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Today's
Stories
August 14 /
15, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
War
on the Poor: "A Risk No Sane Person Would Take"
M. Shahid Alam
The Civilizing Mission: Some Economic Results
Saul Landau
God and Botox
John Ross
Echoes of Mexico City, 1968
Katherine Lahey
"Uh!
Ah! Chávez No Se Va!": Democracy and Venezuela
Medea Benjamin
Hugo Chavez and the Poor of Venezuela
Yves Engler
The Media and the Venezuela Referendum
Justin Podur
The NYTs and Chavez: More Than the Usual Bias
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
August 13,
2004
Lee Sustar
Report
from Caracas
Mickey Z.
McProtests R Us: Why are the Dems Trying to Gag Anti-War Protesters?
Stan Goff
There
He Goes Again: Kerry's "Energy" Plan
Norman Madarasz
Thoughts on Najaf: How Could the US Ever Be Considered a "Terrorist"
State?
Victor Kattan
Press Freedom, Censorship and the War on Terror
Oscar Heck
Is Mendoza Off His Rocker? Chavez Opponents Pledge to Post Results
Online Before Polls Close
CounterPunch
Wire
Military Families File "Stop Loss" Suit
Milan Rai
Najaf: Bush Started It
Website of
the Day
The Yes Men
August 12,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
How
Bush Got (and Lost) His Wings
Lenni Brenner
Take
It on Faith: Kerry's See-Through-Monk's Robe
Lee Ballinger
The Coors and the Kerrys: Drink Up, Kids!
Tariq Ali
The
Handover Fiction
Yves Engler
What's at Stake in Venezuela
William S.
Lind
Seeing
Through the Other Side's Eyes
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Bush's Goat
Website of
the Day
The Sucker Puncher
August 11,
2004
Ceylon Mooney
Who
Woke Up Sen. Joe?: Watchers of the NJ Turnpike
Voices in the
Wilderness
Hands
Off Najaf
Ray McGovern
Porter
Goss as CIA Director?
Robert Jensen
US
Supports Anti-Democratic Forces in Venezuelan Recall
Annie Higgins
In Memory of Nick Pretzlik: As Good as It Gets
Alexander Cockburn
Bush
v. Kerry: Not Even a Dime's Worth of Difference
Website of the Day
Nick Pretzlik
August 10,
2004
William A.
Cook
Silencing
the Voice of the People
Todd Chretien
California Greens at the Crossroads: Will It Be Nader or Cobb?
Dave Lindorff
Chicago on the Hudson?
Richard Gott
Loathed
by the Rich: Why Chavez is Headed for a Big Win
Toni Solo
Bluebeard's
Castle: Disappearing the Right to Development
Dave Zirin
Carl Eller's Plea
Rep. Ron Paul
Police State, USA
Patrick Cockburn
If the Chalabis Were Corrupt, They Weren't Alone
Website of
the Day
The Surveillance-Industrial Complex
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
August 9, 2004
Tito Tricot
Pinochet
Must Still be Tried: a Murderer and a Thief on the Loose
Ron Jacobs
In
Memory of Deep Throat: the Day Nixon Was Gone
Norm Dixon
Crisis in Sudan: Oil Profits Behind West's Tears for Darfur
Kurt Nimmo
The Politics of Entrapment
Elaine Cassel
Welcome to Bush's America
Gary Leupp
Why
Iraqi Christians are Moving to Syria
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
August 6, 2004
Joshua Frank
David
Cobb's Soft Charade: the Greens and the Politics of Mendacity
Derek Seidman
An
Interview with Stan Goff
Mike Whitney
The
Arbitrary Imprisonment of Jose Padilla
William S. Lind
Corruption in the Marine Corps
David Price
In
the Shadow of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August 5, 2004
Mike Ferner
The Kerry Show: When Peace is Off
Message
Bruce Anderson
Two
Rejections
Robert Fisk
The Tale of Saddam's Cameraman
Todd Chretien
Florida
Comes to California: the Democrats' Plot Against Nader
Peter Linebaugh
Doing Time for Political Crime:
Paul and Silas, Bound in Jail
August 4, 2004
Mickey Z.
Two
Traditions: WMD and Disinformation
Justin Huggler
The Hunt for Bin Laden
John Ross
Mexico's
Dirty War Never Ended: Inside Puente Grande Prison
August 3, 2004
Uri Avnery
The
Oligarchs
Ray McGovern
The 9/11 Commission Chimera
Jack McCarthy
Sexual Politics in Jeb's Florida
Eric Ruder
Meet Barak Obama: the Democrats' New Liberal Star
John L. Hess
Crying Wolf: Orange Alert!
Elaine Cassel
Civil Liberties Elections: 1800 v. 2004
Jules Rabin
The Man Who Didn't Walk By
Website of the Day
No Wall
August 2, 2004
Robert Jensen
Kerry's
Hypocrisy on the Vietnam War
Joshua Frank
Greens, Kerry and the Politics of Mendacity
Mike Whitney
The 9/11 Commission and Civil Liberties: "We Need an American
Police State"
Gary Leupp
Beyond
Good and Evil: Some Thoughts on Invasions
July 31 / Aug.
