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Special Issue: the Collapse of America Paul Craig Roberts gives CounterPunchers the definitive data on what is happening to jobs in America. Not just blue collar jobs. Middle-class, white collar jobs. Roberts' stunning probe is the first true picture of what the U.S. economy is fast becoming and of the savage class wars that lie ahead. Plus Mike Ferner on what it really means to investigate war crimes in Iraq. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories August 4, 2006 Col. Dan Smith August 3, 2006 Jonathan Cook Uri Avnery Saree Makdisi Robert Fisk Farrah Hassen Nicola Nasser Ron Jacobs Mitchel Cohen Seth Sandronsky Bruce K. Gagnon Alexander Cockburn
John Ross Chip Mitchell Saul Landau Naseer Aruri Winslow T.
Wheeler Matthias Gebauer Joshua Frank Bill Quigley Manuel Yang Shamai Leibowitz David Himmelstein Lara Marlowe Website of
the Day
August 1, 2006 Michael Neumann Robert Fisk Omar Barghouti Marc Levy Diana Barahona / Jeb Sprague Claud Cockburn Ross Eisenbrey Dave Lindorff John Chuckman Francis Boyle Phil Doe Stephen Soldz Website of the Day
July 31, 2006 Jonathan Cook Uri Avnery Robert Fisk Amina Mire Marjorie Cohn Sibel Edmonds / William Weaver John Ross Stanley Rogouski Gideon Levy Ron Jacobs James Ridgeway
/ Alicia Ng Brian Tokar Alexander Cockburn
July 29 / 30,
2006 Michael Neuman Vijay Prashad Ramzi Kysia Werther Robert Fisk Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Rachard Itani Eduardo Galeano Gary Leupp Eve Poretsky John Chuckman Fred Gardner Juan Santos Punyapriya Dasgupta Liaquat Ali
Khan Israel Shamir William A.
Cook Stanley Heller Dave Lindorff Moshe Adler Susie Day Pat Williams Anthony Papa John V. Whitbeck Jackie Corr Myles Palmer Tom D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of
the Weekend
July 28, 2006 Jonathan Cook Uri Avnery Renee Bowyer Robert Fisk Patrick Cockburn Ramzy Baroud Don Fitz Elaine Cassel David Price Mike Whitney Mickey Z. Niranjan Ramakrishnan Charles Glass Website of
the Day
July 27, 2006 Tanya Reinhart Saul Landau Ramzi Kysia Tom Barry Joseph Grosso Sharon Smith Gale Courey
Toensing Christopher Reed Werther Yusuf Mansur Richard Harth Website of the Day
Norman
Solomon Barbara
Olshanksy David
Nally Jonathan
Cook Patrick
Cockburn William
Blum Joshua
Frank Gabriel
Kolko Daniel
Cassidy Michael
Dickinson Robert
Fisk Uri
Avnery Website
of the Day
July 25, 2006 Harry
Browne Marjorie
Cohn Robert
Bryce Sharat
G. Lin George
Bisharat CounterPunch
News Desk Zena
El-Khalil Larry
Lack Mike
Mejia Ashraf
Isma'il Website
of the Day
July 24, 2006 Mark
Levy Robert
Fisk Maher
Osseiran Paul
Craig Roberts Patrick
Cockburn Website
of the Day
July 22-23, 2006 Jonathan
Cook Paul
Craig Roberts Gilad
Atzmon Robert
Fisk Ralph
Nader Fred
Gardner Christopher
Reed Dr.
Susan Block Najla
Said Uri
Avnery July 21, 2006 George
Galloway P.
