. Michael Springmann Email Spying & Attorney Client Privilege Robert Fisk / Severin Carrell Coalition of the Mercenaries The Black Commentator Haiti's Troika of Terror Doug Giebel Candide in the Wilderness: How Bush Policy Was Made David Krieger The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Bargain Mike Whitney Rejecting the Language of Terrorism Richard Oxman The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American Family Kim Scipes The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again Michael Donnelly End Game for Northwest Forests Norman Solomon The Media Politics of 9/11 Kathy Kelly Last Lines Before Vanishing Website of the Day Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?     March 27 / 28, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Empire of the Locusts Gary Leupp The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria William A. Cook The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the US Faheem Hussain Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army Elaine Cassel Is Playing Paintball Terrorism? Larry Birns / Jessica Leight Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America John Ross Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead" John Eskow A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus Alan Maass Who Are the Real Terrorists? Dave Lindorff Spineless of US Journalists Joe Bageant Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy Dave Zirin Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids Craig Waggoner Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke? The Kerry Quandry Joel Wendland Marxists for Kerry Josh Frank Scary, Scary John Kerry Matt Vidal Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert Website of the Weekend Say a Little Prayer     March 26, 2004 Christopher Brauchli There's a Chill Over the Country Robert Fisk The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu Joe DeRaymond Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again Mike Whitney Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon Mickey Z. Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead Chris Floyd The Pentagon Archipelago CounterPunch Photo Wire Cheney's Close Shave? John Breneman Bush's Comic Bomb Website of the Day Dick is a Killer   March 25, 2004 Lee Sustar Who is to Blame for Lost Jobs? Standard Schaefer An Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers Roger Burbach Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins to Throw Off the Austerity Planners Jimmer Endres Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue" Larry Tuttle Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups Toni Solo Misreporting Venezuela Dan Bacher A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded Saul Landau Is Venezuela Next? Website of the Day The Spiral Railway     March 24, 2004 Gary Leupp General Musharraf's IOU Richard Oxman Shakespeare for Kerry William Lind The Beginning of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq Rep. Ron Paul Iraq One Year Later Michael Dempsey Killing Rachel Corrie Again Alan Farago The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn Benjamin Dangl and April Howard Media in Cuba John L. Hess No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke Greg Weiher Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George" Eva Golinger An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela Grayson Childs Where's Cynthia McKinney? Steve Niva Israel's Assassinations will Only Fuel More Suicide Bombings Website of the Day The Bushiad and the Idiossey     March 23, 2004 Phillip Cryan The Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks Ron Jacobs They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too? Dave Lindorff A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections Mike Whitney Richard Clarke and Teflon George Brian McKinlay Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble JG Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door" Phyllis Pollack Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black CD Ahmed Bouzid Sharon's One-Way Track Sean Carter The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here] M. Shahid Alam World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie   March 22, 2004 Mazin Qumsiyeh On Extrajudicial Executions Uri Avnery The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime Gilad Atzmon Sharon's Rampage Mike Whitney Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee Jason Leopold Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy Scam Greg Moses Stop Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March Phil Gasper San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation Lenni Brenner Report from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace Julian Borger The Clarke Revelations Steve Perry Karl Rove's Moment Website of the Day Enviros Against War     March 20 / 21, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path Jeffrey St. Clair Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do? Ted Honderich Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act Gary Leupp On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ" William A. Cook Fence, Barrier, Wall Phil Gasper Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism Ron Jacobs Fox News and the Masters of War John Stanton Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon Justin Felux Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man Mike Whitney Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity Augustin Velloso Avoiding Osama's Abyss Lawrence Magnuson Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism? Kathy Kelly Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism Tracy McLellan Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun Kurt Nimmo Emma Goldman for President! Luis J. Rodriguez The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill Mickey Z The Michael Moore Diet Jackie Corr When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility Poets' Basement Stew Albert & JD Curtis Website of the Weekend Virtual World Election     March 19, 2004 Jeffrey St. Clair Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home Ann Harrison So Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights? William