1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Kerry:
He's the (Any) One
Merlin Chowkwanyun
Five Questions with Noam Chomsky: "The Savage Extreme of
a Narrow Policy Spectrum"
David Lindorff
The Shame of the DNC
John Chuckman
The
Disturbing Words of John Edwards
Brian Cloughley
All Slam and No Dunk; All Blame and No Responsibility
Christopher Brauchli
"Being Poor is a State of Mind": the Frowning Face
of Compassionate Conservatism
Fred Gardner
A World of Pain
Michael Donnelly
How Big Pharma Bilks the Elderly
David Nally
Genocide in Darfur?
Joshua Frank
Forest Battles Escalate in Oregon
Sam Bahour
Colin Powell and My Grandmother
Diane Farsetta
The IMF and the Indonesian Elections: The Invisible Hand in the
Voting Booth
Harold Gould
Was Iraq a Mutual Charade?
Van Bergen / Stephens
Election 9/11: Surreal Political Theater
Lee Sustar
A New Model for the Labor Movement?
Ron Jacobs
The Lost Art of Hitchhiking
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview with Palestinian-American Rapper, The Iron Sheik
Poets Basement
Albert, Ford, Krieger, St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Cross Cultural Poetics
July 30, 2004
Kolhatkar /
Ingalls
Shattering
Illusions: Kerry's Speech Tells Anti-War Activists They're Not
Wanted
Dave Lindorff
Murder
Not So Foul?
Bruce Jackson
Walt Whitman on the Sound of Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Fidel Castro
The
Pathology of George W. Bush
Maximilien Robespierre
Memo to Kerry and Bush: Why They Resist
Saul Landau
Bush
Charges Castro with Sex Tourism; JFK Rolls Over in His Grave
July 29, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Hail,
the Conquering War Criminal: What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
Frank Bardacke
What
Michael Moore Left Out of F9/11
Tom Barry
Shallow and Formulaic: Kerry's Latin America Plan
Ron Jacobs
Kerry
and Lennon: Hawking the CounterCulture
Robert Fisk
The Unreported War
Lichtman /
Kellis-Borok
What Kerry Must Do to Win (But Probably Won't)
William S. Lind
The 9/11 Commission Report: Cashing in on Failure
CounterPunch
Wire
Doonesbury Onto John Kerry in 1971!
Website of
the Day
Jabbing JibJab: Copyright Madness
July 28, 2004
Robert Fisk
The
Occupation at 114 Degrees: Baghdad is Swamped in the Smell of
the Dead
Kevin Mink
Kerry's Misperception of Palestine
Ray McGovern
Israel and the Iraq War: How the 9/11 Report Soft-Pedals Root
Causes
United for
Peace & Justice
An
Open Letter to John Kerry: Winter Soldiers and Summer Patriots
Mike Ferner
Vets Demand End to Occupation: "Pull the Troops or Face
Impeachment Mvt."
Imraan Siddiqi
Turning Tricks with Ann Coulter
Alexander Cockburn
Candidate
Kerry
Website of
the Day
Iraq Vets Against the War
July 27, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Why
the Democrats Deserve Nader
Dave Lindorff
Back to the 19th Century: Globalization's Coming!
Mike Whitney
Control Room: Inside Al Jazeera
Ali, Anderson, Bello, et al.
If We Were Venezuelan, We'd Vote for Chavez
Stefan Wray
Texas Plan to Grab Los Alamos Takes Hold, as DOE Shuts Down Labs
Louis Proyect
Reflections on Nicaragua: First Came the Contra Butchers, Then
the Sweatshops
Rick Giombetti
Faith in Freedom: the Challenge of Thomas Szasz
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
The
9/11 Report and Its Weak-Kneed Consensus: Dogding Israel/Palestine;
Blinkered on Causes of Terrorism
July 26, 2004
Todd Chretien
Green
Resistance: a Reply to Normon Solomon & Medea Benjamin
Robert Fisk
Terror
by Video
Richard Forno
Security
Theater in Boston: Security Expert Harrassed by DHS for Exposing
Flaws at the Fleet Center
Mitchel Cohen
Report from a Boston Demo: Arresting the Curious
Richard Moreno
Rockers
for Justice: an Interview with Tom Morello and Serj Tankian
Alexander Cockburn
Boston
Awaits a Dead Party
July
24 / 25, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Democrats and Their Conventions:
Part One
Dennis
Hans
Those 16 Words Still Smell, Mr. Bush
Patrick
Cockburn
The Struggle for Iraq is Only Beginning
Josh
Frank
The War Path of Unity: Dems Reject
the Peace Movement
Justin
E.H. Smith
Christianity and the Left: the Latin
American Experience
Tariq
Ali
What's at Stake in Venezuela
Fred
Gardner
The Politics of Pot: Year of the
Antagonist
Mark
Scaramella
There's Dope and There's Dope
Ron
Jacobs
The Weather Underground's Prairie
Fire Statement...35 Years On
July
23, 2004
Lee
Sustar
Revolution in Nicaragua: 25 Years
On
Dave
Lindorff
Battle for NYC: Bush 1, Protesters
0
Saul
Landau
Zaniest President in US History: Bush
Beats Reagan
Mike
Whitney
The 9/11 Whitewash: Blaming No
One
Mickey
Z
Get On the Bus: 150 Years After Elizabeth
Jennings
Gary
Leupp
The 9/11 Commission and the Looming
War on Iran
July
22, 2004
M.
