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Questions Labor's Leaders Daren't Ask: Where and Why Did We Go Wrong? by JoAnn Wypijewski; Oil on Ice: How Bush Won ANWR, with an Assist from the Dems by Jeffrey St. Clair; The Self-Rehab of George Kennan by Alexander Cockburn; The State and Terri Schiavo: a Conversation with Ralph Nader; Lisa Frittko: She Escorted Walter Benjamin Across the Pyrennes by Lawrence Reichard. Remember these stories are available exclusively in the print edition of CounterPunch. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories April 14, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen April 13, 2005 Maria Carrión Mike Whitney Terry Jones Dave Lindorff Nathaniel Livingston, Jr. Kurt Nimmo Don Fitz Tom Crumpacker JG Jack McCarthy Kevin Zeese Jeffrey St.
Clair
April 12, 2005 John Wheat
Gibson Kevin Zeese Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Nelson P. Valdes Dave Zirin Website of the Day
April 11, 2005 Tom Barry Saul Landau Monique Dols Phil Gasper Mike Whitney Edwin Krales Paul de Rooij Website of the Day
April 9 / 10, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair William A. Cook Gary Leupp Alan Maass Laura Carlsen Joe DeRaymond Nikolas Kozloff Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Fred Gardner Justin Smith Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Ira Kay Elizabeth Schulte Jackie Corr Christopher
Brauchli Leslie A. Fiedler Ben Tripp Poets Basement Website of
the Weekend
April 8, 2005 Rob Eshelman Hom Raj Acharya
/ Sally Acharya Felice Pace Neve Gordon Mike Whitney Don Monkerud Adam Engel Vicente Navarro Website of the Day
April 7, 2005 Joshua Frank Yitzhak Laor Alan Maass Steven Sherman Dave Lindorff Gerry Adams John Chuckman Michael Dickinson John Ross Website of the Day
April 6, 2005 Peter Camejo Kevin Wehr Matt Vidal Robert Creeley
/ Bruce Jackson Nikolas Kozloff Sea Shepherd Crew Brenda Child Terry Eagleton David Swanson Cindy Ellen
Hill Website of
the Day
April 5, 2005 Jim Connolly Paul Craig
Roberts Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Dan Smith Mark Engler Richard Oxman Greg Moses Website of the Day
April 4, 2005 Kevin Zeese Paul Craig Roberts Larry Birns
/ Sarah Schaffer Karyn Strickler Joshua Frank Michael Dickinson Surendra R.
Devkota Derrick O'Keefe Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 2 / 3, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Stan Goff John Ross Saul Landau Robert Creeley Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Greg Moses Fran Quigley Kurt Nimmo Nicole Colson Chris Genovali Alan Farago Lawrence Reichard Ben Tripp Avantika Regmi Lee Sustar Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Poets' Basement Website of
the Day
April 1, 2005 Tom Barry Rahul Mahajan Charlie Cray
/ Jim Vallette Dave Lindorff Zeynep Toufe Suzan Mazur Michael Dickinson Stan Cox Ra Ravishankar Daniel Wolff
March 31, 2005 Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Tariq Ali Michael Dickinson Kanak Mani
Dixit Mitchell Zimmerman Xuan-Trang
Ho Dave Zirin Joe Bageant Jeff Halper Website of
the Day
March 30, 2005 Gary Leupp Ralph Nader
/ Kevin Zeese Chase Madar Toni Solo Jackie Corr Ahmad Faruqui Mike Roselle Jude Wanniski Francis A.