Sainath Aseem
Shrivastava Alexander
Cockburn Website
of the Day July 20, 2006 William
S. Lind Robert
Jensen John
Ross Tom
Hayden Paul
Craig Roberts July 19, 2006 Patrick
Cockburn Trish
Schuh Jonathan
Cook Vicente
Navarro July 17 / 18 2006 Mike
Whitney Kathleen Christison Atrocities in the Promised Land
July 14 / 15,
2006 Alexander Cockburn Tanya Reinhart Robert Fisk Daniel Cassidy Winslow Wheeler Hugh O'Shaughnessy M. Shahid Alam William S. Lind Ramzy Baroud Gilad Atzmon Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Samar Assad Ron Jacobs Lee Ballinger Walter Brasch Dave Lindorff Clifton Ross Tom Crumpacker Ricardo Alarcon William Hughes Susie Day Farrah Hassen Poets' Basement
July 13, 2006 Rev. William
Alberts Ramzi Kysia Rep. John P. Murtha Radford / Santos Stan Cox Saul Landau José
Pertierra Website of
the Day
July 12, 2006 John Ross John Stauber Robert Boston Wayne S. Smith John Graham Kevin Prosen Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
July 11, 2006 Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin Mokhiber / Weissman Amira Hass Clare Hanrahan Brian Cloughey Felice Pace Raed Jarrar Website of the Day
July 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn
Stephen Green Paul Craig
Roberts Greg Moses Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Conn Hallinan John Chuckman Fred Gardner Dr. Tod Mikuriya Pierre Tristam Lucinda Marshall David Swanson Heather Gray Dave Zirin
/ John Cox Mark Engler Michael Lettieri Ron Jacobs Jamal Juma' Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
July 7, 2006 John Ross July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden John Stanton Ralph Nader Laray Polk Saul Landau Joshua Frank William S. Lind Adelman / Lindorff Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
Mike Whitney Saul Landau Ramzy Baroud Missy Comley Beattie Arthur Neslen Vincent Maruffi Paul Cantor Paul D. Johnson David Price
Col. Dan Smith Chris Floyd Marjorie Cohn James Brooks Medea Benjamin Matt Reichel Elisa Salasin Rick Wilhelm Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Dr. Bouthaina Shaban Julia Olmstead Dave Lindorff Andres Gomez Alan Singer Alexander Cockburn
Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen T.
Banko Daniel Cassidy Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jeff Taylor John Ross Greg Moses Laura Carlsen Justin E.H.
Smith Brian Cloughley Anthony Papa Mike Ferner Jerry Tucker Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement
June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Heather Williams Burbach / Cantor Nick Dearden Michael J.
Smith Brian Concannon Virginia Tilley
Bill Quigley Ron Jacobs Paul Craig
Roberts June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff William S.
Lind Mike Ferner Zoltan Grossman
Marjorie Cohn Benjamin /
Jarrar William Hughes Doug Giebel Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn
June 26, 2006 Don Santina Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz Evelyn Pringle Jonathan Cook
June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Col. Dan Smith
June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Winslow T.
Wheeler Tanya Reinhart Mike Marqusee William Blum
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August 4, 2006 Hatred of the US is Now UniversalOsama Has WonBy BRIAN CLOUGHLEY Anyone who even attempts to defend the killing of the children in Qana by Israeli air strikes is criminally insane. There can be no justification for slaughtering children, in any circumstances, anywhere. You feel revulsion when you see photographs of Israeli kids writing hate slogans on artillery shells that are going to be fired at Arab kids. In fact real human beings feel more than revulsion when seeing photographs of brainwashed hatred in the young: they experience utter despair because these kids are deliberately being taught to hate other who are different from them. This isn't new, this insistence that young minds should automatically accept, embrace and expand on hideous loathing displayed by a previous generation. In Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan, for example, school text books on history and world affairs are bizarre in their one-sided portrayal of each other as terminally evil. Hatred in India and Pakistan is imbued from infancy, and there is little can be done in maturity to alter this attitude which is irrevocably instilled in other than a few highly intelligent free spirits who can rise above mindless racist bigotry. It's exactly the same in Northern Ireland, of course, lest anyone imagine I espouse the notion that pea-brained hatred, to the point of desire to murder people because they are different, is the prerogative of non-Western peoples. Many Protestants and Catholics in Ulster behave like any other ignorant bloodthirsty thugs. Irrational hatred exists in lots of other regions and countries. Just look around. And Palestinian children hate, too. They hate Israelis because