|
Recent
Stories
May
1, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
April
30, 2003
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
of Washington's Occupations
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
Leupp
Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
Faruqui
Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
"You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"
April
29, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
of the Iraq War
Uri
Avnery
Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
Anthony
Gancarski
Brush with the Law
Mickey
Z.
POWs: Then and Now
CounterPunch
Wire
How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents
Robert
Fisk
Did the US Murder Journalists?
Chris
Floyd
Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria
Wayne Madsen
About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents
Wallace
Gagne
Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby?
Eliot Katz
Playing Catch with Cracked Globes
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/29
April
28, 2003
Ann
Harrison
Fighting Back: Medical Marijuana
Patients Sue Ashcroft
Robert
Jensen
Lack of WMD Kills the Case for War
Peter Phillips
Total Information Control
Ron
Jacobs
Get the US Out of Iraq and Its Military Out of Our Minds
Mark Hand
Peace Park: The Pentagon Solution
to a Baseball Stadium Dilemma
Linda
S. Heard
Repeat After Me: Iraq is Weapons Free
Kurt Nimmo
US Military Bases: the Spoils and
Deceptions of War
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/28
April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
Plant?
Gary Leupp
Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong
Robert
Sandels
Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy?
CounterPunch
Wire
An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against
Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
Gancarski
Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
Basement
Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
the Case of Judy Miller
Zeynep
Toufe
A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist
CounterPunch
Wire
Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War
April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
Camp X-Ray
John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
Dokhi
Fassihian
Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web?
CounterPunch
Wire
Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
Sam
Hamod
Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
C. Higgins
Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
A. Gould
Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
of the Day
Muscles
Abroad
April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
April
22, 2003
Edward
Said
The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq
War are Now Clear
Sam
Hamod
What's the Deal with This War?
Kurt
Nimmo
Shi'a Will to Power
Gary
Leupp
At last! The Necessary Evidence
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
We Subside
John
Stanton
Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel?
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
Sherman
About That Cuba Letter
Wayne Madsen
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Stew
Albert
Creep
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/22
Website
of the Day
Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Col. Dan
Smith
Early Lessons from Iraq
Jo
Freeman
After the Protest Comes Politics
Michael
Berry
The Friedman Absurdities
Gray
Brechin
Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss
Bob Riedel
The Taliban from Texas
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/21
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
Hot Stories
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
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
May 2,
2003
The Spinning Wheel
at the Times
Thomas
Friedman's Life as a Pet Hamster
By JOHN CHUCKMAN
If you ever had a pet hamster when you were young,
you know what I mean about hearing its regular scrambling and
spinning on the exercise wheel. The squeak-squeak sound
becomes an amusing background noise of everyday life.
There is a powerful analogy in the life
of a pet hamster to the work of mainline American columnists,
but I think there are few it better suits than Thomas Friedman,
and I am not referring to his pudgy, whiskered looks.
Apart from time on the wheel, pet hamsters'
lives are pretty well limited to nibbling food pellets and taking
refreshment from a water bottle. Thomas receives his pellets
and refreshment from the public-influence departments of the
Pentagon, the White House, and the State Department. Between
feedings and rests to digest, you can hear Thomas periodically
scamper over to his wheel for a spin.
I know, I know, he's a Pulitzer laureate,
but people citing this qualification haven't examined the distinction
they make. A serious reader of history knows the Pulitzer has
gone to mediocre books while wonderful ones were overlooked.
In journalism, the Pulitzer is even more doubtful, having been
awarded for out-and-out fraud.
Of course, Americans have an obsession
with prizes and lists, as though one could count on them as a
way of identifying worth and integrity, but the main purpose
most of them serve is juicing-up products.
The New York Times spends gobs of money
bolstering Thomas the hamster's aura of authority. He is sent
regularly to distant points, but if you go somewhere to gather
quotes and local color, absorbing little of its truths, the net
effect resembles the blow-dried correspondents on network television
who use foreign locations for background shots while droning
out what might just as easily have said been said in the studio.
A recent spin of Thomas's wheel, gave
us this, "As far as I'm concerned, we do not need to find
any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war. Mr. Bush
doesn't owe the world any explanation for missing chemical weapons.in
ending Saddam's tyranny."
This is an upgraded version of Ari Fleischer's
demented-person-on-a-subway-car muttering about the absence of
any strategic weapons in Iraq meaning the invasion had been exactly
what forced Hussein to destroy them. Hussein was a tyrant indeed,
but the United States has no history of fighting tyranny. Even
World War II was the culmination of America's long, bitter rivalry
with a rising Japan over who would dominate the Pacific. Hitler
declared war on America, not the other way around. America's
power has been used dozens of times to put tyrants into power,
just so long as they were "its" tyrants.
Squeak, squeak,
"So why isn't everyone celebrating this triumph? Why is
there still an undertow out there, a holding back of jubilation?
