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Exclusive to CounterPunch Newsletter Subscribers! America's First Terror War From Pirates to Enemy Combatants: R.T. Naylor traces the birth of the American Military-Industrial Complex and illustrates the striking parallels between Thomas Jefferson's naval war on the Barbary Coast states and Bush's War on Terror. Oil Company U?: Ali Tonak takes apart the big merger between British Petroleum and Cal-Berkeley and reveals BP's plot to saturate the Third World with GM crops, all in the name of oil conservation. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Remember contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now Order CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year and Receive a Free Copy of "Imperial Crusades: a Diary of Three Wars" by Cockburn and St. Clair Landau in Portland, Oregon and Olympia, Washington

Today's Stories May 14, 2007 Jennifer Roesch Giuliani Time: the Mussolini of Manhattan Jeffrey St. Clair Humans, CO2 and Climate Change May 12 / 13, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Who are the Merchants of Fear? Patrick Cockburn State of Surge Jeffrey St. Clair High Line Fever: a Trip Across the Dark Side of Montana Diane Farsetta Untold Stories from the Pat Tillman / Jessica Lynch Hearings Ralph Nader Strip Mining the Newsroom: Mr. Zell and the Tribune Company Jean Bricmont The Great Illusion: Sarkozy and the "Decline" of France Marcus Breen Cheering Sarkozy: the US Media and the Rightwing Takeover of France Joe Bageant Rising Above Politics Conn Hallinan European Missiles and the Camel's Nose Fred Gardner The Unreported I-880 Fire Juan Santos and Leslie Radford Public Terror: Escalating the War on Migrants Eve Bachrach Inside Colombia's Flower Industry Missy Comley Beattie Shame Ron Jacobs The Bitterness of Regis Debray Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Sepoy Mutiny After 150 Years Susie Day Jesus Christ Weds Pat Robertson Poets' Basement Newberry, Engel, Landau, Katz and Davies Website of the Weekend The Shipyard: Recycling as Art May 11, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Blair's Depature: the View from Baghdad Kathleen Christison Playing at Peace Mike Ferner Collateral Genocide John Holt Gating Montana: A Ghastly Disneyland with High Rise Outhouses Laurie Hasbrook This Minute and Then the Next: a Plea from an Antiwar Mother Christopher Brauchli The Children of Limbo: Will the Pope Finally Set Them Free? Margaret Kimberley GOP Openly Embraces Gipper Values: Racism, Violence and Control Dave Lindorff Use It or Lose It: The Democrats and the Impeachment Clause Nicole Colson Anger Erupts at Conditions in For-Profit Indiana Prison John V. Walsh Beware the Do-Gooders in Body Armor Website of the Day Take the Terrorist Quiz!   May 10, 2007 Tariq Ali Adieu, Blair, Adieu Patrick Cockburn Killing of Teachers Turns Iraqi Sunnis Against al--Qa'ida Neve Gordon and Yigal Bronner In Israel Not All Blood is the Same: The Death of Samir Dari Marjorie Cohn Fighting Terror Selectively: Washington and Posada Carriles David Rosen The New Disappeared: Sex Offenders, Civil Confinement and the Resurrection of "Evil" Alan Farago Why the Everglades Have Dried Up: Developers and the South Florida Drought John Hellman France: From Pétain to Sarkozy Kathy Rentenbach A 100 Days of Rafael Correa BANCO The Stage is Set for Sentencing Another Innocent Black Man Richard Rhames Is Paris Burning? Website of the Day Tame the Corporation May 9, 2007 Jeff Leys Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending, 2008 Patrick Cockburn An Interview with Iraq's Foreign Minister on Iran and Iraq Glen Ford No Black Plan for America's Cities Paula Rothenberg Feminism Then and Now Kathryn Weber A Conversation with Norman Finkelstein John Chuckman The Likely Historical Significance of the War in Iraq Jordan Flaherty Looking for Justice in Jena, Louisiana Dave Lindorff Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush Stephen Lendman Criminalizing Speech: the War on Free