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March 2004 Articles
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DV Articles
November 2003
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Condoleezza Rice wants to bring democracy to the Middle East. Ms. Rice, an expert on what is now an obsolete subject, the Soviet Union, believes this can be done the way the United States brought democracy to Chile or Iran or Afghanistan -- that is, by violently overthrowing governments. Does democracy come from the full belly of a B-52 and the murderous aftermath of coups? (full article)
Former White House Counter-Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke has managed to do something that defies modern political gravity. He has stayed in the news, hour after hour and day after day. He was hurled many days ago into the maelstrom of the 24-hour news cycle, which reports one moment on an incredibly important story, flings that story out beyond the Oort Cloud the next moment, and that story is never seen again. Clarke, somehow, has managed to maintain his position at the top of the news despite this process we mistakenly call "journalism" for longer than any other ten major recent stories combined. . . (full article)
An extensive discussion has
already taken place in Israel regarding the cost-benefit ratio of Yassin's
assassination. But the question of justice has hardly been raised.
The United States has delivered George Bush’s ghoulish brand of democracy to Haiti. The nightmarish components of Haiti’s ruling troika gathered last Saturday, in Gonaives, the country’s fourth-largest city – a macabre assemblage that seemed designed to assault the sensibilities of civilized humans. . . (full article)
2004 is turning out to be an important political year in many ways. For those on the political Left, the independent, non-Green, Ralph Nader Presidential campaign is bringing to the fore a number of important strategic and tactical issues, among them: an assessment of the danger-or not-of a second Bush administration; what our attitude should be toward progressives in the Democratic Party; the political and organizational nature of the kind of "third party" needed; and with whom in the process of party-building we should be willing to make alliances. . . (full article)
Dear Progressive Democrat: I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 and I’m proud of it. You voted for Nader and you regret it (or, you voted for Gore, even though you liked Nader better). Ever since then, you participated in a vigorous campaign to convince Nader and the Green Party not to run in 2004. It is unprecedented for so many progressive people to fight so intensely to prevent a progressive voice from entering the campaign. However, I intend to support Nader and/or the Green Party candidate (and I have not given up hope that Nader will be the Green Party candidate). I hope you will have the patience to listen to my point of view. . . (full article)
You don’t have to go far to realize that an economy tenuously on the rebound for Wall Street is very much in the dumps on Main Street. Just check out the proliferating dollar stores and paycheck loan providers that both owe their existence to far too many of us being too poor to shop at “real” retailers or to go through a month without running completely out of money. Even in cases where usually at least two breadwinners are struggling to make ends meet, a shockingly high number of us look at our forebears’ expectation of seeing their progeny lead better lives than they themselves did...as totally impossible. The American dream has become a forbidding nightmare. . . (full article)
In Washington, noses continue to grow, minds continue to be devoid of intelligence and hearts have yet to be found. Such is the calamity that is the group of liars who comprise the Bush administration, nothing more than an amalgam of unscrupulous beings molded out of the same bed of clay. This clay has yielded us men and women of similar proclivity towards malfeasance who are leading us into bottomless sewers of ignoble and hazardous waste. They have for three years caused us to drown in fear-infested cesspools of toxic insecurity, causing our emotions and lives to be controlled as they succumb to the Bush administration’s incessant fear mongering manipulation. As such, for three years they have been allowed to do as they please, causing nothing but trouble to our beleaguered nation. They are called the Washington Pinocchios. . . (full article)
The apology of Richard Clarke, the chief counterterrorism adviser to the Clinton and Bush administrations, for the U.S. government’s failure to protect its citizens on September 11 starkly contrasts with the U.S. government’s standard operating procedure. Sitting government officials, whether in Democratic or Republican administrations, rarely apologize for any transgressions of the state, no matter how grievous. . . (full article)
A Review of Jeff St. Clair's Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature: For all the environmental havoc uncovered in these 56 essays it is miraculous we stll have a planet and any clean air and water at all. St. Clair co-edits Counterpunch, along with Alexander Cockburn. To get a sense of the dimensions of what we’ve lost, he says, you have to “get the feel of your fingers skimming over 800 grow rings on the stump of a Douglas fir,” which is all that’s left of ninety-five percent of the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest. This book is a dire warning, the work of a singular investigative journalist and master story-teller. . . (full article)
When most people think of Costa Rica, they don't imagine oil rigs stationed off the pristine beaches. Nor do they envision pit mines cutting into the cloud-forested mountains. But, despite the country's noteworthy conservation efforts, its scenic vistas and extraordinary biodiversity have faced real threats from extractive industries -- and are now endangered by international trade deals. . . (full article)
The paradox of modern warfare works like this: by enhancing our military strength, we enhance our opponents' capacity to destroy us. The Russian state developed thermobaric bombs (which release a cloud of explosive material into the air) for use against Muslim guerillas. Now, according to New Scientist, Muslim terrorists are trying to copy them. The United States has been producing weaponized anthrax, ostensibly to anticipate terrorist threats. In 2001, anthrax stolen from this programme was used to terrorize America. The greatest horrors with which terrorists might threaten us are those whose development we funded. . . (full article)
Senator John Kerry's recent aggressive declaration on Venezuela confirms that whoever is in the White House, Venezuela will remain subject to intervention from the United States government and its allies. The role of the Venezuelan army in the face of this reality will be crucial to defend peace and democracy in Venezuela. The first part of this interview, published earlier, covered issues of US intervention, relations with Colombia, and efforts by the government's opponents to create an atmosphere of crisis inside the country. In this final part of the interview, General Raúl Baduel, head of the Venezuelan army explains to Heinz Dieterich efforts to combat terrorist snipers and the role of media manipulation. Baduel ends with a call for respect for democracy and peaceful coexistence. . . (full interview)