their grandparents had their lands stolen and occupied by a foreign power which has ignored countless UN resolutions to obey the law. It is only because of unremitting US support that Israel has been able to defy the entire world and trample over the basics of natural justice. These Palestinian children hate Israel because it is a brutal and bigoted occupying power that denies decency and human dignity to a race of people who differ from them in looks, religion and customs. In other parts of the world this is called racism. Israel is supported root and branch by the President and Congress of United States of America. They unconditionally endorse the actions, no matter how barbaric or bizarre, of a racist, nuclear-armed country that willfully ignores UN resolutions and assassinates people as a matter of national policy. In the course of providing support Condoleezza Rice declared that "An immediate ceasefire [in Lebanon] without political conditions does not make sense", which gave the Israelis the green light to kill the Qana kids. Rice declared last year that "Israel has no greater friend and no stronger supporter than the United States of America . . . . The United States and Israel share much in common. We both affirm the innate freedom and dignity of every human life, not as prizes that people confer to one another, but as divine gifts of the Almighty." If Rice and Bush so greatly respect the dignity of human life they would have ordered Israel to cease its murderous onslaught on civilians. They could have done it in a nanosecond, make no mistake. But they chose to encourage Israel in its killing spree. Groveling at the feet of Israel is not just unseemly and pathetic, it is directly contrary to the ideals that Bush and Rice profess to hold. Israel is nuclear-armed, yet there has never been a peep of criticism from a US administration that claims to be gravely disturbed by the spread of nuclear weapons. Israel flouts international rules and should be held responsible for its flagrant violations of international trust and order, yet its very scorn for the UN is warmly endorsed by its patron and paymaster. Its deliberate murder of four UN officers and refusal to permit an independent inquiry into the atrocity demonstrate its utter contempt for the world at large. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, the repulsive Dan Gillerman said " . . . we grieve the deaths of those civilians and children. But it is very, very important to stress that they may have been hit by an Israeli bomb, but they are victims of the Hezbollah. If Hezbollah wasn't there, this would never have happened." His suggestion that the children might have been kept in Qana by force was the product of a diseased mind. Which brings us to the gallant Israeli pilot who sent the MK-84 guided bomb smashing down on Qana to kill dozens of children. The United States gives Israel about three billion dollars a year and provides bombs, airplanes, bulldozers and other weapons with which to crush and punish Arabs. There is but one caveat on the flow of cash: three quarters of it must be spent with US weapons' manufacturers. The US taxpayer funds Boeing and the rest of the death-merchants in one of the most blatant scams perpetrated against a long-suffering US public. Washington provided the bomb that killed the children in Qana and bears responsibility for their deaths. Final responsibility rests with the brave airman dareman who flew his aluminum death tube high in the sky, free and easy, in no danger whatever from enemy aircraft or ground fire, then smashed three dozen kids to bits with his US-supplied bomb from his US-supplied airplane. What does he think, now, this airman? Is he proud of himself? Is he the toast of his squadron? "Hey Gideon: what a hit you were", chuckle chuckle. Has he children himself? Does he look fondly at his kids at night when he sees them sleeping? Does he think of the kids he killed, blown to shreds by his US bomb from his US airplane? Will this man ever be able to sleep again? The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz (more balanced than most) noted on July 31 that "The Israel Defense Forces have killed 97 people in the Gaza Strip since the fighting began in Lebanon. Most of them were armed, and the rest were civilians - children, women, men, the elderly. The large number of fatalities suggests the IDF is engaged in indiscriminate killing under the cover of the war in the north." In Gaza, too, the Israelis pursue their berserk campaign of ethnic cleansing by murder. There is no point in trying to disguise it. And the US doesn't even bother to hide its endorsement of slaughter. Washington does, however, bother to tell silly little lies as well as large-scale ones. Here is Rice at her most fautous: "In the wake of the tragedy [in Qana] that the people and the government of Lebanon are dealing with today, I have decided to postpone my discussions in