Expression in a Post-9/11 World Website of the Day "Fifth and Market": a Short Film About the Iraq War     May 8, 2007 Dave Lindorff The Great Oil Robbery Patrick Cockburn The Horrific Stoning Death of a Yazidi Girl Sparks Waves of Revenge Killings Corporate Crime Reporter Snuff Politics: Democrats Escalate Attack on Single Payer Ralph Nader The People's Crusade of Mike Gravel Malini Johar Schueller Decoding Harlan Ullman: Shock and Awe as Sexual Fantasy Juan Santos The Hate Equation: Targeting Migrant Children in LA Dave Zirin Jason Whitlock, the Clarence Thomas of Sportswriters? Joshua Frank The Price of Fire in Latin America Evelyn Pringle Serotonin Syndrome Eamonn McCann Irish Peace Dividend for Discredited Premiers Website of the Day The Pagan Science Monitor     May 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Great Wall of Baghdad Rises Monica Benderman Land of Opportunity Greg Moses Hutto Prison Rebuffs UN Rapporteur Rannie Amiri The Sham at Sheikh: Iraq Regional Conference a Flop Fitrakis / Wasserman Media Silence on Kent State Revelations Fred Wilhelms Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchange: And This Time It's Secret! Ramzy Baroud The Hourglass of Blood: Darfur Revisited Bruce K. Gagnon The Democrats Don't Own the Antiwar Movement T. W. Croft Home Movies from a Weekend in Paris--And Related Dreamscapes Sonja Karkar Prizes for Supporting Israel? Website of the Day Posada Carriles: the Declassified Record May 5 / 6, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Trying to Catch Up with the Voters William Blum How America Has Changed Iraq Uri Avnery Exercise in Escapism Franklin Lamb Harvard's Twisted Report on Israel's Invasion of Lebanon Fred Gardner Elective Surgeries Kill Lawrence R. Velvel The American Moral Meltdown Accelerates Missy Beattie Lying and Dying: The Moral Sensibility of Military Recruiters Robert Fantina Bush's Veto: Hypocritical Words and Actions Carla Blank American Massacres and the Media Linn Washington, Jr. The Long Ordeal of Harold Wilson Stephen F. Jackson Taking It to Drummond: Paramilitaries and Mining Companies in Colombia P. Sainath The Jailing of Indian Farmers Anthony Papa Time to End New York's War on Itself James T. Phillips Blather Cancer John Ross Last Days of the Willie Loman of the EZLN Stephen Lendman Chavez's Oil Policy Sparks Panic at Wall Street Journal Ben Terrall Iggy Pop at 60 CounterPunch Newswire Advice from a Geezer Assassin Poets' Basement Valentine, Engel and Davies Website of the Weekend Mountain Justice Summer   May 4, 2007 Patrick Cockburn How the Surge is Failing Col. Dan Smith From Watergate to Gonzogate Norman Solomon FOX on Wall Street Azmi Bishara Why is Israel After Me? Ron Jacobs Sitting in on Senator Kohl and the War Dave Lindorff Clinton and Byrd are Calling for Revocation of the Wrong AUMF Kevin Zeese The Democrats Cave to Bush Bob Fitrakis Why Four Died in Ohio: Kent State, Gov. Rhodes and the FBI Janet Kauffman "Stop the Mudness!" Bare Earth is Scorched Earth Website of the Day Let Us Gather in Missouri!   May 3, 2007 Jeff Halper The Livni-Rice Plan for the Middle East: a Just Peace or Apartheid? Christopher Brauchli Bush's Best and Brightest: From Dr. Keroack to Bernard Kerik Dave Zirin Talking Sports from Death Row: an Interview with Kevin Cooper Corporate Crime Reporter Big Pharma Gets Its Hooks into Seton Hall Law School Robert Fisk Olmert Comes Undone Mike Ferner Bush Veto, Right for the Wrong Reasons? Mike Whitney A Stock Market Post-Mortem Pham Binh The Democrats and War Funding Dave Lindorff Kucinich's Impeachment Train: Look Who Just Stepped Aboard Michael A. Johnson Tenet on 60 Minutes Website of the Day Olivia Wilde: the Interview   May 2, 2007 Saul Landau Would Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show? Dr. Susan Block Hookergate II: Madame Julia's Big Black Book of Cheesy Republican Sex Acts Carla Blank Historical Amnesia: Worst U.S. Massacre? Margaret Kimberly The Candor of Mike Gravel: "These People Frighten Me" Kevin Zeese Durbin Gives Edwards