home / subscribe / about us / books /events / archives / search / links / faq

Today's Stories July 25, 2006 Sharat G. Lin Chronology of the Latest Chrisis in the Middle East CounterPunch News Desk Class War in the Blathersphere Zena El-Khalil "Tell Them That I'm Not Leaving. We Love Lebanon" Larry Lack The Bottled Water Madness Ashraf Isma'il Why Israel Is Losing July 24, 2006 Mark Levy Whatever You Did in War Will Always Be With You Robert Fisk Israelis Bomb Fleeing Villagers Maher Osseiran Beirut, 1982 Paul Craig Roberts Israel's Criminal Accomplice Patrick Cockburn More Than 100 Iraqis Being Killed Each Day Website of the Day sirnosir.com July 22-23, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Indiscriminate Onslaughts Paul Craig Roberts The Shame of Being an American Gilad Atzmon Israel's New Math Robert Fisk Elegy for Beirut Ralph Nader Here's How to Halt This Horror Fred Gardner The Double Standard on Depression Christopher Reed The Right's Use of Sexpot Schoolgirls Dr. Susan Block Bush's Fecal World Najla Said Do People Know How Much We Hurt? Uri Avnery "Stop that Shit" July 21, 2006 George Galloway John Cornford and the Fight for the Spanish Republic P. Sainath Indian Prime Minister Faces the Dead Farmer Problem Aseem Shrivastava The Iraq War is a Huge Success Alexander Cockburn Hezbollah, Hamas and Israel: Everything You Need to Know Website of the Day FromIsraeltoLebanon July 20, 2006 William S. Lind Why Hezbollah is Winning Robert Jensen Florida Puts History on Probation John Ross AMLO Presidente! Tom Hayden I Was Israel's Dupe Paul Craig Roberts The Unfolding Horror Show July 19, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Massacres Soar in Central Iraq: Maliki Government Discredited Trish Schuh Israel Targets, Flattens Beirut TV Station HQ Jonathan Cook Is Israel Using Arab Villages As Human Shields? Vicente Navarro The Spanish Civil War, 70 Years On: The Deafening Silence on Franco's Genocide July 17 / 18 2006 Mike Whitney Israel's Shameful Attack on Gaza Kathleen Christison Atrocities in the Promised Land July 14 / 15, 2006 Weekend Edition Alexander Cockburn How Venice is Dying Tanya Reinhart The IDF is Hungry for War Robert Fisk Beirut Waits: Is Damascus the Key? Daniel Cassidy How the Irish Invented Jazz Winslow Wheeler Pentagon Budget Gimmickry: When a Cut is Actually an Increase Hugh O'Shaughnessy In Amazonia: Slavery and Deforestation M. Shahid Alam Israel, the US and the New Orientalism William S. Lind Two Signposts in Iraq Ramzy Baroud Racism Plagues Media Coverage of Gaza Assault Gilad Atzmon Echoes of the Wehrmacht Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg Railroading Your Rights Samar Assad A History of Israeli-Palestinian Prisoner Exchanges Ron Jacobs Japan and Pre-Emptive Strikes: Why Would They Want to Go There? Lee Ballinger A New Kind of Jim Crow? Walter Brasch A World Without Fajitas?: the Rightwing's Language Police Dave Lindorff The Bush Swingers?: They Broke the Law and People Died Clifton Ross Up from Below in Oaxaca Tom Crumpacker Planning for the Re-Colonization of Cuba Ricardo Alarcon The Mad Annexationist William Hughes Rev. Billy Graham: A War-Monger in the Pulpit Susie Day Bugging Hillary Farrah Hassen The Road to Gitmo: Dramatizing the Banality of Evil Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Engel and Davies July 13, 2006 Saul Landau Lies as Patriotism? Youmans / Erakat Divestment, Corporate Engagement and IsraelDave Lindorff Cut and Run: a Winning StrategyRon Jacobs Dogs of War Barking at the MoonCol. Dan Smith Iraq: Fool Me TwiceJune 22, 2006Marjorie Cohn Friendly Fire AmbushWinslow T. Wheeler Lockheed, the Senator and the F-22Tanya Reinhart A Week of Israeli RestraintMike Marqusee The Forest Gate RaidWilliam Blum Why Bush's Iraq is Worse Than Saddam's July 12, 2006 John Ross Mexico Splits in Half: the Election Hits the Streets John Stauber The CIA Propagandist and Former Prankster Stewart Brand: John Rendon's Long, Strange Trip in the Terror Wars Robert Boston Top 10 Powerbrokers of the Religious Right Wayne S. Smith Bush's New Cuba Plan: Embargoes, Blacklists and Assassination Plots John Graham Secrecy and the Curtain of Oz Ed Kinane Arrested for Failing to Obey a Lawful Order to Cease Protesting an Unlawful War: My Statement to the US District Court Kevin Prosen