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Inside Iraq's Resistance HOT HOT HOT New CounterPunch Print Edition! Meet actual Iraqis and not just Western caricatures. Laith al-Saud interviews top man in Iraq's national resistance. It's not just Abu Ghraib and bids to kill Fidel Castro. Torture and assassination are integral parts of America's imperial machine. Don't miss Andrew Wimmer's searing journey into the soul of a nation that tortures as a way of life. Plus Alexander Cockburn on the killing of General Kassem. PLUS Sam Sillen's rollicking exhumation of Edmund Wilson as Malthusian Trostskyite. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch ... 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! CounterPunch Writer Daniel Wolff in Portland on Race, Music and Ashbury Park Call Toll Free 1-800-840-3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Today's Stories October 8 / 9, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Rhetoric and Reality in the Business of Getting Rid of Black People Ralph Nader Katrina and the Growls of Greed Saul Landau An Oily Religious Dream Jeff Halper Setting Up Abbas   October 7, 2005 Larry Johnson The Plame Case: the Real Issues Will Youmans Why Do We Hate Our Freedom? Recruiters and Thugs on Campus Dave Lindorff Bird Flu: Evolution or Intelligent Design? Judith Scherr Haiti's Children's Prison Russell D. Hoffman Nukes for Peace, Revisited?: Nobel Prize Debacle Jared Bernstein Katrina and Jobs Jennifer Van Bergen New American Law: the Case of Dr. Dhafir Website of the Day FBI Witchhunt October 6, 2005 P. Sainath "Take That, Tom Friedman": Indian Masses Reject NYT's Neoliberal Idol Again Scott Parkin When Antiwar Activists Get Mugged Paul Craig Roberts Blundering into Syria Andréa Schmidt Haiti's Biometric Elections: a High-Tech Experiment in Exclusion Dave Lindorff Easy Money in the Big Easy Joshua Frank In Defense of Lew Rockwell M. Junaid Alam Jackboots at George Mason Matthew Koehler Cock and Bull on the Bitterroot Robert Pollin Is the Dollar Still Falling?   October 5, 2005 Heather Gray Militarization is Not an Answer for Reconstruction: the Case of the Philippines Robert Jensen Is Bush a Racist? Ramzy Baroud Bush's Final Choice: America or the Empire Col. Dan Smith Keeping Promises to Iraq: "Everything is Bad" Dave Zirin Barry Bonds Laughs Last Paul Craig Roberts Liberal Guilt? How the Neocons Took Over Alan Maass Doing the Right Wing's Dirty Work   October 4, 2005 Nikolas Kozloff Shocking the Two Party System: a Political Opportunity for Sheehan and the Antiwar Mvt. Mike Roselle Houston, You've Got a Problem Joshua Frank The Scoop on Harriet Miers John Chuckman War Porn: What the Gruesome Images Say Alan Farago Storm Warning for Jeb: Developers, Hurricanes and the Keys Mickey Z. An Interview with Thaddeus Rutkowski Christine & Ethan Rose Home Depot Exploits Hurricane Victims Gary Leupp An Earlier Empire's War on Iraq: a Lesson from Roman History Website of the Day Rodney Crowell on Bob Dylan   October 3, 2005 Vijay Prashad Desperation at Holyoke Paul Craig Roberts Condi Rice: Gunslinger Joshua Frank An Interview with Cindy Sheehan Seth Sandronsky The Hiring Crisis for Black Teens Jeffrey St. Clair The Great Green Scare   October 1 / 2, 2005 Cockburn / St. Clair Democrats Sink Deeper into the Ooze Dave Marsh A Direction Home: a Message from Bob Dylan Ralph Nader Gutless, Spineless and Clueless Flavia Alaya Showdown at Sheriff's Plaza Uri Avnery The Gladiators: Sharon's Victory Chris Kutalik The Battle at Northwest Airlines Greg Moses Bill Bennett's Book of Cracker Virtues Brian J. Foley I Gave My Copy of the Constitution to a Pro-War Vet Nicole Colson Hunger Strike at Gitmo Ray McGovern Abu Ghraib is a Command Responsibility Fred Gardner Ricky Williams Takes a Late Hit Justin Felux Save America from Crime: Abort Every White Baby! Will Youmans "Free the P": Hip-Hop for Palestine Mike Ferner What Else Shall We Do? David Krieger The War in Iraq: a Broken Covenant Agustin Velloso Samson Returns to Gaza Saul Landau The Constant Gardener: Serious Cinema Ben Tripp Right Down the Middle Poets Basement Peddibone, Crowell, Engel and Albert Website of the Weekend Holler If Ya Hear Me   September 30, 2005 Mary Geddry Why I Marched: They Made My Son Kill Paul Craig Roberts Bush is Cooking Up Two New Wars Dave Lindorff Judith Miller's Strange Voluntary Jail Time Gregory Wilpert "The Osama Bin Laden of Latin America" Benjamin Dangl "Gringo, Go Home:" an Interview with Orlando Castillo James McMurtry We Can't Make It Here Anymore T.R. Johnson Return to the Ninth Ward   September 29, 2005 Sen. Russ Feingold Bush's Iraq War is Weakening America Carl G. Estabrook Obama the Enabler Ramzy Baroud Rhetoric and Reality of War Dave Lindorff What Opposition Party? Mike Whitney Brownie's Comic Opera Jozef