Today's Stories

July 15, 2008

Michael Hudson
Why the Bail Out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is Bad Economic Policy

July 14, 2008

Uri Avnery
Will Israel and / or the US Attack Iran?

Paul Craig Roberts
Enabling Tyranny

Trish Schuh
Talking to Iran's Only Jewish Member of Parliament: an Interview with Morris Motamed

Patrick Cockburn
Immunity in Iraq

Mike Whitney
Betancourt Unbound

Alan Farago
Will Miami's Cubans Vote Blue?

Seth Sandronsky
Taxing U.S. Stocks and Bonds

Phyllis Pollack
Stones Paint It Black

Website of the Day
Our Pal in Butte, Jackie Corr, RIP

July 12 / 13, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Lock and Load--It's the Law!

Jeffrey St. Clair
The Origins of the Western Greens

James Abourezk
Talking World War III Blues: From Dylan to Iran

Nicole Colson
The Ethanol Scam

Stan Cox
Fixing a Broken Agriculture

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Is There an Oil Shortage?

Wajahat Ali /
Omid Safi
The Future of Iran: an Interview with Iranian Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi

John Stauber
There May be a Left, But is it Moving? An Interview with David Sirota

Alan Farago
The Crash of the King of Liquidity

Missy Beattie
Dark Neighborhoods

Robert Fantina
Bush's Last Yes Man: Canada, Guantanamo and Yankee Poodles

Rannie Amiri
Mubarak Hires the Mosque

Gregory Kafoury
After the Obama Betrayal

Fran Shor
The Audacity of Hype

Martha Rosenberg
Why Heifer International is Rolling in Dung

David Macaray
Will There be an Actors Strike?

Andrew Wimmer
No Lies! No War!

Ron Jacobs
They Call Me the Seeker

Farzana Versey
The Kashmir Chiaroscuro

Kim Nicolini
Angelina Jolie's Wanted: Taking the M-Fers Down with Guns and Exploding Rats

Poets' Basement
Wright, Fleming, Solomon and Birnbaum

Website of the Weekend
Parsing Jesse Ventura

July 11, 2008

Kevin Alexander Gray
Why Does Barack Obama Hate My Family?

Sasan Fayazmanesh
Historical Amnesia and the Shoot Down of Iran Air Flight 655

Peter Morici
Breaking Down the Trade Deficit

Mike Whitney
Worse Than McCain?

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Oiling the War Machine

Robert Weissman
Crime, Punishment and ExxonMobil

Ramzy Baroud
The Not-So-Historic Barak-Talabani Handshake

Kelly Overton
If There is a Chimp Heaven

Adrian Burgos
In Praise of Jules Tygiel

Website of the Day
Wendell Berry on Mountaintop Removal

July 10, 2008

Brian McKenna
McCain's Melanoma Cover-Up

Paul Craig Roberts
Watching Greed Murder the Economy

Saul Landau
Mississippi River Blues

Ron Jacobs
Who Will Leave Iraq First?

Joshua Frank
Cutting Deals with Big Timber's Darth Vader

Peter Morici
What's Driving the Wall Street Rout

Alan Maass
Jesse Helms Finally Does the Right Thing

Robert Weissman
Humanitarian Failure at the G8

William Blum
Dr. Strangelove

Alan Farago
Coral Reef Meltdown

Website of the Day
Lieberman Must Go!

July 9, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Are They Really Oil Wars?

Luis Rodriguez
The Deadly Fallout from Gang Injunctions

Sheldon Richman
What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote?

Fatemeh Keshavarz
Lessons from Sa'di of Shiraz on "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"

Chad Hanson
Blowing Smoke: Logging Industry Lies on Forest Fires and Climate Change

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Problems with the FISA Bill

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Defining Deviancy Down with FISA

Dave Lindorff
Paul Krugman's Blind Spot

Stanley Heller
A Damned Good Assembly

Philip Rizk
Sick at the Gaza Crossing

Website of the Day
Mumia on Nader

July 8, 2008

Nikolas Kozloff
Riding the Colombia Gravy Train

Laura Carlsen
North America Doesn't Exist: the New Geography of Trade

Mike Whitney
Bush's Rampage in Somalia

Andy Worthington
Scandal at Diego Garcia

Patrick Irelan
The Empire Goes to the Movies

Chellis Glendinning
The Un-tied States of America

David Macaray
A Union Story

Dave Lindorff
Mumia's Long-Shot Appeal

John Chuckman
The Myths of Independence Day

Phillip Doe
FISA and the Decline of America

Website of the Day
Daniel Ellsberg on Warrantless Wiretap Bill

July 7, 2008

Patrick Bond
Can Reparations for Apartheid Profits be Won in US Courts?

Kathy Kelly
Cold Shoulders

Andy Worthington
Repatriation as Russian Roulette

Clifton Ross
A Rescue Staged for the Screen

Elizabeth Schulte
Obama's War Room

Ralph Nader
The Patriotism of Deeds

Dave Lindorff
Keeping Count

Binoy Kampmark
The World According to Jesse Helms

Stephen Fleischman
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Change

Website of the Day
Time for a Change

July 5 / 6, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Could Anyone be "Worse" Than Bush?

Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Preliminary Notes from No Man's Land

Patrick Cockburn
Blowback from a Strike on Iran

Mike Whitney
Hunkering Down in Afghanistan with Field Marshall Obama

Robert Fantina
Obama, Iraq and Change

Binoy Kampmark
The Anwar Case: Snitching and Sodomizing

Rannie Amiri
Can Nasrallah Unite Lebanon?

Eric Ruder
Hidden Casualties

Brian Cloughley
Israel Flexes Its Muscles

William Blum
Some Thoughts on Patriotism

Frank Barat
The One-Word Solution

Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Phony Pollution Accounting

David Yearsley
Rubbert Shines, as US Envoy Puts Foot in His Mouth

Ron Jacobs
U.S. Blues

Karim Makdisi
On Soccer and Politics in Lebanon

Wendy Thompson /
Chris Kutalik
What Can We Learn from the American Axle Strike?

N.D. Jayaprakash
The NPT as a Roadblock to Disarmament

Ramzy Baroud
Journalistic Imperatives

Kelly Overton
Animal Rights and Obama

Richard Neville
Bitch Fights and Tomorrow's Top Model

Poets' Basement
Anderson, Gibbons, Matson and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
Ginsberg and Cassady on "Extremists"

July 4, 2008

Kathy Kelly
Istiklal

Dave Lindorff
My War Story

Paul Krassner
Confessions of a Barista

Jackie Corr
In the Footsteps of Evel Knievel: Obama Heads Back to Butte

Laray Polk
Military-Industrial Convergence

Dan Bacher
Dead Runs: Salmon Fishing Banned in Central Valley Rivers

Walter Brasch
The Rocket's Red Glare--May be Chinese

Charles Modiano
Hall of Fame Hypocrisy

Website of the Day
Springsteen: Independence Day

July 3, 2008

Sharon Smith
Exxon's Legal Guardians

Andy Worthington
Another Torture Victim Gets Charged

Laura Carlsen
NAFTA and the Elephant in the Room

Peter Morici
Crisis Grips the Jobs Market

Ramzi Kysia
Breaking Into a Prison

Martha Rosenberg
Mandatory School Milk and the Early Death of Football Players

Anne Landman
Who Really Benefits From Voluntary Codes of Corporate Conduct?

Dave Zirin
Grand Theft Hoops

Kristin Bricker
US Contractor Leads Torture Training in Mexico

Website of the Day
Bush Tours America to Survey Damage from His Presidency

July 2, 2008

Patrick Irelan
Holy Obama

Vijay Prashad
Lunch with Karzai

Brian Cloughley
Sense of Honor, French and US Style

Ralph Nader
Economic Domino Theory

Robert Fantina
General Stupidity: McCain, Obama and Clark

Dave Lindorff
What's So Special About Veterans?

Parvez Ahmed
Obama and Those Pesky Muslim Rumors

Robert Bryce
The Democrats and Off-Shore Drilling

Website of the Day
King Corn: Q&A

July 1, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Two Months Later, Seymour Hersh Strains to Catch Up With CounterPunch

Mike Whitney
Getting to the Heart of America's Economic Crisis: an Interview with Michael Hudson

Douglas Macgregor
Obama's General?

Steven Higgs
Fighting the NAFTA Super-Highway

Andy Worthington
Guantánamo as Alice in Wonderland

Binoy Kampmark
The Global Seed Police

Dave Lindorff
Blood Money Democrats

Roger Burbach
Fighting Food Fascism

Richard W. Behan
The Story Behind George Bush's Lies

Gary Leupp
The McCain Edge Among Voters on Iraq

Website of the Day
Mountaintop Removal and the Fight for Coalfield Justice

July 15, 2008

The Goose, the Sauce and the Gander

Iran's Missile

By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY

“ . . . we are working closely with all our allies . . .   [to]  make it more difficult for Iran to threaten, be bellicose and say terrible things.”

Condoleezza Rice, July 10.

“The sanctions aren't effective.  There will be no choice but to attack Iran to halt the Iranian nuclear program.” 

Israeli Cabinet Minister Shaul Mofaz, July 12.

The saying that the sauce that is good for the goose is also good for the gander – in other words, that the principle of equality should extend to personal and international conduct – has been stood on its head by absurd western reaction to Iran’s missile tests.  The White House in Washington announced that the firing of missiles was  “completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world”  and that  “the Iranian regime only furthers the isolation of the Iranian people from the international community when it engages in this sort of activity.”   The thrust of US media reporting was that Iran is “ignoring global concern over its launch of a broadside of missiles amid efforts to end the crisis over its nuclear program.”
           
Global concern?  What global concern?  
           