Goodbye Mr. Zeidler, You Will Be Missed Jonathan Cook Israel's Latest Bueaucratic Obscenity Website of the Day Addicted to Oil: Starring GW Bush July 11, 2006 Dave Lindorff Does a State of War Give Bush the Right to Commit War Crimes? Dave Zirin Why I Wear My Zidane Jersey Mokhiber / Weissman Boeing's Criminal Agreement: Odd and Unusual Amira Hass A War on Families Clare Hanrahan The Last Free Fourth of July? Brian Cloughey Stop Blaming Pakistan Felice Pace The US Media and the World Cup Raed Jarrar Iraq: Raped Website of the Day Bad Boy of Gitmo July 10, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Courting Doom with North Korea Uri Avnery A One-Sided War Roger Burbach Democracy Betrayed: Electoral Fraud and Rebellion in Mexico Ron Jacobs The New SDS: Toward a Radical Youth Movement Joshua Frank Sectarian Flames in Iraq Missy Comley Beattie Bush's Stunning Admission to Larry King Alexander Cockburn The War in Iraq: a Dreadful Mistake July 8 / 9, 2006 Weekend Edition Stephen Green When War Criminals Retire Paul Craig Roberts Republic or Empire?: Lessons from Stanford Greg Moses Boots Down on the Rio Grande Ralph Nader The Wail of the Oceans Laura Carlsen Mexico's Election Lacks Credibility Conn Hallinan Dumping Musharraf: Is Pakistan Expendable? John Chuckman Afghanistan is No One's War Fred Gardner Big Pharma's Strange Holy Grail: Cannabis Without Euphoria? Dr. Tod Mikuriya Cannabis as a Frontline Treatment for Childhood Mental Disorders Pierre Tristam Missile Envy: Is N. Korea Bush's Most Reliable Ally? Lucinda Marshall Deep Sexing the News: the Rape of Iraq David Swanson Command Rape: the Ordeal of Suzanne Swift Heather Gray The Spiral of Violence: What the Dead Might Tell Us Dave Zirin / John Cox French Soccer and the Future of Europe: Le Pen's Racists vs. Zindane and Henry Mark Engler Mexico's Fear of Democracy: Elites, Fraud and the Status Quo Michael Lettieri Mexico: Don't Discount a Recount Ron Jacobs 2008 Might Be Too Late: the Case for Impeachment Now Jamal Juma' Globalizing the Occupation Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Engel and Kirbach   July 7, 2006 John Ross Anatomy of a Fraud Foretold: Mexico's Surreal Elections July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden Profiting from the Occupation: the Corporate Interests Behind the War on Palestine John Stanton Nationalize the Defense Industry Ralph Nader The Politics of the Minimum Wage Laray Polk Cambodia Then; Gaza Now Saul Landau Who Mourned the Victims of the US Covert War on Chile? Joshua Frank Sweet Angst, Power Chords and Politics: Farewell Sleater-Kinney William S. Lind To Be or Not to Be a State? Hamas and 4th Generation War Adelman / Lindorff Impeachment Comes to Main Street, USA Jonathan Cook An Experiment in Human Despair Website of the Day Adulterers in Chief? July 5, 2006 Mike Whitney Is Cheney Betting on Economic Collapse?: the Veep's Curious Investment Portfolio Saul Landau False Axioms: Star Democrats and Iraq Massacres Ramzy Baroud And Israel Shall Be Safe Again Missy Comley Beattie An Axis of Nuts: Ready, Aim, Fear Arthur Neslen A Way Out of the Gaza Crisis? Vincent Maruffi Party Politics in Connecticut: Lieberman, Lamont and the Greens Paul Cantor Aberrations: Hell, High Water and the Moral High Ground Paul D. Johnson Mystery Meat: Let's Be Honest About Food's Origin David Price Shouting Down Nazis in Olympia July 4, 2006 Col. Dan Smith Iraq and Independence Day: Lessons from the War of 1812 Chris Floyd American Power in Mahmudiyah Marjorie Cohn Israel's Collective Punishment of Gaza James Brooks Israel 9,000 Palestine 1: Destroying the Gaza Strip Medea Benjamin "Dictatress of the World:" Has America Become JQ Adams' Worst Nightmare? Matt Reichel An Independence Day Lesson for the American Left from France Elisa Salasin Why I am Fasting Today Rick Wilhelm Will Lieberman Apologize to Ralph Nader? Paul Craig Roberts Rape, Lies and Murder Website of the Day A Mighty Handsome Family   July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Gaza in the Dark: Poor, Frustrated and Powerless Dr. Bouthaina Shaban "I Hope You're Not Here to Talk About the Palestinians" Julia Olmstead The Biofuel Illusion: Running on Top Soil Dave Lindorff The Real Meaning of the Hamdan Ruling: Bush Adm. Has Committed War Crimes Andres Gomez A Mockery of Justice