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Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly! Today's Stories May 14 / 15, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Join the 14 Per Cent Club! May 13, 2005 Tom Stephens A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005 Patrick Cockburn "They Destroyed Everything" Mike Whitney Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler Chris Floyd Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush Jenna Orkin Ground Zero's Toxic Dust Dave Lindorff Googling for Fun Joshua Frank Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar: an Interview with David Graeber Website of the Day Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib May 12, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts America is Losing: More Phony Jobs Hype Uri Avnery Death of a Myth Greg Moses Neo-Con Logic at the Border Carolyn Baker The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America Pat Williams Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas William S. Lind Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty Jack Random The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush Gary Leupp Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg   May 11, 2005 Patrick Cockburn The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle Kevin Zeese The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like Every Day Christopher Brauchli Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan Zalman Amit The Collapse of Academic Freedom in Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University Robert Shull Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops: Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws Mike Whitney God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School Norman Solomon Political Bluster and the Filibuster   May 10, 2005 Richard Drayton The Imperial Mythology of WW II: an Ethical Blank Check Dave Zirin Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP Jackie Corr The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall Dave Lindorff Silence of the Scams: Economists on China Michael Donnelly From Roadless to Clueless: the Great Stillborn Eco Victory Reza Fiyouzat Nomadic Abstracts Scott Parkin Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton Stephen Babcock The Burden of Knowing Better Alan Farago Florida, Water and Lobbyists Michael Neumann Naomi's Courage Website of the Day One Nation Under Plagiarism   May 9, 2005 Louis Proyect Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond, Greenwasher Robert Fisk "Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two Kevin Zeese Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman Joshua Frank Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage Sasha Kramer A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons Andrew Wimmer Create and Resist Jeffrey Webber Back to the Streets in Bolivia? Jeffrey St. Clair Straight to Bechtel   May 7 / 8, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Who Beat Hitler? Gary Leupp Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism Saul Landau Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups Joe DeRaymond Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega Daniela Ponce Seeing Chile in Nepal Heather Williams Hollywood Does Enron Gregory Elich Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice Anis Memon To Cuba and Back John Chuckman The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism" Mike Whitney Hard Right Rage Against the Truth Ron Jacobs Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq War Grinds On Colin Kalmbacher Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont. Lance Selfa Uprising in Mexico City Fred Gardner "Getting High is a Little Like Cuba" Ben Tripp Letters on Wittgenstein Mickey Z. The Mother of All Days Richard Joseph Those Patriotic Magnets Dr. Susan Block Come As You Are: Masturbation 101 Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert   May 6, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and Blood Erin Yoshioka Another "3 Strikes" Travesty: Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison? Sam Husseini Talking with Syrians Dave Lindorff Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters Kevin Zeese Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead Guilty Joshua Frank An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War Dan Bacher Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water Raid P. Sainath India's Bloody Water Wars   May 5, 2005 Carles Mutaner Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist" or "Populist?" Carl G. Estabrook Is There Any Hope for the Pope? Farrah Hassen The US's Syrian Obsession Kevin Zeese "Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview with Patrick Resta Michael Leonardi May Day with an American Soldier in Rome Bennett Ramberg The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You Ray McGovern The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit Norman Solomon Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran Nicole Colson The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights Brian Concannon, Jr. Clearing the Fences in Haiti     May 4, 2005 Colin Kalmbacher Ann Coulter and the Police State: Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested John Walsh Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying on Air America to Support the War Greg Moses Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises "Birth of a Nation" Ali Khan Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart Chris Floyd Ring Them Bells Linda S. Heard D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics Dave Zirin The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle William S. Lind Fool's Paradise Gary Leupp Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution Website of the Day Kent State, May 4, 1970   