It is likely that more people in the world support Iran  (in spite of its crackpot theocratic government) than who condemn its reaction to the confrontation that has been so deviously stage-managed by America and Israel.  International feeling is intensely anti-American, courtesy of the Bush confrontational  “You are with us or against us” policy of treating with contempt those who question his blinkered egocentric approach to world affairs.  No survey has yet been conducted concerning international opinion on the threat to Iran from Israel and the US, but given last month’s World Opinion Poll results about the perceived effectiveness of the US president  (“worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum”),  it is likely that the majority of the world would express strong opposition to the swaggering, bullying displays put on by US and Israeli public figures.

The Pew organization that conducts international polls found in May that Muslims “worry that America’s military strength might someday be directed at them.  In the eleven predominantly Muslim countries where the question was asked in 2007, at least 60% said they were very or somewhat worried that the United States could become a military threat to their country someday.  And . . . 76% say this in Turkey – a country that has been a NATO ally of the United States for over half a century.”   But does that message get through to Washington?  Obviously not, in spite of intelligent and dedicated State Department diplomats reporting this sort of thing all the time. 

The US secretary of state has declared her unqualified support for Israel, and in May the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, boasted of his deep and everlasting admiration for a regime headed by a shifty character who is facing criminal charges.   (“Israeli police say they suspect the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, of “serious fraud” after questioning him for a third time yesterday [11 July] as part of a widening corruption investigation.”)  These people must know the effects their statements can have around the world, and it is obvious that their every word has the approval of the US president.  It would be absurd to try to deny this, if only because Admiral William Fallon, until recently commander of Central Command, was forced to resign after he ventured minor disagreement with the Bush administration’s intentions as regards attacking Iran.  There is no room for constitutional dissent in Bush Washington, and the stridency of Rice and Mullen (and Bush himself), combined with the firing of Fallon, gave ample sign to Israel that its strike plans were favorably regarded,  just as they were when it bombed Syria last September.

Last month Israeli conducted a rehearsal for its attack on Iran, involving over 100 strike and fighter aircraft. It could hardly have been a more blatant and menacing display of Israeli military chutzpah, and it would not have taken place had the US voiced objection.

After the strike training ended General Shaul Mofaz, an Israeli deputy prime minister, told the  newspaper Yediot Aharonot that  “Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable.”  Then the defense minister (and former prime minister),  General Ehud Barak, said on Israel radio that his country “is the strongest country in the region and we have already shown in the past that we are not afraid of acting when our vital interests are threatened.”   (Note the military ranks of these people.)  Then General Barak went on to declare that Iran “represents a challenge for the whole world.”

No it doesn't.  But Iran has chosen to give a demonstration that it won't sit still if it is attacked by Israeli bombers supported by America. It will try to do its best to respond to such a demonstrably illegal offensive by firing rockets at its assailants’ bases.  It won't be able to do much, in fact, because its few rockets have lousy guidance systems and high explosive (rather than nuclear) warheads ;  but it has the right of self-defense. 

After the missile tests the British government, in one of its more asinine proclamations, announced that  “We have to question why does Iran need such long-range missiles?”  It seems this wasn't said by someone who was trying to keep the laughter out of his or her voice, and that the statement was actually serious, in which case the verdict on it must be one of stupidity.  Iran is menaced by two regimes that have demonstrated bellicosity towards other countries.  Israel recently attacked Syria, and the US went to war against Iraq illegally and without justification.  Neither country was capable of defending itself,  but Iran is determined to at least try to exact a price on those who seek its subjugation.  For this legitimate objective it requires some means of fighting back, and missiles are its answer. You might not agree that missiles, nuclear or otherwise, are a good thing  – and I certainly don't – but you have to see the Iranians’ point.

The egregious Rice, always ready to throw fuel on flickering flames of ill feeling, declared  “I don't think the Iranians are too confused . . .  about the capabilities and power of the United States.  In the Gulf area, the United States has enhanced its security capacity, its security presence and we are working closely with all our allies . . .   [to]  make it more difficult for Iran to threaten, be bellicose and say terrible things.”  You've got to laugh about that one :   “Say terrible things” ?   Presumably the bellicose Israeli Generals Barak and Mofaz have a US license to say terrible things, but Iran is supposed to keep its collective mouth shut when menaced by a bunch of bizarre fanatics only slightly less repugnant than Teheran’s mullahs.

It is not understood by Israel and the US why a nation they attack should want to conduct such resistance as it might be able to offer.  Why, exactly,  should Iran do nothing while being blasted by Israeli deep penetration bombs and who knows what other US-supplied munitions?  (And remember the 100,000 unexploded US cluster bombs that killed so many children during and after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon two years ago.)

The mullahs in Tehran are a bunch of extremely unpleasant bigots, but it is unreasonable, to say the least,  to expect them to sit there wringing their collective hands while the bombs thunder down.   What country in the world,  if it possessed some means of retaliation,  could possibly allow blatant aggression to go unheeded?  Would Israel?  Would the US?  Of course not.  But what they have to remember is that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.  And if they attack Iran the results could be disastrous.

Brian Cloughley lives in France. His website is www.briancloughley.com   

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