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Recent
Stories
April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
April
22, 2003
Edward
Said
The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq
War are Now Clear
Sam
Hamod
What's the Deal with This War?
Kurt
Nimmo
Shi'a Will to Power
Gary
Leupp
At last! The Necessary Evidence
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
We Subside
John
Stanton
Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel?
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
Sherman
About That Cuba Letter
Wayne Madsen
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Stew
Albert
Creep
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/22
Website
of the Day
Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
April
21, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
An Administration in Contempt
Gary
Leupp
Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus
and Kanaka WaiWai
Roger
Witherspoon
Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action
Uri Avnery
At Midnight, a Knock on the Door
Col. Dan
Smith
Early Lessons from Iraq
Jo
Freeman
After the Protest Comes Politics
Michael
Berry
The Friedman Absurdities
Gray
Brechin
Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss
Bob Riedel
The Taliban from Texas
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/21
April
19, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Rape of History
Saul
Landau
Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
War, Wait for Armageddon
Michael
J. Fellows
Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
Pablo
Mukherjee
Roadmap to Resistance
Omar
Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
Anthony
Gancarski
Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World
Mickey
Z.
Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
When Police Attack Journalists
William
MacDougall
America's In-Bedded Journalism
Neve
Gordon
Haunted by History
Adam
Engel
Wal-Mart and Peace
Dr.
Susan Block
Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Buono, Guthrie
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/19
Song of
the Weekend
Baghdad to Basra
April
18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
Operation "Syrian Freedom":
This One's Not About Oil
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Died Trying to Become
Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation
Mickey
Z:
Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes
Hussein
Ibish
Syria and the Road to World War IV
Reza Ladjevardian
Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles
Matania
Ben-Artzi
You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President
of Israel's Supreme Court
Bruce Jackson
Jews Like Us
Joe
Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
Website
of the Day
Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
the Patriot Missile System
Joanne
Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
for the Pentagon
Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
to Baghdad
Wayne Madsen
Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism
Robert
Fisk
The Army of Occupation
Boris
Kagarlitsky
Virtual Saddam Takes Aim
Biljana
Vankovska
A Personal View of Iraq: Where
is the Truth?
Dan Brook
Oil War: Fueling the Empire
Stanley
Heller
Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like
Tim Robbins
A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation
Harold
A. Gould
Iraq After the War
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/17
Hot Stories
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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April 26,
2003
Ralph on Remote
Nader Plays
Pullman
By ANTHONY GANCARSKI
People in Florida who voted for Nader still occasionally
get "thanked" by Gore supporters for the War in Iraq.
Such are the perils of supporting third-party candidates, though
many Nader supporters in Florida and elsewhere insist that they
chose correctly. That said, one wonders if the once and possibly
future Presidential candidate provides much proof for that claim
in the present tense.
On April 17, Ralph Nader spoke at the
Beasley Coliseum on the campus of Washington State University
in Pullman, Washington. Turnout was exceptional for what was
billed as an address on "Human Energy and Activism in the
New Millenium"; the facility as configured had roughly 2000
seats, of which three-fourths were filled with the bodies of
young college students. Nader was scheduled to go on at 7:30,
but took the stage fashionably late.
What did Nader deliver? Well-worn homilies
about Bush and Ashcroft destroying the country via the Patriot
Act, "passed by a terrified Congress," according to
Nader. The same lines, with the same pauses for applause, about
the scripted impromptu banter in newscasts not serving the public
interest. All of it said exactly as it was in 2000. Nader spoke
to a room of 1500 people, most of whom wanted an alternative
to the President and the seemingly interchangeable Democrats
that never win political fights with the Administration and its
puppets on the Republican side of the aisle. An hour into Nader's
speech, attendance was halved.
Seasoned observers of the political scene
undoubtedly know why Nader lost his crowd. He played the space
like it was a conference room, keeping his presentation almost
militaristically spare. Upon taking the microphone, he asked
that the lights be turned down, to minimize the interrogation-room
glare. His dry monotone was no match for the sound of infants
squalling in the audience. It seemed unthinkable that Nader would
have to talk over a child while giving a speech.
What also seemed strange was a grinning
man in a parka handing out double-sided photocopies extolling
the virtues of Democratic Presidential would-be Howard Dean.
Dean is a cynical piece of marketing, a small state governor
dressed up as an electable radical. In the modern era, we've
seen that motif in the guises of Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter,
both better soundbites than Chief Executives. Fittingly, the
only memorable thing about the Dean flyer was the already played-out
line, "I'm from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party."
That's not a line from a politician interested
in genuine reform, but one interested in semantics. Like Jimmy
Carter's "I would never lie to you", or "It takes
a village", the language is elegant wrapping paper for an
inevitable sellout.
Because something's got to be for sale
at this point, with our budget deficit hovering at around $2
billion a day, and our politicians mortgaging our future on a
series of aggressive wars against nations with under 30 million
people. Our treasury hemorrhages money, our corporate ethics
are on a par with those who have looted Baghdad, and no politician
is willing to state the obvious.
Our nation is broke and the situation
has no hope of improving. Ralph Nader, one of the smartest men
in public life, should know this. But as he talked about universal
health coverage, it was as if he'd forgotten that the US military
has an alarmingly active role in Iraq for at least the next few
years. That there is no end in sight in Afghanistan. It was as
if he had forgotten that we are far closer to national bankruptcy
than we are to ensuring that our national health is cared for.
Nader and some on the left would say
that we should bring the troops home now. But anyone familiar
with history knows that it's not that easy to get out of foreign
wars. We've yet to leave Korea, Japan, or Germany. It took the
better part of a decade to get out of Vietnam. The federal government,
runaway train that it is, can't afford a guns and butter policy.
We're stuck with the guns, but Nader's role right now should
be to tell us that we can't afford either one.
Anthony Gancarski is a regular CounterPunch columnist. He can
be reached at Anthony.Gancarski@attbi.com
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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