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Today's
Stories
June
3, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
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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June
3, 2004
Trading
Ideas with "the Enemy"
"WMD"
in Cuba
By
SCOTT MORRIS
I am a "criminal," a "terrorist,"
by some distorted Bushian measure. I have, on several occasions,
exchanged ideas with "the enemy," met with "enemy"
"WMD" producers, brought "enemy" literature
to "the homeland," benefited from "enemy"
"WMD" programs, and encouraged others to develop similar
"WMD" programs for use inside the United States.
To what "enemy" do
I refer, and what "WMD" programs have been encouraged?
The "enemy" is Cuba. The dangerous "WMD"
programs that have led the Bush administration (with Sen. John
Kerry's support) to announce new, shameful and imperious measures
to increase U.S. brutalization of the Cuban people and arrogantly
call for "regime change" in Cuba, include: free universal
health care, sustainable agriculture and quality education. If
used here, these "weapons of mass development" threaten
to improve the life of every U.S. citizen.
Cuba's universal, free, high-quality
health care, is the best in the Third World. The island country
has produced the lowest infant mortality rate in this hemisphere
and life expectancy rates better than in the United States. Cuba
has the highest number of both physicians per capita and health
teams serving the global poor, in the world, along with the most
complete infant immunization coverage and a national health and
nutrition education program that has led to urban (mostly organic)
gardens that produce 3 million tons of fresh produce per year
for 11 million people. (Cuba expects to feed its population on
organic food in the coming decade.)
If implemented here, these
"WMDs" could provide quality health care to every U.S.
citizen, including the 44 million currently without health coverage,
and to the tens of millions of others with inadequate coverage,
and improve the quality of life for all.
Another set of "weapons
of mass development" grows out of Cuba's commitment to environmental
sustainability.
"Cuban compliance with
the Kyoto and Rio provisions [while the US undermines them] leads
the world, including the replacement of freon by a sugar-cane
derivative in order to protect the ozone layer." (Levins)
Cuba is moving away from chemical fertilizers and pesticides
and replacing them with innovative and ecologically sound practices,
thus creating the best sustainable agriculture system in the
world. Cuba's reforestation and amelioration of desertification
programs are arguably the best in the world. Applied here, these
Cuban "WMDs" would threaten to provide every U.S. citizen
with high-quality organic food, cleaner air, water and soil and
stem the tide of environmental destruction that threatens mass
destruction.
Cuba, with the best elementary
education system in the hemisphere, according to studies by the
United Nations, and more teachers per capita than any other country,
is threatening further improvements by reducing class sizes to
15, while continuing its emphasis on educating all citizens in
the sciences, arts, humanities, civics, social responsibility
and participatory citizenship -- thus providing more people to
improve "WMD" programs in health, ecology, agriculture,
citizenship, art and education.
Cuba's tiny population produces
11 percent of Latin American scientists.
These and other Cuban "weapons
of mass development" applied here might revitalize our collapsing
public education system, stimulate engaged citizenship, engender
public commitments, encourage collective solutions, advance social
justice and equality, and place human interests above profit
interests and human rights above property rights.
These are the Cuban threats.
Unlike U.S. "profits over
people" and "self-interest at the expense of others"
ideology, Cuba operates on a "social gain for the benefit
of all" commitment.
What is remarkable is that
Cuba has carried out these achievements under conditions of deprivation
linked crucially to the U.S. blockade (including restrictions
on food and medicine).
Meanwhile, the United States
punishes other countries for trading with Cuba, attempts to cut
off commerce with Cuba, imposes pro-capitalist propaganda on
Cuba, pressures other countries to stop travel to Cuba, spends
tens of millions of dollars to fund anti-Cuban "dissidents"
inside Cuba, and prevents U.S. citizens from exercising our constitutional
right of free travel.
Additionally, there are 45
years of well-documented U.S. terrorism against Cuba (given that
this country aids, abets and provides safe haven for these terrorists,
one wonders how the Bush administration would apply its doctrine
of massive bombing attacks against those who aid, abet and harbor
terrorists?).
The latest UN vote opposing
the U.S. embargo was 179-3 (last year it was 173-3). The world
opposes U.S. policy on Cuba, but the United States pummels the
world into submission, in an all-too-familiar, and increasingly
dangerous, exercise of the unilateral "rule of force."
There is a joke about Cuba
and Fidel Castro that suggests that if Fidel could walk on water,
the United States would report that he is too old to swim, i.e.,
here, everything about Cuba receives a negative spin.
If the United States succeeds
in crushing the Cuban experiment (and only we can prevent that
destruction), the Cubans know what to expect: misery, poverty,
hunger, despair, violence and brutality of the sort the United
States has imposed on the rest of the hemisphere, perhaps most
viciously in Cuba's neighbor Haiti, where people now live on
cakes made of sugar, butter, water and dirt.
Cubans will continue to resist
U.S. criminal attacks, so must we.
We can learn from Cubans that
the well-being, health, nutrition and education of humans and
ecological sanity are more important, and collectively more enriching,
than the accumulation of commodities, development of weapons
of mass destruction, imperial domination and maximization corporate
profits.
Cuba's experiment in people-first
alternative economics and politics, along with its "weapons
of mass development" programs in health, agriculture and
education, provide a measure of hope and possibility for the
Third World, if not humanity as a whole.
Scott Morris, is an activist, resident of State
College, and doctoral student in the Language and Literacy Education
Program at Penn State University. email: dsm195@psu.edu
Weekend Edition
Features for May 29 / 31, 2004
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
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