Junaid Alam
Ten Ways to Build a Better Democrat
Brian
McKinlay
Rusted On Down Under: Howard, Bush and Sharon
Jason
Leopold
Cheney Lobbied for Easing of Sanctions on Terrorist Regimes While
CEO of Halliburton
Chris
Floyd
Mob Rule: Ripping the Lid Off of America's Pious Myths
Uri
Avnery
Chirac v. Sharon
July
21, 2004
Paula
J. Caplan
The Emotional Casualities of War:
Psychologists Can't Heal All the Damage
Joshua
Frank
Nader Sleeping with the Enemy? Let's
be Fair
Ron
Jacobs
American Exceptionalism
Reza
Ghorashi
The Elections, Iran and al-Qaeda
Amy
Martin
Will Congress Rearm the Guatemalan Generals?
John
Ross
Bush May Lose, But His Wars Will Go
On and On
July
20, 2004
Stan
Cox
The Bush / Kerry War Ticket
Chris
Randolph
An Open Letter to Dr. Ehrenreich: It's Over, Barb!
Forrest
Hylton
The Ghosts of Gonismo: "Popular
Patricipation" and Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Mark
Scaramella
It's Official! Mendocino County is Crazier and Fatter Than the
Rest of California
Sam
Bahour
The World is Knocking on Israel's Door
George
Reiter
A Defense of David Cobb
John
Ross
Burying Iraq, Burying Bush
John
L. Hess
Girlie Stuff: Media Tolerance of Arnold & Co.
Website
of the Day
This Land is Your Land
July
19, 2004
Uri
Avnery
Marie and the Ghosts: the Hoax of
Paris
Col.
Dan Smith
What Has Been Accomplished?
Mike
Whitney
Allawi: Our Puppet with a Pistol
Karyn
Strickler
Just Marriage, Not Gay Marriage
Robert
Fisk
The Crisis of Information in Baghdad
David
Swanson
Media Blackout of US Labor Opposition
to Iraq War
Jennifer
van Bergen
The Death of the Great Writ of Liberty
July
17 / 18, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Apocalypse Now: Why the Book of Revelations
is Must Reading
Ghada
Karmi
Vanishing the Palestinians
Lenni
Brenner
When Cattle Unite, Lions Go Hungry: Notes for Ralph Nader
Ben
Tripp
Man on a Bridge: a Ghost Story
Brandy
Baker
What Would Elizabeth Cady Stanton Make of John Kerry?
M.
Shahid Alam
Israel Builds Another Wall
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Nuclear Hypocrisy: Israel, Iran and the IAEA
Patrick
Bond
The George Bush of Africa
Fred
Gardner
Politics of Marijuana: Cannabiniod Therapuetics
William
Blum
Bush and Thucydides
Ben
Terrall
Carter and the Indonesia Elections: "I Don't See Anything
Wrong with a General Running the Country"
Tom
Barry
John Lehman on the War Path
David
Vest
Dylan Without the Music
Phyllis
Pollack
Return to Sin City: Keith Richards Does Gram Parsons
Ron
Jacobs
Smearing Muhammad Ali: Bob Feller Strikes Out
Joshua
Frank
Kerry to Edwards: "Let's Lose!"
David
Nally
A Call for Sudan: Our Georgraphical Blindspot
Toni
Solo
Bolivia's Gas Referendum
Landau,
Hassan, Prashad & Lindorff
Three Reviews of Moore's F911
Poets's
Basement
Ford, Smith and Albert
July
16, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Adonal Foyle: Master of the Lefty Lay-Up
Shervan
Sardar
Dershowitz, the ICJ and Jim Crow Laws
Ron
Jacobs
The Lil' Engine That Couldn't: Kucinich Surrenders on Anti-War
Plank
Robert
Fisk
Iraq, According to Edgar Allen Poe:
Coffin Bombs in Baghdad
Greg
Moses
The Forts of Iraq
Mickey
Z.
Ad Infinitum?: Presidential Campaigns in the Age of TV
Dan
Bacher
A Landmark Win for Salmon and the Tribes
Dave
Lindorff
The Mumia Case: Support from NAACP,
But a Movement in Shambles
Paul
McGeough
Did Allawi Shoot Inmates in Cold Blood?
Website
of the Day
10 Reasons to Fire Bush (and 9 Reasons Kerry Won't Be Any Better)
July
15, 2004
Heather
Williams
McMissing
the Point: Supersize Me Crashes on Its Message
Werther
Iraq: Follow the Money
Tom
Crumpacker
The Birds of Guantanamo
Brian
Cloughley
What Does the Bush Regime Object To?
Bill
Christison
Reorganize the CIA? Of Course,
But...
July
14, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Chronicle of a Nomination Foretold:
the Green Deceivers
Neve
Gordon
Of Socrates and the Apartheid Wall
Diane
Christian
The Priesthood of Death
Stefan
Wray
Who Benefits from Missing Data at Los Alamos Nuclear Lab?