Hand-Boniakowski What Noble Cause? Gary Handschumacher Getting Arrested with Cindy Sheehan Winslow T. Wheeler No Leaders in Congress Against This War: Lame Democrat and Tame Republicans   September 28, 2005 Dr. Eyad Serraj Letter from Gaza: What Disengagement Sounds Like William A. Cook Bush's Security Barrier Liaquat Ali Khan The Invention of Porno Torture Mike Whitney Apartheid Justice in America Joshua Frank Sheehan and the Democrats: Anybody Home? CounterPunch Wire New Orleans Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters Chris Genovali Cutting the Bears Out of the Great Bear Rainforest Linn Washington, Jr. White Affirmative Action: How John Roberts Got to the Top   September 27, 2005 Forrest Hylton Political Murder in Puerto Rico: a Matter for Our Movement Jason Leopold The Decline and Fall of Bill Frist Jennifer K. Harbury Torture is US Policy, Not an Aberration Ray McGovern Torture and Cowardice: Why are American Religious Leaders Silent? Mike Ferner Bringing the War Home: Arrested at the Pentagon Antony Loewenstein When the Truth Comes to Town: What You Can't Say About Israel in Australia Harry Browne Live from Hollywood: the IRA Disarms   September 26, 2005 Rafael Rodriguez Cruz Assassination in Puerto Rico: the FBI Murders a Legend Joshua Frank Democrats Flee Peace Protests Lamis Andoni The Railroading of Taysir Alony Mike Marqusee Those Pesky "Urban Intellectuals": Blair, Spiro Agnew and the Antiwar Movement Rep. Cynthia McKinney They Can't Fool Us Anymore Ron Jacobs A Small March for Me, a Giant March for the Antiwar Movement Norman Solomon The Media and the Antiwar Movement John Chuckman Bush in a Bottle Paul Craig Roberts America is Running Out of Time   September 24 / 25, 2005 Kathy and Bill Christison Polluting Palestine: Settlements & Sewage Ralph Nader Stealing the Moment: How Corporations Cashed in on Katrina Saul Landau The Terrorist Resumé of Luis Posada Greg Moses A Movement Gathers Power on the Sorrow Plateau Roger Burbach Hugo Chavez's Mission Vijay Prashad America's Shame Laura Carlsen After NAFTA Robert Fisk When Man and Nature Conspire to Expose the Lies of the Powerful Dave Lindorff A Gusher Called Katrina: They Fix Oil Prices, Don't They? Kirkpatrick Sale / Thomas Naylor Secession from the Empire: the Middlebury Declaration Maj. Anthony Milavic The US Military and Torture: the View of a Former Interrogator Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti: the Time for Action is Now   September 23, 2005 CounterPunch News Service In Which, Phil Donahue Demolishes Bill O'Reilly Diane Farsetta Katrina and Right-Wing Think Tanks Robert Sandels Militarizing the Market Christopher Brauchli Bush: the Good Samaritan for Corporations Alan Farago Bird Flu Takes Flight Dave Zirin When Sports & Politics Collided: Redeeming the Olympic Martyrs of 1968 Maxine Conant A Simple Test for Bush David Price Workers Get Hit Twice: Katrina and Davis-Bacon Profiteering   September 22, 2005 Smith, Wood, Leas, and Greenfield Which Way Forward for the Green Party? a Report from Tulsa Patrick Cockburn Iraqis: This Government has No Authority Manuel Garcia, Jr. Thinking is Religious Freedom Lucia Dailey Trial of the St. Patrick's Four: Day One Mokhiber / Weissman Are You a Speed Freak? Russell D. Hoffman The Nukes in Rita's Path Kona Lowell God's Hurricane? Jason Leopold GOP Fiscal Policy and Katrina Website of the Day Robert Pollin on the Global Economy   September 21, 2005 Jorge Mariscal Military Recruiters: Counselers or Salesmen? Linda S. Heard Double Standards in Iraq: Basra Brit Jailbreak Joshua Frank NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan Eric Ruder "The Problem in Iraq is the US": an Interview with Camilo Mejia Pierre Tristam The Struts and Bull Presidency Dave Lindorff The Real Story of the German Elections Mike Ferner Sit Down in DC Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Katrina Bling Bling Jeffrey St. Clair W Marks the Spot Website of the Day New Orleans: Survivor Stories   September 20, 2005 Steve Breyman Toxic Gumbo: Katrina and Environmental Justice George Galloway Et Tu, Greg Palast? Patrick Cockburn What Happened to Iraq's Missing $1 Billion? M. Shahid Alam Gen. Musharraf and Israel: Is Pakistan Selling Out? Mike Whitney The Gitmo Hunger Strikers Winslow T. Wheeler It's Not Rocket Science Niranjan Ramakrishnan Back to the Future: North Korea's Gambit Paul Craig Roberts Will Neocon Fanaticism Destroy America?         Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition October 8 / 9, 2005 All Down Hill from Here Training Soldiers in Iraq By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY " . . . just one of the 120 US-trained Iraqi army and police battalions was able to operate without US forces, General Casey and General Abizaid told senators. The Pentagon said in July the number was three." Reuters, September 29. "Every day, the number of Iraqi security forces are getting bigger, and they're getting better, and they're getting more experienced . . . There are an awful lot of people chasing the wrong rabbit here." Rumsfeld, September 30. "I'm encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces . . . they have more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country, and our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness." Bush, October 1 Generals Casey and Abizaid aren't the sharpest intellectual knives in the drawer, to put it kindly, but at least when faced under oath with the unpleasant necessity to tell the truth they decided not to equivocate. In July there were supposedly three military units of Iraqis that could fight their way out of a paper bag. At the end of September the generals admitted they had a singleton in freedom-fighters, Bush-style. But Rumsfeld directly contradicted them by saying that every day in every way things are getting better and better. And who was standing by his side as he spouted this lying garbage? Why, none other than General Casey, he who had stated truthfully that things had gotten worse. If there were any honor left in the senior ranks of the US Army, Casey should have looked at the deceitful weasel at his side and said : "Mr Secretary, this is neither my belief, nor what I said on oath to Senators of the United States of America. I have therefore no alternative but to resign forthwith." But have you ever heard of anyone resigning a prestigious post on a matter of honor or point of principle? Certainly, Casey is incompetent. In July he said there would be "fairly substantial" US troop reductions early next year ; then on September 28 he said it was "too soon to tell" if there could be cuts. OK ; so perhaps he is just an oaf. But there is no reason for him to be a dishonorable oaf. He knows perfectly well that Iraq is a shambles and that the Iraqi army is no more fit to fight than it is to dance the Sugar Plum Fairy. The US Army has, alas, become a mere political echo of the Cheney-Bush administration, and its generals (it is inappropriate to use the word 'leaders') are promoted on the basis of political acceptability. They are pathetic Yes Men, and can be regarded only with contempt. The toady Casey "standing side by side with Rumsfeld, Friday, said Iraqi security forces are progressing and continue to take on a more prominent role defending their country with coalition forces", but the poor little puppet must know that this is absolute tripe. Casey claimed that "more than 30 Iraqi army battalions are deemed capable of leading a combat operation against the insurgents, even if they require US support." He is a liar. There is no question of an Iraqi unit "leading" a combat operation, because that necessitates command and control of support elements, no matter who provides them. All military operations in Iraq are planned and directed by the US, and there is no possibility that Iraqi commanders or the Iraqi government will ever be permitted to direct US or 'joint' operations against their own country folk. Certainly, selected Iraqi units will be used to attack areas inhabited by those who are not of their own religion or ethnicity, which is the classic colonial divide and rule approach. For example, when hundreds of Sikhs were killed at the orders of a British general during a riot in India early last century the soldiers who fired at the mob were Nepalese Gurkhas, not British troops. It was ever thus. And on October 2 Casey went even further in his retreat from reality and truth when he said the training of Iraqi forces is "very much on track". It is not on track. And it is simple to explain why it is not on track. Iraq's armed forces were disbanded by the occupying power immediately after the invasion. There was not an officer or soldier left in uniform. Training of an Iraqi army had to begin from scratch. To anyone with an IQ greater than that of a very small rabbit, it is obvious that this would take many years. Training a soldier is a long and complex process. Let us examine how training is conducted in a country in which there are no language difficulties (that is, instructors speak the same language as recruits), and there is a competent standing army with well-selected instructors of dedication and proven skills. By definition, there are higher headquarters staffed by experts who know how to pay and administer troops. There are reasonably comfortable accommodations and decent food. There is, above all, no insurrection taking place. None of these apply in Iraq. To bring a recruit to the absolute basic minimum of knowledge required for him (or her; but let's use 'him' for convenience) to even BEGIN training as an infantry soldier takes