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Recent
Stories
May
16, 2003
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
May
10 / 11, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Rosenthal Faces the Music in Key
Med Marijuana Case
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Labor in the Dawn of Empire
Annie
C. Higgins
The Last Time I Saw Mus'ab
Ron Jacobs
The Devil in New England
William
Mandel
One on One with Sen. Joe McCarthy
Jason Leopold
Halliburton Still Flouts the Law as It Profits from Terror
Patrick
Cockburn
The Iraqi Quagmire
Larry Magnuson
William Bennett: Next Viceroy
of Iraq?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The Good Terrorists?
Anthony
Gancarski
Chalabi: Drowning in Ba'ath-water?
Steven
Sherman
A Letter to My European Friends
Khaled
El-Bizri
Mr. Bush Comes to Santa Clara
Bruce
Jackson
How Fear Curdles the Soul
Adam Engel
Flag in the Rain
Poets
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/10
Website
of the Weekend
Killing Again
May
9, 2003
Rahul
Mahajan
Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet
Wayne
Madsen
When Lying Pays Off: Neo-Con Fabricators
Chris
Floyd
The Karamazov Question
Don Monkerud
The Great Christian Schism: War or Peace?
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Drunk on Power: Bush, Power and the
Pathology of the Dry Drunk
Hammond
Guthrie
Bombastic Promise Keeping
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/09
May
8, 2003
Julie
Hilden
When It's a Crime to Visit Your Son
Mickey
Z.
Partisan Protests?
Mark
Zepezauer
Evil is as Evil Does
David Lindorff
The Coming Senior Revolution
Abu
Spinoza
The Detention of Dr. Huda Ammash
Ben
Tripp
The Other "F" Word
Norman
Madarasz
God in the Service of the Security
State: a Dispatch from Brazil
Stew Albert
Pushovers
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/08
Website
of the Day
Department of Sexual Security
May
7, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Quoting Under the Influence: Breasts,
Martinis, Hitchens
David
Krieger
Winning the War; Alienating the World
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush's Troubling Speech
Bruce Jackson
Bill Kunstler's Last Big Speech
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/07
Website
of the Day
The Truth About Bush's Military Records
May
6, 2003
Paul
de Rooij
An Activist in the Trenches: an Interview
with Gretta Duisenberg
Anthony
Gancarski
Money to Burn: in Defense of Bill Bennett
John
Stanton
Bush's War on Jesus
Sam
Hamod
W. Bush: the Little Snot, the Little
Bully
Robert
Fisk
Bush Says the War is Over: Tell It to
the Shi'a
Kathleen
Christison
A Roadmap to Nowhere
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/06
May
5, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Phase Two: Syria and Iran
Jorge
Mariscal
The Militarization of US Culture
Ishmael
Reed
A Family Values Man
Tarif Abboushi
Sharon's Confidence: Bush Won't Come to Shove on Roadmap
Leila
Matsui
Regime Change Begins at Home...Literally
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Sam
Smith
Coalition of the Shilling
May
3, 2003
Ron
Jacobs
Tears of Rage: Remembering May 1970
Elaine
Cassel
William Bennett, a Freudian Perspective
Sam
Hamod
Understanding the Shi'a of Lebanon
Scott
Fleming
Getting Shot on the Oakland Docks
Mickey
Z.
Cuba and Puerto Rico: 100 Years of Terror
William
S. Lind
Don't Take Col. John Boyd's Name in Vain
Dr.
Bruce Blair
The New Nuclear Terrorism Threat
Joanne
Mariner
Cluster Bombs Over Iraq
Anthony
Gancarski
Hot Fun in the Summertime
Ilian Pappe
Searching Jenin
William
MacDougall
America's Kids Are All Right: Pre-Teen Conservative Commentators
Seth Sandronsky
Incarcerated and Invisible
Rich
Procter
Over Our Dead Bodies
Lenni Brenner
How Bob Dylan Found His Voice
Adam
Engel
American Bulk
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/03
May
2, 2003
Caoimhe
Butterly
Crowd Control American-style
Neve
Gordon
US: No Right to Know About the Disappeared
John
Chuckman
Tom Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster
Bradley
Burston
Betting on Abu-Mazen...To Lose
Harvey
Wasserman
Bush's Military Defeat
John
Troyer
Question Those Writing History
Saul Landau
The Cuba Conundrum
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/02
Website
of the Day
Moussaoui's
Quiz
May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kienthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
April
30, 2003
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
of Washington's Occupations
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
Leupp
Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
Faruqui
Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
"You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"
April
29, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
of the Iraq War
Uri
Avnery
Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
Anthony
Gancarski
Brush with the Law
Mickey
Z.
POWs: Then and Now
CounterPunch
Wire
How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents
Robert
Fisk
Did the US Murder Journalists?
Chris
Floyd
Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria
Wayne Madsen
About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents
Wallace
Gagne
Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby?
Eliot Katz
Playing Catch with Cracked Globes
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/29
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May
17, 2003
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Who Let the
Dogs Out?