Josh
Frank
The Nader / Dean Debate
Conn
Hallinan
Divide and Conquer as Imperial Rules
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Bring My Brother Home!: Class, War
and Education
Website
of the Day
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of US Empire
July
13, 2004
Ray
McGovern
The CIA and Iraq: an Intelligence
Debacle...and Worse
Mark
Donham
The Sierra Club's Inexplicable Treatment of Cynthia McKinney
Ben
Tripp
Politus Interruptis: With Friends Like
These, Who Needs Electorates?
Mark
Gaffney
Slipping Towards Armageddon: Israel
in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Osama Wins! Election Postponed!
Chris
White
Double Think: the Bedrock of Marine
Indoctrination
July
10 / 12, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
The Problem with Neutrality Between
Palestinians and Israel
Janine
Pommy Vega
Trail of the Comet: a Gathering of the World's Poets Against
War
Sherry
Wolf
From Maverick to Party Attack Dog: Howard Dean Gay-Bashes Nader
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassen
A Transfer of Power, Sort Of
Michael
Donnelly
How to Steal an Election: the Green Version, 2004
Stanton
/ Madsen
Iraq Survey Group: Rumsfeld's al-Qaeda?
Richard
Lichtman
The End of Innocence: Reflections on American Pathology
Gila
Svirsky
Thank You, Your Honors: a Legal Blow to the Wall
Kurt
Nimmo
Clinton's Life
Toni
Solo
Empire-Speak: What Roger Noriega Really Means
Ron
Jacobs
The Black Panthers and the Rest
Camelo
Ruiz Marrero
Gene Warfare in Oaxaca: Genetic Mutation of Mexican Maize
Omar
Barghouti
Wither the Empire: Rise of a Global Resistance
Poets'
Basement
Curtis and Albert
July
9, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Carlos Delgado on Deck: Blue Jays Slugger
Stands Up Against War
Justin
Delacour
Wishing Kerry Would Shut Up About
Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Iraq in Reverse: Martial Laws Fuel Insurgency
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Two Congresses and a Funeral
William
S. Lind
The October Surprises
Sibel
Edmonds
Our Broken System: John Ashcroft's War on Truth
Ron
Jacobs
Reading Tea Leaves: What Vietnam Tells Us About Iraq's Future
Gary
Leupp
The Lie That Will Not Die: Cheney and
the Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
July
8, 2004
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Inexplicable John McCain
Toufic
Haddad
Protesting Israel's Apartheid Wall:
a Letter from the Hunger Strikers' Tent
Dave
Lindorff
Liberation as Martial Law
Joshua
Frank
The Fall: How Beltway Dems Sank Howard
Dean
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush & Cheney Play the Hitler Card
James
Petras
The Truth About Jimmy Carter
July
7, 2004
John
Chuckman
Kerry's BBQ: a Deafening Silence
of Meaning
Virginia
Tilley
A Line in the Sand: Azmi Bishara's
Hunger Strike
Susan
Martinez
A Letter to Bill Cosby
Mickey
Z
Elie Wiesel's Strange Parade
Michael
Donnelly
Our Own Private Wilderness: Trusting the Land in the Inland Empire
Sean
Donahue
Boston Social Forum: the Dems aren't the Only Show in Beantown
Diane
Christian
Sovereignty and Freedom in Iraq
July
6, 2004
Lisa
Viscidi
Fleeing Guatemala: Central Americans
Risk Lives to Reach El Norte
Marc
Norton
The Felonious Five Ride Again: the
Supreme Court and Enemy Combatants
James
Brooks
Chemical Warfare on the West Bank?
Ray
McGovern
Porter Goss as CIA Director?
William
Cook
Legacy of Deceit: If Dante Knew of Bush and the Neo-Cons...
July
5, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
US Imperialism in Latin America: Sept.
11, July 4 and Systematic Torture
Chris
White
A Former Marine Sgt. on the Meaning
of Independence Day
Joe
Bageant
Cranky Reflections on the 4th of July
Robert
Jensen
Stupid White Movie: What Michael Moore
Misses About the Empire
Kathy
Kelly
"Two Days an' a Wake-Up"
July
3 / 4, 2004
Elaine
Cassel
Bush's Police State and Independence
Day
Stan
Goff
ABC of Opportunism: "Progressive"
Latin American Leaders Support the Coup in Haiti
Snehal
Shingavi
"We Want Real Justice for Bhopal": Two Survivors Speak
Out
Bruce
Anderson
The Cheney-Leahy Metaphor and the Greens
Sharon
Smith
Twilight of the Greens: the Chokehold of "Anybody But Bush"
Josh
Frank
Ralph Nader's Revolt: an Interview with Greg Bates
Robert
Fisk
Pentagon Tried to Censor Saddam's Hearing
Joe
Bageant
Sons of a Laboring God: Leftnecks Unite!
Brian
Cloughley
Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Justin
Delacour
The Anti-Chavez Echo Chamber: Venezuela's Media Tycoons
William
S. Lind
Saudi Spillover
Linda
S. Heard
A Joke Called "Justice"
Greg
Moses
"It's Illegal, But It's Our Right": Korean Labor Won't
Back Down
Ron
Jacobs
"Ain't You Proud to be White on Independence Day?"
Toni
Solo
Weary of Indigenous Resistances? Just Pretend They're Not There
Dan
Nagengast
Chicken Manure as Cattle Food: Safe, But Do We Want to Eat It?
