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 What You're Missing in the Special Expanded Print Edition
The War So Far: a Failure Worse Than Vietnam
by Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

"The need for the White House to produce a fantasy picture of Iraq is because it dare not admit that it has engineered one of the greatest disasters in American history. It is worse than Vietnam because the enemy is punier and the original ambitions greater." Get the answers you're looking for in the 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!

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Today's Stories

November 14, 2005

Christopher Reed
The Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan

November 11 / 13, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
First the Lying, Then the Pardons

Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ in the Wake of Abu Ghraib

Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System

Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation

Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay

Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them

Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture

Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?

Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson

Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch

Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?

Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott

Justin E.H. Smith
Another Monkey Trial?

Ben Tripp
The Cost of War

St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel

Website of the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!

 

 

November 10, 2005

Peterside, Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone

Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?

Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging

Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?

Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over

Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs

Lawrence R. Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?

Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine

November 9, 2005

Gary Leupp
The Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology

Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws

Chris Floyd
The Philosopher's Stone

Elaine Cassel
The Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu Ali

Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day

Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You Give Israel a Pass?

Diana Johnstone
Rage in the Banlieue


November 8, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Still No Jobs

Roger Burbach
Bush v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat

Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising

Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"

Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day

David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight

Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism

 

November 7, 2005

Dick Reavis
The Origins of Mr. Danger

Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied

Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?

Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell

David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus

M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff

Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time

Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning

Jeff Halper
Israel as an Extension of American Empire

Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris

 

November 5 / 6, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Storm Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes

Lawrence R. Velvel
Lying, Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito

Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay

Roosa / Nevins
The Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation

John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections

Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture

Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds

Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too

Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited

Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act

Missy Comley Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep

Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited

Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer

Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic Party

Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks

Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana

Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet

St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week

 

November 4, 2005

Jeffrey St. Clair
Blood on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR

Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried

Phillip Cryan
Crackdown in Colombia

Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich

William S. Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War

Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes

George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?

Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer

 

November 3, 2005

James Petras
The Libby Affair and the Internal War

Saul Landau
Torn Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story

Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge

Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine

Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors

Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance

Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?

Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?

 

November 2, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
Holy Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad

Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy

John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby

Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)

Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria

M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?

Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator

Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day

Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!

 

November 1, 2005

Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart

Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome

John Ross
Days of the Dead on the Border

Bill Quigley
Why Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?

Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life

Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment

Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?

Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks

Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond

Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off

 

October 31, 2005

Elaine Cassel
Libby's Lies

Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed

Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald

Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself

Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns

Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants

Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights

Paul Craig Roberts
Scooter and the Neocons


October 29 / 30, 2005

Cockburn / St. Clair
The Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?

Peter Linebaugh
The Wedges of Hephaestus

Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media

John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words

Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland

Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War

M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness

Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State

Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives

Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?

Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?

Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?

Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer

Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country

Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America

Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting

Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week

Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair

Website of the Weekend
Red State Update

 

October 28, 2005

Jared Bernstein
Inflation Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record

Virginia Tilley
Embracing the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine

Phil Gasper
The Race to Execute Tookie Williams

Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!

Manual Garcia, Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?

Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice

Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald Focuses on the Forgeries

Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials


Otober 27, 2005

Saul Landau
The Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War

Stuart Hodkinson
Bono and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!

Ingmar Lee
Stop the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq

Lila Rajiva
License to Bill: Gates Does India

Ilan Pappe
The Last Moment of Hope

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald

Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury

Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo

Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown

 

October 26, 2005

Kathy Kelly
For Whom They Toll

Gary Leupp
Dialectics of the Plame Affair

Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial

Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan

Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation

Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check

J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks

Website of the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index

 

 

October 25, 2005

Paul Craig Roberts
Condi and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?

Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel

Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US

Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings

Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros

Robert Day
Talk to Strangers

John Sugg
Judith Miller and Me

 

October 24, 2005

Dave Lindorff
Revoke Judy Miller's Pulitzer

Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra

Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial

Mike Whitney
Apres Rove

Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...

Bill and Kathleen Christison
US Foreign Policy and Palestine

 

October 22 / 23, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
When Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller

Billy Sothern
Letter from the Circle Bar, New Orleans

Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment

Ralph Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers

Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?

Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?

Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union

Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!

Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About

Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer

Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake

James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness

Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Disasters are Us

Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal

Missy Comley Beattie
CSI: Iraq

Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun

Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories

Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week

Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel

Website of the Day
Indictment Watch

 

October 21, 2005

Dave Lindorff
The Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy

Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense Budget

Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard

Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph

Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina

Michael Donnelly
Richard Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots


October 20, 2005

Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Comes to NYC

Ray McGovern
16 Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost

Jeremy Brecher /
Brendan Smith

Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?

Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court

Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?

Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment

Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton

Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory

After Lucas Cranach
Judy and Holofernes

Joe Allen
The Scandalous History of the Red Cross

 

October 19, 2005

Christopher Reed
Koizumi and the Rape of Nanking

Stephen Soldz
Bush and Avian Flu: the Excuses Begin to Fly

Chet Richards
War and Intelligence

Patrick Cockburn
Saddam on Trial

Scott Richard Lyons
Multicultural Columbus?

Ralph Nader
An Interview with Rev. William Sloane Coffin

Website of the Day
Shocking Video: Why Birds May Be Taking Viral Vengeance on Humans

 

October 18, 2005

Chet Flippo
Merle Haggard: "Let's Get Out of Iraq"

Ron Jacobs
Dual Devotions: the Catholic Church and the US Flag

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
A Tale of Two Cities: From DC to Toledo

Dave Lindorff
Judy Miller: Little Miss Run Amok

Virginia Rodino
A Winter Patriot: Reflections on the Antiwar Movement

Thomas Healy
The Weather in Goshen: Still Radical After All These Years

Ralph Nader
A New New Orleans

Stephen Lendman
The Sorrows of Haiti

Patrick Cockburn
On the Eve of Saddam's Trial: a Divided Iraq

 

October 17, 2005

Peter Linebaugh
Spinoza and the Black Limos

Norman Solomon
Judith Miller, the Fourth Estate and the Warfare State

Cockburn / Sengupta
"If the Sunnis Don't Like It, That's Their Problem"

Mike Whitney
Miller's Confession: Last Gasp Before Indictments?

Uri Avnery
Iraq Now: What Awaits Samira?

Harold Pinter
Torture & Misery in the Name of Freedom

Website of the Day
Al Joudi v. Bush

 

October 15 / 16, 2005

Alexander Cockburn
Ayatollahs of the Apocalypse

Patrick Cockburn
"This Constitution Won't Get Me a Job"

Saul Landau
Two Terrorists and a Lush: Osama, Posada and Bush's Drinking

Neve Gordon
"Beyond Chutzpah": Exposing Grave Moral Distortions

Moshe Adler
Poverty in New York City

Christopher Brauchli
Lynndie England's Burden

Diane Farsetta
The Emperor Doesn't Disclose: the Fight Against Fake News

Sam Husseini
Notes on Current Reporting About Judith Miller

Monica Benderman
From Chaos to Conscience to Peace

Mickey Z.
POW Abuse by US: Nothing New Going On Here

Douglas C. Smyth
George W. Bush, the Honorius of Our Time

Lee Sustar
Will Delphi Bust the UAW?

Fred Gardner
Cannabinoids Arrive in Realm of Established Fact

Elizabeth Schulte
A Former Panther's Georgia Campaign: an Interview with Elaine Brown

Joshua Frank
Will the Democrats Save Harriet Miers?

David Vest
Down with Formalism! Up with Values!

Ben Tripp
Epistle II: the Reawakenign

Poets Basement
Engel, Albert, Ford and Louise

Website of the Weekend
The Hidden Canyon

 

October 14, 2005

Farrah Hassen
A Somber Ramadan in Syria

Ron Jacobs
The Black Panthers: They Haven't Forgotten; Neither Should We

Sasha Kramer
USAID and Haiti: the Friendly Face of Imperialism?

Katrina Yeaw
The Student Struggle in Italy

Nicole Colson
Bird Flu: Militarizing Health Care

Raúl Zibechi
Survival and Existence in El Alto

Nikolas Kozloff
Hugo Chávez and the Politics of Race

Website of the Day
LA Filmmakers Cooperative


October 13, 2005

Jeremy Scahill
Mr. Bush Goes to Tikrit (Sort Of)

Jeff Birkenstein
A Thoreau for Our Time: Why Cindy Sheehan Matters

Brendan Smith / Jeremy Brecher
Harriet Miers: Bush or the Constitution?

Stan Cox
Did You Know This About Iraq?

Anis Memon
The Curious Case of Russ Feingold

Gary Leupp
Miller, Libby and the June Notes

Dave Zirin
A Tribute to August Wilson

Matthew Koehler
America's Endangered Forests

Werther
The Two-Headed Monster

Website of the Day
Hurricane Song


October 12, 2005

Omar Waraich
Britain and the Quake: Mean and Stingy

William Cook
Voices Behind the Entombment Wall

Phil Gasper
Countdown to a Legal Lynching

Dave Lindorff
Impeachment Now and Then: Clinton, Bush and the Polls

Matt Vidal
Capital, Power and Class

John Gautreaux
New Orleans will Never be the Same

Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica Revisited: Using War as an Excuse for War

Mark Weisbrot
The IMF Has Lost Its Influence

Brian J. Foley
Gitmo Tribunals Endanger Public Safety

Website of the Day
Columbus Day Lies

 