Alan Singer Another Encounter with Chuck Schumer: Just as Hawkish as Hillary, But Nastier Alexander Cockburn Temple of Mammon, Planet of Doom July 1/2, 2006 Weekend Edition Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Assaults on Freedom: What's to Stop Him? Stephen T. Banko Echoes from Vietnam; Nightmares in Iraq Daniel Cassidy How the Irish Invented Slang: the Bunkum of Bunkum (for Dizzy Gillespie) Fawzia Afzal-Khan The Class Behind the Muslim Jeff Taylor The Sandy Foundation of the White House: a Bible-Believing Christian's View of Bush John Ross Mexico: There's a Riot Going On Greg Moses Psycho-Management Hits Mexico's Maquiladoras Laura Carlsen Mexico's Elections: a Choice for Change Justin E.H. Smith Lethal Injection and Other Fashion Trends Brian Cloughley Different Worlds: When Liberation is Worse Than Oppression Anthony Papa Punishing Addiction: No Walk in the Park for Dwight Gooden Mike Ferner Getting Busted for Wearing a Peace T-Shirt Jerry Tucker Liberalism's Long Goodbye: McGovern Hoists the White Flag Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Remembering the Marshall Islands Phyllis Pollack Roll Over Beethoven: Chuck Berry is Back in Town Poets' Basement Salasin, Swindell, Ferri-Smith and Engel   June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Supreme Rebuke: Bush Loses Gitmo Case Heather Williams Will Mexicans Ignore What Bolivians Learned? Burbach / Cantor Yellowback Democrats: the Party of Cut-and-Run (from Principle) Nick Dearden Crime in the Valley: Life on the Other Side of Palestine Michael J. Smith Under the Broadcast Flag: Intellectual Property as Intellectual Theft Brian Concannon The Return to Haiti: a Homecoming for Aristide? Virginia Tilley Israel's Appalling Act: Starving in the Dark   June 29, 2006 Bill Quigley Gutting New Orleans Ron Jacobs Killing a Nation to Rescue a Soldier Paul Craig Roberts The High Price of American Gullibility June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Mexican-American Soldiers, Iraq and the Politics of Immigrant Bashing Greg Moses Down in Pinal County: Where the Pun's on Us Mark Weisbrot Mexico: Their Brand is Crisis Ramzy Baroud Re-Interpreting Iraq: the Latest Propaganda Campaign Dave Lindorff Redacting the Constitution: Why Signing Statements Matter William S. Lind Neither Shall the Sword: War in a Fouth Generation World Mike Ferner 50 Years Down the Wrong Direction: Taken for a Ride on the Interstate Highway System Zoltan Grossman Military Resistance: a Brief History   June 27, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Playing Politics with Timetables Benjamin / Jarrar Leading Dems Froth Over Amnesty Plan William Hughes Roadmap to Starvation Doug Giebel Showdown in Montana: Burns vs. Testor Uri Avnery The World Cup and Middle East Peace Alexander Cockburn Hitchens Hails the "Glorious War"   June 26, 2006 Don Santina American Rituals: Massacres, Baseball and Apple Pies Ralph Nader Beyond Binary Politics Dave Lindorff CounterPunch v. CounterPunch: Taking Impeachment on the Road Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz An Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal on Hispanics and Latin America Evelyn Pringle Big Pharma's Big Graveyard: Drug Profits, Fraud and Death Jonathan Cook Israeli "Retaliation" and Double Standards June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Divestment, Corporate Engagement and Israel Dave Lindorff Cut and Run: a Winning Strategy Ron Jacobs Dogs of War Barking at the Moon Col. Dan Smith Iraq: Fool Me Twice June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Friendly Fire Ambush Winslow T. Wheeler Lockheed, the Senator and the F-22 Tanya Reinhart A Week of Israeli Restraint Mike Marqusee The Forest Gate Raid William Blum Why Bush's Iraq is Worse Than Saddam's June 21, 2006Ramzy Baroud Zarqawi's Death: Myth vs. RealityPatrick Cockburn Embassy Work as Death SentenceGary Leupp Making the Case for ImpeachmentGreg Moses Elite Logic at the BorderJune 20, 2006Fred Gardner The Long War on AspirinOmar Waraich Ode to Joy: Watching Blair SinkChristopher Reed Japan Nixes Payments to Its Wartime SlavesCP Newswire Coca Cola Takes a HitJonathan Cook Israel Engineers Another Cover-UpJune 19, 2006Bill Quigley HUD's Bulldozers and the Poor of New OrleansJohn Walsh Tears of a Clown: Al Franken's