MacDougall Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants" Greg Moses Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote Cynthia McKinney Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup, Mr. Bush Norman Solomon Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future John L. Hess "Missing" Evidence and the NYTs Vicente Navarro The End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend Website of the War Naming the Dead   March 18, 2004 Gila Svirsky Rachel Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency Christopher Brauchli Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million from Saddam William Kulin Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing Mike Whitney Resistance: a Moral Imperative Rep. Ron Paul Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment Josh Frank The Nader Question Jack Random They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy Greg Bates What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain Gary Leupp The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost Website of the Day Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key   March 17, 2004 Marjorie Cohn Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties? David MacMichael Untruth and Consequences Michael Donnelly Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer Tom Stephens "Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware Wayne Madsen Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out Karyn Strickler Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections Peter Linebaugh Bush: Blanc Blanc   March 16, 2004 Lenni Brenner James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights Scott Boehm Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days Alexander Lynch From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill Mike Whitney The Case for a Nuclear Iran Robert Fisk The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror" Bill Christison The Aftershocks from Madrid CounterPunch Photo Wire The Passion of St. Teresa Website of the Day Join the War on Art!   March 15, 2004 Harry Browne Terror Nothing New to Europe Mike Whitney Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism Lidice Valenzuela Haiti: a Coup without Consultation Greg Moses Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs Mickey Z. Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health Asaf Shtull-Trauring AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer CounterPunch Wire Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!   March 12 / 14, 2004 Gabriel Kolko The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power Saul Landau Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie! William Blum Neo-Con(tradictions) William S. Lind Why They Throw Rocks Rahul Mahajan The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe Neve Gordon Demographic Wars Kurt Nimmo Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists Mickey Z. The "New" UN Blames the Poor Mike Whitney War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge Helen Scott and Ashley Smith Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup? Justin E.H. Smith Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison Brandy Baker Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On Robin Philpot Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana Mokhiber / Weissman The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding Dave Zirin She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith Daniel Wolff The Lord's Pier   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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

April 19, 2004 The State of Iraq Welcome to the Club By DOUG GIEBEL "President Bush's vision . . . provides for an Iraq made secure through the efforts of the Iraqis. In addition to a more secure environment, the President's plan provides for an Iraqi economy based on sound economic principles, bolstered by a modern, reliable infrastructure. And, finally, the President's plan provides for a democratic and sovereign Iraq at the earliest reasonable date." --From the statement of L. Paul Bremer, U.S. Administrator in Iraq, before the Senate Appropriations Committee, September 22, 2003. Is Uncle Sam about to sew a fifty-first star on Old Glory? How long before Iraq is admitted to the Union by executive order, presented on a bier made from the deaths of sons, daughters, husbands, wives, grandparents, willing and unwilling for an honor such as this? Although there is no provision in the United States Constitution for President Bush to "adopt" a new state into the Union, signs are that Iraq is being dragged, protesting, toward statehood. Congress has the constitutional authority to admit new states. It simply has not yet begun a debate on the issue. Perhaps debate is unnecessary, since our compliant politicians are unlikely to protest when the White House invites Iraq into the national fold. The world is told Iraq will have "sovereignty" come July 1, 2004. In the Wonderland world of Bush Administration policy-making, "sovereignty" for Iraq does not mean true "independence," for the United States plans to maintain tight control over Iraq's defense, its major industry, its ability to act autonomously from the higher U.S. occupying authority. The "governing council" will be selected with final approval of the Bush Administration. Less than a full-fledged independent nation, this "sovereign" Chalabized Iraq will be a 21st century "nation-state." Only the most ill-informed believe there is no U.S. after-invasion "plan" for Iraq. The messianic determination of President George W. Bush and his neo-conservative army of zealots have lived for this moment, and they get what they want. Like ardent Stage Door Johnny suitors, our Bushvolk want to save their prized starlet from herself. In apparent return for job security, George Tenet slipped George W. Bush the "intelligence" bouquet he needed to convince a gutless United State Senate it must hand over a blank check regarding Iraq's future. Far from acting the thoughtful deliberative body it was meant to be, an anxious Senate scurried to give President Bush everything he wanted. Now, despite mounting solid evidence