Stew
Albert
Brando, a Personal Recollection
Dave
Zirin
From the Black Panthers to Sacheen Littlefeather: a Eulogy for
Our Brando
Patrick
W. Gavin
The Progressive Case for Dodgeball
Steven
Rosenthal / Junaid Ahmad
The Problem is Bigger Than the Bushes: a Review of F911
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Ford and Davies
Website
of the Day
Global Peace Solution
July
2, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Suicide Right on the Stage: the Demise
of the Green Party
Douglas
Valentine
Fahrenheit 911: Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
Gary
Leupp
"Just Because I Could": On Obscenities and Opportunities
Lee
Ballinger
Illegal People: Kerry Opposes Immigrant Rights
Robert
Fisk
Saddam in the Dock: Confused? Hardly
CounterPunch
Wire
"What Law Formed This Court?": a Transcript of Saddam's
Arraignment
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Drug Card Lottery: the Price Ain't Right
Saul
Landau
Buzz Words and Venezuela
July 1, 2004
Katherine
van Wormer
Bush's Damaged Mind: the Madness in
His Method
Joe
Bageant
Is Our President a Whackjob? Does It Matter?
William
James Martin
The Dogma of Richard Perle
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Evacuation Moment
Robert
Fisk
Bread and Circus Trials in Iraq
Alan
Maass
Green Party in Reverse
Website
of the Day
Michael Moore and Israel: Blind or a Coward?
June
30, 2004
Kurt Nimmo
Nicholson
Baker's Checkpoint: a New Kind of Anger About Bush
Tariq
Ali
Getting Away with Murder in Iraq
Jennifer
Van Bergen
Bush and the Detainees
Douglas
Valentine
Apotheosis of the Psychopaths: Instead of Fahrenheit 9/11, Rescreen
The Quiet American
David
Price
Fahrenheit 9/11 Through the McCain-Feingold Looking Glass
Roger
Normand
America's Criminal Occupation of Iraq
Stan
Cox
Sanitized for Your Protection: Ashcroft's
War on Art
Henry
David Thoreau
On the Futility of Bush v. Kerry: All Voting is a Kind of Gaming
Ben
Tripp
Who Dast Call Him Liar: a Rebuttal to Nicholas Kristof
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
August 14 / 15, 2004
The
US Double Standard
Nuclear
Disarmament in a Time of Globalization
By
DAVID KRIEGER
Nuclear weapons occupy the highest rung
on the ladder of military cowardice. They are long-distance devices
of mass annihilation. They destroy indiscriminately - men, women
and children. They draw no lines between soldiers and civilians.
Those who make the weapons, who deploy them, who order their
use and who press the buttons to send the missiles on their way
have virtually no connection with the victims. They are simply
human instruments in a chain of activities leading to massive
devastation.
The only arguably sane use
of nuclear weapons is deterrence, and deterrence is largely an
unproven theory. General George Lee Butler, a former commander-in-chief
of the United States Strategic Command, who was in charge of
all US nuclear weapons, has expressed his deep concerns about
deterrence. "Nuclear deterrence," he wrote, "was
and remains a slippery intellectual construct that translates
very poorly into the real world of spontaneous crises, inexplicable
motivations, incomplete intelligence and fragile human relationships."
When one examines carefully the shortcomings of nuclear deterrence
- its requirements of near-perfect communications, rational behavior
in a time of crisis and willingness to commit mass murder - it
is reasonable to conclude that reliance on nuclear deterrence
for security is as insane as the threat to destroy civilization
with nuclear weapons.
In recent times, there has
been a high degree of concern for nuclear terrorism, but nuclear
terrorism has been practiced by the nuclear weapons states for
decades. If terrorism is the threat or use of violence to achieve
political goals - especially if it results in injuring or killing
innocent people - then the nuclear weapons states are by definition
terrorists. It is ironic that nuclear weapons are more potent
tools in the hands of non-state actors than in the hands of powerful
countries. Non-state actors in possession of a nuclear weapon
would not be constrained by threats of retaliation. If terrorists
are suicidal and cannot be located anyway, they certainly cannot
be deterred from initiating a nuclear attack. In this sense,
nuclear weapons are a great equalizer in the hands of extremists,
and for this reason it is clear that the nuclear weapons states
must do everything in their power to prevent these weapons, or
the materials to make them, from falling into the hands of such
extremists. The nuclear weapons states, however, appear more
committed to maintaining their own nuclear arsenals than to assuring
that nuclear weapons do not proliferate to non-state terrorist
groups that could cause them irreparable harm.
The only way to assure that
nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of terrorist groups
like Al Qaeda is to take dramatic steps to reduce nuclear arsenals,
dismantle the nuclear weapons, and place the remaining weapons
and weapons-grade fissile materials under strict and effective
international controls. The nuclear weapons states have not been
bold in attempting to control the spread of nuclear weapons;
they have acted as though time is on their side rather than on
the side of those committed to waging war against them. The irony
of this is that the nuclear weapons states, even with arsenals
of nuclear weapons that number in the thousands, cannot deter
a group such as Al Qaeda from using nuclear weapons against them.