WarMike Whitney The Zoom Lens War: Bush's Baghdad Photo OpAlexander Cockburn The Left and the BlathersphereJune 16 / 18, 2006 Weekend EditionKathy / Bill Christision The Power of the Israel LobbyJoseph Nevins On the Migrant Trail: No More Walls, No More DeathsFarrah Hassen An Interview with Syria's Ambassador to the US, Dr. Imad MoustaphaGreg Moses The Real Mission of the Uniformed Ghost at the BorderNicole Colson "There's No Hope at Gitmo"John Scagliotti How MoveOn Wastes Its Donors' MoneyMokhiber / Weissmann Corporate DemocratsJune 15, 2006Kathy Kelly Look Them in the Eye: Honest Abe and the Residents of RamadiNorman Solomon Premature Triangulation: Hillary's Big ProblemRon Jacobs Publicity Stunts as Public PolicySam Bahour Cover Up on Gaza BeachRamzy Baroud Palestine on the BrinkCounterPunch Wire Death Squads at Colombia's UniversitiesGabriel Kolko Why a Global Economic Deluge LoomsWebsite of the Day Antje Duvekot: Music You've Been Waiting Years to HearJune 14, 2006Nicole Colson "They Want the Fear Level at a High Pitch": An Interview with Lawyer Lynne StewartJonathan Cook Israeli Law and OrderJoseph Schechla Bulldozing Palestine: an Open Letter to Caterpillar, Inc.Michael Carmichael Bolton at Oxford: Jeered and TauntedEvelyn Pringle Karl and George, the Teflon PartnershipWard Churchill My Trial By Media: Turning Quibbles Over Footnotes into FeloniesRev. William E. Alberts Decoding the Coders of Christ: Jesus the Political Insurgent?Website of the Day Marines Iraq Snuff FilmJune 13, 2006Medea Benjamin Take Back America Suppresses Anti-War Dissenters at HRC SpeechAnthony Alessandrini The Evil of Banality: the General, the New York Times and the Gitmo SuicidesPaul D'Amato The Meaning of HadithaDave Lindorff The Strange Death of Zarqawi: Was He Killed So He Wouldn't Talk?John Ross Elections and the World Cup: If Team Mexico Advances, Will Anyone Show Up to Vote for Lopez Obrador?Gabriel Garcia Venezuela and Drug Trafficking: Bush Bashes Chavez Despite Positive ResultsHilton Obenzinger DIvestment is a Stand for Equality in IsraelYitzhak Laor The Secret of AuthorityJuan Antonio Ocasio Rivera Puerto Rico at the UNJennifer Van Bergen The Story Behind Zarqawi's Death: What's the Legality of the Assassination?Website of the Day Paul Wright: a Real American Freedom FighterJune 12, 2006Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Armageddon Wish: a Final End to History?Patrick Cockburn The US Already Misses ZarqawiMike Marqusee Rebranding a Team: English Nationalism and the World CupLee Sustar "I Never Had the American Dream:" Left with No Future by GM and DelphiRobert Fisk Has Racism Invaded Canada?Michael J. Smith Enter Sandman; Exit KoslandFelice Pace NPR's Warped Covereage of the MIddle EastJennifer Loewenstein Setting the Record Straight on HamasWebsite of the Day Our Way HomeJune 10 / 11, 2006 Weekend EditionRobert Fisk Zarqawi's End is not a Famous VictoryDiane Christian Zarqawi's FaceJoe Allen The American Way of Atrocities: Marine Corps' Killer VirtuesRalph Nader Let Us All Praise the Dixie ChicksFred Gardner Tylenol Toxicity TerrorDave Lindorff Nothing New About HadithaDave Zirin / John Cox Will Racism Spoil the World Cup?Dennis Perrin Death is Patriotic: Necro-Porn, Live on CNNGreg Moses Militarizing the Border: Why Operation Jump Start Worries MeJohn Chuckman Terror in Toronto or Tempest in a Teapot?Michael J. Smith Babes in Kosland: Dem Blogfest, Day TwoRoger Burbach Bachelet in DC: Chilean President Refuses to Back Down to BushIra Moskowitz Israeli Court Finds Mad-Dog US Prof Libeled CounterPuncher Neve GordonSam Bahour The Gaza Air Strikes: Begging for a ResponseSeth Sandronsky Grocery Chains and Bush's Ownership Society: Profits Fall, Stores CloseMichael Berg A Father's Day Message: Both Parties Have Betrayed AmericaKirsten Roberts Desmond Dekker and the Music of the ShantytownsRon Jacobs Who's Fooling Who?Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This WeekPoets' Basement Jones, Davies, Engel and Louise Website of the Weekend Miles and Trane, So What?