What do conservative pundit Robert Novak and rapper Ice-T have in common? Believe it or not, they have both glorified murdering policemen. Ice-T did it in his controversial song, "Cop Killer," which he made to protest police brutality. Robert Novak did it more recently when he hailed Guy Philippe's cop-murdering thugs in Haiti as "freedom fighters." Ice-T's song caused a firestorm of controversy among the righteous right in this country, but so far Novak's disgraceful comments have gone unpunished. In another recent column titled "Aristide's Allies," Novak suggests that those who support President Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the duly elected leader of Haiti are only doing so because of seedy financial ties with the exiled leader. What Novak doesn't tell his readers is that he has a history as an apologist for anti-Aristide death squads in Haiti. . . (full article)
The Bush White House is picking up its campaign against the U.S. working class. Recently, Treasury Secretary John Snow said that Medicare, the nation’s system of public health care for seniors and the disabled, will be bankrupt in 2019. Bush’s solution is to turn more of Medicare over to health maintenance organizations and pharmaceutical corporations. They are big donors to him and the GOP generally. Meanwhile, Snow wants the American public to think that government spending to meet its needs is at-risk. A frightened citizenry is his goal. . . (full article)
In January 2004, the Chicago Tribune cited military sources in Washington planning a "spring offensive" on the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan "that would reach inside Pakistan with the goal of destroying Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network." That offensive has clearly begun with recent troop deployments in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan . . . The US eagerness to work with Pakistan and even clear arms sales in violation of its own laws seems surprising -- it comes on the heels of a revelation that the founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had been selling nuclear secrets to countries like Libya, Iran and North Korea. Additionally, only three years ago Pakistan was one of three countries that recognized the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, and is widely known as having actually nurtured and sponsored the Taliban. . . . (full article)
Politics, being the art
of deception, must certainly recognize Israel as its Da Vinci. Its smug
self-portrait as a ‘civilized democracy’, rendered with brushes dipped
deeply in the oil paint of antipathy for Arabs, has won much admiration
among impressionable Americans. Galvanizing and amplifying latent Western
hatred of Muslim Arabs in order to rally the West under the banner of
‘Judeo-Christian civilization’, and intimidating doubters by abusing the
memory of the Holocaust to claim special ‘unique victim’ status, Israel
intones, ‘Stand with us because we are white and bomb towel-heads
in F-16s just as you do, and don’t dare stand against us because
you once persecuted our forefathers and should atone for your sins – by
abetting ours.’ The result of this most cynical ploy is that the
Palestinians, dark-skinned victims of Israel’s perpetual campaign of
ethnic cleansing, torture, theft, and humiliation, are always grotesquely
caricatured as mindless savages with a fetish for suicide attacks. There
is, however, one major credibility problem with this racist rhetoric:
Israel itself is in the process of committing suicide. . . (full
article)
International Condemnation
of Israel Mounts Jerusalem: A few hours after the Israeli military assassinated Hamas’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, I entered the classroom in order to teach my politics of human rights course. Everyone had already heard about the extra-judicial execution, so I asked my students whether they felt safer. The response was unanimous: they all felt more vulnerable. . . (full article)
Back to Square One. A
few days before the 5th Anniversary of the war against what was then
called Yugoslavia, ethnic cleansing again reared its ugly head in the
Balkans. Carl Bildt, most knowledgeable and clear-sighted former diplomat
in the region, said that we saw five years of international policy go up
in flames. Bildt is right in substance but his time perspective is too
short; it is 15 years of Western conflict (mis)management policies that
has gone up in flames. And indeed, some have reasons to try to play down
this catastrophe and its consequences: the international so-called
community and its allies, the Albanian leadership in Kosovo...
In the east coast Canadian city of Halifax, there existed a community of Afro-Canadians that once numbered almost 400 citizens. Situated in the north of the city on the shoreline of Bedford Basin, Africville was first settled in the 1700s and as a result of “environmental racism” developed into a shantytown. Human rights activist Denise Allen outlined how Africville came to be surrounded by, among other industries, “three systems of railway tracks; an open city dump; disposal pits for Halifax toxic waste; a hospital for infectious diseases; a stone and coal crushing plant; a toxic waste dump; a bone-meal plant; a cotton factory; a rolling mill/nail factory; a slaughterhouse; sewage disposal units; a prison; and a port facility for handling coal.” . . . (full article)
I rang my mum the other day. "Your column was good this week, dear," she said, and then paused, "but don't you ever have anything good to say?" She has a point. I seem to have the kind of mind that gravitates towards the negative, the underhand and the dishonest. In direct contrast to me, my mother is the living example of the old saying that if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So in honor of my mum, here's a few good things I've come across recently. . . (full article)
I keep telling myself to stop wasting time critiquing Thomas L. Friedman. No one can possibly top the self-inflicted damage he does merely by putting his laughable words on the New York Times op-ed page. But then he goes and outdoes himself...and here I am, furiously typing up an article. . . (full article)
Donald Trump is to corporate America what Mel Gibson is to Hollywood these days -- a savior. After taking a well-deserved albeit symbolic spanking over Enron, Tyco and Halliburton to name just a few, America's corporate leaders have retaliated with their deadliest weapon yet - the Donaldator; a largely forgotten relic of the Reagan era they have revived in time for the November elections. Donald's comeback has ushered in a new era of “Rogainomics”; a snake oil stimulus package to stave off voter discontent with Bush's job-hemorrhaging economy. After all, who better symbolizes the ecstatic consumer confidence of the 1980s than the fat-fingered mogul who wears a thorny crown of road kill on his own head? (full article)