Their only hope is to prevent such groups from obtaining these
most destructive of all weapons.
Nuclearism
and Globalization
Nuclearism is one of the early
manifestations of globalization. The United States went global
with its nuclear threat almost from the day it first created
nuclear weapons. Within three weeks of testing the first nuclear
weapon on July 16, 1945, the US used nuclear weapons on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. It did so not only to destroy those cities and
punish Japan, but also to send a message to the world and particularly
to the Soviet Union. The message was, "This is what we are
capable of doing and willing to do with our devastating new weapons;
don't cross us or we could use them on you." It was a powerful
message, and also an incentive to nuclear proliferation. It would
take the Soviet Union just four years to test its first nuclear
device.
Very early in the Nuclear Age,
the US began testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific, including
in the Trust Territories that had been assigned to it by the
United Nations. In doing so, it continued the pre-war pattern
of colonial dominance. Over the decades of the Nuclear Age, all
of the nuclear weapons states have performed their nuclear testing
on the lands of indigenous peoples, leaving the hazardous radioactive
residue of testing in their backyards.
Another dimension to the globalization
of the nuclear threat was the development of inter-continental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs), allowing for the destruction of nearly
any place on the globe in 30 minutes or many places simultaneously.
Even today, the US and Russia each still have some 6,000 deployed
strategic nuclear weapons. Of these, some 2,250 each are on hair-trigger
alert, ready to be fired in moments.
The US and USSR, now Russia,
as well as other nuclear weapons states, also appropriated the
global commons for their nuclear forces. The nuclear weapons
states continue to use the oceans, humankind's great common heritage,
for their submarine-launched nuclear forces. They agreed not
to place nuclear weapons on the ocean floor, but with the availability
of submarines, the ocean floor is clearly not a necessary or
even useful option for them.
Another aspect of the globalization
of nuclearism is the spread of the US nuclear umbrella to its
allies throughout the world, particularly in Europe, Asia and
the Pacific. By extending its nuclear umbrella, the US has made
many more countries complicit in relying upon nuclear weapons
for their security, albeit reliant upon US nuclear weapons rather
than developing their own.
Nuclear
Proliferation
Nuclear proliferation is the
flip-side of nuclear disarmament. It is also the globalization
of nuclear arsenals. The existing nuclear weapons states have
nearly all justified their development of nuclear weapons on
the basis of nuclear deterrence. The US created nuclear weapons
because it was concerned about deterring a possible Nazi nuclear
bomb. The Soviet Union developed its nuclear arsenal to deter
the US. The UK and France developed their nuclear arsenals to
have independent deterrent forces against the Soviet Union. China
sought to deter both the Soviet Union and the US. India sought
to deter China, and Pakistan sought to deter India. North Korea
would undoubtedly justify its nuclear weapons, if indeed it has
them, as being necessary to deter the US. South Africa, which
faced global hostility due to its policies of Apartheid, developed
a nuclear arsenal to deter the US and Russia. It subsequently
gave up its nuclear weapons. Israel, which continues to face
both regional and global hostility, developed a nuclear arsenal
to give it greater degrees of freedom in relation to the US and
Russia and well as to deter hostilities by non-nuclear weapons
states in its region.
The US-led war against Iraq
was justified initially on the basis that Iraq might be developing
a nuclear arsenal and could potentially transfer nuclear weapons
to terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda. Although it turned out
not to be true that Iraq was developing a nuclear arsenal or
even that it had links to Al Qaeda, this fear provided the justification
for the first counter-proliferation war in history.
US Double
Standards Have Stimulated Proliferation
From the outset of the Nuclear
Age, the US has had a double standard when it comes to nuclear
weapons. It has always relied on these weapons for its own security,
yet sought to deny these weapons to other states except when
it suited its purposes. In the
late 1960s and early 1970s,
Israel developed a nuclear arsenal. At best it can be said that
the US turned a blind eye to this development. In sharp contrast
to the US attacking and invading Iraq because it might have nuclear
or other weapons of mass destruction, the US, in line with its
geopolitical strategies, has never even criticized Israel for
its nuclear proliferation. This double standard has created an
impetus to the proliferation of nuclear and other weapons of
mass destruction in the volatile Middle East.
India's position, for decades,
was that it would not develop nuclear weapons if the nuclear
weapons states fulfilled their obligations under the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) to achieve nuclear disarmament. India made clear
pronouncements that it was not willing to live without nuclear
weapons in a world of nuclear "haves" and "have-nots".
Three years after the NPT was extended indefinitely in 1995 and
there was still no significant breakthrough by the nuclear weapons
states toward achieving nuclear disarmament, India conducted
a series of nuclear weapons tests and announced that it was developing
a nuclear arsenal. Pakistan followed immediately in doing the
same.
When Mr. Bush named Iraq, Iran
and North Korea as part of an Axis of Evil, he put these states
on notice that they were in the sights of the US. When he then
went on to attack and invade Iraq to overthrow the regime of
Saddam Hussein, Bush's actions sent a message to Iran and North
Korea, among others, that they had better consider developing
a nuclear deterrent force against the US. They may have already
had such thoughts before the Axis of Evil speech, but there can
be no doubt that such provocative language, coupled with military
action, can only act as a stimulant to develop a strong deterrent
force. The Bush posture toward the states designated as an Axis
of Evil stands in strong contrast to the manner in which his
administration virtually ignored the nuclear proliferation activities
of Pakistani nuclear physicist A.Q. Khan. Khan, whose activities
have been described as a nuclear Walmart, received only a slap
on the wrist from the Pakistani government, allied with the US
in the so-called war against terrorism.
