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Recent
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April
10, 2003
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
Ron
Jacobs
Bush and Rummy's Drunken Drive-by
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
April
9, 2003
David
Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
Steve
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War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
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Richard
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Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
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Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
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Anthony
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Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
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Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
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Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
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Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
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Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
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Mary
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Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
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Jacobs
War and Occupation
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Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
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St. Clair
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April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
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Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
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Vijay
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There Are No More Arguments
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The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
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Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
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Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
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Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
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Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
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Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
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War Web Log 04/03
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April 11,
2003
Foreign
Aid and AIPAC
Embezzlement
as Public Policy
by
ANTHONY GANCARSKI
One of the hidden costs of the New American Century
is the inevitable, periodic payoff to a friendly regime. Such
payoffs predate the current Administration, of course; Nixon
had his "cops on the beat", and the US bought all kinds
of goodwill after WWII. As a result of being long-standing practice,
these undemocratic appropriations of taxpayers' money to serve
abstract foreign policy objectives often go unexamined. That
might be a trivial matter if the costs were short-term, but the
US commitment to foreign aid has not abated with the passage
of decades. As a result, Washington has committed Americans to
subsidizing the regimes of other countries, without ever courting
Americans' willful consent.
To give an example, Israel receives about
a third of current US foreign-aid. In the current budget crisis,
foreign aid seems like it would be one of the first things to
be scuttled, but Washington disagrees with such parochial logic.
Addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
Annual Policy Conference on March 30, Secretary of State Colin
Powell expressed the Washington government's intention to increase
subsidies to a tiny nation with a token industrial base and one
of the five most powerful militaries on the planet. The transcript
used here is from the State Department website, leaving the reader
to wonder whether or not "(Laughter)" and "(Applause)"
are intended as descriptions or as crowd directions:
"While we deal with Saddam Hussein,
we must not forget the burdens that the conflict with Iraq has
placed on our Israeli friends. I am very pleased that President
Bush has included in his supplemental budget request that just
went to Congress $1 billion in Foreign Military Financing funds
to help Israel strengthen its military and civil defenses. (Applause.)
And that's just for starters. (Laughter.) The President is also
asking for $9 billion in loan guarantees. (Applause.) These loan
guarantees will help Israel deal with the economic costs arising
from the conflict, and will help Israel to implement the critical
economic and budgetary reforms it needs to get its economy back
on track. And I am hopeful that Congress, with your encouragement
-- (laughter) -- will act quickly on this request. (Applause.)"
$10 billion, "for starters".
As if billions of dollars were floating around in the ether.
At a recent Americans for Victory Over Terrorism university "teach-in",
Bill Bennett characteristically said that America has been given
special gifts and therefore has the obligation to be "the
world's policeman". But never do professional moralists
like Bennett ask why it is that US taxpayers should pay for the
right for our country to undertake such an unenviable task.
The dubious logic in which the US commitment
to foreign aid is rooted is rivaled in scope by the questionable
economics of such programs. Why does the US give billions of
dollars to Egypt and Israel to maintain a tenuous cessation of
hostilities that isn't rooted in any real resolution? Why does
Washington loan money to countries, and then absolve those countries
of any obligation to repay their debt? It seems silly to keep
track of debt at all if the debts end up written off. Such transactions
aren't loans at all, so much as rentals of measures of cooperation.
The strategic importance of Pakistan, for example, to the US
government hasn't been lost on any President since Nixon. True
to form, Washington indicated that importance on April 5 by writing
off a billion dollars in Pakistani debt to the US..
"This $1 billion in debt relief
will add to the momentum of Pakistan's economic recovery by allowing
the government to focus more of its energies and budget resources
on critical social development priorities, identified in the
government's poverty reduction strategy. I want to stress that
the forgiveness of $1 billion in bilateral debt is just one piece
of multi-billion-dollar assistance package the US government
is providing to Pakistan." Those words from Nancy Powell,
US Ambassador to Pakistan, to reporters from the Pakistani Dawn
newspaper.
Agents of the Washington government cut
deals with strongmen all over the world, doling out billions
of dollars from our bankrupt treasury in the process. Essentially
IOU's, these chits will be worked off by our sons and daughters.
These are perilous times, made more so by foreign aid programs
that are detrimental to what is now called "homeland security".
There should be a moratorium on the sort of foreign aid provided
to Pakistan and Israel until the US is again financially solvent.
Anthony Gancarski is a regular columnist for CounterPunch. He
can be reached at: ANTHONY.GANCARSKI@ATTBI.COM
Today's Features
Zoltan
Grossman
The Perils of Occupation: the Easier
the Victory, the Harder the Peace
Uri
Avnery
The Night After
Wayne Madsen
The Telltale Signs of Empire
David Krieger
Before You Become Too Flushed with Victory, Think of Ali Ismaeel
Abbas
Jeremy
Brecher
What Can the World Do Now That Tanks Prowl Baghdad?
Robert
Jensen
The Unseen War
Geoffrey
Neale
Ashcroft's War on the Constitution:
A Patriot Attack on America
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Last Tango in Baghdad
Hammond
Guthrie
Rumors of War
Joseph
Heller
Nately's Old Man
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/10
Website
of the Day
The
Third Page
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