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March
11, 2002
Dave Marsh
10
CDs Playing On My Desk
John Chuckman
Footprints
in the Dust
Norman
Madarasz
Max
Steel in a Time Chaos
March
10, 2002
Thomas
Croft
Year
of Living Dangerously
March
9, 2002
Bill Cook
Sharon's
Bulldozer
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Nightmare in Israel
March
8, 2002
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
When
Business Men
Make Boo-Boos
CounterPunch
Exclusive
Enron's
Spooky
Image Consultant
Rep. Ron
Paul
Stop
the War on Colombia
Andre
Achong
The
Failed War on Drugs
John B.
Kelly
Michael
Moore and Me:
Disability Rights and
a Big Stupid White Guy
March
7, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Congressman
McInnis Equates Enviros to al-Qaeda
Mike Rogers
Will
the Battle of Shah-i-Kot Become the Taliban's Alamo
Walt Brasch
Patriot
Act and Free Speech
John Jonik
Insurance
Scams:
Who Are the Scofflaws?
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Bumper
Crop: The Politics
of Afghan Opium
March
6, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
A
Beautiful Mind:
Another Dangerous Lie?
Tom Turnipseed
War
Is Wrong
David
Vest
Billy
Graham and Nixon:
Tangled Up in Tape
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bombings That
Made Putin a Hero
CounterPunch
Wire
Berezovsky
Fingers Putin
in Bombings
Edward
Said
Thoughts
About America
March
5, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ann
Coulter At It Again:
Race-Baiting Norm Mineta
Bill Christison
A
Former CIA Officer
Explains Why the War
on Terror Won't Work
Delkhasteh and Wright
What
Should We be Fighting For? An Open Letter
to Pro-War Academics
Mariya
Tsvekova
Putin's
Georgian Gambit
March
4, 2002
Ralph
Nader
Dick
Cheney: A Dinosaur
in the Age of Mammals
Uri Avnery
How
Israel Will Torpedo
the Saudi Peace Plan
Southern
/ Kubrick
Stangelove
Scenario
for Shadow Govt. Bunker
David
Vest
Grammy's
of Constant Sorrow
March
3, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
War
on Terrorism for Dummies
Paul Cox
Boycott
Mel Gibson's
"We Were Soldiers"
Frederick
Hudson
Toward
a Nonviolent Africa:
Bill Sutherland's Quest
Eric Schaeffer
Dear
Christie Whitman:
Take This Job and Shove It
John Chuckman
Why
the Rest of Planet is Unnerved by America
March
2, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Sweat,
Sex, Feet and
the Working Class
March
1, 2002
Brendan
Sexton III
What's
Wrong With Black Hawk Down: an Actor Speaks Out
David
Krieger
Nuclear
Terrorism
and US Nuclear Policy
February
28, 2002
James
T. Phillips
Baghdad,
Spring 1992
Gideon
Samet
Sharon
Must Go
Rep. Ron
Paul
Before
We Bomb Iraq
M. Shahid
Alam
Samuel
Huntington:
Peddling Civilizational Wars
St. Clair
/ Cockburn
Rumble
from the Jungle:
Ecuadorian Farmers Fight
DynCorp's ChemWar
February
27, 2002
Eric Hobsbawm
The
Future of War and Peace
John Troyer
About
that WTC Memorial
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Wired
for Democracy
or Business?
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
February
26, 2002
Jonathan
Steele
Kabul's
Loss
Vasily
Streltsov
The
Pentagon in
the Transcaucusas
CounterPunch
Wire
How
Corporations Use Shadowy "527" Groups to Influence
Politicians
Lt. Col.
Robert Bowman
ABM
Treaty: Alive or Dead?
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
A
Prayer for America
February
25, 2002
John Clarke
Interrogated
at US Border
Blankfort,
Poirier, Zeltzer
ADL
Blinks, Settles Spying Case
Alex Lynch
Naked
from Sin:
The Ordeal of Nahla
and Sami Al-Arian
John Chuckman
Ashcroft
Speaks in Tongues
February
24, 2002
David
Vest
Skate
Date
February
23, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Axis
of Evil and
Media Monopolies
Bahour/Dahan
Cracks
in the Occupation
February
22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Axel
of Evil: Sex Crimes
and the Constitution
February
21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The
Philippines: Second Front in US's Global War
David
Vest
Reagan
Clone Project?
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Chicago
School and Corporate America: Rotten to the Core
February
20, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
The
Shallow Throat Document
Kay Lee
The
Prison Guard Who Never Owned Up to His Crimes
February
19, 2002
David
Orr
Waylon
Jennings, the Duke,
and the Navajo
John Chuckman
The
Devil and Georgie Bush
Prudence
Crowther
Giblet
Gravitas
Ramzi
Kysia
Caught
in the Iraq DMZ
February
18, 2002
Ron Jacobs
The
US and Iran
George
Lewandowski
Empire
in Declline
Lenni
Brenner
Life
and Death of a Folk Hero
February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
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About 9/11
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Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
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Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
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CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
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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
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March 11, 2002
The Chicken
Conflict and the Steel War
What Will Putin Say to
Bush's Posturing?