John Kerry recently allowed a group of reporters to follow him around on a shopping spree. According to the LA TImes, the reporters were present as Kerry "bought a jockstrap, among other items, at a local sporting goods shop." Apparently, Kerry organized the publicity stunt in an attempt to prove to the country that he actually has testicles. Sorry, Mr. Senator, but I'm still not convinced. . . (full article)
If year one of Operation Iraqi Freedom proved anything, it was that public relations firms could have you believe that smoking a roasted banana peel could give you a little buzz. During the run-up to war with Iraq, the administration relied heavily on "perception management," Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber wrote in their book Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq (Tarcher/Putnam, 2003). To that end, Team Bush rolled out a steady dose of misinformation, disinformation, and highly dubious intelligence to sell the war to the public. The selling of the war, however, was a breeze compared to the selling of the occupation. Administration-sponsored propaganda efforts, including the use of in-house hotshots and the hiring of topnotch public relations firms and marketing gurus haven't yet been able to stitch together a coherent or believable message. As the occupation continues to unravel, so does the tapestry of the administration's tall tales. . . (full article)
In London, they unfurled a protest sign on Big Ben, in Rome a million demonstrators filled the streets. But here in Iraq, there were no such spectacular markings of the one year anniversary of the invasion a sign, the BBC speculated, that Iraqis are generally “pleased” with the progress of their liberation. . . (full article)
This story is about American weapons built with Uranium components for the business end of things. Just about all American bullets, 120 mm tank shells, missiles, dumb bombs, smart bombs, 500 and 2,000 pound bombs, cruise missiles, and anything else engineered to help our side in the war of us against them has Uranium in it. Lots of Uranium. . . (full article)
In an emotional and
heartfelt ceremony followed by the playing of taps, Veterans for Peace
unveiled a graphic, oversized "Iraq War Memorial Wall" next to the Vietnam
War Memorial at the California State Capitol on March 21. . . (full
article)
A
Malignant Tumor onto the World: Israel and Its Self-Defeating Actions
What were Sharon and the Israeli government thinking when they decided to decapitate Hamas through the assassination of its founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin? If the state sponsored murder of Yassin was not so recklessly self-defeating one might be inclined to think that Sharon is on a mission to implode the state of Israel. The evaporation of a wheelchair-laden Yassin through American Apache helicopter missiles underscores the vicious cycle the state of Israel has thrust upon itself for years on end. Its ceaseless terror-inducing actions on an occupied and resisting people continue to haunt it and its own citizens; its continued oppression, violence and dehumanization on the indigenous people of Palestine inevitably always boomerangs back, yet Israel does not relent, nor understands, nor seems to care about the consequences of its actions. . . (full article)
World War II plays a major role in our conception of human history, because, unlike the senseless carnage of World War I, it stands for an ideological struggle between Good and Evil. Whereas the Allies – Britain, the USA and even the Soviet Union – stressed, at least formally, their commitment to the humanistic values of the Enlightenment, Hitler's Germany did away with them altogether, worshipping barbarian values like power and race instead, taking pride of its brazen contempt for morality, international conventions and the rule of law....Luckily, Nazi Germany lost the War. But almost sixty years after its defeat in the battlefield, Hitler's concept of war – part and parcel of his overall Weltanschauung – celebrates a rising tide in the global ideological arena. Israel's assassination of Hamas' leader Sheik Ahmad Yassin is a milestone in this process of barbarization of the human kind. . . (full article)
To question or not to question, is that,
unquestionably, the question, or what? A federal tribunal to investigate
and monitor criticism on American college campuses of...Israel? A bill was
passed by the House in support of creating such a tribunal? On
September 17, 2003 the House Subcommittee on Select Education approved
H.R. 3077 unanimously? Slightly over a month later, the
International Studies in Higher Education Act was passed by the full House
of Representatives? How did your representative vote? You don't
know? (full article)
Five
Theses on Shakespeare in the Alley/or 1. “I was thinking of a series of dreams” I attended this weekend’s rainy but inspiring antiwar march in Toronto - the “World still says no to war”…as diverse a crowd as you could find, and surprisingly large considering the weather and lack of publicity, compared to in other cities. What it lacked in mass, it made up for as a veritable sea of humanity, in the city that the UN referred to as the most multicultural on this small planet. . . (full article)
I
can recall the first moments of my country's attack on Iraq. . . (full
article) March 25-26, 2004
For 30 months, 9/11 was a huge political blessing for George W. Bush. This week, the media halo fell off. Within the space of a few days, culminating with his testimony to the Sept. 11 commission Wednesday afternoon, former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke did serious damage to a public-relations scam that the White House has been running for two and a half years. . . (full article)
Maybe I should have known better, but I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I read a recent piece in the Miami Herald about Haiti. In describing the Bush administration's reaction to Jamaica briefly hosting President Aristide and allowing him to reunite with his daughters, the report said, "Jamaica's decision ... has infuriated Bush administration officials ... Asked whether the United States will take any concrete measures against Jamaica, U.S. officials say the Bush Administration will not cut aid to fight AIDS in the region or reduce other kinds of humanitarian assistance." How utterly gracious of the Bush administration! You know a country has become too powerful for its own good when it refrains from denying life-saving aid to a tiny, helpless country and considers it an act of courtesy. . . (full article)
Finally a reason to get excited, as we now have before us an electable candidate worthy of taking on George W. Bush and his coterie of neoconservatives next November. Well, at least that’s what the scared liberals out there would have us believe. But John Kerry is neither electable nor exciting. . . (full article)
George W. Bush is in trouble. He is in serious trouble. He is in the only kind of trouble that he and his inner circle, headed by his close advisor, Karl Rove, really care about: political trouble. . . (full article)
In
his essay, Politics and the English Language, Orwell writes that
“political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” In no
case has this statement been truer than that of the Israeli- Palestinian
dispute. For over a half a century, an entire people have been denied not
