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/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
June
7, 2004
Bill
Blum
The Myth of the Gipper: Reagan Didn't
End the Cold War
Ben
Tripp
What I Owe Reagan: the Brylcreemed
Bullshitter
Susan
Davis
Reagan, In a Nutshell
Phil
Gasper
Reagan: Goodbye and Good Riddance
June
5 / 6, 2004
C.
Douglas Lummis
Toward a Universal Declaration of
Human Wrongs
Saul
Landau
Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
Brian
Cloughley
Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong
Rich
Gibson
The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
Elaine
Cassel
A Sorry FBI
Cathrin
Schütz
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
Ben
Tripp
Call Me, Mr. Cassandra
Kurt
Nimmo
The Madness of King George
Ron
Jacobs
They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So)
Laura
Flanders
The Lynne Cheney Show?
Lenni
Brenner
Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met
Abigail
Jones
Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy
Prisoner?
Mark
Latham
Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes
Gerry
Adams
I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too
Toni
Solo
Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised
Derek
Seidman
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old
M.
Junaid Alam
Torture is Just the Symptom
Matt
Siegfried
An American Way of War
Dave
Zirin
The Politics of Charles Barkley
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Krieger, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Overnight Sensations
June
4, 2004
Chris
Floyd
Masked and Anonymous: Inside America's
Animal House
Cornwell
/ Penketh
Exit Tenet: the Fall of a Fall Guy
Wayne
Madsen
Apprehension & Frustation: Neo-Cons on the Brink
Greg
Moses
Agitating for Workers' Rights in Iraq
Yitzak
Laor
Before Rafah
Ghali
Hassan
Ambassador to Death Squads: Who is Negroponte?
Jane
Stillwater
God, the Rapture and Vera Casey
CounterPunch
Wire
D-Day Reconsidered: Was It Really Worth the Carnage?
John
Borowski
Woo-Wooism v. Meteorites: Why the Dems Are No Match for Bush
Mike
Griffin
Caterpillar's Assault on the UAW
Alexander Cockburn
Has Bush Gone Over the Edge?
Website
of the Day
Aquae Urbis Romae:
Water and Empire
June
3, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Iran's Nuclear Dilemma
Dr.
Susan Block
America in tha Hood
Michael
Donnelly
The Bully and the Brahmin
John
Chuckman
Insanity in America: US Ranks Number
One in the Deranged
Christopher
Brauchli
The Return of Cardinal Law: Rome
on $12,000 a Month
Samia
Nassar Melki
Caravaggio in Iraq
Mike
Whitney
Subverting Justice: Pre-Trial Ruminations in the Padilla Case
Diane
Rejman
Memorial Day Isn't Just About the Dead
Scott
Morris
"WMDs" in Cuba
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
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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June
7, 2004
From
Afghanistan to El Salvador
Reagan's
Dark Global Legacy
By
DENNIS HANS
It is typical of Americans, unlike other
peoples, to not truly appreciate someone until he or she passes
away. Surely this is the case with our 40th president, Ronald
Wilson Reagan.
True, long before he died his
name was affixed to a California license plate, an aircraft carrier
and a federal building. But all that amounts to small potatoes
compared to the honors bestowed years earlier from a host of
grateful nations and peoples. As we consider additional tributes
to Mr. Reagan, let us recall some of the creative honors dreamed
up by our international friends so that they'd never forget the
man and his values.
o Afghanistan. "Ronnie
Poppy." This opium flower honors President Reagan's contribution
to the explosive growth of the Afghan heroin industry in the
1980s through his unconditional support for the most extreme
Islamic fundamentalists who were justifiably opposed to the murderous
Soviet occupation. When not battling the Red Army or rival guerrillas,
or terrorizing civilians and shooting down non-military passenger
planes, Reagan's favored fundamentalists cultivated opium, converted
it into smack and supplied three-fourths of the junkies of Europe
and one-third of the junkies of America. A tip of the Islamist
hat to Ronnie for averting his eyes as the horse trade boomed
and for refusing to use his considerable leverage to promote
moderation or a negotiated settlement, thereby creating the conditions
for continued chaos and the eventual emergence of a "failed
state," which set the stage for a takeover by the Taliban,
who rolled out the red carpet for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda,
who . . . Well, you know the rest of the story.
o Angola. "The Gipper
Stump." This polished-oak peg leg features a heart-felt
message from the Cold War commander-in-chief, who worked with
the South African apartheid state to keep Jonas Savimbi and his
UNITA terrorists armed and dangerous, thus keeping the Angolan
market for artificial limbs - not to mention graveyards - booming.