More to Apologize For Carlos Villareal How "Law and Order" Covers for Bigotry in the Immigration Debate Michael Dickinson Trouble in Turkey: Criminalizing Political Art Tim Shorrock A Raw Deal Between Washington and Seoul: Corporate Interventionism as Trade Policy Alevtina Rea The Myth-Makers of Estonia William S. Lind General Incompetence: Col. Yingling and the Military Brass Website of the Day Good News: Rost's "ZubeGate Exposé Prompts Congressional Inquiry May 1, 2007 Andrew Cockburn How Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture Fred Gardner Affirmative Abstinence: Adios, Randall Tobias, the Man Who Turned His Wife's Suicide into a Sales Pitch for Prozac Chase Madar Are Working Class Jobs Bad for Your Health? Ralph Nader Cheney and the BYU 25: Faith, Accountability and Protest in Utah John V. Walsh Edgy Dems Snarl at Their Antiwar Base Joshua Frank Obama, Incorporated Leslie Radford The Migrant Trap and the Migrant's Way Out Shaun Harkin An Interview with Nativo López on Immigration Bills and Protests Dave Lindorff Murtha Talks Impeachment Peter Rost, MD Inspector General Requests Meeting with Pfizer Whistleblower Peter Linebaugh May Day and Magna Carta Website of the Day Impeachment? Why Bother?   April 30, 2007 Frank Menetrez Dershowitz v. Finkelstein: Who's Right and Who's Wrong? Paul Craig Roberts Incompetence at the Top: Tenet and His Masters Ray McGovern Tenet's Self-Serving Apologia Manuel Garcia, Jr. Fire Collapses Oakland Freeway as Steel Supports Fail Diana Johnstone The Three Rs of "Sarko the American" Sherwood Ross A So-Called "Liberal" Answers His Death Threats Peter Rost, MD Did Pfizer Illegally Market Its New HIV/AIDS Drug? Robert Jensen Anti-Capitalism in Five Minutes Kevin Zeese While Congress Voted for War, the Peace Movement Protested Inside the Senate Jane Stillwater Dalai Lama and Costco Website of the Day Francis Boyle: Impeaching Bush   April 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Is Global Warming a Sin? Jeffrey St. Clair Versailles on the Potomac Fred Gardner Fuel for a Killer: What Drugs Had Cho Taken? David Orchard and Michael Mandel Afghanistan and Iraq are the Same War Alan Maass The War on Hip Hop: an Interview with Dave Marsh Joe Bageant Why Are Leftists So Damn Afraid of God? Robert Fantina The Rhetoric of Dick Cheney: Lying as Art Form Hanan Ashrawi Palestine and Peace: the Looming Challenges Ron Jacobs Return of the Guitar Army Nicole Colson The Surpeme Court Targets Abortion Rights Ben Terrall Tracking Torture Missy Beattie Quit Your Day Job, George Harvey Wasserman The Lesson of Chernobyl Cindy Beringer The Horrors of Hutto: Inside Texas' For-Profit Immigrant Prison Mike Roselle The Dog Philosophy: What Kant Can't Tell Us About Why We Love Wilderness RAWA Freeing Afghanistan James McEnteer Where the Movie Villains are American: Screening Films in Bolivia Poets' Basement For Stew Albert Website of the Weekend Rudy and Donald: the Drag Smooch April 27, 2007 Eva Liddell How Can Women Defend Themselves Against Stalkers? Phyllis Bennis and Robert Jensen Moving Beyond Anti-War Politics Mike Whitney Where's the Beef?: Padilla and the Zucchini Prosecution Michael F. Brown Biden and Pelosi: Failing to Hold Israel Accountable for War Crimes in Lebanon Jordan Flaherty Forgotten Mississippi Margaret Kimberly John McCain, Cold-Blooded Senator Christopher Brauchli The Dangers of Unstable People Jacob Mundy Stalemate in the Western Sahara? Website of the Day Yee Speaks April 26, 2007 Andrew Cockburn Wolfowitz's War Franklin Lamb Giuliani Plays the Islamic Terror Card Patrick Cockburn Al-Qa'ida Group Behind US Deaths in Iraq Roger Morris Dispatches From the Front Henry Siegman The Three Nos of Jerusalem Alevtina Rea A Sister City Debate in Rachel Corrie's Hometown Paris Are You a Hip Hop Apologist? Nikolas Kozloff White Racism and the Aymara in Bolivia Alan Farago Dow 13,000 Disconnect Matthew S. Miller The Limits to Lakoff Website of the Day PBS: Blaming Blacks Again April 25, 2007 Sharon Smith The Rights of Children in America