October 11, 2005

Roger Morris / Steve Schmidt
Strategic Demands of the 21st Century

Lila Rajiva
Live from New Orleans: Abu Ghraib

Bill Quigley
New Orleans: Leaving the Poor Behind Again

Paul Craig Roberts
Natural Born Liars

Dave Lindorff
Recruiters in Schools: No Lie Left Untried

Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Suspect Thy Neighbor

Mitchel Cohen
Showdown at Chuck E. Cheese

Tariq Ali
Pakistan will Never Forget This Horror

Website of the Day
L'Heure Americaine

 

October 10, 2005

Cindy and Craig Corrie
Rachel's Words Live

Joshua Frank
Washington's War Dems

Gideon Levy
The Beautiful Life Without Arafat

Alan Wallis
The Fight for Free Speech at Union Square

Mickey Z.
In Defense of Liars

CounterPunch News Service
Vermont Independence Convention

Paul Craig Roberts
The Police State is Closer Than You Think

Website of the Day
Dylan's Chronicles

 

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

Jennifer Van Bergen
New American Law: Legal Strategies in the Dharfir Case

Saul Landau
An Oily Religious Dream

Jeff Halper
Setting Up Abbas

Lenni Brenner
The Millions More Movement and Zionism

Nikolas Kozloff
Bird Flu and Bush

Brian Cloughley
Training Soldiers in Iraq

Alice Slater
A Nobel Prize for Chernobyl?

John Gautreaux
A View from Cajun Country

Fred Gardner
Does the Controlled Substances Act Mean What It Says?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Leveethan Approach

M.G. Piety
Rot in the Ivory Tower: Collusion, Cover-Up and Kierkegaard

Tom Gorman
The Hitchens Doctrine

Mike Whitney
Bunker Days with George

Aseem Shrivastava
Beyond the Wasteland: Lessons from Afghanistan

Ben Tripp
Religion, an Epistle

Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Ford

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

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November 14, 2005

Hillary Clinton's Junket to Israel

Off She Goes

By JOSHUA FRANK

There really is no way of getting around it. Senator Hillary Clinton may well be future presidential material after all.

Senator Clinton, along with her husband Bill, paid a visit to Israel this past weekend. The former President Clinton was a featured speaker at a mass rally that marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was Hillary's second visit to Israel since she was elected to office in 2000. In fact, I think the senator has visited Israel more times in the past four years than she's been to visit her constituents where I reside here in Upstate New York.

The Senator did manage to take time out of her voyage to meet with Ariel Sharon to discuss "security matters." Hillary also made her way to the great apartheid wall, which separates Palestine from Israel. As of now, the barrier is about two-thirds complete, and when all is said and done the monstrosity will stretch to well over 400 miles in length.

Palestinians rightly criticize the obtrusive wall on the grounds that it cuts them off from disputed land in the West Bank. Thousands have also been cut off from their jobs, schools, and essential farmland.

Hillary and her Israeli allies just don't get it. When you put powerless Palestinians behind a wall where life in any real economic sense is unattainable, you wreak pain and anguish, which in turn leads to more anger and resentment toward Israel's brutal policies. Indeed, the wall will not prove to be a deterrent to resistance, but an inciter of defiance.

"This is not against the Palestinian people," Clinton said as she gazed over the massive wall. "This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism."

The senator's comments seem as if they were taken word-for-word from an AIPAC position paper. It may well have been. Just last August Senator Clinton spoke at an AIPAC conference where she praised the bonds between Israel and the United States:

"[O]ur future here in this country is intertwined with the future of Israel and the Middle East. Now there is a lot that we could talk about, and obviously much has been discussed. But in the short period that I have been given the honor of addressing you, I want to start by focusing on our deep and lasting bonds between the United States and Israel."

Clinton went on to wail about the importance of disarming Iran and Syria as well as keeping troops in Iraq for as long as it takes -- whatever "it" means, I have no idea. It was textbook warmongering and surprise, surprise, Hillary got a standing ovation for her repertoire.

It is no matter that Iraq will never ever see true democracy. The US won't allow that. The imperial powers would never let an Iraq government form that embodied even the slightest hatred towards Israel or the US.

Nope, democracy in Iraq has limitations.

Certainly Sen. Clinton's trip down to Israel this past week is just one of many more to come. Like her husband and the current president, Hillary will never alter the US/Middle East policy that so blatantly favors Israeli interests.

Sadly Hillary Clinton, if she is elected in 2008, will let the occupations continue -- both in Iraq and Palestine.

Joshua Frank is the author of the brand new book, Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, which has just been published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted rate at www.brickburner.org. Joshua can be reached at Joshua@brickburner.org.

 


 

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from CounterPunch Books!
The Case Against Israel
By Michael Neumann

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WHAT'S INSIDE
Grand Theft Pentagon:
Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror

by Jeffrey St. Clair