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Today's Stories April 14, 2008 Michael Hudson A Trillion Dollar Rescue for Wall Street Gamblers Patrick Cockburn A Cleric, a Pol and a Warrior Paul Craig Roberts Petraeus Sets Up Iran Joanne Mariner Redition to Jordan: What Happens When the Gloves Come Off?   April 12 / 13, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Olympic Torch Toasts US Candidates Patrick Cockburn Warlord: the Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr Mike Whitney Want to Save the Economy? David Yearsley Film Scores and Westerns: the Stealth Cavalry of Empire Robert Fantina Bush's Brand of Morality Conn Hallinan Another Defining Moment in Iraq Bill Hatch In Praise of Hippies and the Counter-Culture Ramzy Baroud The Basra Battles George S. Hishmeh Back to Square One Ron Jacobs The New New Left in Latin America Nikolas Kozloff Olympic Torch in Buenos Aires Charles Thomson The British Prime Minister and the Tate's Tin of Shit Alexander Billet The Disney-fication of CBGB Missy Beattie Huffing and Puffing to Failure David Michael Green America's Jones for War Seth Sandronsky Education Entrepreneurs Prairie Miller Meeting David Wilson Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Ko Un, Ibn Salma and Greaves Website of the Weekend Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights   April 11, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff The Clintons and Their Sordid Colombia Advocacy Wajahat Ali Revenge of the Ghetto Nerd: an Exclusive Interview with Junot Diaz Sharon Smith Let Them Eat Ethanol! Yigal Bronner / Neve Gordon Digging for Trouble: the Politics of Archaeology in East Jerusalem Alan Farago Eating South Florida Dave Lindorff On Waking Sleeping Giants: Lessons for America from China George Wuerthner Money for Nothing? The Problems with the Conservation Reserve Program Christopher Brauchli Prostitutes Don't Do Funerals Website of the Day Animals Explain the Insurance Industry: a Health Care Video   April 10, 2008 Mathieu Vernerey Tibet for the Tibetans! Elizabeth Schulte Slavery in the Fields David Macaray Labor Unions Will Never Get a Fair Shake Ashley Smith The Rise of Muqtada al-Sadr Peter Morici Driving Up Debt and Dragging Down Growth Jacob Hornberger The Military's Distintegrating Family Life Harold Austin Snitch or Else: Prison Officials Threaten Gang Drop Outs Website of the Day Hillary: the Wal-Mart Videos   April 9, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts The Fading American Economy Winslow T. Wheeler Congressional Theater: the Petraeus / Crocker Hearings C. Hand Why Dave Marash Left Al Jazeera Paul Krassner Sex and Violins Paul Wolf Colombian "Magnicidio" Remains a Mystery After 60 Years Wajahat Ali Alien Invasion! Karyn Strickler Lost in the Fumes: the Sierra Club Sells Out to Clorox Dan La Botz Confronting the Economic Crisis Eric Walberg The Shadow of Munich: Another NATO Flop Robin Millenthal Enough Already! Growth and the Tar Sands Economy Website of the Day Conservative Nanny State April 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Should Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be Set Free? Nikolas Kozloff Bush Bullies Congress on Colombia Deal Greg Moses Migrant Detention in South Texas Joshua Frank The Other Military Draft John Ross Mexico City's Urban Tribes Go on the Warpath Against EMOS Michael Donnelly Hillary's Western Swing John V. Walsh Why Obama Lost Massachusetts Jeff Nygaard Health, Security and Mandates Bill Piper Last Shot for a Bush Legacy? Sen. Russ Feingold Legal Representation and the Death Penalty Website of the Day Catonsville 9, Forty Years Later   April 7, 2008 Ishmael Reed The Irish Black Thing Harry Browne Irish Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported Uri Avnery Tibet and Palestine Lenni Brenner Obama's Constitution, His Pastor and His Unbelieving Mom in Heaven Ayesha Ijaz Khan America Must Respect Pakistan's Democracy Robert Fisk Fearful Lives in the Land of the Free Edwin Krales Ensuring the Success of Fascism in Spain: the US Corporate Role Chris Genovali Vancouver Island's Dwindling Ancient Forests Website of the Day LA Artists Against War   April 5 / 6, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Did the Elites Want MLK Dead? Ramzy Baroud There are No Checkpoints in Heaven Ralph Nader Runaway Bailouts David Yearsley How Scott Joplin Had Wall Street Down Saul Landau Sex Politics in America Paul Craig Roberts The Petraeus and Crocker Show Lawrence Korb / Ian Moss Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a True Patriot Seth Sandronsky Meet America's Promise Alliance: Colin Powell's New Gig John Ross La Cumbia de la Doctrina Bush: Colombia Kills Four Mexican Students in Ecuador Bombing Robert Fantina McCain, Republicans and Family Values David Michael Green Back to Disaster: Hoover at Home, Tet Abroad Missy Beattie McCan't Patrick Bond Vultures Circle Zimbabwe Dr. Susan Block The New American Pot Dealers Phyllis Pollack The Stones Meet the Press Adam Engel The Boobus in the Lie Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Diamand and St. Clair Website of the Weekend Richard Pryor Goes to the Gun Shop     April 4, 2008 Dave Lindorff The Night I Heard King Had Been Shot Greg Moses Missing King Ron Jacobs Two Murders, 40 Years On: Bobby Hutton and Martin Luther King, Jr. Alan Farago Show Me the Size of Your Bail Out and I'll Show You Mine Alison Weir Funding Our Decline: U.S. Aid to Israel David Rosen Rape as an Instrument of Total War Robert Weissman The Unrealized Dream Jacob Hornberger Was Killing Iraqi Children Worth It? Jackie Corr Hillary and Obama Head for Butte Carl Finamore Taking On United Airlines Laray Polk We Are All Dith Pran Susie Day Advice for the War-Torn Website of the Day Winter Soldiers: a Video Portrait   April 3, 2008 Peter Morici The Deepening Recession Joe Bageant The Audacity of Depression Andy Worthington Cleared But Still Detained: The Ordeal of Moroccan Prisoner Said al-Boujaadia Nikolas Kozloff Condi's Divide and Rule Strategy in South America Rannie Amiri The U.S. Disdain for Mideast Democracy David Macaray More Labor Strife in Hollywood Stephen Lendman Lynne Stewart's Long Struggle for Justice Website of the Day The True Face of Da Vinci?   April 2, 2008 Diane Farsetta Indian Point on the Potomac Harry Browne Bertie Ahern Laid Low by Secretary Wajahat Ali The Folly of Attacking Iran: a Conversation with Steven Kinzer George Wuerthner Open Season on Wolves Col. Dan Smith The Militarization of America Philippe Marlière The Politics of Bling-Bling in France: Sarkozy's Cultivated Anti-Intellectualism Steve Early A Purple Uprising in Oakland Bernard Chazelle Saving the American Left Reza Fiyouzat Bowling in Hell   April 1, 2008 Jeff Leys Fracturing the Peace to End the War Thomas P. Healy Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg Winslow T. Wheeler When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense Budget Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz New Deal Nostalgia Patrick Irelan Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels Andy Worthington The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani John V. Walsh The Shunning of Ralph Nader Michael J. Smith Woolly Mamet Robert Weissman The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old? Dave Lindorff Bush's Defining Moments Martha Rosenberg Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity Website of the Day Support Briana!   March 31, 2008 Mike Whitney Dead on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street Mats Svensson Walls, Tunnels and Daily Humiliations Paul Rockwell Hillary's Lies About Outsourcing Paul Craig Roberts A Third American War in the Making? Patrick Cockburn Sadr Calls for Ceasefire Peter Dale Scott The Showdown Alfredo Molano Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia Peter Morici Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short Uri Avnery Day of the Land, 32 Years Later Michael Simmons The American Bard in New Orleans Betsy Roberts / Karen Orr The Clorox Coup Phyllis Pollack First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones Website of the Day Five Years Too Many   March 29 / 30, 2008 Alexander Cockburn When They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say? Patrick Cockburn Iraqi Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army Mike Whitney Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan Christopher Brauchli The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman and Rev. Hagee William Blum China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics Robert Fantina Iraq Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton John Ross AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's Oil Allison Kilkenny Shady Lending Hits Home Nelson P. Valdés Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context Suzanne Baroud The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making Richard Rhames Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train Christopher Fons Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers Carl Finamore Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump and Consumers Sour Eamonn McCann Hillary Misremembers Again! Missy Beattie Justice and the Monsters of War Fred Gardner Jim Thorpe, All-American Kim Nicolini Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales" David Yearsley "All the World's a Hospital" Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up Poets' Basement Valentine and Ko Un Website of the Weekend Hidden Iraq   March 28, 2008 Saul Landau Growing Dread About Iraq Alan Farago Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy Peter Morici Knocking Down False Economic Gods Andy Worthington Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from Guantánamo Felice Pace Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service Peter Montague Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox! Dave Lindorff The Mumia Exception March 27, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Basra Erupts Binoy Kampmark Free Market Apostates Joanne Mariner "Was George Washington a Terrorist?" Norman Solomon NPR News: National Pentagon Radio? William S. Lind Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq John V. Walsh Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry? Robert Weissman How Things Work Ron Jacobs Meeting Charlie Ehlen Ralph Nader Put Impeachment Back on the Table David Macaray Court Rules Against Grocery Workers John Borowski Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction Website of the Day Going Out for an English   March 26, 2008 Stan Cox The Germs Next Door Sharon Smith Greed Pays: Welfare on Wall Street Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans Matt Vidal So Much for the Self-Regulating Market William S. Lind Operation Cassandra Joe Mowrey The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel Dave Lindorff Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire Ray McGovern Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late Justin Smith Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues Sam Husseini The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media Martha Rosenberg Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs Michael Dickinson Politicians as Dogs Website of the Day The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread   March 25, 2008 Ishmael Reed The Crazy Rev. Wright Corey D. B. Walker The Politics of Jeremiah Wright Linn Washington Jr. Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts Alan Farago The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders Vijay Prashad A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast Joshua Frank A Silver Lining to the Bush Years? Ralph Nader How Public Servants Can Help End This War David Rovics If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring? Peter Morici America's Banks are Broken Dave Zirin Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet David Krieger The Crisis in Tibet Website of the Day Memorializing Iraq March 24, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Blonde Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012 Peter Morici Digging Out of the Recession Uri Avnery Two Americas Wajahat Ali First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison Paul Craig Roberts Inside the Shell Game George Ciccariello-Maher The Coming War on Venezuela Stephen Lendman Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal Christopher Brauchli Possessing Someone Else's Country Cat Woods A Letter to Mom on Obama Stacey Warde Tax Burden Dave Lindorff The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting? Website of the Day Live from the Longest Walk   March 22 / 23, 2008 Ralph Nader Bush Blisters the Truth on Iraq Nicole Colson Can You Afford to Feed Your Family? James Petras The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives Laura Carlsen From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics of Trade Greg Moses Tolerance and the American Pulpit Andy Worthington Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials Michael Dickinson Art on Trial John Ross Bush's Surge Hits Mosul Missy Comley Beattie Killer Economics David Michael Green Happy Anniversary, America! Ramzy Baroud The Coming Uncertain War on Iran Martha Rosenberg Easter Egg Shells from Hell Paul Watson Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos Isabella Kenfield Monsanto's Raid on Brazil James Murren Logging v. Water in Honduras Jacob Hornberger Sex and the Immigration Officer Kathlyn Stone Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance Seth Sandronsky Rethinking New Mexico's History Kim Nicolini Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania Jeffrey St. Clair Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week Poets' Basement Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski Website of the Weekend Merci, McCain!   March 21, 2008 Marleen Martin Land Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on Crime" Peter Montague Run Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not Saul Landau Monroe's Deadly Doctrine Anis Hamadeh Merkel in the Knesset Jacob Hornberger McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic? Khalil Nakhleh Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist? Adam Isacson Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations Kenneth Couesbouc Money for Nothing Madis Senner Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market? Monica Benderman The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay? Website of the Day Stop Foreclosures and Evictions March 20, 2008 Damien Millet / Eric Toussaint The Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks Mike Whitney Winding Up Bear John Ross What Do We Owe Iraq? Dave Lindorff Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up Wajahat Ali Pakistan on Fire Jill Nagle Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism Manuel Garcia, Jr. Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America Dan La Botz Obama's Race Speech Robert Weissman Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API Stella Dallas / Jennifer Matsui Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right Website of the Day The Angry Monk   March 19, 2008 Patrick Cockburn A War of Lies Robert Fisk The Little Men and the Inferno Jeff Taylor Five Years of War in Iraq Ed Ruggero From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai Ron Jacobs Who'll Stop the Rain? Christopher Fons Obama Takes the Race Bait Sherwood Ross In Defense of Rev. Wright Cynthia McKinney An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities Joshua Frank The Kool-Aid That Kills Robert Weissman Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble Walter Brasch It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich Yifat Susskind Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation Andrew Wimmer War Demands Its Due Website of the Day Glimpses of Nature   March 18, 2008 David Price The Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge Paul Craig Roberts The Collapse of American Power Tim Wise Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth Patrick Cockburn One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought Conn Hallinan Afghanistan, a River Running Backward James T. Phillips Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe Uri Avnery The Killing in Bethlehem David Macaray Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement? Marjorie Cohn Beware an Attack on Iran Peter Zinn Obama in New Orleans Dan La Botz The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left Monica Benderman Where are We Going?   March 17, 2008 Pam Martens The Fed's Wall Street Dilemma Sasan Fayazmanesh The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment Nelson P. Valdés The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution Peter Morici The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit Wajahat Ali Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the Supreme Court Since 9/11 Ronnie Cummins Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma Shaun Harkin Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America Ali Khan No Pardon for Musharraf Robert Jensen Beyond Peace P. Sainath Oh, What a Lovely Waiver! Greg Moses Jeremiah was a Bullhorn Dr. Susan Block Advice for Eliot Spitzer Website of the Day No Cowboys   March 15 / 16, 2008 Patrick Cockburn How to Destroy a Country in Five Years Mike Whitney Bearly Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief Ralph Nader Of Laws and Men Robert Pollin It's Still the Economy, Stupid Diane Christian The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer Wajahat Ali Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed Tom Wright / Therese Saliba Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice Alan Farago Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began Greg Moses Raiding the Family Room in Texas Michael Hudson A Grand Global Bargain? Martha Rosenberg Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China John Goekler Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict Uzma Aslam Khan A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack? Oren Ben-Dor The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon David Underhill Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal Fred Gardner The Education of Eliot Spitzer David Michael Green Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have) Rev. William E. Alberts Jesus, Entombed in Heaven Gail Dines It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power David Yearsley Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin Chris Clarke Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs Poets' Basement Anderson, Lodge & Subiet Website of the Day Deviant Art   March 14, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Watching the Dollar Die Don Santina Vichy Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration Patrick Cockburn Iraqi Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons Tim Rinne StratCom Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska Robert Fantina In Torture We Trust Saul Landau Letter to the Presidents-in-Waitings David Macaray Common Myths About Labor Unions Franklin Lamb Is the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon Michael Neumann The One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics March 13, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Republicans and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America Mike Whitney Meltdown Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze Assaf Kfoury "One-State or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives Andy Worthington Afghan Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story Adam Federman From Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road March 12, 2008 Dave Lindorff Bringing Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US R.F. Blader The Spitzer Backlash Yonatan Mendel How to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or "Palestine" Jonathan Cook One State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism Bill and Kathy Christison Fallon and Gates -- At Least One Cheer James J. Brittain Was the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders Ron Jacobs "All the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul" March 11, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts How to End the Subprime Crisis Ed O'Loughlin How Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal Ramzy Baroud 'Unwavering Commitment' to Inequality Kathy Christison One State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine China Hand PRC Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran John Joslin Thank You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette Mike Averko Serb Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide Ben Rosenfeld Gavin Newsom's Kneejerk Plan Thierry Paquot High Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block March 10, 2008 Uri Avnery "Kill A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza Col. Dan Smith Scoring the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond R.F. Blader Why "Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its Sheen Michael Neumann The One-State Illusion: More is Less Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman Did the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio? James J. Brittain Anti-Uribe Protests in Colombia and the World Missy Comley Beattie The Passion of John McCain March 8-9, 2008 Weekend Edition JoAnn Wypijewski The Only Way to Fight the Clintons Mike Whitney Sorting Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America Peter Morici Fed and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets Ralph Nader The Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore Jonathan Cook The Meaning of Gaza's Shoah Steve Niva Behind the Israeli Escalation in Gaza Bill and Kathy Christison Crisis over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax Hervé Do Alto and Franck Poupeau Bolivia: Morales is Checked Eric Walberg To Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…? Scott Johnson City of A Thousand Foreclosures Mark Scaramella James Brown's Gate Bill Clinton President Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force Chairman Poet's Basement St. Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson Website of the Weekend Hillary Blackens Barack March 7, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Why Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face Robin Blackburn Question for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'? Saul Landau The Stupid Economy Binoy Kampmark When Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats Chris Floyd Crushing the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire Andy Worthington Spanish Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo Britons Will Potter Before the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word March 6, 2008   March 6, 2008 Vincent Navarro The Next Failure of Health Reform Forrest Hylton High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President Peter Morici Why the Dollar is So Cheap George Ciccariello-Maher Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats John Ross Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars Jacob Hornberger No Standing to Lecture on Justice Paul Watson Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers Dan Bacher Off the Deep End Website of the Day A Katrina Reader Online   March 5, 2008 Cockburn / St. Clair A Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader) Joanne Mariner After Guantanamo Fidel Castro The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa Christopher Brauchli The Turkish Invasions Steven Sherman Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left Dave Lindorff Busting Bush & Co. in New England James Murren Bombing Somalia Adam Engel Necropolis Now Website of Day Remember Song   March 4, 2008 Wajahat Ali Mumbo Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed William Blum How Could Hillary Have Known? Bill Quigley The Cleansing of New Orleans Ralph Nader The Prince Harry Solution Patrick Irelan Oil and Health in Venezuela James J. Brittain / R. James Sacouman Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America Norman Solomon The War Election Jacob Hornberger Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology Andy Worthington Guantánamo and the European Parliament Mike Averko Kosovo and the Press Website of the Day Tex-Mex Primary   March 3, 2008 Jennifer Loewenstein Gazan Holocaust Alan Farago American Politics and the Faltering Economy Richard Gott Colombian Deaths in Ecuador Wajahat Ali Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup Poll with John Esposito Paul Craig Roberts The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution Robert Weissman When Multinationals Say Adieu Uri Avnery Good Morning, Hamas Martha Rosenberg When Your Meat is a Downer Eva Liddell Leave the Next Dance for Bill Michael Donnelly Will Ferrell Does Flint Website of the Day Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues       Subscribe Online

Apri1 14, 2008 Has Israel Finally Met Its Match? The Meaning of Hizbullah's Big Win By M. SHAHID ALAM On January 31, 2008, when the Winograd Commission submitted its final report on the Second Lebanese War of July 2006, this was a first in Israeli history: a report on why the Israeli military had failed in a war. The Winograd Commission offers a quite honest appraisal of some aspects of the July 2006 War. [1] It acknowledges that it was "a serious missed opportunity." Israel had "initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory (italics added)." The Commission notes that a militia "of a few thousand men resisted, for a few weeks, the strongest army in the Middle East, which enjoyed full air superiority and size and technology advantages." Nothing could reverse Israel's handicaps: not even a massive ground offensive launched in the last days of the war. Yet, after this clear-headed assessment, the Commission stumbles. It blames Israel's military setback on "serious failings and flaws" in decision-making, preparedness, coordination between the civilian and military leadership, and strategic planning.[2] In other words, the Israeli military's poor showing in July 2006 was not the result of any fundamental shift in the balance of forces. These failures were the result of a few bad judgments, inadequate preparation and less-than-optimal coordination between different branches of the Israeli military: all of them errors which can and will be easily corrected in a rematch with the Hizbullah. We cannot credibly blame the Israeli defeat on failures in decision-making. Israel had many years to destroy the Hizbullah during its long occupation of southern Lebanon; but it withdrew unilaterally in April 2000, with the Hizbullah claiming victory. In July 2006 too, the Israeli military fell far short of matching its earlier easy victories over Arab armies: but this was not because of failures of leadership, the failure to use sufficient firepower (which it did), or the failure to launch a timely ground offensive (it would get grounded the way it had before). The Israeli military offensive of July 2006 had failed because Israel was fighting a war that did not play to its advantages in size and technology. Israel had finally met its match ­ a foe that was prepared to fight, that knew how to fight on its own terms, a foe that was elusive and cunning, skilled and daring, ready to adapt its methods to neutralize Israel's technical superiority, that controlled its terrain, and, most importantly, was backed by Iran and Syria. For the first time in its history, an Israeli invasion had been reversed by a cunning guerilla resistance. In the past, Arab armies had handed easy victories to Israel. Repeatedly, the Arab states chose to fight conventional wars: these backward, recently decolonized countries sent their poorly trained, poorly led, poorly motivated military to fight against the best, most determined military force the developed West could put together. Israel's victories against the Arab armies is overrated: it always remained an unequal match. The Palestinians chose to fight a guerilla war in Jordan in the late 1960s, but they did so prematurely, without preparing the political conditions for their success. They were defeated because they were forced to fight on two fronts: against Arab enemy states and the Israelis. The Israelis only deceive themselves when they use alibis ­ bad decisions or inadequate preparation ­ to 'explain' their military failures. Ever since their withdrawal from southern Lebanon in April 2000, the Israeli leadership had prepared for the occasion to deal a knockout blow to Hizbullah. Indeed, when the Israelis launched their latest invasion of Lebanon on July 12 2006, they had had more than six years to prepare; and they had had more than two decades to study their adversary. The Hizbullah too had prepared. Without fanfare, but with dedication, discipline, skill, and cunning, the Hizbullah leaders assembled an arsenal of low-tech rockets as well as more advanced missiles; they built secret bunkers; they laid out defensible communications; they acquired capabilities in electronic warfare; they used drones and eaves-dropping equipment to gather information; they placed spies inside Israel; they studied their enemy; and, most importantly, they had planned and trained, while maintaining the highest secrecy.[3] In a word, the small bands of Arab guerillas in southern Lebanon were prepared and ready. Israel executed its long-planned offensive against Hizbullah on July 12, 2006, using the excuse of a border skirmish to launch a full-scale and devastating war against Lebanon. They launched massive air and artillery strikes against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure ­ targeting Beirut and sites as far north as the port city of Tripoli. Israeli ground forces crossed the Lebanese border the same day, and continued to expand their ground invasion in stages throughout the war. During the 33-day war, the Israeli air force flew more than 15,000 sorties and struck 7000 targets in Lebanon; the Israeli navy imposed a blockade on Lebanon, and bombed 2,500 Lebanese targets; and, all told, the Israelis destroyed 15,000 homes, 900 commercial buildings, 400 miles of roads, 80 bridges, and Lebanon's international airport. Lebanon's human toll at the end of the war consisted of 845 dead, including 743 civilians, 34 soldiers and 68 Hizbullah guerillas.[4] In addition, close to a million Lebanese were forced to flee their homes.[5] The intent of these genocidal attacks was to turn the Lebanese against the Hizbullah. The Israelis failed in this objective too. In all its wars against Arab armies, the Israelis had achieved clear victories within days. In 1956, they had captured nearly all of the Sinai in about seven days. In June 1967, they crippled the Egyptian air force within two hours: and the war against the three front-line Arab armies was over in six days. In October war of 1973, the Israelis recovered from their initial losses to cross the Suez Canal ten days after the start of the war, and five days later they had encircled the Egyptian Third Army, a mere 40 miles from Cairo. On the Syrian front, the Israelis had advanced to within ten miles of Damascus. Since 1973, Israel has many times violated the sovereignty of Arab states with impunity. In contrast, Israel's full-scale war against Hizbullah's small guerilla force of some 3000 fighters had lasted for 33 days, without giving the Israelis the satisfaction of claiming victory.[6] On July 12 2006, Israel had started a full-scale war against Lebanon, convinced that it could destroy Hizbullah or greatly diminish its military force within a few days ­ and do it with air power alone. Israel's decision to end the war 33 days later, even as Hizbullah kept up its barrage of Katyusha rockets into Israel, was a dark chapter in Israel's military history. Israel's military might had been neutralized by a seemingly Lilliputian adversary. In July 2006, agility and cunning favored the Hizbullah. Consider the victories that Israel failed to score against this tiny but agile foe: it failed to destroy or jam Hizbullah's communications network; to knock out Hizbullah's television and radio stations; to kill or capture Hassan Nasrallah; or to dent Hizbullah's ability to launch Katyusha rockets into Israel. Hizbullah was firing Katyusha rockets at the rate of 100 a day during July, doubled this rate in early August, and, in the last few hours before the ceasefire came into effect, fired 250 rockets.[7] On the day of the ceasefire, the Hizbullah still had 14,000 rockets in its arsenal, enough to continue the war for another three months.[8] Contrary to Israeli denials, the daily barrage of Katyusha rockets took a heavy toll on the Israeli economy. Altogether, a quarter of the 4000 rockets Hizbullah launched during the war hit urban areas: they "paralyzed the whole of northern Israel, its main port, refineries, and many other strategic installations. Over one million Israelis lived in bomb shelters and about 300,000 temporarily left their homes and sought refuge in the south."[9] For a change, the Hizbullah had brought the war to Israel. Moreover, the Hizbullah scored several clear victories over Israel's military. According to an IDF Report Card published in the Jerusalem Post, Israel had deployed some 400 Merkava MK-4 tanks ­ its safest and deadliest tank ­ in Lebanon: 40 of these were hit by Hizbullah's anti-tank weapons, 20 of them were destroyed, and 30 tank crewmen were killed.[10] According to a report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "Hizbullah's success with antitank weapons during the July War reflects many years spent training on these weapons as well as a good plan to use these weapons once the battle began." Hizbullah's infantry or 'village units' ­ deployed along the border to slow down the advance of Israeli ground forces ­ "made the IDF pay for every inch of ground that it took. At the same time, crucially, Hizbullah dictated the rules of how the war was to be fought." It is worth noting that the fighters Hizbullah deployed in southern Lebanon were not its best. "One of the war's ironies," Andrew Axum writes, "is that many of Hizballah's best and most skilled fighters never saw action, lying in wait along the Litani River with the expectation that the IDF assault would be much deeper and arrive much faster than it did."[11] The Hizbullah scored its most impressive military victory in the area of intelligence. Israel's electronic warfare systems are amongst the most advanced in the world; they are war-tested and developed in cooperation with the United States. Indeed, the Israeli commanders were certain at the outset of the war of their ability to jam Hizbullah communications. They were wrong. Hizbullah's command and control system remained operational throughout the war; they evaded Israeli jamming devices by using fiber optic lines instead of relying on wireless signals. The Hizbullah had blocked the Barak anti-missile system on Israeli ships; hacked into Israeli battlefield communications in order to monitor Israeli tank movements; and, they monitored cell phone conversations in Hebrew between Israeli reservists and their families. They intercepted Israeli military communications on battlefield casualties and announced them on their media network.[12] They successfully employed decoys to hide the location of hundreds of bunkers they had built in southern Lebanon to store weapons and shelter their fighters.[13] As a world leader in weapons technology and communications, Israel had held a decisive advantage in electronic warfare in its wars with Arab armies. In July 2006, the Hizbullah had neutralized this advantage. Israel claims that it killed 400-500 Hizbullah fighters. Crooke and Perry insist that these numbers are exaggerated. "It is impossible for Shi'ites (and Hezbollah)," they argue, "not to allow an honorable burial for its martyrs, so in this case it is simply a matter of counting funerals. Fewer than 180 funerals have been held for Hezbollah fighters - nearly equal to the number killed on the Israeli side."[14] The Israeli setbacks in the July War of 2006, then, represents a paradigm shift ­ not something that can be pinned on careless errors in decision-making. Unlike the Arab armies in the past, the Hizbullah had fought a people's war. It neutralized Israel's technological superiority by deploying its mobile, elusive, disciplined and skilled guerilla detachments ­ not a centralized, conventional army ­ to fight the Israelis. The Hizbullah fights in small groups, it is evasive, it is secretive, it owns its terrain, it trains, it has high morale, and it enjoys complete popular support amongst Lebanon's Shi'ites. It can launch thousands of low-tech rockets which rendered sophisticated anti-missile defenses useless. It has also acquired and learned to use with great effectiveness anti-tank missiles that make Israel's most advanced tanks vulnerable. They have successfully targeted even Israeli warships. If the Hizbullah can extend these advantages, if it can add shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles to its arsenal and bring down a few Israeli helicopters and jets, Israel could quickly lose its unchallenged control over Lebanese skies. Israel's daily and wanton violations of Lebanese airspace would also come to an end. The Hizbullah offers Israel a new kind of asymmetric warfare: it combines low-tech guerilla tactics with sophisticated missile and communications technology. Understandably, the Israelis find these Hizbullah achievements hard to digest. What the world witnessed in Lebanon in July 2006 were events that contain the potential for shifting the balance of power in the Middle East. Earlier, the Iraqi insurgents had demonstrated that they can make an occupation ­ even by the world's greatest power ­ very costly. Now, the Hizbullah had shown that a disciplined guerilla force, with access to advanced missiles, can repel the most powerful invading army. It appears that the weapons gap that had opened up in recent decades between Western powers and the weaker, technologically backward nations may be closing. How rapidly this happens will depend on the willingness of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran ­ with other countries getting ready to join them ­ to make these weapons available to movements of resistance. Alternatively, if these countries hesitate, the arms smugglers will step in to provide this service. Once anti-tank, anti-ship and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles can be bought on the world's illicit arms markets as readily as AK-47s, this will begin to alter the fortunes of resistance movements battling great powers. In the late nineteenth century, the advanced Western nations had opened a lethal weapons gap with their automatic weapons: this gave them a quick, nearly costless colonization of Africa and Southeast Asia. When that gap began to close in the interwar period, it gave an impetus to resistance movements in Indonesia, Vietnam, Kenya and Algeria.[15] Already weakened from fighting their own fratricidal wars, the Western colonial powers retreated: and the Third World was born. Will the twenty-first century herald the dawn of another era of gains for movements of resistance across Asia, Africa and Latin America? M. Shahid Alam is professor of economics at Northeastern University, and author of Challenging the New Orientalism: Dissenting Essays on America's 'War Against Islam'. He may be reached at alqalam02760@yahoo.com. References: [1] It would be naïve to expect the Winograd Commission to censure Israel for unleashing a war of destruction against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure ­ for bombing villages, apartment blocks, ambulances, dairy plants, bridges, roads and the Beirut airport. With the unconditional support of Western nations ­ and the US taking the lead ­ over the past sixty years, Israel's wars of aggression against Arabs, its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, its assassinations of Palestinian leaders, its bombing of civilian infrastructure, its torture of prisoners, its siege of civilian areas ­ have been excused as 'security' measures against 'terrorism.' [2] Summary of the Winograd Commission Report. International Herald Tribune (January 31, 2007). [3] David Eshel, "Hezbollah's intelligence war," Defense Update. [4] Sergio Catignani, The Israeli-Hezbollah rocket war: A preliminary assessment (Global Strategy Forum: September 26, 2006): 2-3. <www. globalstrategyforum.org/upload/upload26.pdf> [5] On July 24, Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, UN, called for aid to help 800,000 Lebanese displaced by the war. "Timeline of the July war 2006," The Daily Star (Lebanon). [6] Efraim Inbar, "How Israel bungled the Second Lebanon War," Middle East Quarterly 14, 3 (Summer 2007). [7] Sergio Catignani, The Israeli-Hezbollah rocket war: 2. [8] Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry, "How Hezbollah defeated Israel, Part II: Winning the ground war," Asia Times Online (October 13, 2006). [9] Efraim Inbar, "How Israel bungled the Second Lebanon War," Middle East Quarterly 14, 3 (Summer 2007). [10] Yaakov Katz, "IDF report card," Jerusalem Post (August 24, 2006). [11] Andrew Exum, Hizballah at war: A military assessment (Washington Institute for Near East Policy: Policy Focus No. 53, December 2006). [12] David Eshel, "Hezbollah's intelligence war," Defense Update; Iason Athanasiadis, "How high-tech Hezbollah called the shots," Asia Times Online (September 9, 2006). [13] Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry, "How Hezbollah defeated Israel, Part I: Winning the intelligence war," Asia Times Online (October 12, 2006). [14] Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry, "How Hezbollah defeated Israel, Part II." [15] Philip D. Curtin, The world and the West: The European challenge and the overseas response in the age of empires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000): 27-32.

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