Nuclear
Disarmament
In the post-Cold War period,
there has been some progress toward nuclear disarmament, but
it has been excruciatingly slow as measured by the need, obligation
and opportunity. Current global nuclear stocks are down from
a Cold War high of some 70,000 nuclear weapons to approximately
30,000. The vast majority of these, some 97 percent, are in the
arsenals of the US and Russia.
The need to dramatically reduce
and eliminate nuclear weapons lies in the danger of these weapons
proliferating to other states or falling into the hands of non-state
extremist actors. The enormous danger of these weapons in the
hands of groups like Al Qaeda should be sufficient to motivate
serious efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament. So far it has
not done so. The need does not exist to maintain large nuclear
arsenals or, for that matter, any nuclear weapons in a world
where nuclear weapons states are trading with each other rather
than threatening war.
The obligation of the nuclear
weapons states to achieve nuclear disarmament is set forth in
Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. At the 1995
NPT Review and Extension Conference, when the treaty was extended
indefinitely, the parties agreed to "systematic and progressive
efforts to reduce nuclear weapons globally, with the ultimate
goal of eliminating those weapons." Five years later, at
the 2000 NPT Review Conference, the parties agreed on 13 Practical
Steps for Nuclear Disarmament. These steps included ratification
of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, negotiations for a Fissile
Material Cut-Off Treaty, preserving and strengthening the Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty, making disarmament measures irreversible, and
an "unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapon States
to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals
leading to nuclear disarmament to which all States parties are
committed under Article VI."
The opportunity to achieve
nuclear disarmament in the post-Cold War world has been largely
squandered. Bill Clinton was presented with the greatest opportunity
of any leader in the post-World War II period to put an end to
the dangers of the Nuclear Age. Clinton didn't seem to grasp
the opportunity that had been laid at his feet. He was largely
indifferent to the issue, and this resulted in only minimal progress
during his eight years in office. He did, however, support ratification
of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and did hold negotiations
with Russia on START III, but these negotiations did not result
in a new treaty.
If the Clinton approach to
nuclear disarmament can be described as benign indifference,
the US under the Bush administration can be thought of obstructionist
in its approach to nuclear disarmament. It has been an obstacle
to virtually all of the 13 Practical Steps agreed to at the 2000
Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference. The Bush administration
has opposed ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,
put up barriers to negotiations for a Fissile Material Cut-Off
Treaty, pulled out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (in order
to pursue missile defenses and space weaponization), and entered
into an agreement with the Russians that makes nuclear reductions
completely reversible. This agreement, the Strategic Offensive
Reductions Agreement (SORT), specifies reductions of the US and
Russian deployed strategic arsenals from levels of about 6,000
each to between 1,700 and 2,200 each by the year 2012. However,
the treaty doesn't require that the weapons taken off deployed
status be irreversibly dismantled. As a result, many US weapons
will go into storage and be available for redeployment in the
future. It is likely that the Russians will do the same, and
these weapons will also be available for possible theft by terrorist
groups. The reductions do not have a timeline and only need to
be completed by 2012. After that year, the treaty will no longer
be in effect. So far as it impacts nuclear disarmament, the treaty
is largely fraudulent. It gives the appearance of disarmament,
but the substance isn't there.
In addition, the Bush administration
has been pressing for research on new nuclear weapons that will
be more usable, a new bunker busting nuclear weapon (the Robust
Nuclear Earth Penetrator) and mini-nukes (low-yield nuclear weapons)
that are about one-third the yield of the Hiroshima bomb. They
have also begun deployment of missile defenses that have led
Russia to pull out of the START II agreement. Despite their funding
of research on new nuclear weapons and their opposition to the
13 Practical Steps, a US delegate to the 2004 Preparatory Committee
meeting for the 2005 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference,
John Bolton, told the assembled parties to the treaty that they
shouldn't focus their attention on Article VI of the treaty with
its nuclear disarmament provisions. "We cannot divert attention
from the violations we face," he said, "by focusing
on Article VI violations that do not exist."
Need for
US Leadership
The world currently faces a
tragic dilemma: preventing nuclear terrorism requires significant
nuclear disarmament and international control of nuclear weapons
and materials, but to achieve this will require US leadership,
which is currently non-existent. Since the US continues to rely
upon its own arsenal of nuclear weapons for security, it cannot
effectively provide leadership toward nuclear disarmament. In
the Bush administration's secret, but leaked, 2001 Nuclear Posture
Review, they stated: "Nuclear weapons play a critical role
in the defense capabilities of the United States, its allies
and friends. They provide credible options to deter a wide range
of threats, including WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and large-scale
conventional force. These nuclear capabilities possess unique
properties that give the United States options to hold at risk
classes of targets [that are] important to achieve strategic
and political objectives."