only the right of self-determination, but the more basic right of human
recognition. . . Most impressive, though, has been the way in which the
“superstructure” of capitalist America has failed to notice the one year
anniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie, or indeed notice that she was
killed to begin with. The good American patriots have had nothing to say
about the killing of “one of their own” by an unknown member of another
clan, forcing one to ask: is jingoism really gone for good? (full
article)
Quiet On No Front On March 22, 2004, the Israeli government once again, crossed a line – perhaps yet another point of no return - in its brutal occupation of Palestine with its assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader and founder of Hamas. The assassination brazenly violates international law. No matter what one thinks of Sheikh Yassin's support of armed resistance (in which he echoed the likes of George Washington, Simon Bolivar and Nelson Mandela) to the Israeli occupation, what is indisputable is the fact that contrary to Principle V of Nuremberg, Sheikh Yassin far from receiving a fair trial, did not receive a trial. Sheikh Yassin's assassination is therefore yet another blatantly unlawful act on the part of an Israeli government that continues to ruthlessly oppress the Palestinians. . . (full article)
Some advice to politically Left Americans. Most of you will cast a vote for John Kerry in November. There's not much doubt about it. And the reason you'll be backing Kerry is (a) you assume nothing could be worse than Bush, (b) the Democrats must be marginally better, because…well, because they're Democrats, (c) pressuring elites doesn't seem to be working and you can't think of anything else to do to stop "Bush's" drive to war, and (d) all those people who keep warning you about lesser evilism, can't seem to come up with anything better. So Kerry's your man. Oh sure, some of you admire Kucinich. Others even think well of Nader. But you know Kerry's going to be your go-to-guy come November. Okay, fine. Leave it at that. When the time comes, head down to the polling station, and cast your vote. But in the meantime, shut up about it, because, just between you and me, you're starting to look a little silly, twisting yourself into knots to explain why it is that all the things you used to say about the Democrats being the same as the Republicans, no longer apply. . . (full article)
The preamble to the United Nations Charter begins, "We the people of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war...." Such idiom becomes useful when the United States intervenes under the auspices of UN humanitarianism. As the endgame in Iraq grows progressively more muddled and calls for UN involvement increase, it's interesting to note that March 25, 2004 marks 10 years since the last U.S. troops left Somalia. In 1992-93, Somalia experienced U.S./UN munificence firsthand. Operation Restore Hope (sic) was sold to the public as an act of U.S. philanthropy with images of malnourished African children and stories of evil Somali warlords...but little of the nation's history was allowed to get in the way. . . (full article)
Is your job going to Guangdong or Bangalore -- and is George W. Bush to blame? While corporate outsourcing and offshoring of jobs has already become a central question in the 2004 presidential elections, the debate has so far only scratched the surface of the real reasons for the worst job growth since the Great Depression of the 1930s. . . (full article)
On March 22, we posted "Mis-reporting Venezuela: Hugo Chavez as Processed by the “Independent” Newspaper," by DV contributing writer Toni Solo, based in Nicaragua. The article critiques The Independent (UK) newspaper's coverage of electoral politics in Venezuela. The following is an exchange over Solo's article... (full exchange)
A
couple months back I came across a phenomenal statistic; there are 1.02 cars
in the U.S. for every person of driving age. The New York Times
confirmed this in an article last week that said there are 230 million cars
and trucks in the U.S. and only 193 million licensed drivers. Surely it’s more cost
effective to call a cab when a breakdown occurs rather than having a backup
vehicle? Or have the robots learned to drive? But in all seriousness, car
prevalence has, to put it mildly, many drawbacks. It also contributes
significantly to shaping a country and says something about a society. . .
Dana Gioia, talking
head of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), spoke at Harvard
University’s/Radcliffe’s Aggaziz Theatre on February 9th, outlining his
plans to bring Shakespeare performances to high schools, military bases,
and universities around the country. “I refuse to believe that arts
funding is controversial,” Mr. Gioia declared, “and I’m frankly bored with
talking about controversies of the previous century.” So, the Great
Helmsman has spoken. We must not bore him with talk about funding—who gets
what, how judgments are made, what agenda is served. That is SO last
century. Nor dare we breach etiquette by inquiring about cultural
relevance, the nature of the performance, suitability, message, etc. Is
bringing theater to the schools and bases going to make a difference?
Depends . . . Peter Brooks' Shakespeare with Puck jumping through fiery
hoops -- could be. Same-o, same-o--probably not. Shakespeare, of course,
is rather like the Bible: you can read almost anything into it. And we
know what W.S. himself had to say about that: “The devil can cite
Scripture for his purposes.” But let’s take Mr. Gioia at his word. Bring
Shakespeare the Revolutionary, not Shakespeare the Arch-Conservative, into
the classrooms and onto the bases. How might that sound? Well, maybe
something like the following, where all the dialogue is dripping wet from
the Bard’s own quill! (full scene) March 23-24
The chill of that place was
fresh in my bones on Sunday night when I turned on '60 Minutes' to see
Richard Clarke, former Director of Counter-Terrorism for the National
Security Council and veteran of every administration since Ronald Reagan,
denounce George W. Bush and his whole crew for their failure to deal with
terrorism before and after September 11, and for attacking Iraq when no
threat to our country was present there. . .
On March 21, 2003, as I
headed home, a day after the United States formally invaded Iraq, I ran
into a colleague from Northeastern University – a professor of the
humanities – at the Ruggles train station in Boston. I was aware of his
political inclinations, and he of mine, from previous encounters. Still, I
thought we were on friendly terms.
“I bet you oppose the war,” he greeted me,
as I approached him. “Not at all,” I shot back, “ I wish to see Iraq
liberated as much as you.” Although, it was only the second day of the
war, and the bombs and missiles were accurately on target, it appeared
that the tension leading up to the war had taken their toll on our
colleague’s nerve. He snapped at my banter. Agitated, he began to poke his
finger in my face, while lecturing me about how “thankful” I should be
about living in “the world’s greatest country ever.” . . . (full
article)
Is The Fed Playing
Election-Year Politics?
