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Today's
Stories
Gary Leupp
The
Attack on Najaf: the Ultimate Stupidity
August 14 /
15, 2004
Justin Delacour
/ Diana Barahona
The
Venezuela Referendum: Can the Carter Center's McCoy be an Impartial
Observer?
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
Fred Gardner
Is California Spying on Pro-Pot Doctors?
Jonah Girdin
The Opposition Strategy in Venezuela: Subvert Democracy in the
Name of Democracy
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
Mike Whitney
The Trouble in Najaf: What Was al-Sadr's Crime?
Eric Drooker
Gaza Stripped
Dave Zirin
Olympic Sized Horror in Greece: 150 Workers Died Building the
Facilities
Dave Lindorff
A29 Could be a Very Slow Day
Rebecca Brigham
The Aftermath of Guatemala's Strike: Promises Still Unfulfilled
Wayne Madsen
The McGreevey Scandal: an Israeli Connection?
David Krieger
Nuclear Disarmament in a Time of Globalization: the US Double
Standard
Tracy McLellan
The Illegality of Pot is a Crime: a Personal Account
Christina Gerhardt
Confronting Capitalism: What Has Changed Since Seattle 1999?
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert Vijayalakshmi, Gilliam
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.
|
August
16, 2004
The
Ultimate Stupidity
The
Attack on Najaf
By
GARY LEUPP
Oppose the oppressor and support
the oppressed.
Imam Ali, Last
Will and Testament (39 AH; 661 CE)
I have been thinking for months that
if those commanding U.S. forces in Iraq really wanted to perform
the ultimate stupidity, and ratchet up exponentially the degree
of hatred they face in Iraq and throughout the Muslim world---then
they'd surely attack the Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, or be drawn
into a situation where they'd damage it. This is the most important
Shiite site in the world, and is holy not only to Shiites (about
120 million people) but also to all the billion-plus Muslims
on the planet. It sits atop the tomb of Ali, cousin and son-in-law
of the Prophet, fourth caliph ("successor" of Muhammed
and political and religious leader of the expanding Muslim world),
assassinated by opponents in 661. Ali's partisans supported his
son Hussein as next caliph, but Umayyad foes defeated Hussein
and 72 followers in battle at Karbala in 680, their martyrdoms
producing the enduring division between Sunni and Shia Islam.
Hussein is entombed, not with
his father, but in Karbala. But according to Shiite tradition,
an even more remarkable figure rests under the golden dome of
the Ali Shrine: Adam, the first man. A son of Noah, who refused
to enter the ark, died in Najaf, and here the patriarch Abraham
and his son Isaac once bought a parcel of land now called the
Valley of Peace. This is the sprawling Wadi al-Salaam cemetery
(the world's largest) that adjoins the shrine. Pilgrimage to
Najaf will supposedly bring 70,000 Muslims immediate entry into
Paradise. Najaf was home to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for twelve
years. It was a target of Saddam Hussein during the Shiite rebellion
after the 1991 Gulf War, in which the first President Bush encouraged
the Shiites to rise up, only to abandon them ignominiously. (In
that episode the shrine was looted and bombed, although soon
repaired by the Baathist regime.) Ayatollah Mohammad Sadiq al-Sadr,
Muqtada al-Sadr's father, was assassinated here in 1999. In short,
Najaf is a hub of mythology, tradition, and historical memories
of injustice, resistance and martyrdom that inevitably affect
its significance as a military target. Especially when Shiite
resistance fighters take refuge there, and use it as a base of
operations against unwelcome infidel troops.
Shiites constitute about 10%
of the world's Muslims, and are the majority population in Iran
(93%) and Azerbaijan (61%). They comprise large communities in
India and Pakistan (over 50 million total), but are the majority
in only two Arab nations, tiny Bahrain (65%) and Iraq (60%).
In Iraqi Shiism, the Arab and Indo-Iranian worlds intersect,
and by chance the holiest site of Shiism is located in a proud
Arab country, next door to the Shiite powerhouse of Iran, and
now surrounded by foreign invaders. The latter, under fire from
the general population, come to hate, fear and disparage the
Iraqis and, regardless of the orders they receive from their
officers, cannot be expected to treat Muslim sites with sensitivity
and deference.
"We
Do Not Wish to Get Involved with the Mosque"
It is of course, official U.S.
policy to avoid damaging the Ali Shrine. "We do not in any
way wish to get involved with the mosque," says
Secretary of State Colin Powell. "It's a very holy place
for all Shia." But how can U.S. forces and their token allies,
occupying Najaf and the rest of Iraq, not "get
involved" with a prime symbol of the identity of the invaded
population? Especially when 1000 members of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army
are holed up in and around Najaf's Old City, demanding U.S. withdrawal,
and amnesty for the militiamen, as the price for their own retreat?