May 3, 2005 Dave Lindorff Bush has Grasped the Third Rail, Now Turn on the Juice Brian Cloughley Halliburton's War Loot Ira Kurzban Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers Seth Sandronsky Towards Debtors' Prisons? Gilad Atzmon The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More Michael Donnelly Branding Eco Collapse Alex Sanchez Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush? Peter Linebaugh Magna Carta and May Day   May 2, 2005 Ron Jacobs Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement Stan Goff The Case of Hasan Akbar Karyn Strickler Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics Joshua Frank Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly Kevin Zeese Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam Vicente Navarro Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician       April 30 / May 1, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and "Credibility" Gabriel Kolko Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later Jennifer Loewenstein The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood Lee Sustar City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago Saul Landau The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power T.W. Croft The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy Nikolas Kozloff Fox News v. Hugo Chavez William Blum Never-Ending Double Standards Dave Lindorff Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly Joshua Frank The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls Doug Giebel Saving Jane Fonda Steven Erlanger A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau Chief Fred Gardner Washington State Doctor Harassed Mike Whitney Another Mad Bush Press Conference Kurt Nimmo Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine Joe DeRaymond A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Michael Dickinson Flags Mickey Z. May Day at Yankee Stadium Justin Taylor The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy Poets Basement Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Save Barbados's Cowpastor                                             Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition May 14 / 15, 2005 Military Conscription in Turkey Crawling By MICHAEL DICKINSON Instanbul. Driving home from school this week, as usual the service bus passed the grounds of a military barracks. I was reading Don Quixote but glancing out of the window briefly, my eye drawn to an avenue of trees therein, I noticed a uniformed soldier hurrying through them, rifle in hand, the straggler in some exercise. The bus swept by the front of the barracks building, and I noticed a couple of navy blue clad officers chatting casually in front of the obligatory bust of Ataturk on the tarmacked parade ground. My eyes went back to the story, but suddenly my attention was distracted by the one of the two Turkish teachers sitting next to me. "Did you see that?" he asked. "They were making a soldier crawl in front of them!" I looked out quickly but too late. We'd passed the military area and were approaching our destination. I hadn't seen the crawling soldier, but the thought of him groveling on the ground before the officers sickened me. "Disgusting!" I commented. The Turkish teachers laughed. "You are such a radical!" said one. "Don't you think it's disgusting to make a fellow man crawl?" I asked. "Of course. You are right," they replied, but immediately slipped back into the casual conversation they'd been having before. But even though I hadn't seen the crawling soldier, the image crawled in my mind, and I remembered (again passing in a bus on the way to school) seeing an officer slap a saluting soldier hard across the face for not opening a gate quick enough, groups of soldiers on their knees in the fenced off compound keeping the grass short on the lawn by plucking the blades with their hands, and the lines of young guys I'd seen queuing dismally up outside barracks, shortly to have their heads shaved and their individual clothes replaced by drab olive green uniformity for the next year and a half. Conscripted whether you like it or not. Young Turkish students who ask about my military service are usually gobsmacked when I reply that I have never been in the army, and that conscription in England was abolished in the early 1960's.They're even more shocked to learn that a job in the British army is pretty lucrative, whereas Turks receive nothing but the privilege of serving their country and learning to jump to attention, salute and meekly obey the orders barked at them by arrogant fascists. Not surprisingly, Turkey has many draft evaders. Those who are caught are taken straight into military service, and usually accept it as a fair cop'. But should you choose as a matter of principle not to do your time in the army, you do time in prison instead. Conscientious objection is illegal. For some, however, 'might' does not equal right, and there are now approximately fifty declared conscientious objectors in the country, following the example of Osman Murat Ulke, who, in 1995, was the first conscientious objector to be prosecuted in Turkey for his refusal to perform military service. Since then, released and arrested several times, he has so far served 43 months in prison. At present "no longer in custody" Osman faces the prospect of being imprisoned once again at any moment as a deserter who has not responded to call-up. This was Osman's statement on his first arrest: "In view of my deepest convictions and way of life, it is impossible for me to take part in military service or any other compulsory service. Furthermore I refuse to acknowledge any kind of hierarchical authority. In my opinion the army is the clearest form of institutional power, which makes it a personal enemy I seek to combat and destroy. This is why I consider conscientious objection as the first step on the path