July 25, 2006 Class War in the Blathersphere Let No Ivy Leaguer Be Left Behind COUNTERPUNCH NEWS DESK From the ABC News Website: Investigative   Ivy Leaguers Leave Lebanon First and Fast Through Private Security Firms July 21, 2006 9:47 AM Ingrid Anid, Astrid Hill & Lara Setrakian Report: When fighting broke out in Lebanon, college students studying there for the summer anxiously awaited their turn to evacuate. As it turns out, if you were an Ivy League student in Beirut, your turn came first.Among those enrolled in the summer Arabic program at the American University of Beirut, students told ABC News, those from Harvard, Yale and Princeton were in the first group evacuated – by high-end private security firms. Students from other American schools were left behind, waiting it out for days while the U.S. embassy formulated its plan. A.G. Leventhal, a Junior and Near Eastern Languages concentrator at Harvard University, was enrolled in summer classes at AUB when bombs began falling on southern Beirut. Leventhal was immediately  contacted by Harvard and informed of the International SOS service, which would begin evacuation the next day.  While Leventhal and his cohorts were being bussed or flown to safety, other students were told to stay put as bombs falling nearby shook their dorm rooms. The students left behind recall their frustration and a feeling of isolation. One student who wanted to remain anonymous for security reasons said, "It was unfair that the private, wealthy schools were afforded the luxury of a quick evacuation." Both her university and her government, she says, failed to help her out of a dangerous situation.  With the growth in American students studying abroad in the Middle East, some schools are turning to private security companies to protect their students where they cannot.  Harvard, Princeton and Yale are insured by International SOS and Medex, two private security companies. Arriving with well-equipped teams, these companies arranged everything for students from land- and air-route evacuations, to hotel rooms, to cold bottles of water at the Syrian border. "International SOS did a fantastic job," says Robert Mitchell, Director of Communications at Harvard University. Customer satisfaction with the American government: not quite so high. The Beirut situation "has shown how horrible the State Department has been in evacuating people…keeping people informed and not causing a state of panic," wrote Leventhal in an e-mail to ABC News. In a public announcement, the State Department stated, "The U.S. Government is using all resources possible to facilitate the speedy and safe departure of American citizens currently in Lebanon using every means available." But luckily for Leventhal, his Harvard status kept him safer, sooner.  July 21, 2006 User Comments: Yeah right....We all  want to go to the back of the line. Dialog..."No please, go first I insist, I'll stay behind and deal with the bombs". Anger management, with panic, as we push and shove in line at McDonalds for a hamburger. Posted by: botcha-galoop | Jul 21, 2006 1:17:34 PM Just another example of the privilaged life of rich kids, in this case they get to live, while others may die. Also - shows how a private company can beat govt. agencies anytime. Posted by: stu | Jul 21,  2006 2:04:35 PM It just gose to show that if the money is right you get what you want... I guss there wasnt enough room for the rest of the students to get on.... Posted by: kellen smith | Jul 21, 2006 3:34:46 PM GO USA!! it seems like the Katrina factor all over again Posted by: john | Jul 21, 2006 4:11:14 PM Sure, that's screwed up. But conflating membership in the Ivy League with wealth is ignorant. Posted by: x | Jul 21, 2006 5:18:05 PM nothing here indicates individual wealth but institutional health. i applaud harvard et al for spending the cash necessary to protect its students. many students at ivy league schools receive scholarships to attend. these kids are lucky because their universities put money into security, not (necessarily / always) because they're sucking silver spoons. don't blame them for being in an opportune situation; that's just stupid. Posted by: columbia kid | Jul 21, 2006 5:20:12 PM Yes, this seems elitist and awful. but also, ivy league kids (or their parents) pay a godawful amount of money to put their kids in those schools. If i were paying ivy league prices for my kid to study in lebanon, you'd better be sure i'd expect that with such a heavy price tag my child would be bought a first-class ticket out of their if her life was in danger. Posted