Blaming continued attacks on
the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces broke
a cease-fire August 2 in Kufa, next to Najaf, and an earlier
agreement not to attempt to arrest al-Sadr. The cleric's forces
responded by seizing 18 Iraqi police officers, while in Basra
the Mahdi Army declared a jihad against British forces that had
arrested four al-Sadr supporters two days earlier. Even so, al-Sadr
called for a restoration of a truce signed in June; but this
was rejected by the U.S.-appointed governor of Najaf. "Major
operations to destroy [al-Sadr's] militia have begun," announced
Marine Major David Holahan, of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marines
Regiment, while the U.S. and British press promoted the Najaf
operation as the "final" assault on the Mahdi Army.
"This is one battle we really do feel we can win,"
a U.S. diplomat told the Telegraph. On August 5, ostensibly
responding to attacks on themselves and an Iraqi police station
launched from the Valley of Peace by the Mahdi Army, U.S. forces
moved into the graveyard, later claiming 300 enemy dead.
The First
Shiite Uprising
This was not their first encounter
with the Mahdi forces; in April, the U.S. military conducted
"Operation Iron Saber" against this militia requiring
an extension of tours of duty of the 1st Armored Division. ("The
operation will continue until the goal of eliminating and disarming
al-Sadr's militia is met," announced a Polish forces spokesman,
adding, "I think that will take place soon." That was
three months ago.) But why did they attack this group, which
needless to say had no connection to 9-11, or to al-Qaeda, or
Saddam Hussein, or any previously mentioned target of the "War
on Terror"? Al-Sadr, the son of a renowned and beloved cleric
killed (hence martyred) by Saddam, whose power base is
a huge slum area with a population of two million in Baghdad---a
district now named Sadr City---had been in the crosshairs of
the occupation for many months. This is because he had denounced
it from the outset, and demanded that the foreign troops withdraw
or face a jihad. In April, before the sham "handover of
power," his newspaper was banned, a top aide arrested, and
a warrant for his arrest issued months earlier suddenly made
public. (The charges were connected with the
killing of Grand Ayatollah Amd al-Majid al-Khoei, a pro-U.S.
cleric flown in from London during the invasion and pegged to
administer Najaf. Al-Khoei, whom senior Shiite cleric al-Sistani
refused to meet, and who was insulted by common people in the
streets of the city, was blown to bits outside the Ali Shrine
in April 2003.)
Not cowed by the measures against
him, the 30ish al-Sadr turned from peaceful protest to active,
armed resistance, as his popularity soared. In May, according
to a poll conducted by the "Coalition Provisional Authority"
itself, he was viewed favorably by 68% of the Iraqis, and the
figure has doubtless risen since. After taking significant casualties
in Operation Iron Saber, the U.S. agreed to a cease-fire in June.
Al-Sadr urged his forces to leave Najaf and announced plans to
enter the planned presidential race. In the course of this operation,
machinegun fire from some source produced four twelve by eight
inch holes in the golden dome of the shrine; U.S. forces accused
the Mahdi Army of shooting up their own holy site, but many doubted
this. Iron Saber, according
to U.S. forces, killed several thousand militiamen and was
a great success. But it didn't rid the U.S. and its allies of
this troublesome priest.
Negotiations Fail
On August 10 residents of the
central section of Najaf were ordered to evacuate; soon Najaf
became a ghost town. Meanwhile tens of thousands rallied in protest
in five Iraqi cities, and in Iran, Bahrain, Lebanon, Pakistan
and elsewhere. In their minds, Najaf's holy places were already
under attack. According to the Washington Post, about
10,000 Iraqis arrived in the city Saturday to defend the shrine.
These included Sunnis and Sunni clerics from Fallujah expressing
solidarity. The leadership of Shiite Iran has strongly condemned
U.S. moves on the shrine, and the Sunni organization, the Muslim
Scholars Board, has issued a fatwa ordering police from cooperating
with occupying forces.
The assault paused Friday as
al-Sadr's representatives negotiated with the U.S.-installed
President Iyad Allawi for an end to the confrontation. One reads
conflicting reports about why the talks failed. Some suggest
that Allawi's national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie sought
to meet al-Sadr, who refused; others state that al-Sadr wished
to meet with Rubaie, but could not. Al-Sadr spokesman Qais al-Khazali
said a deal had been reached and signed when "we were surprised
that they [Allawi's negotiators] got instructions from Dr. Allawi
to leave." http://www.sundayherald.com/44094 An anonymous
western diplomat quoted in the Boston Globe says that
talks failed because Allawi had made al-Sadr a "relatively
generous" offer, including clemency for the outstanding
murder charge, but al-Sadr, as mentioned above, demanded a U.S.
withdrawal and amnesty for his militiamen. Perhaps an agreement
was vetoed by a third party; U.S. officials have opposed granting
amnesty to anyone who has killed or injured U.S. troops. In any
case, when the talks broke down, U.S. officials indicated that,
on instructions from Allawi, Iraqi rather than U.S. forces (six
of whom have already died in this operation) would attend to
the destruction of the militia. American military officers praised
this as a politically wise decision.