Is Alan Greenspan
trying to get George W. Bush elected President this November? Accusations
of partisanship have dogged the Fed Chairman for some time -- especially
since he told Congress in January 2001 that, with continuing budget
surpluses, we might pay off the entire national debt too quickly.
Predictions of record budget surpluses have since been replaced by huge
deficits. Mr. Greenspan has lately been advising that the way to deal with
this colossal forecasting failure is not to reverse any tax cuts, but to
reduce spending. . .
(full article)
Sharon's
One Way Track
The assassination of
Hamas founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, should come as no
surprise to anyone who has followed Ariel Sharon's actions and has paid
minimum attention to how he operates. His logic is straightforward and
impeccable: Israel is an overwhelming military power; its strongest ally
is the mightiest military force in the world; therefore, as long as
Israel's conflict with the Palestinians remains within the military arena,
Israel will maintain a strong and steady upper hand. . .
Murder Plain and Simple The real intent of the assassination of Sheikh Ahmad Yassin is identical with Sharon's disengagement ploy: to block any significant opportunity for the resumption of efforts towards genuine negotiations. The fixed goal is the targeted assassination of any chance for peace. . . (full article)
As an American of Palestinian descent and Christian faith, I never cared much for the ultimate goal of Hamas: to establish a religious state in Palestine. But I find myself angered and baffled at Israel's decision to assassinate Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. What is even more baffling is the U.S. response, especially since its close ally, Ariel Sharon, personally commanded this extrajudicial killing. . . (full article)
On the day after his nineteenth birthday in 1966, my father received his commission as an officer in the same North Carolina National Guard unit that took his father to Europe in World War Two. By 1969, having left the Guard, Dad was in Vietnam with the Fourth Infantry Division for the first of his two tours there. After he returned, our family moved into officer’s quarters at Ft. Bragg, conveniently located near our hometown, Fayetteville, NC. I idolized my warrior father and told him that I wanted to be like him, camping out, eating C-rations and killing Viet Cong, not an uncommon feeling among seven-year-old military kids. . . (full article)
The survey the BBC conducted in Iraq last week is shocking to those of us who opposed the war. Most respondents say that life is now better than it was before the invasion. Those who thought the US was wrong to attack are outnumbered by those who thought it was right. Our instinct is either to ignore these findings or to dismiss them. When the questioner is employed by the state broadcaster of one of the occupying powers, the respondents might be expected to answer warily. But this is not how the poll looks to me. When asked "Do you support the presence of the coalition forces in Iraq?", 39.5% said yes, and 50.9% said no. Fewer than 10% said they had confidence in the occupation forces; over 40% said they had confidence in Iraq's religious leaders. These are not the answers you would expect from people too frightened to speak freely. . . (full article)
One year ago the United States unleashed its armed forces in an invasion of Iraq. Prior to the invasion, the Bush administration offered a variety of justifications for launching it and defended its war plan against critics who claimed that a U.S. invasion was unnecessary and would be immoral or unwise. For everyone except those blinded by partisan loyalty to the Bush administration, the truth is now all too obvious. The administration was wrong and the critics were right. . . (full article)
The demonstration on
March 20th in New York City spoke out against the Bush administration’s
foreign policy not just in Iraq, but in Haiti and Palestine as well. While
New York City mayor Bloomberg said there were over 33,000 protesters in
attendance, protest organizers said the number was closer to 100,000. In
either case the demonstration was largely peaceful with four arrests
reported from the New York City Police. Though I attended the march, I,
like many people I know had doubts about the message proposed by the
march’s coordinators, International ANSWER and United For Justice and
Peace, which was to “Bring the troops home now.” We didn’t think it was
practical to demand the immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq.
After the destruction of Iraq by the armed coalition forces, the immediate
withdrawal of these troops seems an impractical request and irresponsible
action which could fuel a civil war by allowing opposing ethnic and
religious groups to battle each other unchecked. To many of the
protesters who were out in full force last year, and continue to show
their support today, demanding the withdrawal of all troops immediately
seems too simplistic. . .
Back
up, America! Rewind that film! Your columnist has some flip-flopping to do. You heard me – I’m a
flip-flopper. Despite all you’ve been told by the White House, the major
media, Ann Coulter and the Ouija board, it takes a big man to flip-flop and
I’m going to be the first one on the block to do it. I prefer the term
“flip-flop” to “waffle,” because “waffling” makes it sound like I haven’t
made up my mind, and I have. I’m flip-flopping absolutely. I’m turning 180
degrees. I’m going the whole nine yards, even though no one has yet figured
out what those nine yards refer to. You can look it up. What I’m flip-flopping
about is Mel Gibson. Yes, Mel Gibson, a man I wrote off two weeks ago in
this column as “a shameless and repulsive movie star.” He may still be a
shameless and repulsive movie star, but from now on he’s got my vote. Why?
Because Mel Gibson has “doubts” about George W. Bush. . .