by: ryan | Jul 21, 2006 5:31:01 PM People should concentrate their concerns on the the lacking govt reponse (per usual) more than they should be concerned with the services that somebody's study abroad tuition provides. Further - its highly likely that if Harvard wouldn't have done it, one of the students' parents would have called up their security firm and had it done. Maybe GW will be lucky and get the regional war he's been gunning for! Posted by: Grady | Jul 21, 2006 5:41:33 PM The rich are different. So what else is new... By the way, the Ivy League schools don't cost any more or less than most private schools. It's just that the kids who get in tend to be from very wealthy families. Posted by: Carmen | Jul 21, 2006 9:21:45 PM More than half of Princeton's students receive financial aid. Princeton does not require students to take out loans, instead providing grants and on campus jobs. The annual bill fits the needs and capabilities of the student and their family. As an alumn, I am overwhelming proud of this fact, and very glad Princeton provides such outstanding opportunities for our students, and the foresight to keep them safe. Posted by: Tiger | Jul 21, 2006 9:37:02 PM Conflating Ivy League status with wealth isn't all that outrageous...and I doubt the current Oval Office occupant didn't go to Yale and Harvard on his mental abilities. Daniel Gross, Slate, Jan. 12, 2005:"Something has changed about the character of the student bodies at many Ivy League schools in recent decades. With the rising ability of the wealthy to smooth the path to admission by paying private-school tuition and hiring college advisers and SAT-prep tutors and with college tuition far outpacing financial aid growth rich kids are more likely to get in, and to attend, Ivy League schools than in the past. A widely quoted study from the Century Foundation found that 74 percent of the students at 146 selective colleges surveyed came from the top socioeconomic quartile, while only 10 percent come from the bottom half! Harvard President Larry Summers devoted his 2004 commencement speech to this phenomenon. On a percentage basis, fewer Ivy League graduates than public school graduates today need to find stable, high-paying jobs at big companies. More of them can afford to traipse around Asia for a year or pursue a career in film-making. It could be that the already rich and comfortable are simply less interested in pursuing careers in large corporations than their less-comfortable public-school peers for purely economic reasons." Posted by: BRD | Jul 21, 2006 11:54:58 PM What is going on you people at ABC and the comments section? I think you are very much uninformed regarding the SOS evacuation insurance. These policies are very cheap considering what they do. These policies are NOT just for IVY LEAGUERS, so please stop the class warfare, OK? When students at my little Iowa university travel abroad for academic purposes, they ALL get insurance. A policy for a student is about $140 a month. It covers medical evacuation as well as evacuation in wartime as well. So, if you get really ill in some foreign hell hole - you will get flown back to the US/Europe. Or, if you are stuck in some proxy war between the US and Iran, SOS will come and get you!!! I think that the students who DIDN'T get insurance were total idiots. My dear sweet Jesus..... they were going to BEIRUIT for  gawd's sake. Students who did not get an evacuation policy were just trying to save money. I feel bad for these people, but they had a choice. Please, end the class warfare and let's consider the REAL war. Posted by: Tom Riedmiller | Jul 22, 2006 2:26:40 AM Ryan said: "Yes, this seems elitist and awful. but also, ivy league kids (or their parents) pay a godawful amount of money to put their kids in those schools. If i were paying ivy league prices for my kid to study in lebanon, you'd better be sure i'd expect that with such  a heavy price tag my child would be bought a first-class ticket out of their if her life was in danger." Golly, Ryan, it DOES seem a wee bit elitist and awful, now that you mention it.Say, here's an idea: if your upper crust male offspring ever take a cruise, why don't you pack some dresses and wigs in their suitcases. That way, if there should be a problem mid-ocean, when the crew