Boyle Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of
the Day
March 29, 2005 Ralph Nader Gary Leupp Sonia Cardenas Stew Albert Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Carl G. Estabrook
March 28, 2005 Jeremy Scahill Sonali Kolhatkar Sasha Kramer Kevin Zeese Tom Stephens Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Newton Garver Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
March 26 / 27, 2005 Gary Leupp Peter Linebaugh Marc Robert Laura Carlsen Saul Landau
/ Puja Patel Dave Foreman Fred Gardner Jennifer Matsui Dave Lindorff Dharma Adhikari Joshua Frank Patrick Barr Christopher
Brauchli Ramzy Baroud Jackie Corr Ben Tripp Dr. Susan Block Mickey Z. Justin Taylor Richard Joseph Poets' Basement
March 25, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons Yoshie Furuhashi Pat Williams Mark Engler Rahul Mahajan Lance Selfa Ralph Nader John R. Llewellyn Jo Guldi
March 24, 2005 Joshua Frank Talli Nauman Martin Espada Dave Lindorff Elaine Cassel Jack McCarthy Jack Random Barbara Ferguson Suzan Mazur Dorreen Yellow Bird Andrew Wimmer
and Mark Chmiel
Patrick Bond Mike Whitney Becky White Michael Donnelly Niranjan Ramakrishnan Ashley Smith David Swanson Derrick O'Keefe Paul A. Moore Dalton Walker Patrick Cockburn
March 22, 2005 William Blum Jim Vallette Greg Moses John Farley Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Rep. Cynthia
McKinney Dave Lindorff James Petras
March 21, 2005 John Walsh Werther Mike Stark David Swanson James T. Phillips Mike Ferner Robert Jensen Paul Craig
Roberts Stew Albert Website of
the Day
March 19, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Tom Reeves Saul Landau Alan Maass Ron Jacobs David Green John Blair Steve Greenfield Ben Tripp Mike Roselle Joshua Frank Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Sarah Schaffer Warren Hastings Poets' Basement
March 18, 2005 Dave Zirin Richard Thieme John Walsh David Swanson Ben Terrall David Boyle Dorreen Yellow Bird Mokhiber /
Weissman Greg Moses Website of
the Day
March 17, 2005 Christopher
Brauchli Bill Quigley Brian Cloughley Gary Bass / Adam Hughes Dave Lindorff Jude Wanniski Alexander Billet John Ross Website of the Day
March 16, 2005 Ralph Nader William Cook Kevin Zeese Jackie Corr Alan Maass David R. Kolker Cindy Ellen
Hill Paul Craig
Roberts
March 15, 2005 Gary Leupp Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Hadas Their
/ Katrina Yeaw Alison Weir Matt Koehler Evelyn Pringle Harry Browne
March 14, 2005 Ralph Nader David Miller Stan Cox Mike Roselle David Swanson Simona Sharoni Dave Lindorff Dorreen Yellow Bird Tom Barry Website of the Day
March 12 / 13, 2005 David H. Price Noam Chomsky Laura Carlsen Stan Goff Valentina Nicoli Michael Leonardi Saul Landau
/ Sarah Anderson Joe Bageant Manuel García,
Jr. Greg Moses James J. Brittain Ben Tripp Joshua Frank Fred Gardner Walter Brasch Ramzy Baroud Christopher
Brauchli Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Richard Oxman Poets' Basement
March 11, 2005 Jerry Fresia Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff William James
Martin Muqtedar Khan Kathryn Ledebur Mike Whitney Dave Zirin Website of the Day
March 10, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts John Marc Leas, Colleen McLaughlin
and Ashley Smith Larry Birns Michael Donnelly Luis Gomez Jackie Corr Uri Avnery Website of the Day
March 9, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair Ward Churchill Robert Fisk Bernice Powell Jackson Mickey Z. Dave Zirin Michael Donnelly James Reiss Vijay Prashad
March 8, 2005 Paul Craig
Roberts Robert Fisk Kurt Nimmo Suzan Mazur Evelyn Pringle Giuliana Sgrena Elaine Cassel
March 7, 2005 Dave Zirin Brian Cloughley John Chuckman Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Fred Gardner Richard Neville Uri Avnery
March 5 / 6, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Gary Leupp Ron Jacobs Tom Reeves Jenna Orkin Tom Barry Joshua Frank Moshe Adler Jane Stillwater Omar Barghouti / Jacqueline
Sfeir Christopher
Brauchli John Pilger Raúl
Zibechi David Krieger Three Takes on Nepal Surendra R. Devkota Bhishma Karki Joseph Pietri Ben Tripp Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
March 4, 2005 Frederick Hudson
March 3, 2005 Pat Williams Brian Cloughley Dave Lindorff Amira Hass Greg Moses Lynne Landes Nelson P. Valdés John Ross
March 2, 2005 Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Mike Roselle M. Junaid Alam Suzan Mazur Jackson Thoreau Michael Donnelly Jeffrey St.