There are several explanations. For me, it has to do with the
nature of Iraq and the Middle East. You always have this worry
that in the Middle East, fighting evil is like holding back the
desert. The minute you fight off one evil, three others blow
in to take its place."
You might think anyone writing for a
major publication would be ashamed to see this printed: it very
much resembles "Terry and the Pirates in Western Asia"
or "The Hardy Boys Join the Foreign Legion." The people
of the desert are mysteriously, inexplicably evil; in fact, they
are hydra-headed, and when you hack one head off, several more
grow in its place.
Squeak, squeak
goes the wheel, "I will whoop it up only when the Iraqi
people are really free - not free just to loot or to protest
against us, but free to praise us out loud, free to speak their
minds in any direction, because they have built a government
and rule of law that can accommodate pluralism and stand in the
way of evil returning."
Well, Thomas, that is a truly amazing
jumble. Iraqis are supposed to praise the people who have defeated
and humiliated them. Indeed, when they do, it will be evidence
of their true freedom. This is the arrogance of power, raw and
ugly, with no hint of shame. One senses O'Brien setting Winston
Smith on the path towards a proper attitude about Big Brother
in 1984.
In one jump, after being smashed, the
Iraqis are expected to produce a modern pluralistic society,
but history's few examples of that happening are in states which
were essentially modern but had temporarily slipped into tyranny
under terrible and unusual circumstances; e.g. Nazi Germany.
The road to modernism, democratic values, and pluralism through
all of history is a long one for states that are underdeveloped.
It displays immense arrogance and ignorance to believe you can
smash an underdeveloped society and then see a modern one emerge
from the ruins.
Squeak, squeak,
"France and Russia refuse to acknowledge that any good was
done in Iraq because if America's war ends justify its unilateral
means, their power will be further diminished."
Sorry, Thomas, it wasn't just a couple
of uppity, jealous countries that opposed the illegal invasion
of Iraq. It was virtually the entire planet. Only one ally, Tony
Blair's inexplicable Britain, did any real fighting. The other
members of Bush's pathetic "coalition of the willing"
gave virtually no material support. They simply agreed to keep
their mouths shut following months of Washington's browbeating
and bribing leaders all over the world.
Why is it when Americans like Thomas
write about Russian or French or German objections to America's
blasting its way into Iraq that it is always put in terms of
their seeing their own power diminished, of experiencing a kind
of international penis envy? Does this tell us more about Thomas
than the Russians or the French perhaps?
Here, again, is raw arrogance and lack
of understanding. It isn't possible the people of these countries
are right to fear America's four percent of the world's population
arbitrarily invading a place which has not threatened them, violently
changing international arrangements affecting everyone, and ignoring
the voices of unprecedented world opposition? Where's the spirit
of pluralism or democratic values in this? Thomas, isn't this
precisely what people fear from tyranny?
I won't go into the immense shortcomings
of democracy in America which can, for example, produce a President
who was not elected, but even assuming it to be a generally democratic
society, do democracies not often do stupid or terrible things?
Look at what America did to its black citizens. Look at its bloody
slaughter in Vietnam. Look at what Israel does to the Palestinians.
Further, America's voters, maybe two percent of the world's population,
can be viewed effectively as a kind of aristocracy vis-a-vis
the rest of the world. Can you not appreciate that, Thomas?
In another recent piece, Thomas, cleverly
pretending he is Hussein addressing the President, gives us,
"Mr. Bush, I know you're wondering why I did not do more
to avoid this war, which ended my political life. What in the
world was I thinking? Who was I listening to? The answer is:
I was listening only to myself. Don't make my mistake."
But, Thomas, has Bush ever listened to
anyone other than himself and his narrow crew of advisors? What
else does the invasion of Iraq represent? What else do the lies
about terrible weapons represent? What else does sabotaging the
UN's weapons inspectors represent? So, now, this lethal-injection
loner from Texas is supposed to act like a gracious world statesman?
You really can't have it both ways, Thomas.
When you embrace this kind of leadership, you take all that comes
with it. And that, as it turns out, is a pretty nasty bundle
of goods, including the clearest lack of respect and understanding
for the rights of Americans themselves and the dignity and worth
of everyone else.
Squeak, squeak,
Thomas further advises Bush, "Always remember: This [Iraq]
is an Arab country. Iraqis want to be first-class Arabs, not
second-class Americans."
I feel fairly confident claiming that
few writers can beat Thomas for being crudely patronizing. What
in God's name is a "first-class Arab"? Is it anything
like an American black with "a pure-white heart"? And
I do think, Thomas, that before you invade a country, kill thousands
of people, dismember children, destroy water, sanitation, and
communications, thrust everyone into unemployment and anarchy,
and manage to have some of the world's greatest cultural treasures
plundered is the time to remember the people belong to a different
society.
Squeak, squeak.
John Chuckman
lives in Canada. He can be reached at: chuckman@counterpunch.org
Today's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|