"Who would prefer that Saddam's torture chambers still be open -- who would wish that more mass graves were still being filled?"Can we have a show of hands, here? You? You? Or, maybe You? While lecturing a group of what he alleged to be representatives and diplomats of "84 countries united against a common danger and joined in a common purpose," George Bush last Friday followed up ghoulishly rhetorical questions that could not be answered, with ridiculous rhetorical assertions that could not be proved -- let alone understood. . . (full article)
Senator John Kerry has been defining himself as a Presidential candidate who would, if elected, continue the Bush foreign policy in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If you listen to what he is currently saying, you get a feeling that he wants voters (especially Jewish voters) to believe that a Kerry presidency would be even more supportive of the Sharon government, and actually less even-handed in its dealings with the Palestinians than the current administration. This is his present position despite some previous statements Kerry made fairly recently which indicate that he may have supported a more open-minded US policy toward the region. . . (full article)
Sharon's "Disengagement":
A Pacifier for the Majority
Getting out of the Gaza Strip is an old dream of the majority in Israeli society. Even before the Oslo agreements in 1993, the call to get out of there was heard after every terror attack. Today, according to the polls, it has the support of 60-70% of the Israelis. But governments come and fall, and still, this majority has not found the political power to realize its will. . . (full article)
Three years ago, while California’s energy crisis was spiraling out of control, Vice President Dick Cheney secretly met with half-dozen corporate executives of the country’s largest energy companies to hammer out a national energy policy for President George W. Bush. . . But Cheney's denials that his friends in the energy sector weren’t to blame for the power crisis are sure to come back and haunt him and could hamper President Bush’s reelection campaign. . . (full article)
That the administration of George W. Bush is pursuing a unilateralist foreign policy on issues ranging from the Iraq War to global warming to the International Criminal Court is obvious to observers at home and abroad. Also clear is the fact that the Bush policy, at least in its broad outlines, is very much in keeping with the preferences of the Christian right. As the second two quotes above indicate, the president, himself a born-again Christian, does not hesitate to use a moralistic, implicitly religious language in defense of his policies. What, exactly, is the relationship between the Christian right and the unilateralist foreign policy of the present administration? (full article)
The
latest Hollywood blockbuster by Mel Gibson, The Passion of Christ,
has aroused such passionate sentiment against it that I forced myself to do
something that I am loathe to do. Two inflammatory pieces in progressive
Canadian media -- “Mel’s
anti-Semitic Passion” by Jessica Squires in the Socialist Worker
and “A
Passion for Hatred That Mocks Christ’s Message”
by Robert Scheer in Canadian Dimension -- prompted me to fork out my
miserable worker wages to fatten Gibson’s already fat wallet so I could find
out for myself whether the film is anti-Semitic, as its detractors allege. .
.
Part of the year we live in a small farming community in New Zealand, where each summer the locals get together for a sports day. In a paddock backed by the impenetrable Kaweka Ranges, kids gallop their horses round barrels and dog racing consists of a dead possum tied to the back of Ute, driven at speed across the paddock with farm dogs in hot pursuit. While the women slap home grown BBQ sausages into white bread, men discuss the recent floods and our neighbors decide it’s the perfect time to try to convert us. “I can’t wait to see Mel Gibson’s, the Passion,” the home-schooling wife and mother says two seconds after we’re introduced. Her husband, a born-again minister with a flock in Napier nods quietly. I ask her why. “Because,” she lowers her voice, “it’s the truth.” “Really?” I know my inflection is rising. “Oh yes, it shows clearly who was responsible for Jesus’ death.” . . .(full article)
1. Moses didn’t make me Jewish, Hitler did. And now, the Sharon keeps me in a locked box labeled "Jew." . . . (full tablet)
Many people read the London based Independent newspaper because among its reporters is the outstanding Robert Fisk. The anti-war stance of the newspaper on Iraq and its stance on genetically manipulated foods and other environmental issues may give the impression that the Independent is a responsible newspaper across the board. But a look at its coverage of Venezuela reveals the same old story of distortion, omission and deceit on US intervention in Latin America that one finds everywhere else in the corporate media. . . (full article)
The cloudy New York sky split and shined down on the 100,000 demonstrators who took their grievances to the streets of Manhattan on Saturday March 20th. It was sort of a quasi protest, as Mayor Bloomberg quarantined activists in fenced in areas which were surrounded by police officers wearing soft gear, as opposed to the Robocop armor sported during most large protests throughout the US. Unfortunately thousands of people couldn’t even reach the scheduled event, as the metal interlocking barricades along the sidewalks kept them out. The day surely wasn't much fun for these folks. . . (full article)
Thousands of people rallied in San Francisco on a warm Saturday to oppose the U.S. assault on Iraq that began one year ago. The protesters were part of a global day of action against American military occupation of that Middle East nation. . . (full article)
As per
Professor Gasper's piece on Noam Chomsky's stance vis-a-vis John Kerry,
let me clue you in on what's taking place around the country that's not
going to conform to Chomsky's confines. It's dangerous stuff, and Noam
-- bless him -- is not helping this time around. Word has it that a hard
core group of citizens -- disenchanted with our March Madness -- have put on
their own Mad Hatter's hat. To wit, cells are forming around the
country (independent of one another) whereby groups of two, three and four
individuals will be taking action to stop The War Machine for good.
That's "good" in two senses. And blobs of MoveOn molasses will become
passé. Large groups will no longer be needed, if not mobilizing
meaningfully. Singular acts will be cool, spotlights will dim and
anonymity will rule. . .
Antonin
Scalia has announced he will not recuse himself from the Supreme Court case
in which it is to be determined whether or not Dick Cheney must make public
the notes of his secret energy task force that formulated Bush energy policy
in the spring and summer of 2001. Cheney’s task force met on scores of
occasions exclusively with executives from the fossil fuels and nuclear
industries, including Ken Lay several times, but with nary an advocate of
consumers, the environment, nor solar and alternative energies. Only weeks
after the Supreme Court agreed to take the case, which had been making its
way through the appellate courts, Cheney and Scalia chummed around on a
private duck-hunting trip in Louisiana. . .