Clair Website of the Day
March 1, 2005 Scott Richard
Lyons David Lindorff Patrick Cockburn
/ David Enders Ron Jacobs Tanya Garcia Joseph Pietri Kona Lowell Paul Craig
Roberts Website of
the Day
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
J.B. Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber Wendell
Berry CounterPunch
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Corrie Gore Vidal Francis Boyle
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April 14, 2005 Bush's Vision of Arab Democracy v. Two Reports"Once We were Ruled by a Dictator; Now We are Ruled by Clowns"By SAUL LANDAU and FARRAH HASSEN Pomona, CA / New York City Two new reports on economics ("Arab World Competitiveness Report 2005") and politics ("Towards Freedom in the Arab World," launched in Amman, Jordan on April 5, 2005) in the Arab states dramatized what all astute observers already knew: the Arab region is a mess and US policies have exacerbated the situation. "The Arab world is facing a population time bomb and urgently needs to reform governments, education systems and cultural rules that keep women out of the workforce" wrote Al Jazeera (April 2), summing up the findings of the "Arab World Competitiveness Report 2005," issued by the World Economic Forum at an April 2, 2005 conference in Doha, Qatar. The "Competitiveness Report" acknowledged the viability of oil-rich mini states like Qatar, but over the next decade other Arab nations had "to create 80 million jobs" to address the growing pool of future jobseekers. Mustafa Nabil, chief World Bank economist for the Middle East, cited Arab leaders' "resistance to change" as one impediment to instituting wide-reaching reforms. The 2004 Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), "Towards Freedom in the Arab World," also echoed Nabil's sentiments on the "authoritarian nature" of Arab leaders but drew Washington's ire by censuring the US role in both Iraq and Israel-Palestine. Washington's ensuing displeasure held up the report's original October 2004 release date and prompted UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown's subsequent disclaimer that "In the case of this year's reportsome of the views expressed by the authors are not shared by the UNDP or the UN" (Foreword, "Towards Freedom in the Arab World"). Lead author Nader Fergany claimed that the Bush administration responded to the critical language by threatening to slash some of its $100 million contribution to the UNDP (December 23, 2004 Courier-Mail). The UNDP denied any such threat. But the story leaked to the media and Arab intellectuals understood Washington's "free speech lesson." Bush had already made clear his disdain for the UN by invading Iraq in 2003, virtually destroying the legitimacy of the Security Council, which had refused to authorize military action. He poked the UN in its eye again by nominating Undersecretary of State for Arms Control John Bolton as Washington's UN representative. "There's no such thing as the United Nations," Bolton had declared at the 1994 Global Structures Convocation in New York, adding, "The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." Bush circles rely on the US public to forget that in 1945 US money and staff created this world body. The Bushies, however, don't hesitate to use UN documents that coincide with their policies. They praised the 2002 and 2003 Arab Human Development Reports, which emphasized the absence of freedom in Arab states, points White House officials used to back their own "democratic" plans to remake the Middle East But the authors of the 2004 AHDR violated taboos by criticizing Israel, which "has continued its violations of individual and collective freedoms of Palestinians" (p. 6), and Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq, where "the Iraqi people have emerged from the grip of a despotic regimeonly to fall under a foreign occupation that increased human suffering" (pg. 7). Both policies have "adversely influenced Arab human development" (p. 6), the authors concluded. Such judgments by leading independent
Arab scholars who drafted the latest report reflect deep pessimism.
