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Today's
Stories
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
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
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
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
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
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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
April 24 / 25, 2004
Whistling in
the Dark
Israel, Palestine
and Bush
By Col. DAN SMITH
"I welcome the disengagement
plan prepared by the Government of Israel, under which Israel
would withdraw certain military installations and all settlements
from Gaza and withdraw certain military installations and settlements
in the West Bank.The United States remains committed to the vision
of two states living side by side in peace and security, and
its implementation as described in the roadmap."
President Bush
(April 14, 2004)
With this April 14, 2004 statement,
President Bush threw the full weight of the United States government
against any impartial settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
He also undercut the credibility of Jordan's King Abdullah and
Egypt's President Mubarak--key allies and Israel's neighbors--with
their publics and inflamed the "Islamic street." Moreover,
he has completely undermined what little hope there might have
been that any of the 55 Islamic--and more importantly, any of
the 22 Arab--countries would contribute troops to a post-June
30 international peacekeeping force for Iraq (Pakistani and Malaysian
officials hinted they might consider sending peacekeepers if
the UN takes over from the U.S. at the end of June--assuming
there is a peace to "keep.")
In large part, the fact that
the U.S. has so little willing support in the Islamic and Arab
worlds may have tipped the balance against the Palestinians.
The White House had already burned its bridges to the Palestinian
Authority's Yasser Arafat by demanding he appoint an independent
"prime minister" who would name other ministers and
with whom Israelis could negotiate. It then eviscerated any hope
that such a prime minister might really become an alternative
power center by insisting that he "dismantle terrorist capabilities
and infrastructure" as a precondition for any new or increased
assistance. But as long as Israeli troops occupy Palestinian
areas or even conduct reprisal raids, no prime minister will
accrue sufficient support to stand up to those who commit terrorist
acts.
Washington's position, enshrined
in the U.S. "Roadmap to Middle East Peace" first announced
on June 24, 2002, saved Ariel Sharon from the "threat of
peace" as well as from the need to engage in any serious
negotiations. It also allowed Israel to continue expanding existing
settlements in those parts of the Occupied Territories in intended
to retain in spite of the roadmap's call for a freeze on new
settlements and in defiance of United Nations Security Council
Resolutions going back to 1967 (Resolution 242).
But as the intifada
continued into autumn 2003, new doubts about Israeli tactics
were aired within Israel from unexpected quarters. In late October,
General Moshe Yaalon, Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff,
told reporters that the restrictions then in effect on freedom
of movement by Palestinians were so harsh that, by increasing
anti-Israeli sentiment, they were strengthening the appeal of
terrorist organizations and undercutting Israel's strategic interests.
Other officers expressed similar sentiments, including 26 pilots
who signed a statement characterizing the policy of targeted
assassinations as "illegal and immoral" (washingtonpost.com
October 31, 2003). Yaloon's statements were followed by a press
event with four former chiefs of Israel's Shin Bet domestic security
agency who challenged the Sharon government's actions. One noted
that "Terror is not thwarted with bombs or helicopters"
while another observed "The problem, as of today, is that
the political agenda has become solely a security agenda"
(Washington Post, November 15, 2003).
Nonetheless, even the obvious
failure of the military option to stem, let alone stop, attacks
against Israeli military installations, settlements in the Occupied
Territories, and in Israel proper, did not deter Sharon. Undoubtedly,
the Bush administration's pre-occupation first with the "post-war"
situation in Iraq--November saw a spike in U.S. fatalities--and
second with the general "war on terror" mitigated whatever
pressure the White House might have been inclined to apply on
the Israelis to give at least the appearance of even-handedness
. In fact, former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria, Dr. Jack Perry
was so struck by the growing identification of U.S. and Israeli
policy, especially in "fighting terrorism," that he
wondered "how much we are defending Israeli interests and
how much our own" (Charlotte Observer, January 7,
2004).
In his April 14 combined statement-press
conference-letter exchange with Sharon, President Bush effectively
intertwined U.S. policy toward Palestine with Israel's stance:
- Israel will not have to
withdraw all military installations or settlements from the West
Bank, nor all military installations from Gaza. This concedes
to Israel the right to retain as large a military presence and
whatever civilian areas on the West Bank it wants, final status
talks notwithstanding.