David Price The Long Lost War Diana Johnstone Who Wants Sarko? New or Old France? Brendan Cooney Cho and Cheney: Killer Looks Sonja Karkar Israeli Democracy, For Jews Only? Brian Concannon Wolfowitz and Haiti Lee Gaillard Baptism Under Fire: Can the Osprey Fly? Leah Fishbein Women Under Siege Dave Lindorff The First Shoe Drops Neal Galloway US Agricultural Policy is Destructive at Home and Abroad Website of the Day Anti-War Student Movements: a Short History   April 24, 2007 Ishmael Reed How Imus' Media Collaborators Almost Rescued Their Chief Lila Rajiva Tragedy and Irony After Virginia Tech Paul Craig Roberts The War Goes Ever On Patrick Cockburn Sunnis Protest Baghdad's "Prison Wall" Ralph Nader The Corporate Debasement of Earth Day Mike Whitney Housing Bubble Boondoggle Website of the Day "Refugees"   April 23, 2007 Saul Landau The Courage to Withdraw Patrick Cockburn Time of the Death Squads: Iraq as Revenge Tragedy Robert Fantina Changing Sentiments Sam Husseini The Gonzales Distraction Corporate Crime Reporter Bought-and-Paid-For Journalism at the Philly Inquirer Elizabeth Lalasz Sick and Getting Sicker Harvey Wasserman Earth Day, Incorporated Dave Lindorff Huge Win for Impeachment in Vermont: Are You Listening Sen. Leahy? Gary Leupp Maoist Homophobia in Nepal? Stephen Lendman A Short History of the Christian Right Website of the Day No to OLF April 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Bring Back the Posse Fred Gardner Prozac Madness Kristoffer Larsson The Islamic Threat to Europe: By the Numbers Barbara Rose Johnston Nuclear War and Its Consequences Manuel Garcia, Jr. The Heart of Whiteness: Racism, Wealth and IQ John Scagliotti Unlocking Closets, Locking Free Speech Marjorie Cohn Gonzo Justice: Counting on Alberto Patrick Cockburn Sadr Raises the Stakes Diana Johnstone The Absent Middle East Ron Jacobs Explaining the Spectre Evelyn Pringle How Iraq Was Looted BANCO Travesties of Justice in a Black City in Michigan: the Persecution of Rev. Pinkney Paul Richards Thinking Big in the Northern Rockies Dan Bacher Zapatistas in the Colorado River Delta Ben Terrall Showdown at Chevron: SF Protest Against New Iraq Oil Law Sherwood Ross How the Taliban Defeated the Pakistani Army in Waziristan Remi Kanazi Bill Maher's "Towel-Headed Hos" Aseem Shrivastava Behind the Curtain of SEZs Poets' Basement Valentine, Reed, Harley and Engel Website of the Day Reading Sappho in New Orleans   April 20, 2007 Doug Peacock Beginning of the End for the Yellowstone Grizzly? Diane Farsetta Onward, Free Market Soldiers!: Privatizing Public Diplomacy Tom Clifford The Surge in Iraqi Civilian Deaths: the Bloodiest 12 Months of the War Amira Hass The Holocaust as Political Asset Nicole Colson Desperation in Gitmo's Camp 6 Sonja Karkar Double Jeopardy Entraps Palestinians Heather Gray The Supreme Court Looks a Lot Like the Taliban Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban Syrian Expeditions Agustin Velloso Spain and Iraq, Four Years On Matthew Koehler Distorting the News in a Timber Company Town Website of the Day Gonzo's Monica   April 19, 2007 Emad Mekay / Jim Lobe Scoring at the World Bank: Wolfowitz's Quid Pro Quo Patrick Cockburn A Day of Bombs and Blood in Baghdad Larry C. Johnson The Hobbesian Hell of Iraq: How Many Dead Equal a Failed Government? Norman Solomon Bowing Down to Our Own Violence Saul Williams Notes from a Hip Hop Head: an Open Letter to Oprah Winfrey Sunsara Taylor From Iraq to the Supreme Court: a New Dark Ages for Women Harvey Wasserman How Green is Tom Friedman? Christopher Brauchli Apologies, Incorporated Anthony Papa Nightmare Behind Bars: John Valverde's Fight for Freedom Dave Lindorff Betraying Thomas Jefferson Website of the Day The Best Antiwar Song of the Iraq War? April 18, 2007 Lila Rajiva More Gun Laws or Fewer Idiots? How the Va Tech Administration Failed Its Campus Landau / Hassen Tancredo as 17th Century Indian Chief? Charles Fisher / Randy Fisher Don Imus's Firing and the Hip-Hop Culture Diane Christian Facing Death Politically Kevin Prosen Meeting the Resistance in Iraq China Hand Gold Digging: The U.S. Treasury Department's Economic Campaign Against North Korea Peter Rost, MD The Strange Profits from a Re-Branded Cancer Drug Justin Akers Chacón What's Inside the STRIVE Bill Jerry Kroth Virginia Tech and Cho Seung Hui: Love and Unhappiness in an Alien Culture Sherwood Ross Massacre at Va Tech: a Brief Glimpse into Daily Life in Iraq Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Bonfire of the Hannities Alice Cherbonnier Why South Dakota's "Informed Consent" Law Doesn't Go Far Enough Website of the Year? "I Hope I Die Before I Get Old"   April 17, 2007 Jean Bricmont / Diana Johnstone The Elections in France: a Coming Political Tsunami Paul Craig Roberts Bloodbath in Blacksburg Frida Berrigan Militarizing the Border Alison Weir The Message of PBS's "Crossroads" Series: Some Muslims Aren't Bad John Walsh Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC? Jason Hribal Resistance is Futile: Emily the Cow and Tyke the Elephant Evelyn Pringle The Iraq Money Trail Ben Terrall Cuban Exiles Get Hero's Welcome; Haitian Refugees Get Shafted Stan Cox 1040s and Death Certificates Soren Ambrose Confidence Crisis at the IMF Website of the Day Go Ahead and Yell: "FIRE!"   April 16, 2007 John F. Sugg Hate and Hypocrisy in the Cox Empire Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Escalating Military Spending: Income Redistribution in Disguise Carl G. Estabrook The Politics of the Useful Threat: It Didn't Start with the Neo-Cons Paul Craig Roberts The Party of Brownshirts Uri Avnery Blood on Our Hands Ralph Nader Where Are the Cries of Outrage Over Military Rapes? Eamon McCann Shame of the Empire: Simon, Sir Bono and Tinkerbelle Lee Sustar Decoding the Democrats Mike Whitney Trouble in Squanderville: Bubble People and the Faith-Based Market Don Fitz Solar Capitalism? Stephen Lendman Ecuador Votes for Revolutionary Change Website of the Day Black Mesa Water Coalition   April 14 / 15, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Ho Industry Whores Jorge Mariscal Gen. Petraeus's Field Manual: a Traveler's Guide to Big Muddy Jeffrey St. Clair The Beautiful and the Dammed: How the West Got Flooded Dave Marsh The Imus Affair, Hip Hop and Politics Dr. Trudy Bond Shrinks, Lies and Torture: How Psychologists Became the Pentagon's Bitches Joe Bageant A Feral Dog Howls in Harvard Yard Fidel Castro The Terrorist Walks Alfredo Molano "More Than Complicated" Alan Farago When Miami Crashes Michael Neumann Anglophone Fantasies and French Realities Fred Gardner Barbara McNair's Unsung Heroism: Bringing Down the Owner of EST Ron Jacobs A Conversation with Three Iraq Veterans Against the War Gail Dines Racy Sex, Sexy Racism Linda Ford Imus and Lady Hoopsters: a Long History of Bias Against Women Athletes Missy Beattie What Would Imus Do?: Iraq, Ho, Ho, Ho Dan La Botz Farm Labor Organizer Murdered in Mexico Giuliana Sgrena The Lies of Mario Lozano Laura Carlsen A Moratorium on Free Trade Agreements Abu Spinoza Wolfowitz's Real Crimes Elizabeth Schulte Grinding It Out with Quentin Tarantino Poets' Basement Davies, Harley, Engel and Landau Website of the Weekend Vonnegut's Final Interview   April 13, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Shattering of Mosul Stephen Soldz Aid and Comfort for Torturers: Psychology and Coercive Interrogations in Historical Perspective George Ciccarriello-Maher The Failed Chávez Coup: Five Years On Laith al-Saud Kirkuk, Oil and the Kurds Dave Zirin Memo to Imus John Ross Drawing a Line in the Heartland Ramzy Baroud America as Proxy Harvey Wasserman The Novelist Who Hated War: Peace Be With You, Mr. Vonnegut Lopez, Olivo and Garcia Columbia University's Two-Tiered Punishments Dols, Fukumori, Judd and Tillett-Saks Columbia: On the Wrong Side of Justice Website of the Day Democrats: an Iraq Scorecard   April 12, 2007 JoAnn Wypijewski We May be Rid of Imus, But We're Still Stuck with the Culture Paul Craig Roberts Big Profits from Big Brother Marjorie Cohn U.S. Attorneys and Voting Rights Evelyn Pringle Bush Family War Profiteering: Will Congress Finally Cut Them Off? Ron Jacobs God Bless You, Mr. Vonnegut Norman Solomon The Awful Truth About Hillary, Barack and John Joe DeRaymond The Release of Dennis Counterman: The Justice Game, the Alford Plea and Death Row Nicola Nasser Squeezing Palestinians into an Impossible Mission Nikolas Kozloff Chile, a Country Geographically Located in South America "By Accident" William S. Lind Horatio Hornblower's Worst Nightmare Siegfried L. Sassoon A Statement Against the Continuation of the War Website of the Day Where You Want This Killin' Done?   April 11, 2007 R. T. Naylor Quebec's Lessons for the US: How "Wars on Terror" Should be Fought Vijay Prashad The Generation of IEDs and iPods Patrick Cockburn The Myth of Tal Afar Winslow T. Wheeler When Will the War Money Really Run Out? Jack Balkwill Prison for a Peacemaker: A Vietnam Vet Interviews Kathy Kelly Alan Farago Florida's Fundamentally Weak Environmental Movement Russell D. Hoffman The Carbon Offset Tax is Just Another Nuke Bailout Peter Rost, MD The Fine Print on Drug Industry Kickbacks Mike Whitney Doomsday for the Greenback? Dave Lindorff Torture and Selective Outrage Susie Day Peter Pace Porks a Peck of Pinko Perverts Website of the Day Save the Internet!     Subscribe Online

May 14, 2007 When the National Guard is Missing ... An Ill Wind and American Policy By ROSEMARY and WALTER BRASCH [Editor's Note: Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius says that the war in Iraq has severely hurt her state's National Guard response to deal with an F-5 tornado that destroyed Greensburg. Gov. Sibelius said because the Department of Defense has shipped personnel and equipment to Iraq, the state doesn't have half the tractor-trailer trucks it needs to move heavy equipment, and only about 30 of 170 medium tactical vehicles. The state's military resources were about 40 percent of necessary levels, according to Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general. Lt. Gen. Stephen Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, admitted "We are woefully under equipped in the Army National Guard across the nation." In September 2003, two years before Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and slightly more than three and a half years before an F-5 tornado destroyed Greensburg, in "An Ill Wind and National Policy," Rosemary and Walter Brasch predicted that the war in Iraq would leave Americans vulnerable to recovery efforts should there be major natural disasters. Rosemary Brasch, at the time, was a Red Cross national disaster family services specialist; Walter Brasch, a syndicated columnist and university journalism professor, had worked in emergency management for several years. His book, 'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina details the causes and problems leading to the devastation and recovery in New Orleans. Because of the power of that column, we present it, hoping that the nation recognizes what the war in Iraq has done to preparedness at home.] America has already spent more than $80 billion in the past year on its "war on terrorism," and the President has asked Congress for another $87 billion, most of it to rebuild Iraq. The appropriated budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), dwindling each year, is $1.8 billion. Even more critical, many of the most experienced senior emergency management specialists are leaving the Agency, often replaced by political appointees with minimal disaster training. Within hours, the 400-mile wide Isabel, a Category 3/4 hurricane packing winds of 100­140 miles per hour, will hit between North Carolina and New Jersey. Its victims will have to be content with leftovers. Our nation's disaster preparedness doesn't meet the needs that any sizeable disaster might bring. FEMA is severely underfunded. Red Cross disaster funds are negligible. With thousands of National Guard soldiers deployed-now up to a year each-most east coast states don't have the manpower or resources it needs for a sustained recovery program. Because of limited access and egress from coastal areas, and stick construction of thousands of houses valued at $300,000 and more, the physical damage can be significant, says Frank Lepore of the National Hurricane Center. Heavy rains are expected into Pennsylvania and the northeast corridor, with probable flooding. The hurricane has the potential to cause a large loss of life, says Lepore. Residents along the coastal areas hoping to cover their doors and windows in preparation for the storm are paying as much as 30­35 percent more for plywood than six months ago. It's not greed by the lumber yards, but supply. The federal government "bought most of our plywood to send to Iraq for rebuilding there," says Aaron Johnson of 84 Lumber in Raleigh, N.C. The scarcity of plywood is felt throughout the east coast. Complicating the problem, because of heavy rainfall in the summer, "most mills aren't open," says Mark Schneider, of Hugh's Lumber Co., Charleston, S.C. FEMA's disaster relief fund, prior to an emergency allocation this past summer, was "at a dangerously low level," resulting in significant cut-backs on service, according to the National Emergency Management Association. The hurricane season isn't over until December. To understand what it could be like, it's necessary to look at the past-and then realize how much less prepared the nation is to handle the equivalent disaster. Hurricane Andrew, a Category 4 storm, hit the Florida coast in 1992 with the fury of what might be best described as a massive air attack. Neighborhoods were leveled; schools, churches, stores, and factories were destroyed; the people were left without shelter, food, water, gas, electricity-and jobs. It wasn't just for hours or days, but weeks, months, and in some cases, years. The cost for Andrew is estimated at $25 billion, according to the Red Cross; insurance payouts were about $15 billion of that; several companies went into bankruptcy. The Red Cross, at the scene before the hurricane hit, was still working with its victims 10 years later. Following Andrew in 1992, social service agencies-along with FEMA and the National Guard-fed, clothed, and sheltered the victims. The Guard from several states evacuated victims and policed against looters; it provided tents, water, and food; military trucks hauled debris, cleared by Guardsmen. They carried workers and materials to rebuild Florida. Social service agencies provided emergency food, clothing, and shelter-often as far as 100 miles away from the destruction, since utilities were non-existent in the hurricane areas. Although FEMA was slow to react under the BushI Administration, it eventually provided significant assistance, and then was reorganized under the Clinton Administration to provide a more efficient response. Under Bush II, its efficiency is significantly less. The Pennsylvania National Guard has adequate manpower, according to Lt. Col. Chris Cleaver, with only 3,000 of its 20,000 member force currently deployed. However, most Guard units in other states have manpower and equipment shortages because of overseas deployment. Most state Guard units should be able to handle the immediate evacuation and recovery, according to Guard officers in several states. However, long term recovery will probably be a problem. Because of deployments not only to Iraq and Afghanistan, but also to Bosnia, Kosovo, and Guantánamo Bay, the South Carolina National Guard is "short-handed," according to Lt. Col. Pete Brooks. That state's Guard is operating with less than 75 percent strength. Most of the Guard's trucks, bulldozers, and heavy equipment are in Iraq, according to Brooks. Senior officers in the New Jersey, Virginia, and North Carolina National Guards agree their manpower and equipment can handle the initial problems. It's long-term recovery that will drain their states' resources. Because of current overseas deployment, with much of the remaining Guardsmen on active alert, the North Carolina National Guard is at half-strength, according to Senior Airman Lyndsey Leffel, the Guard's public affairs specialist. Senior officers in New Jersey and Virginia agree their manpower and equipment can handle the initial problems. It's long-term recovery that will drain their states' resources. More than one-third of all combat forces in Iraq are the citizen-soldiers of the National Guard. With increasing demands in a war that doesn't seem to have any conclusion, the demands upon the Reserves and Guard are likely to increase significantly. Governors can request assistance from Guard units in other states. But, with a wide-spread destruction expected, states will have to hire private companies. The cost to to do the work the National Guard could do could be several hundred million dollars. The Red Cross disaster relief fund is in "a very precarious situation," according to Kelly Donaghy, Red Cross spokesman. "We like to have at least $56 million on hand," she says. "We have almost nothing." The Red Cross estimates it would need "at least $100 million" for recovery from Isabel. Funds donated to the Red Cross for the 9/11 Fund may not be spent on anything but 9/11 victims. All social service agencies which normally would be involved with disaster relief have had to do with less as unemployment and a declining economy under the current administration, combined with the largest national deficit in more than a decade, has affected charitable contributions. When a substantial minority of Americans opposed sending several hundred thousand soldiers to Iraq, and argued that the costs of war would haunt us for decades, they were branded unpatriotic. When they argued that the Department of Homeland Security was more of a public relations ploy than any serious attempt to coordinate homeland security, they were branded traitors. Iraq, as we now know, even under a ruthless thug, didn't harbor the terrorists the President claimed, it had no weapons of mass destruction, and it posed no imminent threat to the security of the American people. But, a Category 3 hurricane does pose an imminent threat, as do forest fires, blizzards, and floods. Local and state emergency management agencies, under influence by the federal government, and with significant financial incentive, have redirected much of their focus to anti-terrorism training and prevention. The Department of Homeland Security, instead of concentrating its resources upon a disaster that can kill several thousand Americans and leave several hundred thousand injured and homeless, is still trying to figure out why it can't stop people with box cutters from boarding airplanes in America. While we can't put natural disasters into the same category as an al-Qaeda attack, they both encompass a fear of imminent danger. Death and destruction by a Category 3/4 hurricane is more imminent than an attack by Iraq ever was-and could leave more death and destruction than 9/11. Neither our home nor our land is secure. Rosemary Brasch lives in Pennsylvania. Walter Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, is an award-winning syndicated columnist and the author of 15 books, most of them about social issues, the First Amendment, and the media. His forthcoming book is America's Unpatriotic Acts; The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Liberties (Peter Lang Publishing.) You may contact Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu or at www.walterbrasch.com

Now Available! The Gang's All Here: Judy Miller, Bob Woodward, Jeffrey Goldberg, Rupert Murdoch, Bill O'Reilly...End Times Leaves No Reputation Unstained! Buy End Times Now! Now Available from CounterPunch Books! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal Click Here to Order!   "The Case Against Israel" Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair       The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn     CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed   Bruce Springsteen On Tour By Dave Marsh   The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"