says, "Women and children first!" your far-more-important-than-the-rest-of-us progeny can jump into the first lifeboat. Don't worry, we working class scum will understand the need for the product of your 24 karat gold-plated seed to evacuate before us. We'll go happily to our watery graves in the knowledge that our betters will survive. Posted by: Cranky Media Guy | Jul 22, 2006 4:14:10 AM If I were a parent with a kid in a situation like this, I'd spend every penny I had to get them out. Thank god Havard, et al view their responsibilities as a parent and did not leave their students up to the government (look at this administration, would you?). The focus should be on the OTHER college who put their students in a situation like this and are doing nothing. Why are you trying to blame those who acted? Posted by: TM | Jul 22, 2006 7:00:28 AM The real issue is the demented foreign policy that the USA carries out in the Middle East; it is as demented as the American government's reponse to evacuating its own from Lebanon. Posted by: Lesyk | Jul 22, 2006 7:21:44 AM Most people will laugh at this, but there are those who understand. It's the illuminati at work. Yale, Harvard, and Princeton are schools where U.S. presidents have been "tapped" - in other words, "chosen". George W. Bush and many elected officials belong to secret societies connected with these schools - like the Skull and Bones society. These societies are the works of Masons - the unseen force behind "your" government. They control the money and protect their own. Posted by: Mark Vander Lugt | Jul 22, 2006 11:02:46 AM Well it seems that Harvard, Yale and Princeton have a good understanding of the geo-political situation in Lebanon and took it far enough to protect its students.Too bad the other schools did not advise their students of the dangers in the ME. To say that this is the advantages of wealth is nothing more than spoiled milk. You want to go visit areas of this planet where one walks the edge of the envelope without a SoS plan and then complaint because the USG has  to make you wait a little while so it can deal with all 25,000 Americans is really a very lazy and shallow argument.Its your responsibility to be prepared. Not just abroad but here at home as well. Posted by: SpecCat | Jul 22, 2006 12:41:56 PM the ivy league is perhaps the most misunderstood myth in american culture. to say that the it is only for the richest of the rich is malarkey. i go to yale, and sometimes i am so poor that i cant pay my cellphone bill on time. and there are many folks like me here.what the situation does reveal, however, is that HYP are  elite private institutions that function with greater finesse than our very government. simply put, it exposes just how slow and unproductive our government can be.to the US government all i have to say is: "i dont wanna hear, i dont wanna know. please dont say youre sorry." Posted by: A Yalie from the Ghetto | Jul 22, 2006 3:17:23 PM As a future student at an Ivy League school, I can by all means attest to the fact that I am by no means wealthy. Criticizing Harvard, Yale, and Princeton for looking out for the welfare of their students is absolutely ridiculous. If your child was in the same situation, wouldn't you  want his or her alma mater to do the same? Posted by: FutureIvyLeaguer | Jul 22, 2006 7:45:26 PM The gentleman from Princeton shocked me, as did some other folks on this site, with the naive belief that "Ivy League" doesn't correlate totally with "rich." I teach at an Ivy League University and the scholarships we can offer barely make a dent in the crippling six-figure costs over four years. A few poor kids, thank God, get a free ride, but middle-class kids are not coming to these schools, and, arguably, they'd be pretty selfish if they did, since it would mean their parents couldn't afford vacations, nice clothes or a secure retirement. What happened in Beirut was  "The Titanic" all over again -- only the rich got lifeboats. http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/07/ivy_leaguers_le.html

Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Order 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   CounterPunch Speakers Bureau 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. The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"