"Thanks for taking one for the Gipper," the inscription
reads. "My best to you and any remaining appendages. Love,
Ronnie." o Argentina. "The Reagan Islands." Technically,
the former Falkland/Malvinas Islands are no longer the property
of Argentina, but Argentinians voted for the new name to honor
Ronnie's role in the restoration of civilian rule in their country.
His enthusiastic support for the torture-prone, anti-Semitic
generals - magical men who had the ability to make dissidents
and their relatives "disappear" - persuaded the high
command that Reagan would take their side if they seized the
disputed islands. They were wrong, and Margaret Thatcher's counterattack
so devastated and humiliated the generals that they handed the
government back to civilians.
o Cambodia. "Reagan Skull
Bag." This handy Khmer Rouge carrying sack holds up to 25
skulls. The Skull Bag recognizes the Reagan administration's
unstinting support for Pol Pot's assaults on Cambodians from
1981 to 1989, as well as Reagan's policy of recognizing the exiled
Khmer Rouge at the U.N. as the legitimate government of Cambodia.
o Costa Rica. "El Rancho
Reagan." The former "front farm" of a CIA and
contra collaborator, El Rancho Reagan is preserved in its mid-1980s
pristine prime. Contra killers lounge in the backyard, the safe
overflows with cash to bribe Costa Rican officials to ignore
violations of their nation's neutrality, and kilos of coke are
on hand for transhipment.
o El Salvador. "The Reagan
Missionary Position." No, not a sexual position for raping
American churchwomen (for that would be in poor taste), but a
position as in a stand. The Reagan Missionary Position, formulated
by high officials Al Haig and Jeane Kirkpatrick, is that the
three nuns and one layworker were pro-Marxist "political
activists" and thus hardly innocent. Besides, their deaths
were accidents, not planned executions. Haig explained that the
churchwomen ran or were perceived to have run a "roadblock"
and may have gotten caught in a guerrilla-National Guard "exchange
of fire." Were they also raped in the crossfire? The Reagan
Missionary Position's lips say no, but his eyes say yes.
o Guatemala. "The Reagan
'Bum Rap' Rap." Grandmaster Ronnie first laid down this
rap in 1982 to discredit reports by Amnesty International and
others of the army's slaughter of thousands of Indian villagers
in the first months of General Efrain Rios Montt's rule. Ronnie
rapped that Rios Montt (an evangelical minister nicknamed the
"born-again butcher") was getting a "bum rap."
The beauty of the bum-rap rap is that it bolsters "military
impunity," regarded by Reagan as a cornerstone of client-state
pseudo-democracy.
o Honduras. "Reagan's
Rascals." The crazy cut-ups of Battalion 316 comprised a
secret unit of CIA-backed torturers and murderers. They rid Honduras
of real and imagined subversives and dissidents, assisted Reagan's
beloved contras and ensured the continued rule of corrupt army
thugs behind a civilian facade -- another cornerstone of client-state
pseudo-democracy.
o Haiti. "Ronnie Doc."
Duvalier loyalists awarded Reagan the highest degree a Haitian
can steal, the Doctor of Kleptocracy. Papa Doc and Baby Doc earned
theirs the hard way, while Reagan's honorary title states, "Long
after the spineless State Department distanced itself from the
sinking Duvalier ship, you stood steadfast. Unlike the ignorant
Haitian masses, you never condemned Baby Doc's stylish extravagance."
o Kurdistan. "Reagan Red
Hot." Nothing's more appetizing than human skin drenched
with mustard, or for that matter, mustard gas, which is what
a "Reagan Red Hot" hot dog is. (Great at a ballgame
with jelly beans and beer.) Iraqi Kurds thank the Gipper from
the surface of their seared hearts for his devotion to Saddam
as he squirted them with mustard gas and other lethal condiments.
o Laos. "Ronnie Rain."
In the mountains of Laos, April showers dump bee feces on flowers.
