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Recent
Stories
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
May
22, 2003
Mark
Gaffney
Christian in Name Only
Carl
Estabrook
Republic of Fear
Carl
Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope
Ben
Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle
East?
Vanessa
Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia
Mickey
Z.
Instant Understanding
Don
Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy
Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush
Steve
Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?
May
21, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
Chris
Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology
Patrick
Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown
are Everywhere
Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz
Saul
Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush
Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003
Steve
Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq
May
20, 2003
Tariq
Ali
The Empire Advances
Ahmad
Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?
Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama
Linda
Heard
The Cage of Occupation
Cynthia
McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World
Edward
Said
The Arab Condition
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago
Stew
Albert
Yale Men
Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
May
19, 2003
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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May
24, 2003
Overcoming Terrorism:
Steps 8 & 9
Grievious
Harm Both Here and Abroad
By MICHAEL ORTIZ HILL
Make a list of all persons harmed, become willing
to make amends to all. And make amends to such people whenever
possible except when it would injure others.
In 1989, I took part in a spiritual retreat
of reconciliation between Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese people
organized by the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. Monks, nuns,
veterans, journalists, nurses and others who had been affected
by the war spent five days together meditating.
Richard told me privately that he loved
the sheer exhilaration of dropping bombs, that sometimes he and
his friends would drop LSD just to marvel at the beauty of the
fire below. Occasionally, he said, they'd drop a payload on no
target in particular with no concern about who might be on the
receiving end.
For two days, we sat in small circles
telling stories. A monk of impeccable bearing, having listened
to so many stories, said, "I am usually in control of my
emotions, but I think I will speak now if I can." He told
his story of growing up under the French occupation, the coming
of the Americans, taking his vows, attending to the dead and
wounded during the frequent bombings. His eyes dry, he withheld
nothing of his feelings.
After a few minutes of silence, Richard
spoke directly to the monk, "I have never said it: I am
so sorry for what we did to your people," and broke into
sobbing. The monk stood up; did a full prostration, forehead
to ground before Richard; then rose and held him as he cried.
"We Vietnamese also have blood on our hands," he said.
Eisenhower wrote, "Any failure [to
make peace] traceable to arrogance or our lack of comprehension
or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous harm
both at home and abroad." In his simple statement, "I
am so sorry," Richard undid his nation's arrogance, lack
of comprehension and refusal to sacrifice.
We can now appreciate what a cramped
little room this mindset of enemymaking was. The intimacy of
Richard's apology opens the door so the soul can be free to learn
the craft of peacemaking. All the previous steps have led to
this exquisite moment to be repeated again and again. Awareness
gives way to the gesture of reconciliation.
We know the list of those we've harmed
is endless: from the decimation of the original peoples of this
land; through slavery; through the bombing of Tokyo, Dresden,
Hamburg; through the brutality of our relationship with the Arab
world. Yet guilt mongering and "Blame America first"
is an indulgence we can't afford. It ensnares the ethical imagination
in self-righteousness and paralyzes the necessary labor of reconciliation.
How can we stop the violence even as we find ways of reparation?
Every tribe will protect its parameters
from enemies. It is the disease of so-called civilization to
draw wealth from far-away places, seek to control markets and
peoples and amplify defense so it invites war. Robinson Jeffers:
The war that we have carefully
For years provoked
Catches us unprepared, amazed
And indignant.
Currently, fifty percent of our tax dollars
serves the Pentagon. One percent goes to foreign aid, two-thirds
of which goes specifically to Israel and Egypt. Now that we can
think outside of enemymaking, perhaps we can imagine reversing
these figures.
Fifty percent of the tax dollar towards
a more sustainable world. Beginning with our former enemies,
de-mining the Plain of Jars in Laos, cleaning up the tons of
depleted uranium in Iraq, allying ourselves with Israel to economically
engage a viable Palestinian state, and so on.
Our former enemies first and foremost
and then the others, not in the spirit of missionaries dispensing
handouts but collaborative, grass roots work that heals the past
by addressing the suffering of the present.
And the military budget? No longer inflated
by imperial necessity, we have rejoined the community of nations.
In a generation, it's possible that our former enemies will defend
us and protect our interests because we're worth defending.
Inevitably some enemies will remain--the
impulse to violence runs deep, and the memory of war can linger
for centuries. Peacemaking is never a fait accompli. It is a
culture we pass on to our children so they can pass it on to
theirs.
Michael Ortiz Hill is the coauthor (with Augustine Kandemwa) of
Gathering
in the Names ( Spring Audio and Journal 2003) and Dreaming
the End of the World. The full text of this essay is posted
at www.gatheringin.com
He can be reached at michaelortizhill@earthlink.net
Today's
Features
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
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