of lies, evasion, bullying and general corruption, senators still refuse to debate the most vital issues, even as they read John Dean's compelling Worse than Watergate brief, even as the numbers of dead and wounded steadily pile up in Iraq. Smarting from recent setbacks in the pacification/reconstruction campaign to subdue "insurgents," our bathed-in-testosterone war jocks press forward into battle. They boast we will never "cut and run" from the "relative few" who are mounting what increasingly resembles the Spanish Civil War as fighters from outside Iraq infiltrate to join forces with Sunni and Shiite bands intent on breaking the will of our diminishing willing coalition. An insanity-laced invitation to this dance of death was proffered with the recent Bush-Sharon agreement, almost immediately followed by Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Rantisi. No longer "wimps," America's leaders plan to "stay the course." Already the administration has given more funding to its divine mission in Iraq than it hands out to some of the current fifty, nifty United States. If 100,000 or more of our citizens remain employed in Iraq for the foreseeable future, if fourteen or more military installations are supported on Iraqi soil "indefinitely," will it break the bank at Fort Knox, break the hearts and minds of parents, children, husbands, wives? No matter. Forward soldiers, God is on our side. "Democratized" by divine intervention of Bush Administration saviors, a grateful and compliant Iraqi population can easily take the next logical step: to be embraced and annexed as the Big Five One: statehood thrust upon them. Their votes will keep neo-cons in control of all three federal government branches forever. They can finally own the place, lock, stock and oil barrel, as is their due. Dick Cheney gets the last lamentable word. Fiscal conservatives should find this plan attractive, especially after they sell off those annoying liberal blues, California and Massachusetts, to Canada or France. (Maybe Arnold can muscle a deal with Austria.) Once Iraq is granted statehood, all those rosy lifetime deals with insider corporations will be transformed from questionable handouts into good old American political pork. Vast expanses of uninhabited Iraq may be appropriated by our burgeoning privatized prison system to house terrorists, insurgents, American criminals, war protesters and government whistleblowers. Out of sight, out of mind, women and children first--so don't rock the boat. Increasingly evidence shows the Bush Administration cares more about "democracy" in the Middle East than it does here at home. Iraqis must be relieved to find that where dictator Saddam Hussein executed his enemies, battle-hardened neo-conservatives imbued with a spirit of federalism merely assassinate the reputations of those who dare disagree with party policy. (Yes, we also kill "terrorists," "insurgents" and civilians, but they don't count so they aren't counted. Though one suspects that somewhere, someone or something may be keeping score.) In the game for Iraq, there can be no tie. Play continues until we win all the marbles. And for Bushvolk, winning means winning, whatever the cost. Having at last transcended trivialities of conscience and a sense of guilt or shame, the present administration will never falter in the quest for its Holy Grail. Anything less than total victory is a "sign of weakness." A cry goes up, "Better a dead duck than a live chicken!" In this neo-conman "good v. evil" world order, brutal strong-arm methods matter most. Genuine "strength" means bully force. We will not emerge at high noon from our national saloon to negotiate and appease. Fire power and relentless intimidation trump the elitism of intellectual strength, ethical strength and the strength that comes through understanding. Even John Kerry seems to prefer an all-out "win" in Iraq. Apparently the prize is worth the pricetag. Tough-guy politicians put forth only two options--beat them down or beat a cowering retreat; but for them there's really only one option: total victory. Two roads diverged in the desert, and we--we have chosen the path too-often travelled. Soon, or maybe not so soon, Iraq will be pounded to its knees, bloody, bowed and ready to embrace Bush Administration "sovereignty." Snatched from the coffins of those who were "sacrificed" on our national altar of necessity, flags will fly, parades will parade as New Iraq is cuddled and embraced, our most precious, most sought-after state. Before that parade passes by, let us toast our coming citizens-to-be, the People of Iraq. You're welcome to America, just as long as you stay at home. Doug Giebel is a writer and analyst who lives in Big Sandy, Montana. His essay "When Professors Cheat" is soon to be published by Mellen Press. He welcomes comments at dougcatz@ttc-cmc.net Weekend Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004 Alexander Cockburn Anti-Depressants a Problem? We're Shocked Jeffrey St. Clair How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business Without Really Trying Gary Leupp On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God Lawrence Davidson Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine Frederick B. Hudson Condi Rice: the Family Retainer Phillip Cryan The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising Dave Zirin Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney Ben Tripp Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard Bruce Anderson Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless Bill Fletcher, Jr. Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti Mark Scaramella Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld Quiz Sharon Smith Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay? Rick Giombetti Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time Nader/Kerry Quandary Stephen Gowans Communists for Capitalism? Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto Mickey Z Turn ON Saul Landau Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist? Richard Oxman Nader and/or Death? Poets' Basement Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp Website of the Weekend Missing Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /