|
June 3, 2002
Neve Gordon
The Caterpillar War
June 2, 2002
Bernard Weiner
Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies
June 1, 2002
Norman Madarasz
The
Strange Math of Roberto Carlos: Brazil v. Turkey
Gavin Keeney
Bush and Mies van der Rohe:
Architecture and Ideology
Jeff Halper
Sharon's
Post-Incursion Plan:
Incarceration or Transfer?
Walt Brasch
Crumpling the Constitution
May 31, 2002
Rev. Sandra Olewine
Land Grabs and Occupation:
Silent Destruction of Palestine
James Dunlop
Russian
Colonel:
"Insane But Fit for Duty"
Chomsky / Bennett
Debating "Terrorism"
May 30, 2002
Steve Perry
Jim Carrey:
"Love Me!"
Tom Turnipseed
Sex Among the Sacred
George Monbiot
Corporate
Phantoms
Web of Deciet over GM Foods
Robert Jensen
Are You a Journalist
or a Patriot?
Gary Leupp
Georgia
and the War on Terror
May 29, 2002
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Age of Inequality
Philip Farruggio
The
Cleaning Lady
Bill Christison
Disastrous US Foreign Policy:
Part 2, Globalization
May 28, 2002
Michael Leon
Lincoln
Brigades Memorial
Scott Lucas
Christopher Hitchens:
No Longer an Authentic
Voice of Dissent
Nelson P. Valdes
Castro,
Bioterrorism and
the State Department
Harvey Wasserman
What Does the White House Know
About Atomic Terror?
Norman Madarasz
France,
Brazil, the Politics
of the World Cup
May 27, 2002
Dave Marsh
Why I Voted for Nader:
Ticketmaster's Stranglehold
on Music and Politics
Robert Fisk
The Coming
Firestorm:
Bush's Crazed Remarks
May 26, 2002
Alexander Cockburn
Diary of a Northwest Trip:
Why Reds Live Longer
May 25, 2002
Chris Floyd
General
Principles:
Unmasking Colin Powell
Gavin Keeney
All Politics is Local? The Unbearable
Lightness of NGO's
Jeffrey St. Clair
A Hero
of Our Time:
Stephen Jay Gould
May 24, 2002
Edward Hammond
Documents Prove Pentagon Violated
Bioweapons Act
Mark Weisbrot
Bush
Administration Scandals:
Beginning of the End?
Feingold / Corzine
Halt Executions Nationwide
Bill Christison
Former
CIA Analyst:
Big Changes Needed in
US Intelligence Agencies
May 23, 2002
Dean Baker
Attack of the Clowns:
The Real Bush is Back
Susan Abulhawa
Israel
and South Africa:
Apartheid's Accidental Prophecy
Uri Avnery
Sharon the Great Reformer?
Behzad Yaghmaian
Travails
of a Middle Eastern Migrant: Accosted at the Border
May 22, 2002
Brian J. Foley
Dick Cheney's Obscenity
Gavin Keeney
Bete Noire
Enron & the Great Game
Fran Shor
Follow the Money
Bush, bin Laden & Carlyle
May 21, 2002
George Monbiot
Riddle
of the Spores:
The FBI and Anthrax
Yulie Khromchenko
Displaced Reality:
Impressions from Jenin
Bernard Weiner
Kenny
Boy to Bush:
"Welcome to the Club"
Ron Jacobs
Confusing the Face
of the Enemy
Gary Leupp
"War
on Terrorism" in Yemen
May 20, 2002
Rep. Ron Paul
Say No to Military Draft
Dave Marsh
Music Monopolies
Jordy Cummings
Israel, Jews and the Left
Francis Boyle
In Defense
of a Divestment
Campaign Against Israel
Christian Salmon
The Bulldozer War
Edward Said
Crisis for
American Jews
May 19, 2002
Philip Farruggio
Where's Twain's Protector Government
Now?
Norman Madarasz
Canada,
NAFTA and Kyoto
May 18, 2002
M.G. Piety
Economic Fiction:
From Here to Annuity?
Michael Colby
Bush Fiddled
While
New York Burned
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published March 15, 2002
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
June 3,
2002
Meanwhile, Back
in Afghanistan
by Fran Shor
Consider the following eyewitness accounts from
distraught villagers in Bandi Temur, Afghanistan. As reported
in the May 27, 2002 edition of the New York Times: "They
shot my husband, Abdullah, and they beat me and bound my hands
and eyes." From a wailing mother came the cry: "They
shot my son, Muhammad Sadiq. He was 35. They shot him in the
legs." Most distressing was the story of another mother
whose 3 year old daughter ran in fear from the soldiers. "They
were shooting....I could not see anything but she was running.