(full article) March 20-21
John Kerry says he wants to be America's second "black president," but sadly, his record on issues of racial justice makes him look more yellow than black. This could spell trouble for the Democrats. . . (full article)
John Kerry recently chided the incoming Spanish government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for promising to fulfill a campaign promise to bring back to Spain its troops and support personnel deployed in Iraq. Agence France Press reported that Kerry’s view was that if Spain did bring its soldiers home at this point in the US occupation, “it would leave behind a failed state that inevitably would become a haven for terrorists.” With this statement, he seems to have some Richard Nixon in him. On the John Kerry for President website, a section outlines Kerry’s plan for “Winning the Peace in Post-Saddam Iraq” which is eerily similar to phrasing used in Nixon’s Cambodia Incursion Address delivered in 1970 to the American people. Nixon indicated that his plans to expand the war while ostensibly bringing US troops home would result in “winning the just peace we all desire”. Winning the Peace would be a constant refrain of Nixon’s as would Peace with Honor. The longer the US stays on Iraq the closer its leaders will come to uttering those phrases. Why would John Kerry want to prolong the misery of US troops in Iraq and their families here in the USA with such a strangely Nixonesqe policy? (full article)
The current threat of attacks in countries whose governments have close alliances with Washington is the latest stage in a long struggle against the empires of the west, their rapacious crusades and domination. The motivation of those who plant bombs in railway carriages derives directly from this truth. What is different today is that the weak have learned how to attack the strong, and the western crusaders' most recent colonial terrorism (as many as 55,000 Iraqis killed) exposes "us" to retaliation. . . (full article)
A full year after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, while the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein is over, the killing continues and the quality of life for most Iraqis has actually deteriorated. Meanwhile, the United States is continuing to sacrifice lives and money in an enterprise for which the original rationales -- eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and its support for the al Qaeda terrorist network -- are now widely acknowledged to be false. This essay offers a brief overview of the situation on the ground and the U.S. response to it. The violence in reaction to the U.S. occupation has consisted of both urban guerrilla warfare against U.S. and other occupation forces, led primarily by Baathist and other nationalist militias, and terrorism against Iraqi and foreign civilians, presumably led by domestic or foreign radical Islamists. There is also small-scale and potentially large-scale nonviolent resistance, particularly in the Shiite community. . . (full article)
The attacks of the American-led Corporate Global Empire on Afghanistan and Iraq are clear violations of that sovereignty and amount to nothing less than international war crimes. The anti-war movement should not, cannot compromise our position: Get all U.S., British, Spanish troops and any others participating in the invasion of Iraq - out of Iraq - unconditionally and now - not by midsummer and not to be replaced with another occupying force, as Zapatero seems to suggest. Any statement by the Anti-War movement supporting U.N. occupation of Iraq as an alternative is not "anti-war" or "anti-occupation" at all. . . (full article)
Family members of soldiers now in Iraq have become a central pillar of the movement against war and occupation. In the first such demonstration since the Vietnam War, military families and veterans groups are mobilizing for a protest on March 20 in Fayetteville, N.C., the home of Fort Bragg. Susan Schuman is a member of Military Families Speak Out. Her son, staff sergeant Justin Shuman, was deployed to Iraq from Fort Bragg a year ago this month. He is currently stationed in Samarra, north of Baghdad. Susan was interviewed by Socialist Worker’s WAYNE STANLEY about the struggle to bring U.S. troops home now. . . (full article)
Political aphorisms
don’t get any more cogent: “Who controls the past controls the future; who
controls the present controls the past.” George Orwell’s famous
observation goes a long way toward explaining why -- a full year after the
invasion of Iraq -- the media battles over prewar lies are so ferocious in
the United States. Top administration officials are going all out to
airbrush yesterday’s deceptions on behalf of today’s. And tomorrow’s. . .
I must say that I have been very impressed by the thoughtful tenor of Democratic Party commentary upon Ralph Nader’s entry into the Presidential race. It is clear to me that when Democrats like New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson says of Ralph Nader that his run “is an act of total vanity and ego satisfaction” they do so out of pure conviction, not because they have used polls and focus groups to fashion an attack on an opponent. It is nice to see Democrats like Richardson not only raise the caliber of debate, but continue the tradition of calling Nader an egotist that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada began in 2000. Why come up with new attack ideas when old ones will do? (full article)
William Huang, American
Idol reject, just got a $25,000 record deal with Koch records, but does he
realize we are laughing at him, not with him? Has anyone asked Huang if
he's in on the joke? (full article)
Emma Goldman for President
I don't know if the
Diebold computer voting machines in my town will let me to write-in a
presidential candidate come November. But if it is possible I'm voting for
Emma Goldman. It will be a symbolic vote, of course. Emma died in 1940. .
.
(full article) March 18-19
There are a few special
moments now and then in world affairs that lift your spirit... Now we have
the Spanish election and newly-elected Prime Minister Zapatero's words
about the Iraq invasion, words like "lies" and "stupid" that are inspiring
for their honesty and directness. Truth in world affairs is rare, and
Zapatero's comes after three solid years of numbing, depressingly-obvious
dishonesty from Bush. . .