Absence of freedom pervades the region, particularly in the oil-rich
Gulf States like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, they noted. Bush backers, however, deny reality on several fronts. First, the tyrannical regimes that they call allies will not redistribute power or wealth. Second, and more damaging to Bush's freedom indicator, elections, is that the Arabs interviewed by the AHDR team want "liberation from foreign occupation and the freedoms of opinion, expression and movement" (pg. 97). Such facts don't bother "democracy pushers." "We are at the dawn of
a glorious, delicate, revolutionary moment in the Middle East,"
wrote columnist Charles Krauthammer. "It was triggered by
the invasion of Iraq, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and televised
images of 8 million Iraqis voting in a free election"(March
4, 2005, Washington Post). Dakil more accurately measures the pulse on the Arab streets, where average unemployment hovers around 15 percent (Al Jazeera, "Experts: Arab Economies Lag Behind," April 3, 2005). "32 million people suffer from malnutrition," noted the latest AHDR, after studying 15 Arab countries (pg. 10). Daily devastation sweeps Iraq and Afghanistan, while Lebanon faces possible civil war, ignited by the February assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Bush's religious dogma, however, negates reasonable discussion about facts in the region. Shortly after US troops invaded Iraq, then Commerce Secretary Don Evans said that "Bush believes he was called by God to lead the nation at this time" (Judy Keen, USA Today April 2, 2003). On March 2, 2005, the President told an audience at Maryland's Anne Arundel Community College: "I look forward to continuing to work with friends and allies to advance freedom - not America's freedom, but universal freedom, freedom granted by a Higher Being" (March 5, 2005, Arab News). "The Seed of Chucky in the White House," as one Arab-American dubbed him, shows no interest in the underlying issues of the region. Since 9/11, reports Al Jazeera (April 2, 2005), wealthy Arab investors have withdrawn their US investments and have instead poured money into regional real estate. This activity creates temporary construction jobs but hardly fuels an export-based economy or attracts large scale foreign capital. Indeed, real economic reformers would have to circumvent the current over-bloated bureaucracies, which exist without accountability, transparency or the rule of law and which make institutionalizing long-range reforms impossible. Nonetheless, President Bush's simplistic reform formula calls for "privatization" to solve the Middle East's economic woes, which sounds like a joke in a region where vast oil profits have not trickled down to the pockets of the average citizen. For much of the Arab world, privatization has really meant theft of public property. Additionally, Bush links addressing Middle Eastern poverty with free trade. "Across the globe, free markets and trade have helped defeat poverty, and taught men and women the habits of liberty," he declared. "So I propose the establishment of a U.S.-Middle East free trade area within a decade, to bring the Middle East into an expanding circle of opportunity, to provide hope for the people who live in that region" (May 9, 2003). More enlightened 21st Century imperialists might offer the Middle East a born again version of the Marshall Plan combined with a revitalized Alliance for Progress, a massive investment plan for industry and infrastructure along with education reforms to bring literacy and socioeconomic development to the Arab masses the groundwork for democracy. The "Competitiveness Report" concludes that the Arab world needs such a boost, not empty slogans like "democracy," which translates in Iraq and Afghanistan as an exclusive group of US approved candidates running in US organized elections. Conversely, the President, who maintains a supermodel's appetite for reading, has no recognition of history that most Arabs possess. In the mosques and streets, the past intersects the present as a dynamic anchor of daily life. Ancient religious sites and long-standing traditions co-exist with the ubiquitous cell phones and gas-guzzling vehicles. In Ma'aloula, near Damascus, people still speak Aramaic, the language of Christ. Ultimately, Arabs have solid reasons to suspect the West's renewed democracy rap. France and England colonized and looted the region after World War I. Indeed, Iraqis recall that when they rebelled against British occupation in the early 1920s, London dropped poison gas on them. Syrian memory retains France's ruthless suppression of their resistance to occupation in 1925-27 and again in 1945. Washington's fervent defense of the thirty-eight year old Israeli occupation of Palestine also informs them of its one-sided interpretation of "democracy." When brilliant scholars write reports on critical regions, governments should use them as primary intelligence documents from which to derive sound policies. But Bush has drawn "vision" exclusively from sycophants and opportunists who agree with his ethereal assumptions. Instead of relying on yes men and dissemblers, CIA analysts would benefit from reading poets.
Saul Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and directs digital studies at Cal Poly Pomona University's College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. Farrah Hassen was the Associate Producer of the
film, "SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE," with
Landau. She worked for the United Nations Development Program
office in Syria during the Fall 2004. She can be reached at:
FHdsn@aol.com
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