Initiatives
for Nuclear Disarmament
At the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation,
we are initiating a campaign to chart a new course in US nuclear
policy that we call Turn the Tide. It is an Internet-based campaign
that seeks to awaken US citizens to the need to change US nuclear
policy and spur them to communicate with their Congressional
representatives and candidates as well as the president and presidential
candidates and to cast their ballots based on positions on nuclear
disarmament issues. The campaign is based on the following call
to action:
1. Stop all efforts to create
dangerous new nuclear weapons and delivery systems.
2. Maintain the current moratorium
on nuclear testing and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
3. Cancel plans to build new
nuclear weapons production plants, and close and clean up the
toxic contamination at existing plants.
4. Establish and enforce a
legally binding US commitment to No Use of nuclear weapons against
any nation or group that does not have nuclear weapons.
5. Establish and enforce a
legally binding US commitment to No First Use of nuclear weapons
against other nations possessing nuclear weapons.
6. Cancel funding for and plans
to deploy offensive missile "defense" systems which
would ignite a dangerous arms race and offer no security against
terrorist weapons of mass destruction.
7. In order to significantly
decrease the threat of accidental launch, together with Russia,
take nuclear weapons off high-alert status and do away with the
strategy of launch-on-warning.
8. Together with Russia, implement
permanent and verifiable dismantlement of nuclear weapons taken
off deployed status through the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions
Treaty (SORT).
9. Demonstrate to other countries
US commitment to reducing its reliance on nuclear weapons by
removing all US nuclear weapons from foreign soil.
10. To prevent future proliferation
or theft, create and maintain a global inventory of nuclear weapons
and nuclear weapons materials and place these weapons and materials
under strict international safeguards.
11. Initiate international
negotiations to fulfill existing treaty obligations under the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for the phased and verifiable
elimination of nuclear weapons.
12. Redirect funding from nuclear
weapons programs to dismantling nuclear weapons, safeguarding
nuclear materials, cleaning up the toxic legacy of the Nuclear
Age and meeting more pressing social needs such as education,
health care and social services.
While this campaign is essential,
it is a strategy from within the country. It is also necessary
to bring pressure to bear on the US and other nuclear weapons
states from the international community. The countries of the
New Agenda Coalition (Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand,
South Africa and Sweden) have been doing admirable work on this
at the United Nations and at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
Conferences and Preparatory Committee meetings. These countries
were largely responsible for putting forward the 13 Practical
Steps for Nuclear Disarmament agreed to at the 2000 NPT Review
Conference. I should also mention the Middle Powers Initiative,
a coalition of eight international non-governmental organizations,
which has provided strong support and encouragement to the New
Agenda countries.
Another important new initiative
to move forward the nuclear disarmament agenda is the Emergency
Campaign of the Mayors for Peace. Under the leadership of the
mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this campaign has set forth
a Vision 2020, calling for the initiation of negotiations for
complete nuclear disarmament in 2005, the completion of these
negotiations in 2010 and the elimination of nuclear weapons by
the year 2020.
Breaking
the Silence
Nuclear weapons pose a threat
to humanity's future, and yet most of us are silent in the face
of this danger. It would not be possible to research, develop,
deploy, threaten and use nuclear weapons if so many were not
silent. The threat of nuclear genocide, even omnicide, has become
global. Before the spread of the weapons themselves becomes global,
we must break the culture of silence and conformity that allows
the continuation of the nuclear threat to all humanity.
In some ways, we have attributed
god-like characteristics to nuclear weapons. Their power far
exceeds that of ordinary weapons. They are credited in the US
with bringing World War II to an end. It is hard to forget the
emotional celebrations that took place in the streets in India
and Pakistan when they tested nuclear weapons in 1998. Here is
a poem in which I have tried to capture the sense of the godliness
that has been ascribed to nuclear weapons by many people in the
nuclear weapons states.
WHEN THE BOMB BECAME OUR GOD
When the bomb became our god
We loved it far too much,
Worshipping no other gods before it.
We thought ourselves great
And powerful, creators of worlds.
We turned toward infinity,
Giving the bomb our very souls.
We looked to it for comfort,
To its smooth metallic grace.
When the bomb became our god
We lived in a constant state of war
That we called peace.
But nuclear weapons certainly
are not gods, nor are their possessors. These weapons are false
idols, and they threaten their possessors as well as their targets.
They may be powerful, but their power is only that of destruction.
They have neither the power of creativity nor of construction.
They threaten the future of humanity, and they corrode the souls
of their possessors.
We are approaching the 60th
anniversary of the creation and first use of nuclear weapons.
Time is not on our side, and we can take little comfort in the
fact that nuclear weapons have not been dropped on other cities
since they were used at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In this era of
globalization, the threat of nuclear annihilation is itself global.
To counter this threat, we must globalize prohibitions in law
and morality to the possession, threat and use of the nuclear
weapons. We must end the double standards that suggest that some
may have nuclear weapons while others may not. There are no safe
hands in which nuclear weapons may be placed.
The singular threat that nuclear
weapons pose can only be ended by people everywhere breaking
the silence and demanding that the nuclear weapons states fulfill
their obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty for the
total elimination of these weapons, and persisting in their demands
until the goal is achieved.
David Krieger is president of the Nuclear
Age Peace Foundation.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
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Fred Gardner
Run
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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
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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
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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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