We only found her the next day. She was in the well, she was
dead."
Were these soldiers part of another in
the all-too-frequent conflicts between rival Afghan warlords
that render life outside of Kabul dangerous and deadly? No, this
was another lethal raid in recent actions by US troops that have
outraged Afghan villagers. Among the other egregious violence
in this attack was the brutal death by "a blow from a rifle
butt" of the 100 year old village chief. As General Akram,
the regional head of police, explained: "The villagers really
respected him, that's why they are so angry." Angry enough,
according to the General, to view such raids of the American-led
coalition forces as similar to the Soviet activities of the 1980's.
But it is not just Afghan Generals and
villagers who are becoming increasingly alienated from US military
operations in Afghanistan. Even some British military officials
are deploring the tactics of such operations. According to a
story in the Financial Times of May 13, 2002, one UK military
source claimed: "The Americans seem to be operating like
SWAT squads, with one thought in their heads: "Let's go
in and kill those 'ragheads', as they call the enemy."
British correspondents for such newspapers
as The Guardian and The Times have commented on the fact that
carrying weapons in certain sensitive areas could easily get
Afghans killed or imprisoned. Those who are left for dead would
then be labeled, "AQT" - Al-Qaeda/Taliban, a catch-all
designation to cover-up inadvertent murders of innocent civilians.
These on-the-ground assaults only add to those civilians who
have already died by the thousands in the massive bombing raids
by US planes of "inadvertent" targets.
On the other hand, a recent US assassination
attempt by drone missile of one recalcitrant warlord, Gulbuddin
Hikmetyar, failed in its deliberate assault. This did, however,
serve to infuriate Hikmetyar and lead to his call for "jihad"
against the US. Thus, another former CIA-backed Mujahhedin tyrant
became part of the endless cycle of "blowback." Although
Hikmetyar's despicable misogynist fundamentalism was conveniently
overlooked when the US was aiding Afghan resistance to the Soviets,
his present dissent from US political aims in Afghanistan has
condemned him to enemy status, a status he shares now with Osama
Bin Laden, another CIA-client of the anti-Soviet days in Afghanistan.
In 1987, Hikmetyar was still valuable
as a CIA "asset" to be sent into Tajikistan to attack
villages and further destabilize the border regions between the
Soviet Union and Afghanistan. At about that same time, Bin Laden
was using CIA funding to construct a large arms storage depot
and training camp at the Khost tunnel complex, a complex which
much later would come under attack from the US coalition forces.
Perhaps the one constant in this ally/enemy choreography is the
fact that Richard Armitage, then Assistant Secretary of Defense
for International Security and now Deputy Secretary of State,
is still mucking about in political machinations in the region.
Another constant may be how the US turns
a blind eye to the production of opium in Afghanistan as long
as it serves the greater goal of US political control. Afghanistan
has once again emerged as the leading producer of opium, another
triumph of the "war against terrorism" in Afghanistan.
But, then, the Bush Administration has
its eye on a more significant product of the region - oil and
natural gas - and the role of a pipeline through Afghanistan.
This was important enough for the Bush Administration to play
footsie with the Taliban right through the summer of 2001. It
continues to be of greater significance than even nation-building
and long-term US military presence in Afghanistan, especially
since military presence has been enhanced in the Caspian region
with the help of dictatorial governments in places like Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, with the political and financial
support (upwards of 228 million dollars) of the Bush Administration,
Turkey will shortly assume command of the multi-nation UN security
force in Afghanistan. In the past Turkey backed one of the worst
Afghan warlords now being "rehabilitated" by the US,
General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Dostum's troops were notorious violators
of women and human rights across the board. Then again, Turkey's
deplorable human rights record against its Kurdish citizens rivals
that of Saddam Hussein's. Of course, former ally Saddam Hussein
no longer receives massive US aid as does Turkey.
To conceal all the connections to this
sordid past and contradictory present is undoubtedly part of
the effort to showcase the defeat of the Taliban as a triumph
of the Bush Administration's commitment to women's rights and
human rights. Hypocrisy is too kind and imprecise a word for
such deceitful and Orwellian policies. Perhaps the words of the
Roman historian, Tacitus, concerning the conquering of Carthage
would better apply: "Where they make a desert, they call
it peace."
Fran Shor teaches at Wayne State University.
He is an anti-war activist and member of the Michigan Coalition
for Human Rights. His e-mail address is: <f.shor@wayne.edu>.
|