twelve weeks. In this time he learns rudimentary skills : how to strip and assemble a rifle and fire it ; how to live and work as part of a team ; basic hygiene (Oh, yes, in western armies, nowadays, this is essential; you wouldn't believe the squalor some recruits have lived in) ; and other tiny tots' things. He learns about the structure of the army, how it works, and where he fits in. He is identified as to suitability for a specialty, such as driver, cook, clerk, infantryman, artilleryman or signaler. I could go into more detail, but you get the picture : transforming any civilian into even the basic beginnings of a soldier takes a lot of time and much dedicated effort. Then, after three months initial introduction to the army, the infantry recruit has to begin to learn about tactics : how to work as a member of a squad and a platoon, and how to fight. Remember that in existing armies there is a functioning structure in place, so a recruit who has graduated from the basic course will enter a well-oiled (perhaps the wrong word, here) system of further training at a specialist establishment staffed by highly experienced experts. Then he goes to his unit, where he really begins to learn the art of soldiering. And even then it takes an experienced infantry battalion months to train for its next deployment. Does anyone think for a moment that a US infantry battalion can simply up sticks and take off for Iraq without months of specialized sub-unit and unit training? (The answer is probably Yes, where Rumsfeld is concerned.) In Iraq there is none of this. The entire army and its training system were destroyed on the orders of Washington. When the US army began to try to create soldiers from the raw material of youngsters off the streets and out of the fields there were no Iraqi non-commissioned officers or officers. Training leaders is a process that takes years. Even a West Point or Sandhurst graduate, after long instruction, has to undergo many more months specialist training by very high-grade people before becoming effective. A non-commissioned officer is promoted only after at least a couple of years' service as a private. To become a sergeant major takes a lot longer. It is impossible for leaders to be created instantly. The training system (to use a kind description) in Iraq is inadequate to the point of being ludicrous. There are many well-meaning and dedicated US army NCOs and officers who are trying very hard to create an Iraqi army, but their efforts are doomed to failure. They were tasked with the numbers game and dare not deviate from what is demanded by the Pentagon. The product is lousy in quality but meets the political requirement. It enabled their fatuous draft-dodging commander-in-chief to announce on October 4 that "Right now there are over 80 army battalions fighting alongside coalition troops. Over 30 Iraqi -- I say, army battalions -- Iraqi army battalions. There are over 30 Iraqi battalions in the lead. And that is substantial progress from the way the world was a year ago". This is not just the usual illiterate gibberish from Bush : this is bizarre, because in some mysterious way the Iraq army lost twenty battalions in the three days since he announced "they have more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country." The man is insane. Rumsfeld and Bush wanted numbers. And they got them. Just as they got generals who try to tell the truth and then turn turtle when the truth is inconvenient to their political masters. After the generals told at least part of the truth to Congress they were ordered to appear on October 3 in no fewer than four TV Sunday network talk shows, when they destroyed their dignity and honor. Generals Abizaid and Casey were setting an example of loyalty, but one wonders whether their subordinates are absolutely sure that their example is one they want to follow. The generals were being loyal to their political masters, but not to their troops or to the truth. It's downhill all the way from now, until there is a cleansing such as the one that took place after the Vietnam debacle. The toadies and incompetents have got to go, starting at the top. Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website www.briancloughley.com                                       CLARIFICATION ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website"). Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network. We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism. As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi's lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website. We are pleased to clarify the position. August 17, 2005

Coming in the Fall from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Advance Order Philosopher 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