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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers! From Nixon to Sarah Palin
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The New Print Edition of CounterPunch, Only for Our Newsletter Subscribers!
From Nixon to Sarah Palin
What’s happened to the Republican Party? What’s happened to populism? Read Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair on the life and death of Nixonland, and the class politics of the war over Sarah Palin. ALSO in our new subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter, read Serge Halimi on how Russia gave Georgia and the U.S.a well-deserved black eye. PLUS Carrie Dann’s wonderful first-hand account of the fight of the Western Shoshone to reclaim their land. Get your copy today by subscribing online or calling 1-800-840-3683 Contributions to CounterPunch are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! CounterPunch books and gear make great presents.
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Today's Stories September 12, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff September 11, 2008 Noam Chomsky Sharon Smith Ron Jacobs Marjorie Cohn Mike Whitney Jeffery R. Webber Paul Cantor Peter Morici Ray McGovern Linn Washington, Jr. Website of the Day September 10, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Conn Hallinan Ralph Nader Peter Morici Joanne Mariner Laura Tate Kagel / Chuck Spinney Dave Lindorff Scott Campbell Paul Farmer Anne Kilkenny Website of the Day September 9, 2008 Michael Colby Chellis Glendinning Vijay Prashad Jeffery R. Webber/ David Michael Green Brian J. Foley John Ross Pierre M. Sprey / Nicole Colson Marc Gardner William S. Lind Website of the Day
September 8, 2008 Mike Whitney Tariq Ali Pam Martens Bill Quigley Malini Johar Schueller / Robert Jensen Uri Avnery Win McCormack Howard Lisnoff Maria C. Khoury Website of the Day September 6 / 7, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Linn Washington, Jr. Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Nancy Kurshan William Blum Michael Winship Fred Gardner Nikolas Kozloff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Karyn Strickler David Yearsley Richard Rhames James L. Secor Missy Beattie Eric Patton Ben Terrall Thom Rutledge Dan Bacher David Macaray Jane Stillwater Grady Harper Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend September 5, 2008 Elizabeth Walters Bill Quigley Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ira Glunts Peter Morici Deepak Tripathi Manuel Garcia, Jr. Michael Donnelly Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day September 4, 2008 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Andy Worthington Osama Dawoud Stephen Lendman Fidel Castro Website of the Day September 3, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Sen. Mike Gravel Vijay Prashad Nikolas Kozloff Ralph Nader Howard Lisnoff Steve Early / Cal Winslow Shepherd Bliss Bill Quigley Website of the Day
September 2, 2008 Marjorie Cohn Jonathan Cook Robert Weitzel Corey D. B. Walker John Ross Eric Walberg Judith Scherr Richard Morse B. R. Gowani Michael Greenberg Website of the Day September 1, 2008 Nikolas Kozloff C. G. Estabrook Manuel Garcia, Jr. David Macaray B. R. Gowani Saul Landau Charles Orloski Gloria La Riva Website of the Day August 30 / 31, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Bill Quigley Jeffrey St. Clair Andy Worthington Deepak Tripathi Stanley Howard Dave Lindorff Wajahat Ali Robert Fantina Josh Schlossberg Benjamin Dangl Missy Beattie Howard Lisnoff Suzan Mazur Rev. Jim Rigby David Yearsely Serge Quadruppani B.R. Gowani Richard Rhames Poets' Basement Website of the Day
August 29, 2008 Mike Whitney Brian Cloughley David Ker Thomson Joanne Mariner Neve Gordon Chris Genovali Ron Jacobs Michael Donnelly August 28, 2008 Judy Gumbo Albert Paul Cantor Saul Landau / Andy Worthington Ben Terrall Leonard Peltier Niranjan Ramakrishnan Donna J. Volatile Website of the Day
August 27, 2008 Anthony DiMaggio Jordan Flaherty Ralph Nader Melissa Checker Bob Sommer Cynthia McKinney Ali Khan M. Junaid Levesque-Alam Dave Lindorff David Macaray Website of the Day
August 26, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Michael D. Yates Paul Craig Roberts Andy Worthington Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Huwaida Arraf Joseph Grosso Sheldon Richman Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day August 25, 2008 Patrick Cockburn Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook James McEnteer Uri Avnery Will Potter Robert Jensen Stephen Lendman Wajahat Ali Carl Finamore Website of the Day August 23 / 4, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Patty O'Grady Nicole Colson Steve Conn Deepak Trapathi Robert Fantina Jonathan M. Feldman Joshua Frank Osama Qashoo Howard Lisnoff David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Christopher Brauchli Alan Farago Michael Winship Richard Rhames David Rosen Patrick B. Barr Jamie Newlin Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend August 22, 2008 Boris Kagarlitsky Laura Carlsen Bob Barr Marwan Bishara Peter Morici Manuel Garcia, Jr. Charles Mostoller Sumbul Ali-Karamali Keith Rosenthal John F. Miglio Website of the Day August 21, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Dave Lindorff Loserville: How Obama Blew It Ralph Nader Joanne Mariner Wajahat Ali Ron Jacobs Rostam Purzal Anthony Papa Website of the Day August 20, 2008 Michael Neumann Ray McGovern Eric Walberg Fidaa Abed Daniel Haack Mike Whitney Website of the Day August 19, 2008 Paul Craig Roberts Deepak Tripathi Marwan Bishara Saul Landau William S. Lind Martha Rosenberg James Brittain Pratyush Chandra David Macaray Website of the Day |