I have to follow to preserve my self-esteem. Turkey is based on an authoritarian culture that pervades all dimensions of life at work, in the private sphere, and especially strongly the political arena. It is therefore not surprising that a large part of the population turns a blind eye to the war that Turkey is currently waging and continue in their way of life. The myth perpetuated about the role of soldiers as protectors of their country and fellow citizens from the outside enemy has turned them into one of the most commonly used instruments of oppression in their own country. I cannot say how big a difference I and those who think like me can make, but I do know that no coercive measure will ever force me to become a soldier." And this year gay activist and conscientious objector Mehmet Tarhan was arrested and imprisoned by military police for 'non co-operation' and 'insubordination'. He was forcibly undressed and forced to wear a military uniform. His trial has been adjourned until May 26th. Here was the statement he prepared in 2001: "It is thought that the bombs that are thrown upon Afghan people are the result of the killing of hundreds of people in USA while flies are crashing to Twin Towns on 11th of September. It is expected that all over the world should cooperate in the attack against Afghan people. I curse every kind of violence and I believe that joining or approving any kind of violent event is a responsibility that would open the door for new violent events and new traumas for every approving people. I think that wars are created by states for their power and primarily it is the denial of the right of living of people. Whatever the reason is, to deny the right of living is a crime and no international agreement can legitimize it. That is why I declare that I will not be an agent of that crime. I will not serve for any of the military apparatuses. I miss a humanity that is purified from violence and power struggles, a humanity that is borderless and in peace with nature. The fact that it does not exist now does not change my ideas and my struggle to create it. I do not believe in the necessity of the state and I do not feel any belonging to any state. I never want to strengthen military forces by actions called as the duties of citizenship. The state claiming I am a citizen of it wants to use me for military service, to turn me into a death machine and to make me a part of the crime that I explained by compromising me in itself. The aim of the state is to reproduce its power and itself. I will not let it happen and I will protect my beliefs. I perceive the rotten report that is provided for me because I am a gay as the sign of the decadence of the state itself. As an individual, I will not serve for any kind of military or other apparatuses of any state. I admit that to excuse for this is an insult to myself and I refuse every kind of state permission or deferences of the state. So, I totally refuse to serve in the military service. I quest everybody not to join to the army, not to let any kind of bureacratic operations, to refuse control mechanisms of the state such as MERNIS and tax number. I quest everybody for solidarity by non violent actions. The way to stop the war is to destroy its human resources. Every kind of violence is a crime of humanity." In 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Countries which voted in favor of it were: Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. Article 4 of the declaration states that "No one shall be held in slavery or servitutude." Article 5 states that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." And Article 20 (2) states that "No one may be compelled to belong to an association." Compulsory service in the military forces conscription contradicts each of these articles. In their 1930 Manifesto against Conscription, such notables as Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, H.G.Wells, Bertrand Russell and Thomas Mann stated: "Conscription subjects individual personalities to militarism. It is a form of servitude. That nations routinely tolerate it, is just one more proof of its debilitating influence." In the world now there is NO military conscription in the following countries: Antigua and Barbuda Australia Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Botswana Brunei Darussalam Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Canada Costa Rica Djibouti Fiji Gabon Gambia Ghana Grenada Haiti Hong Kong Iceland India Ireland Jamaica Japan Jordan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Lesotho Luxembourg Malawi Malaysia Maldives Malta Mauritania Mauritius Monaco Myanmar Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Oman Pakistan Panama Papua New Guinea Qatar Rwanda San Marino Saudi Arabia Sierra Leone South Africa Sri Lanka Suriname Swaziland Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland United States of America Uruguay Vanuatu Zambia Zimbabwe Surely it is time for the rest of the countries of the world to join this list, put an end to the degrading practice of forced conscription, and take a step closer to the sentiments of Article 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights which states: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." In the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley: The man Of virtuous soul commands not, nor obeys: Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches, and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame, A mechanised automaton. MICHAEL DICKINSON is a writer and artist who works as an English teacher in Istanbul, Turkey. He designed the cover art for two CounterPunch books, Serpents in the Garden and Dime's Worth of Difference, as well as Grand Theft Pentagon, forthcoming from Common Courage Press. He can be contacted through his website of collage pictures at http://CARNIVAL_OF_CHAOS.TRIPOD.COM       .