Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
Now Available!
Today's
Stories
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Will Not Vote in 2004
Prince
Screw Electoral Politics
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
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.
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Weekend
Edition
May 8 / 9, 2004
Please Forgive
U.S.?
(There Are No
Innocent Bystanders)
By MICKEY Z.
"Please forgive us, we
didn't know
Could you ever believe that we didn't know?
Please forgive us, we didn't know
I wouldn't blame you if you never could, and you never will"
-Natalie Merchant, "Please
Forgive Us"
It's interesting to witness how much
outrage--on all sides of the political spectrum--has been provoked
by the prison abuse photos. But where are the calls for investigations
and displays of righteous morality as taxpayer-subsidized American
bombs blow Iraqi and Afghani babies to bits each and every day?
The standard answer to such
a question typically involves some kind of special dispensation
being granted to the American populace for "not knowing"
what is being done in their name. "Cut them some slack,"
I'm told over and over...but the same people who scold me are
not cutting any slack in their calls for heads to roll over the
prison abuse scandal: If Rumsfeld knew, goes the mantra, he was
culpable. If he didn't know, well, that's just as bad.
Well, hat equation works for
me, but not just for Ronald Dumsfeld...I mean, Donald Rumsfeld.
The U.S. government is responsible for unspeakable horrors at
home and across the globe and has been since it came into existence.
Simple logic: If the U.S. taxpayers are aware of these reprehensible
actions, those taxpayers are at fault. If they didn't know, well,
that's just as bad. There are no innocent bystanders when your
money and/or rhetoric support the world's most powerful military.
"I'm still taken aback
at the extent of indoctrination and propaganda in the United
States," declares Arundhati Roy. "It is as if people
there are being reared in a sort of altered reality, like broiler
chickens or pigs in a pen."
I recently dug out something
I wrote on the topic of indoctrination...shortly after the first
attack on the World Trade Center in 1993: "Quite often,
I'll make a statement that utilizes basic reason that would be
familiar and understandable to a 10-year-old and I am treated
as if I am speaking some long-forgotten language. Educated, well-read
individuals simply cannot comprehend what I am saying. For example,
when a Muslim got arrested for the WTC bombing, people around
me spouted such predictable bile as 'Deport all Arabs,' 'We should
nuke the entire Middle East,' and 'Israel would know how to deal
with this.' Well, rather than ignore such frightening oratory,
I responded with something like: 'We have demonized the Muslims
as dangerous fanatics, subsidized Israel's military with billions
of taxpayer dollars, blocked all progress towards a Middle East
peace settlement, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis
in an illegal war, banned 'Arab-looking' people from air travel
during that so-called war, and we're surprised and stunned if
something is done in retaliation? When you cut off all political
and diplomatic channels, the only course left is violence. And
isn't it funny that when they do it, it's called 'terrorism.'
But when the U.S. or Israel does it, it's called 'retaliation.'
Well, the reaction I got wasn't even anger. It was indifference.
I was stating something so out of line with mainstream thought
that everyone ignored my words as incomprehensible. It was so
far out of their programmed way of thinking and reacting that
it didn't even provoke them to agree or disagree. It just confused
them and they chose to ignore it."
After 9/11, the knee-jerk reaction
is no longer indifference or confusion. An article I wrote questioning
the Pat-Tillman-as-Hero motif led to an inbox filled with e-mails
from people telling me how men like Tillman fight to give me
the freedom to write such blasphemy.
Freedom? Many years ago, I
was eating lunch in a Virginia Beach diner when I heard a loud
roar. "What was that?" I bellowed. The waitress smiled
and replied: "That's an F-14...the sound of freedom."
I spend an awful lot of time
in gyms, dealing with people from all walks of life and this
provides plenty of opportunities to gauge public opinionSand
freedom.
Recently, at an upscale Manhattan
facility, a woman told me that the Iraqi people "act like
we owe them something." She continued, freely: "We
freed them from their nazi communist or whatever dictator and
now they should take care of themselves." The waitress in
Virginia might have smiled.
At a blue collar gym in my
neighborhood of Astoria, some guy talked loudly and comfortably
about the war: "You think we can let that football player
die in vain? We gotta finish the job." That's the kind of
freedom that sounds like an F-14.
Another time, in a midtown
Manhattan gym (with a mixed crowd), I was wearing a Yankees t-shirt
with the name "Justice" emblazoned on the back (for
former Yank David Justice). An older woman asked me if I was
a Yankee fan. I told her I was but that my reason for wearing
the shirt was all about the word "justice." She smiled
and declared that justice was a "noble idea." I braced
myself for the inevitable "we need to show those towel heads
some justice," but instead, this woman told me-albeit in
a whisper-she was going to Washington to march against the war.
After this confession, she looked genuinely nervous. Had she
gone too far? I leaned closer and said: "Don't worry, I'm
with you." She and I proceeded to talk each time she'd come
to the gym, but it was always off to the side...out of listening
range. Principles are great, but if we were heard, I might have
been fired...and, well, I have yet to find a principle that pays
the Con Ed bill.
Hey, I know I'm not living
in Myanmar, but what are we talking about here? Is freedom just
an issue of bigger cages and longer chains? Is it merely a commodity
sold to the highest bidder? Did Pat Tillman die so I'd have to
whisper my opinions to avoid getting fired...while others can
loudly parrot the corporate/military line without any fear of
reprisal? Are U.S. soldiers protecting the rights of so many
Americans to send me threatening e-mails instead of protesting
the U.S. government using their money to kill whoever gets in
the way? What makes the American people so confident there isn't
a long overdue bill to be paid?
As the Indian-born Roy explains:
"People from poorer places and poorer countries have to
call upon their compassion not to be angry with ordinary people
in America."
Ward Churchill takes it further...warning
us that the same people Roy refers to "have no obligation-moral,
ethical, legal or otherwise-to sit on their thumbs while the
opposition here dithers about doing anything to change the system."
The excuse of ignorance is
not valid when graphic images are available within minutes...with
Madeleine Albright declaring on "60 Minutes" that a
half-million dead Iraqi children was a price worth paying...with
websites overflowing with alternative information. It's not ignorance;
it's denial...or perhaps acquiescence. Slap that "Support
the Troops" bumper sticker on your SUV...and you're liable.
Vote for Berry or Kush (I mean, Kerry or Bush)...and you're accountable.
Remain silent...and you are responsible. Cut them some slack?
News flash: There's not much slack left in the taut rope around
all of our necks.
African Proverb: "Not
to know is bad. Not to wish to know is worse."
Mickey Z. is the author of two new books: "A
Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense"
(Library Empyreal) and "The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing
the Lies Behind War Propaganda" (Common Courage Press).
He can be reached at mzx2@earthlink.net.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
|