U.S. Forces
in a Bind
This tactical decision to deploy
Iraqis against Iraqis seems not to have eroded support for the
Mahdi Army's resistance or opposition to U.S. behavior in Najaf.
The residents of Sunni Fajullah, recalling the assistance that
Shiites have given them in their resistance to the occupation,
have demonstrated in support of al-Sadr and sent forces to his
aid in the holy city. The occupation-appointed deputy governor
of Najaf, and over half the provincial council, have resigned
in protest. Even one of the two U.S.-appointed deputy presidents,
Ibrahim Jaafari, has called on "multinational forces to
leave Najaf."
On Sunday, of the 1300 delegates
to the national conference in Baghdad to select a provisional
legislature, over 100 walked out in protest, one stating, "as
long as there are air strikes and shelling [in Najaf], we can't
have a conference." Many Iraqis fear the U.S. will,
Powell's words notwithstanding, "get involved with
the mosque," and by inflicting damage upon it, open the
gates of hell upon themselves and all complicit in the occupation.
4000 Iraqi security forces in Najaf had defected
to al-Sadr's army by Saturday.
Officials of the Iraqi "defense
ministry" told Knight Ridder on Sunday that "more than
100 Iraqi national guardsmen and a battalion of Iraqi soldiers
chose to quit rather than attack fellow Iraqis in a city that
includes some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam." One
high-ranking officer said, "We
received a report that a whole battalion (in Najaf) threw down
their rifles. We expected this, and we expect it again and again."
Perhaps the politically wise decision of using Iraqi rather
than U.S. forces just won't work. That would explain why
all foreign reporters (except those embedded with the U.S. military)
were ordered out of Najaf Sunday. (Al-Jazeera had already been
booted for biased reporting. Fox remains.)
Al-Sadr's only real rival for
popular support, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hussein Sistani, is in London
recovering from a heart operation, urging restraint on both sides
and likely undercutting his own moral authority and nationalist
credentials in the process. While Shiite opposition to the occupation
has been growing for months, the confrontation at the shrine
has drawn a clear line between the Shiites and the Coalition
now operating through a puppet regime. Even if, as reported,
many in Najaf are tiring of al-Sadr's methods, which threaten
the business stemming from religious pilgrimage; and even if
ranking clerics in Iran are distancing themselves from the Mahdi
Army; the second Shiite uprising in four months may well constitute
a neocon's "nightmare scenario." Particularly if it
widens into a broader patriotic uprising, and thence into an
even wider international-Muslim confrontation with the American-dominated
foreign forces. On the other hand, the presence of Syrians and
Iranians (reported by the Telegraph) may embolden the
more audacious warmongers to use setbacks in Iraq to justify
further regime-change projects in the region. More Rumsfeldian
"creative chaos."
Possibilities
That creative chaos to date
has involved the sacking of the Baghdad Museum, the sexual torture
of innocents in Adu Ghraib and other prisons, lingering denial
of basic utilities and services, the deaths of at least 11,000
civilians, breakdown in security, rampant crime including kidnapping
and rape, ineptly improvised and constantly changing administrative
institutions, ongoing attacks crippling the oil industry. All
of this might be leading to some apocalyptic climax, glorious
as the golden dome of Imam Ali's shrine. But of what sort?
Even if among the occupied,
some (confused, disoriented, naively optimistic) initially thought
the foreigners might bring liberation, these must now conclude---through
harsh experience---that liberation is not conferred but rather
won. The Mahdi Army cannot, in my view, really liberate anyone
with its fundamentalist religious agenda, and this, perhaps,
many of its adherents will come to understand. But for the time
being, it presents the imperialists with their thorniest challenge.
The warriors of this jihad know that their countrymen will desert,
or defect to themselves, rather than serve the infidels in Najaf.
The original sin of the occupation is that it is, after all,
an occupation. Worse, one based on lies. Justified after the
fact, after the bogus rationales were all discredited, by the
boast, "We overthrew a dictator," the occupation now
faces the jihadis' charge that it is worse even than Saddam.
(The occupier puzzles at the charge. Aren't we rebuilding
schools? he thinks, not realizing that Iraq once had the
finest school system in the Arab world, and small need for its
reconstruction---until somebody, for reasons some think worth
it, damaged it and so much else.)
Worse than Saddam. From the minarets of the mosque joining
heaven and earth, the muezzin calls out that charge, and in a
land of martyred imams, it resonates powerfully among the oppressed.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University,
and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author
of Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan;
Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan;
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.
He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle
of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial
Crusades.
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
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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
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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