- The U.S. is steadfastly
committed "to Israel's security, including secure, defensible
borders and to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to
deter and defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible
combination of threats." In defiance of international efforts
to control weapons of mass destruction, this statement is a thinly
disguised approval of Israel's nuclear and other special weapons
programs. It also keeps open unfettered access to U.S. weaponry
and subverts restraints on the misuse of U.S. weapons against
civilian populations. No mention is made about a U.S. commitment
to the security of Palestinian civilians from Israeli actions
that violate international accords. (As an aside, to have truly
militarily "defensible" borders, Israel would have
to control the entire West Bank to the Jordan River, the Sinai
peninsula to the Suez Canal, and the Golan Heights.)
- The U.S. "understands
that after Israel withdrawspending agreements on other arrangements,
existing arrangements regarding control of airspace, territorial
waters, and land passages of the West Bank and Gaza will continue."
This allows Israel to control all ingress and egress to Palestinian
areas, and, with a later, more specific reference, concedes Israel's
right to build its "security barrier" as it wishes
and to maintain it throughout "final status" talks,
as long Israel "takes into accountits impact on Palestinians."
- An "agreed, just,
fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian
refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need
to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state,
and the settling of Palestinian refuges there, rather than in
Israel." This very strongly suggests the White House support
for an independent Palestinian state is based less on principles
of human rights and human dignity than on finding a rhetorical
fig-leaf (a "home" for Palestinian refugees) that the
White House hopes will divert increased anger within the refugee
population--as well as criticism from other governments--at its
capitulation to the Israeli position. Given the density of population
in Gaza and the areas on the West Bank that Israel intends to
retain, this position is impractical.
- Given "new realities
on the ground...it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome
of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return
to the armistice lines of 1949." This is a strange formulation,
in that Resolution 242 (1967), normally the first UN resolution
cited, as well as the Roadmap, speaks of returning to the pre-1967
Israeli-Arab borders. This well may reflect a desire to remove
any ambiguity about Israel's conquests in the 1967 war when it
seized control of Gaza, the West Bank, and particularly East
Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their
"state."
President Bush did reaffirm
U.S. support for establishing "a Palestinian state that
is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent." But
then he added: "so that the Palestinian people can build
their own future in accordance with my vision set forth in June
2002."
This demand that Palestinians
conform to an outsider's "vision" mirrors the Bush
Administration's attempts to dictate the form of the new Iraqi
government as well as Sharon's ongoing efforts to manipulate
the Palestinians. And these considerations do not even touch
the question of how there will be a "viable and contiguous"
Palestinian state given the territory Israel will retain.
In responding to a question
in the short press conference, Bush revealed another unspoken
concession to Sharon: removing the timelines in the roadmap.
"And now it's up for [sic] responsible Palestinians, caring
Europeans, Americans, the United Nations to step in and help
develop such a state that will be a peaceful state, one in which
money will actually end up helping the people of the Palestinian--Palestinians
to be able to grow their businesses and grow their--find wealth
for their families. And then we can worry about the final status
negotiations." Given the poverty, the structural impediments
to developing a functioning economy, and the physical and psychological
destruction from years of conflict, it will be well past the
roadmap's 2005 deadline before final status talks will even begin.
There is one way that "final
status" might occur by the end of 2005, especially given
President Bush's assertion during the press conference that "the
best way to achieve peace is to fight terror" and his vision
of a militarily liberated Iraq as an example of democracy and
free markets spreading enlightenment throughout the Middle East.
As expressed by Ambassador Perry, the U.S. may "be working
towards a Middle East in which America and Israel dominate the
region militarily, forcing the Arab and other Muslim states to
conform to our image of what they ought to be."
Such an outcome will no more
bring peace than whistling in the dark by the cemetery will ward
off ghosts. It is a recipe for perpetual war and unending terror.
Col. Daniel Smith, a West Point graduate and Vietnam
veteran, is Senior Fellow on Military Affairs at the Friends
Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby in the public
interest. He can be reached at: dan@fcnl.org
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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