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Today's
Stories
January 1, 2004
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
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.
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January
1, 2004
Cats, Dogs and Donkeys
as Bombs
War
Takes an Inhuman Twist
By ROBERT FISK
The Independent
"Watch out for the donkey!"
we cried yesterday near the town hall. I like donkeys. The Arabs
despise the hamar but I have always loved the grey-haired wisdom
of the beast, those big, affectionate eyes, its soft fur and
slavish love. Poor old "donks", we said sadly when
the insurgents used donkey carts to fire rockets at the Palestine
and Sheraton hotels in Baghdad. One of the animals--badly singed
on its rear by a missile--upset the rest of the armoury on to
the road and may have saved lives. But when a donkey came clopping
up to an American checkpoint on Tuesday, all animal love was
set aside.
A roadside bomb had just exploded. The
US troops in Karradah were ready to fire at anything and anyone.
Then came the donkey. It shuffled up the street, pulling a blue
cart of rusting gas canisters and its owner, who was sitting
on the cart. Turn the donkey round, we muttered under our breath.
"Turn that donkey round," shouted an American. "Turn
the fucking donkey round," announced an Iraqi militiaman.
The donkey clopped to a standstill and
turned its head toward us. I looked at its eyes. It looked at
me. Please turn round, I mouthed. And the bearded man yanked
the reins and the beast backed up and turned left and wearily
retraced its path.
Even cats have the same effect these
days. American soldiers returning home to the US are giving ambush
lessons to incoming members of the 82nd Airborne and the Marines.
The "terrorists" or "rebels" or "insurgents"
are using the hollowed out carcasses of cats and dogs to hide
explosives. On the left, the explosives are hidden inside the
concrete median. On the right--well, take your local moggie,
slit him or her in half, insert three mortar shells and leave
it by the side of the road. So off we go each day from Baghdad,
The Independent and its trusty driver Mohamed, ever watchful
for run-over, well-fed quadrupeds.
"Watch out for that cat," I
shouted yesterday at a traffic roundabout in Mansur, and Mohamed
veered to avoid a large and very dead black and white puss. On
the motorway to al-Doura an old dog was spread-eagled by the
verge. "First lane," I yelled, and Mohamed wrenched
the steering wheel left. Mohamed thinks I am a soft Westerner,
uneasy at running over long-dead animals. It has taken days to
educate him. Why does he think the American convoys are now driving
in the centre lane of motorways? "Mr Robert, I know the
answer," he said. "The left side explodes in concrete
and the dogs and cats explode on the right of the road."
It is strange how quickly we become accustomed
here to the rules of life and death and discomfort. Never eat,
for example, at the restaurant of my hotel, a great white building
where The Independent maintains its dodgy offices. Just one shrimp
cocktail will have you driving the big white bus all night. The
menu boasts "Shredded chicken w/ Bamboo Shoot" and
"Tornedo w/ Mushrooms" and I dare any bon vivant to
sample the "Deluxe Beef Burger w/ egg and cheese" and
try sleeping soundly for eight hours.
Even the laundry has its excitements.
Every evening, Hassan will call on the house phone and scream,
"Laundry!"--to make sure I am at home and ready to
tip him for my cleaned clothes. A few minutes later Hassan is
at the door. "Laundry!" he bawls, as if the mere production
of my tired old shirts and socks is a political victory to rival
the invasion of his country. I know the routine well. I smile
like a newly freed prisoner. I express the thanks of the doomed
that my clothes have been returned on their dirty red hangers.
I hand over 3,000 Iraqi dinars. Then I smell the petrol. My shirts
and pants and socks smell of benzene. Only yesterday did I dare
to ask why. I padded down to the receptionist, who explained
the problem to me very gently. "Mr Robert, if there is some
spot on your shirt, something they can't clean with soap and
water, they use the benzene." Understood! No problem then.
My shirts smell of petrol because they are so clean.
You get used to it, of course. The fish,
the laundry, the cats and dogs in New Iraq. Don't overtake American
convoys. And above all, stay away from donkeys.
* At least five Iraqis were killed and
more than 20 wounded yesterday when shots were firedduring a
demonstration in Kirkuk, where Kurds are vying for more control
of the oil-rich city.
Thousands of Arab and Turkoman protesters
marched on the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan,
one of two main Kurdish factions, and chanted: "No to federalism,
Kirkuk is Iraqi". Kirkuk's chief of police said two people
were killed in the gunfire. Doctors said three more people died
later at a nearby hospital.
Robert Fisk is
a reporter for The Independent and author of Pity
the Nation. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's
hot new book, The
Politics of Anti-Semitism.
Weekend
Edition Features for Dec. 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
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