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Recent
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April
9, 2003
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
David Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
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April 9,
2003
Saving Private Lynch
Hollywood
and War
By DOUG LUMMIS
I have been hearing (I only have radio, no TV)
over and over about the Heroic Rescue of Jessica Lynch. Bless
her soul, I hope she gets well. But the reports raise doubts
at a couple of levels.
1) They say her arms and legs were broken.
Hard to think of an accident that would do all that. And there
were 8 or 9 dead GIs where she was. If they had been killed
in the battle, the Iraqis would not have dragged them to the
hospital. Maybe they were wounded, and all died of their wounds,
but that sounds unlikely.
What seems likely is that those deaths,
and Jessica's broken limbs, were the indirect result of the Heroic
Rescue. It's common sense that one of the dangers in a rescue
attempt like that is that when the captors see that rescue is
coming, they kill the prisoners rather than have them taken away.
If it turns out that the 8 or 9 died just when the rescue was
taking place, that would be pretty strong evidence that it was
the rescue that killed them.
Which leads to 2) To what extent was
this Heroic Rescue designed as a media event? Nothing new in
that: it has been pretty well proven that the assault on Mount
Suribachi at Iwojima (not just the flagraising, but the whole
assault) was largely a USMC media event. If it turns ou to be
true that the Heroic Rescue was also a media event, then the
8 or 9 dead and Ms Lynch's broken arms and legs will be something
that the US planners will be hard put to to explain (not that
I absolve whoever did the killing and breaking).
Which leads to 3) One of my heros, Allen
Nelson, a Vietnam vet who turned pacifist and comes to Okinawa
a lot, once told me, "You know what surprised me the most
the first time I went into combat? (long pause) There was no
music." For us movie goers and TV viewers, war is something
that is accompanied by music. It's the music that gives it its
dignity. But on the battlefield, no music. But now on Fox
and all the crap I get on the radio, the music has been restored.
I get musical background to Bush's speeches, music between battle
descriptions, music backing up Central Command briefings. This
is a movie.
The advocates of the New American Century
talk about the Roman Empire as a model, but I had been thinking,
at least we don't do the Circus: battles to the death as entertainment.
But now it has begun. Today I listened to(and I guess people
with TVs watched) a live battle in which people were killed.
You could see dead and dying bodies on real time. With music.
After experiencing live (live-to-dead?) entertainment like this,
can we hope that the viewers will be willing to go back to ordinary
sitcoms?
Douglas Lummis
is a political scientist living in Okinawa and the author of
Radical
Democracy. Lummis can be reached at: ideaspeddlers@mpd.biglobe.ne.jp
Today's
Features
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
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