“Old Europe” got its revenge. The Spanish elections eliminated George W. Bush’s most important ally on the European continent, registered a resounding rejection of the White House’s imperial foreign policy, and dramatically shifted the balance of power within the European Union against the Atlanticist alliance that sundered the authority of the United Nations by invading Iraq. . . (full article)
George W. Bush exploited the tragedy of September 11 for crude political gain--conquering Afghanistan and Iraq, rolling back civil liberties and whipping up fear and hatred to advance the Republican agenda in Washington. The horrific bombings on March 11 in the Spanish capital of Madrid--which killed more than 200 people and wounded 1,200--seemed to present one of Bush’s European sidekicks, Prime Minister José María Aznar, with the same opportunity. Yet just three days after the attacks, Aznar’s conservative Popular Party (PP) was driven from office in a stunning electoral upset. Millions of Spanish voters who skipped the last election turned out to show their fury at the government’s manipulation of information about the March 11 attack to blame the Basque separatist group ETA--when it knew that the available evidence pointed to al-Qaeda’s involvement. . . (full article)
Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Ridge, Rumsfeld, Rove KARL ROVE: Gentlemen, we have a problem. It's called Spain. PRESIDENT BUSH: This had better be serious, Karl. Your little emergency phone call here is costing me gym time. You know I don't go for that. . . (full transcript)
It is difficult at the best of times to fathom the hubris of the George W Bush administration. Back in April of 2002 Bush and his cabal had engineered a coup in Venezuela and the president Hugo Chávez was arrested. Elite figures quickly seized power, moved to suspend the constitution and stack the courts and other government bodies with corporate-friendly types. But after three days the coup crumbled. Why? Because people took to the streets in support of their president and the military fell in with the people. As reported by Associated Press: “Never before in modern times has an elected president been overthrown by military commanders, his successor inaugurated, and then the ousted leader returned to power on the wings of a popular uprising.” Now the Bush cabal has attempted a second shot at deposing a Caribbean regime. The neoconservatives even went so far as to claim that Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had resigned and left the country overnight -- identical to the pronouncements made when Chávez was temporarily ousted. Have they learned anything? (full article)
Condi Rice, In a Sense, Makes a Fool of Herself
When asked about the
overthrow of Haiti's Aristide government in a television interview,
Condoleezza Rice lent credibility to Hugo Chavez's claim that she is an
illiterate by saying, "We believe that President Aristide, in a sense,
forfeited his ability to lead his people, because he did not govern
democratically." She later said, "Haiti is moving forward. There's a new
president. There is a new prime minister. There is a new chief of
police. There's an Eminent Persons Council that is trying to guide that
process." So let me get this straight: becoming president by winning an
overwhelming majority of the vote in free and fair elections is not
democratic, but being arbitrarily appointed by a council of "eminent
persons" is?
Redemption
Thirty-seven years after Israel’s military might rolled into the West Bank and Gaza the occupation of these Palestinian territories continues. Thirty-seven years of death and destruction, thirty-seven years of illegal settlement building, thirty-seven years of brutality and Palestinian dispossession and still the world averts its eyes. It is the longest occupation of one country by another in modern times; an occupation, which has involved Israel in dozens of violations of UN Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions. And still many casual observers assume the conflict is symmetrical. They adopt pious neutrality rather than mount a serious attempt to understand what is happening. Neutrality and lack of engagement on the Palestinian/Israeli issue are luxuries we cannot afford. It is not acceptable for Western societies to remain aloof while Palestinians are ethnically cleansed from their land and social genocide is implemented. With all the information in the public domain, it is surprising such attitudes persist particularly with the conflict central to the Global War on Terror. No other issue so enrages the Islamic world. Today that anger affects us all. . . (full article)
Dreams For Sale
The latest issue of Satya Magazine takes a look at violence and activism. This includes a provocative interview with a hardnosed founding member of Greenpeace, Captain Paul Watson. When asked for tactical and motivational advice for new activists, Watson offered his version of a realty check for the next generation: "All people are the same. The poor are simply wannabe rich people. The oppressed are wannabe oppressors." As difficult as it might be to accept, there is some truth in Watson's appraisal. Talk to any non-rich lottery player if you don't believe me. In my neighborhood, playing the lottery is not just state-sponsored gambling...it's a lifestyle choice. Coercive advertising is used to convince the poor and middle class to accept a cleverly disguised, voluntary tax by promising them a chance to be rich like all their media-created heroes. It's an awesome victory of propaganda that so many downtrodden Americans strive to be exactly like the man whose boot is stomping on their necks. . . (full article)
Bombing the Peace
Protestors: People Pay the Price for Realpolitik
Before last year’s war on Iraq, Media Lens
reported the extraordinary level of establishment opposition to the
attack. Writing in the Financial Times in January 2003, Douglas Hurd,
former Conservative Foreign Secretary, argued that the war ran "the risk
of turning the Middle East into an inexhaustible recruiting ground for
anti-western terrorism". Anatol Lieven, a Senior Associate of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, wrote that the Bush administration was
pursuing "the classic modern strategy of an endangered right-wing
oligarchy, which is to divert mass discontent into nationalism," inspired
by fear of lethal threats. America, Lieven warned, "has become a menace to
itself and to mankind". In similar vein, Ami Ayalon, the head of Israel's
General Security Service (Shabak) from 1996 to 2000, suggested that "those
who want victory" against terror without addressing underlying grievances
"want an unending war". No surprise, then, that as the US-UK “coalition”
finalized its plans for war in early 2003, a UN report indicated that al-Qaeda
recruitment had accelerated in 30 to 40 countries...
Dodging Bullets in Iraq
The June 30 deadline for "transfer of power" has been widely peddled as the end of the occupation. But like with much else that comes out of Washington these days, this is sheer deception. The US intends to be in Iraq for years to come, and the caucus scheme was designed to legitimize the Pentagon's hijacking of the country... (full article)
The Peace Movement One
Year Later
One year after the start of war in Iraq, the peace movement in the United States faces an unusual predicament. Critics of the invasion had many of their key arguments vindicated in the past year, as President Bush's case for war has collapsed. Likewise, activists can take substantial credit for emboldening Democratic criticisms of the Bush administration and for keeping war-related scandals in the spotlight. Yet even as we sense that greater space for progressive activism in the country is opening, it has been hard to maintain a sense of unity and purpose within the peace movement itself. . . (full article)
Rachel Corrie, A Year Later
I was not present in Rafah that terrible day, but I have frequently replayed in my mind the events leading up to the moment when a bulldozer rolled over Rachel Corrie. I think to myself: What compelled this young woman, neither Jewish nor Palestinian, to travel 10,000 miles from home, to throw in her lot with a family not her own, a people not her own, and ultimately meet a death that came suddenly, swiftly, in an instant of shocked comprehension? (full article) | ||
