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Today's
Stories
September 7,
2004
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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.
|
September 7, 2004
Cry
Havoc
Bush's
Own Personal Janjaweed
By
CHRIS FLOYD
If you would know the hell that awaits
us--and not far off--there's no need to consult ancient prophecies,
or the intricate coils of hidden conspiracies, or the tortured
arcana of high-credentialed experts. You need only read the public
words, sworn before God, of top public officials, the great lords
of state, the defenders of civilization, as they explain--clearly,
openly, with confidence and pride--their plans to foment terror,
rape, war and repression across the face of the earth.
Earlier this month, in testimony
before Congress, the Bush Regime unveiled its plans to raise
a host of warlord armies in the most volatile areas in the world,
Agence France-Presse reports. Bush wants $500 million in seed
money to arm and train non-governmental "local militias"--i.e.,
bands of lawless freebooters--to serve as Washington's proxy
killers in the so-called "arc of crisis" that just
happens to stretch across the oil-bearing lands and strategic
pipeline routes of Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and
South America.
Flanked by a gaggle of military
brass, Pentagon deputy honcho Paul Wolfowitz told a rapt panel
of Congressional rubber-stamps that Bush wants big bucks to run
"counter-insurgency" and "counter-terrorist"
operations in "ungoverned areas" of the world--and
in the hinterlands of nations providing "sanctuary"
for terrorists. Making copious citations from Bush's 2002 "National
Security Strategy" of unprovoked aggressive war against
"potential" enemies, Howlin' Wolf proposed expanding
the definition of "terrorist sanctuary" to any nation
that allows clerics and other rabble-rousers to offer even verbal
encouragement to America's designated enemies du jour.
Any rogue state that countenances
such freedom of speech within its borders will become a prime
target for "the path of action," said Wolf, quoting
Bush's most ringing Hitlerian phrase from the 2002 manifesto.
To relieve the overstretched U.S. military, the "action"
will be carried out largely by Bush's new hired guns: religious
and ethnic militias, tribal forces, mercenaries, cultists, insurrectionists,
druglords, pirates--basically anyone willing to slit throats
and terrorize populations at the order of the Oval One.
A more sinister--not to mention
stupid--policy can scarcely be imagined. One of the most spectacular
miscalculations in modern history was the American decision to
create an international army of Islamic extremists to fight the
Soviets in Afghanistan. Together with the repressive militarists
of Pakistan and the head-chopping religious tyrants of Saudi
Arabia, American leaders armed, funded, supplied and shaped the
global jihad--beginning before the Soviet intervention,
which the bloody religious insurgency successfully provoked,
as Washington intended. The CIA ended up fighting cheek-by-jowl
with the likes of Osama bin Laden, helpfully providing the holy
warriors with extensive training in "asymmetrical warfare"--i.e.,
terrorism. These rabid chickens came home to roost with a vengeance
on Sept. 11, 2001, and are now running wild all over the world.
Meanwhile, the Afghan warlords
thus empowered by Washington proceeded to tear the country to
shreds, killing more than 50,000 people in Kabul alone during
their post-Soviet factional frenzy, creating a hell so dire that
even the Taliban's vicious moralism seemed a welcome relief for
a time. These same warlords are back in the saddle again, paid
by Bush as they re-establish their petty fiefdoms of repression,
religious obscurantism, rampant crime, factional violence--and
dope-dealing on a record-breaking scale, the Independent reports.
The "victory" in
Afghanistan has deteriorated so badly that this week the UN's
own staff workers called on the organization to leave the country
because it is too dangerous, the BBC reports. This follows the
July pull-out of Medecins Sans Frontieres, the Nobel-winning
medical aid group that managed to survive in Afghanistan for
24 years, through the anti-Soviet jihad, the murderous civil
war and the depredations of the Taliban. But with Bush's paid
proxies now in control, even the redoubtable doctors have had
to quit the field.
There's nothing really new
in Bush's murder-by-proxy scheme, of course; America has a long,
bipartisan tradition of paying local thugs to do Washington's
bloodwork. For example, just this week, Guatemala was forced
to pay $420 million in extortion to veterans of the U.S.-backed
"paramilitaries" who helped Ronald Reagan's favorite
dictator, right-wing Christian coupster Efrain Rios Montt, kill
100,000 innocent people during his reign, the BBC reports. The
paramilitaries, whose well-documented war crimes include rape,
murder and torture, had threatened to shut down the country if
they weren't given some belated booty for their yeoman service
in the Reagan-Bush cause.
But Wolfowitz did reveal one
original twist in Bush's plan: targeting the Homeland itself
as a "terrorist sanctuary." In addition to loosing
his own personal Janjaweed on global hotspots, Bush is also seeking
new powers to prevent anyone he designates a "terrorist"
from "abusing the freedom of democratic societies"
or "exploiting the technologies of communication"--i.e.,
defending themselves in court or logging on to the Internet.
As AFP notes, Wolfowitz tactfully refrained from detailing just
how the Regime intends to curb the dangerous use of American
freedom, but he did allow that "difficult decisions"
would be required. (Perhaps a stateside version of those rigged
"military tribunals" now serving up prime kangaroo
meat down in Guantanamo Bay?)
No doubt the arrogant Bushists
believe they can control the mercenary dogs of war they're now
unleashing. But history shows that armed bands driven by religious,
ideological or ethnic fervor--or just the ordinary lust for loot
and power--rarely follow the script set for them by their elitist
paymasters. Bush's morally depraved "path of action"
leads straight to chaos, desolation and hell.
Chris Floyd is a columnist for the Moscow Times
and a regular contributor to CounterPunch. His new book, Empire
Burlesque: The Secret History of the Bush Regime, is now available
at www.globaleyefloyd.com.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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