By RON JACOBS
Condoleeza Rice reminds me of one of those shaggy
little dogs that bark too much because their bite is harmless.
You know the kind I mean. They have a high-pitched yip that pierces
the silence and they don't stop barking until their human locks
them in another room or gives them a doggie treat. Although their
bite is the equivalent of the bite one gets from a deerfly, it
is their bark that is their true weapon. I have even seen pit
bulls shrink from these varmints' high-decibel attacks. That
is, until the pit bull realized he could eat the smaller animal
for a snack. Ms. Rice is Dubya's yipping dog.
Most recently, Condy (her pet name, shall
we say) launched a yipping tirade on a group of reporters in
Washington. Her subjects included the Bush Politburo's revised
"axis of evil": Syria, North Korea and Iran. According
to an article in The Hindustan Times, Rice stated that these
countries should "change their "troubling" behaviors.
In other words, these countries need to stop any of their policies
that might conflict with "U.S. interests." In Syria's
case, this means that Syria must end its support for organizations
that oppose the US designs for the region. As any objective observer
of events in the Middle East knows, the phrase "U.S. designs"
has become code for the wishes of the Israeli government. Furthermore,
insisted Rice, Syria must end its occupation of Lebanon (a growing
demand of the Bushites that is being pushed by a neocon front
group that calls itself United States Committee for a Free Lebanon)
and account for its weapons of mass destruction. Of course, no
mention was made of Israel's occupation of Palestine or Israel's
WMD. In addition, Rice's accusation that Syria has WMD has yet
to be substantiated by any factual evidence.
As for northern Korea, Rice stated: "no
one should be willing to give in to the kind of blackmail that
the North Koreans have been practicing on the world for a number
of years, especially not the United States." What she left
unsaid, of course, is that the United States government should
be the only government that can blackmail anybody. It's not that
the northern Korean government is blackmailing anyone; it's more
like they are trying to survive as an entity in the face of the
most concerted attack on their existence in close to ten years.
No one wants to see these countries develop or use nuclear weapons,
but in all truth, they do have the right to defend themselves.
The most reasonable way to resolve the situation in that country
is for the United States to back down from its threatening position,
restart fuel oil deliveries, and begin honest negotiations designed
to bring about a lasting peace between Washington and Pyongyang
(with the reunification of Korea the eventual goal). Threats
made with bared teeth and increases in troop strength and weaponry
are not likely to create a stable situation in the region. Indeed,
they are almost certain to inflame passions and increase the
likelihood of devastating war.
When Iran was mentioned, Condy strained
at her leash so hard she almost flipped over on her back. Once
she had calmed down though, it was apparent that she had saved
her most vicious yipping for the government in Tehran. Tehran,
said Rice, should end its nuclear program and, even more importantly,
better behave when it came to its dealings with the government
the U.S. installs in Baghdad. Furthermore, said Rice, the Iranians
should not try to import their form of government to Iraq, nor
should they continue supporting groups whose ideas about the
Middle East differ from those of Washington. In short, Iran should
surrender its foreign policy to that of the United States and
give up any of its hopes for a political situation that reflects
the desires of the Arab and Persian people that the United States
get out of the area. Nothing that Rice said regarding Iran showed
a true understanding of the many differences between the various
Shia factions in Islam (specifically among the Iraqi Shia) as
witnessed by their statements. It is true that some clerics have
called for an Islamic republic, but most have made it clear that
they want to be part of a truly representative Iraqi government
that speaks for all of the Iraqi people. In addition, most of
these clerics have insisted that religion and government should
be separate if religion is to be pure. U.S. officials and their
media have for the most part ignored these latter statements
in favor of sounding alarms over statements made by those few
clerics who have called for an Islamic Republic in Iraq.
The issue of nuclear development in northern
Korea and Iran is a troubling one, just like it is in every country
that has a nuclear program. It is of course essential to oppose
the spread of nuclear weapons wherever they threaten to spread.
However, it is equally important to challenge the current dynamic
that attacks these two countries for going ahead with their nuclear
programs while not seriously addressing the even greater threat
that those countries already in possession of nuclear weapons
presents. I don't sleep easier because of my knowledge that the
Pentagon has a nuclear arsenal. Nor does Israel's nuclear arsenal
make me feel secure. Actually, in all honesty the fact that these
two countries possess as many nuclear weapons as they do (and
continue to develop more lethal versions) makes me considerably
more nervous than any threat posed by Iran or northern Korea.
There was no room for compromise in Rice's
statements. It was clear that this toy poodle (or Shih-Tzu or
whatever) has some serious backup. There's an ill-tempered Doberman
named Rummy, a Rottweiler named Colin, a couple German Shepherds
with military collars named Tommy and Dick, and a chimp who thinks
he's running the show named George (and it's not Curious George).
To make matters worse, they have all escaped from the kennel
and are on the loose. Where's animal control?
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Yesterday's
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Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaioui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
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