September 12, 2008 A Question for the CandidatesGeorgia in NATO?By STEVE BREYMAN Vice President Cheney’s recent reminder that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization had agreed to admit Georgia ought to get our attention. The Vice President’s statement must be seen in light of five important and overlapping developments: (1) the “new containment” policy of the United State against Russia; (2) plans to deploy regional ballistic missile defense systems on the Russian periphery; (3) post-Cold War US-Russian-Georgian relations; (4) the eastward expansion of NATO; and (5) Georgia’s importance in oil and gas pipeline geopolitics. This essay examines developments one through four. The core idea of both the old and the new containment policies is to surround the Soviet Union/Russia with US bases, forces and alliances to prevent its territorial expansion. Containment was the centerpiece of US security policy against the Soviets during the Cold War. The end of the Cold War in 1991 did not result in a corresponding update of US doctrine. Instead, given the break-up of the USSR and the multiplication of new nation-states around its edges, containment could be applied more extensively post-1991 than ever before. The Russian leadership is no more favorably disposed towards encirclement than had been the Soviet leadership. Ideology is not the decisive factor here. Ronald Reagan’s ballistic missile defense program, known popularly as “Star Wars,” lives on today. The Pentagon spent tens of billions of dollars since the President’s 1983 speech launching the program in ongoing and generally unsuccessful attempts to ‘hit a bullet with a bullet.’ The US offered scaled-down land-based versions of some of the systems to a number of US allies including Poland (Patriot missiles) and the Czech Republic (the accompanying radar). Defended as necessary to protect allies from “rogue state” missile attacks in the post 9/11 period (Iran), Russia sees any deployment near its own borders as threatening to its nuclear missile forces. Wavering for several years, the Poles inked the deal shortly after the Russian drive into South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, US policy under President George H.W. Bush considered territorial disputes in the Transcaucasus (including Georgia) as internal Russian matters. The early nineties were a time of chaos in Georgia including a fierce civil war, a coup, and various ethnic conflicts. The World Bank, IMF, and Germany provided Georgia hundreds of millions of dollars in credits in 1995. The “Rose Revolution” that toppled illegitimate President Shevardnadze took place in 2003. Russian President Putin exclaimed following the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine—inspired by the Rose Revolution in Georgia—that it was “extremely dangerous to solve political problems outside the framework of the law.” Current President Saakashvili took office in 2004. President George W. Bush became the first sitting US president to visit Georgia in 2005. In addition to its application to join NATO, Georgia began the lengthy process to become a member of the European Union. These closer relations with the West clearly worried Moscow. Russia embargoed Georgian wines and mineral water—leading exports--for alleged contamination in 2006. Sabotage against a transmission tower and a crucial gas pipeline in Russia near the Georgian border in January of that same year led the Georgians to claim Russia wanted to takeover its pipelines. An espionage scandal (Georgia ejected several Russians), a resultant crackdown on “undocumented” Georgians in Moscow, US diplomatic and military support for Georgia (including in the United Nations Security Council), and provocative speeches by both sides led to a further deterioration of relations. Georgia left the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on August 12 of this year. Some observers thought NATO had outlived its usefulness following the collapse of the USSR, and dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. The Soviets concurred with the “enlargement” of NATO that took part with German reunification in 1990 but demanded and received assurances that no NATO forces would be based in the eastern part of the country. By the mid-nineties NATO had taken its first-ever military action in the former Yugoslavia (without UN approval and with Russian disapproval), and reached out to prospective new members to the east. By 1999, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland formally joined the Alliance in the face of bitter Russian complaints. After 9/11, NATO invoked its Article 5—an attack against one is an attack against all—to, among other things, patrol the seas looking for terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. NATO has played a major role in Afghanistan since 2003. By 2004, the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), and Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania were members. At the NATO summit in April 2008, Albania and Croatia began the accession process. Agreed as well at that summit: Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO.” Other future members may include Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. The benefits of NATO membership include hundreds of thousands of troops, thousands of tanks and aircraft, and hundreds of warships at the ready for members’ collective defense. Backing up those conventional forces is the greatest nuclear weapons force on the planet: thousands of US, British, and perhaps French missiles and bombs. The Alliance promises ultimately to use nuclear weapons in defense of its member-states, even if the attack on members is non-nuclear. The threat to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict is the cornerstone of NATO defense doctrine. First use supporters argued during the 1980s that the threat was necessary to offset what they considered the Warsaw Pact’s advantage in conventional forces. NATO councils rejected no-first-use (NFU) offers from the former Soviet Union, and NFU proposals by retired policymakers (e.g., Robert McNamara). Neither the fall of the Berlin Wall nor the collapse of the Soviet Union changed NATO first-use policy. It exists today, and thus extends to any future members of the Alliance, including Georgia. Ought Washington to risk nuclear war with Russia on behalf of Tbilisi? No public opinion poll data on this question exists as of yet. However, we can imagine that should the question arise in a debate or press conference, the candidate who answers “yes” might cause some voters (and perhaps the media) to sit up, take notice, and ask additional questions. Steve Breyman is author of Why Movements Matter: The West German Peace Movement and US Arms Control Policy.
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