By Lidia Andrusenko
The widely publicised Russia-US friendship is
crumbling. However, the US withdrawal from the ABM treaty, refusal
to sign an agreement on the limitation of strategic offensive
weapons and even the surprise appearance of US troops in Georgia
all look minor aberrations compared to the "chicken conflict"
and the "steel war." The top Russian officials try
to calm down society saying that nothing terrible is going on,
that these are merely minor economic issues that will not harm
the strategic partner relations of the two countries. But it
is becoming clear that the problem has a political and not merely
economic roots.
The complaints which Russia and the USA
are exchanging now are not a mere commercial dispute but a very
harsh geopolitical confrontation. This time the USA does not
see Russia as a serious adversary and it is showing this clearly,
tactlessly and even with pleasure. One proof of this is the
latest statement made by US State Department spokesman Richard
Boucher, who said the problem of US chicken deliveries to Russia
can darken the forthcoming meeting of the two presidents in
Moscow. Translated from diplomatic parlance, this statement
can be evaluated as blackmail. And the Americans actually do
not pretend otherwise.
Boucher made his statement virtually
simultaneously with the so-called information leak from the
Pentagon.
The Los Angeles Times published a secret
Pentagon report sent to the US Congress on January 8. It proceeds
from that document that not only the countries of the "axis
of evil" but also four other states can become targets
for US nuclear weapons.
These four countries are China, Libya,
Syria and Russia. The explanation for this potential pre-emptive
strike, which means aggression against Russia, is very simple:
Russia is no longer an adversary of the USA but the existence
of a major nuclear arsenal in it presents a genuine threat to
the USA. This is how the overseas "victims of international
terrorism" plan to pursue their new policy of saving the
civilisation and reinforcing their global domination.
It should be said that exactly six months
passed since the September 11 tragedy in the USA, when the whole
world shuddered at the terrorist act in Manhattan. It should
be said that Vladimir Putin was the first head of state to express,
by phone, not only condolences to but also support for President
Bush. That support later took the practical form of assistance
in the struggle against international terrorism and top US
officials noted more than once that Russia's contribution to
the counter- terror operation was larger than the efforts of
the NATO bloc as a whole.
The point at issue is not only the close
collaboration of US and Russian special services (Russia could
have limited itself to this kind of support) but also the fact
that Russia allowed the USA to use its air space. Russia did
not say a word against the US use of the airfields of Central
Asian states. Russia provided serious military-technical assistance
to the Northern Alliance.
Russia has closed its military bases
in Cuba and Vietnam. In short, Russia was giving up its positions
consistently and consciously, hoping that the words of the US
administration about strategic partnership in the name of peace
would have a practical continuation.
But what did Russia get in return? Even
when the Americans admitted, at long last, that not only separatists
but also international terrorists closely connected with Usama
bin Laden are operating in Chechnya, US officials continued
to divide terrorists into "good" and "bad."
They continued to say that Russia is not acting adequately in
Chechnya. Russia's "strategic partners" have not helped
it to maintain high oil prices. The USA is still promising to
cancel the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which has become badly outdated
and which they invoked now in the chicken conflict.
In other words, the USA does not care
whose rights are infringed upon in Russia, the rights of Jews
or of chicken quarters. What is it, idiocy or American cynicism?
On the other hand, knowing the pragmatism of US administrations,
we can safely assume that the Americans coldly considered the
step before taking it.
The unprecedented US egoism and slyness
are outrageous, but we must admit that Russia has lost this
geopolitical battle to the USA. And it did this largely because
of its own political myopia. We have been saying to frequently
and too loudly of late that we benefit from everything the Americans
do. Given this evaluation of their actions, our Western "partners"
became convinced of their infallibility and think that Russia
will not only approve of but also support any US action. The
"chicken conflict" looks out of place in this context.
Even though the USA has conquered nearly the whole of the post-Soviet
space and has put unprecedented pressure on Russia in virtually
all spheres of foreign and domestic policy - in an extremely
humiliating and harsh manner.
We are not going to analyse the motives
and goals of the USA here. It is much more important for us
to try to predict the reaction of the Russian authorities and
above all President Putin to these latest developments. It is
apparent that the Kremlin can no longer ignore US actions and
cannot keep saying that nothing terrible is going on. In fact,
a major blow has been delivered at the image of the Russian
president and the Russian authorities surely pondered this possibility
back when they decided to make a U-turn to the West. But we
have neither the military nor the economic possibilities for
an adequate reply.
We can speak only about a violation of
moral principles, about political betrayal and brazen US neglect
for written and oral agreements. But this will not save the
day, especially for Putin. The worst reply of helpless Russia
in this situation would be the tightening of screws at home
in an attempt to compensate for foreign policy losses. So as
to keep up one's prestige for the forthcoming presidential elections.
So as to prove to society - and above all to themselves - that
the authorities can still control something. Especially in view
of the external threat posed by the USA. Any other way of mending
the situation would be much more complicated. Because it is
linked with the unreliable "partner" who completely
disregards the interests of Russia.
Lidia Andrusenko
writes for Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
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