Ronnie Rain salutes the 1982 White House "Yellow Rain"
disinformation campaign - spread by the demented Wall Street
Journal editorial board and many seemingly sane mainstream journalists
- that portrayed the annual bee barrage as a genocidal commie
chemical-weapons assault.
o Lebanon. "The Reagan
Wink." It's as good as a nod. Go into the home of any member
of the Lebanese Phalange militia and you'll see a glossy photo
of the handsome Gipper closing his right eye. In 1982, Reagan
engineered the withdrawal of PLO soldiers from Beirut by guaranteeing
the safety of Palestinian civilians left behind. As soon as the
PLO pulled out, Reagan withdrew the U.S. peace-keeping force.
The Israeli military then opened the Sabra and Shatila refugee
camps to the Phalange militia, who were bitter enemies of the
PLO and not inclined to treat kindly any real or imagined PLO
sympathizers. Phalangists methodically combed the camps, killing
perhaps a thousand defenseless women, children and old men in
the process. Good thing Reagan's wink nullified his guarantee.
o Nicaragua. "The Reagan
Wall." Modeled after the U.S. memorial to Americans who
died in Vietnam, the Reagan Wall lists the names of the thousands
of civilians murdered by "the moral equivalent of the Founding
Fathers" (Ronnie's pet name for the contras). An asterisk
denotes a sadistic murder -- e.g., a parent mutilated in front
of his or her children. Two asterisks denote a sadistic murder
derisively dismissed by a Reagan henchman -- an Elliott Abrams,
Colin Powell, Ollie North or George Shultz.
o South Africa. "The Reagan
White House." Not a replica of the Pennsylvania Avenue edifice
but a Johannesburg mansion that harkens back to a simpler time
when whiteness reigned supreme in Pretoria, to the delight of
President Reagan. Pay the admission price of ten rand and hassle
the black servants, demand to see their pass books, and interrogate
the Nelson Mandela look-alike in the basement cell. Rail against
"Soviet sponsorship" of the African National Congress
and denounce it as "terrorist" -- just as the Reagan
administration did. Conspire with the South African defense minister
and the ghost of CIA director William Casey on how best to maintain
illegal control of Namibia and destabilize Angola and Mozambique.
Sure, those destabilizations led to hundreds of thousands of
deaths, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs!
o Zaire. "Reagan Cane."
Before he was chased into exile, President Mobutu Sese Seko high-stepped
with this gold-encrusted walking stick. In its day, the Reagan
Cane was ideal for maintaining balance or whacking a dissident.
It now resides in a Kinshasa museum, a reminder of the golden
years of the U.S.-Zaire-South Africa alliance, when plunderer
nonpareil Mobutu was an ascendant Reagan Doctrine asset.
Additional honors have been
bestowed in Indonesia, East Timor, the Philippines, Brazil and
Chile, where people who struggled in the 1980s for freedom and
democracy knew precisely where Ronald Reagan stood.
Dennis Hans is a freelance writer who has taught
American Foreign Policy at the University of South Florida in
St. Petersburg. His essays have appeared in the New York Times,
Washington Post, Miami Herald and a host of places online. He
can be reached at HANS_D@popmail.firn.edu
Weekend Edition
Features for June 5 / 6, 2004
C.
Douglas Lummis
Toward a Universal Declaration of
Human Wrongs
Saul
Landau
Five Cubans in Prison, Victims of Bush's Obsession
Dave
Lindorff
John Walker Lindh, Revisited
Brian
Cloughley
Apologies, Please, From Those Who Got It Wrong
Rich
Gibson
The Grenada 17: the Last Prisoners of the Cold War are Black
Elaine
Cassel
A Sorry FBI
Cathrin
Schütz
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
Ben
Tripp
Call Me, Mr. Cassandra
Kurt
Nimmo
The Madness of King George
Ron
Jacobs
They Ain't Goin' Nowhere (Unless We Make It So)
Laura
Flanders
The Lynne Cheney Show?
Lenni
Brenner
Renaissance Noir: Caravaggio at the Met
Abigail
Jones
Whatever Happened to Lori Berenson, President Toledo's Trophy
Prisoner?
Mark
Latham
Nothing Bush Said Has Changed Our Hopes
Gerry
Adams
I Was Photographed While Tortured, Too
Toni
Solo
Venezuela 2004, Nicaragua's Contra War Reprised
Derek
Seidman
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old
M.
Junaid Alam
Torture is Just the Symptom
Matt
Siegfried
An American Way of War
Dave
Zirin
The Politics of Charles Barkley
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Krieger, St. Clair
Website
of the Weekend
Overnight Sensations
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