Beirut". But Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, had said "There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional ceasefire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now." So Rice left the region in dudgeon. The Lebanese wouldn't talk to her, but she couldn't bear to admit this and had to tell a silly lie to try to overcome her humiliation. Artistic she is. Cultured most definitely. But she is devoid of human compassion and ordinary common sense. She is, there is no kinder word for it, a booby. The US approach to world affairs is disastrous. After 9/11 there were demonstrations in some countries in support of bin Laden's loonies, to be sure, but the overwhelming feeling was of support for America. There were enormous and absolutely genuine outpourings of grief and solidarity. Hardly a country but was one hundred per cent behind Bush, Washington and the American people in their time of national grief. No longer. America is the most hated nation on earth. In most countries its president is by far the most despised international figure. To read the State Department's Travel Advisories is to realise that for an American to take a trip overseas is a pretty grim prospect as there are so many countries to which it is highly dangerous for a US citizen to venture. The reason that America is so detested, distrusted and abominated is that its president and his coterie decided their policy should be total aggression and antagonism. Diplomacy, courtesy and negotiation were for wimps. And thus they played right into the hands of bin Laden and his tiny number of dedicated weirdo fanatics. Washington's immature truculence was at first considered regrettable but manageable by most civilised nations. But when the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were ordered against the flow of international advice it became apparent that America had an erratic policy of chauvinistic domination. It became increasingly and embarrassingly apparent to America's friends that Bush and his coterie were determined to engage in an entirely one-sided gladiatorial contest. Their arena was the world, and US forces were sent to wage ferocious and bitter war on pygmy nations that could not possibly retaliate in any conventional fashion. The fact that the Bush wars on Afghanistan and Iraq have become national military disasters does not disturb the Bush administration. Retaliation for US adventurism has been unconventional and enormously damaging, but Bush and his acolytes are comfortable with self-deception. Their optimism about "progress" in these chaotic countries is absurd. The Bush administration belief that everything will be all right in the end ("We will Prevail") is becoming even more preposterous day by day. And one of the reasons the belief is so foolish is that the US has been even further isolated by its flat refusal to condemn Israel's atrocities. The US-made bomb that killed dozens of Arab children in Qana has been an enormous bonus for bin Laden, if he is still alive. But even if Bush policy did not play into his personal hands, it certainly played into the hands of all who recruit the militants and suicide bombers who are determined to take revenge on those who give Israel bombs to kill Arab children. The peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq consider themselves occupied by foreign powers and are being told by influential figures in their countries that the US and Israel are waging war on Muslims. Moderate Muslims, such as President Musharraf of Pakistan, who went out on a very far limb by talking to a Jewish organization in New York in September last year, have had the ground cut from beneath their feet by Washington. Musharraf wants to encourage the Muslim world to recognize Israel and has tried hard to foster pan-Islamic tolerance. But after the Qana atrocity he and other progressive Muslims will find it impossible to even mention tolerance for Israel. And by deliberate choice of the Bush administration the US is inextricably linked with Israel's criminal ferocity. Osama bin Laden may not be alive, but this is irrelevant because countless millions of Muslims regard him as a hero, alive or dead. Their reasoning is that he has caused a dramatic and continuing amount of disruption to the western world's economic and social structure. He has hit us hard. And his ongoing success in disrupting our lives is helped by the weaknesses of Bush and his people. Their smugness, arrogance and casual savagery are some of bin Laden's most effective weapons. Osama bin Laden need never do anything again to ensure permanency and prosperity of his legacy of hatred. Thanks to the imperious policies of the Bush administration and its fervent support for Israel the United States is hated and despised to an almost unbelievable degree. Osama has won. Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs.
He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
