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Today's
Stories
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel
and the Bush Team
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
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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Weekend
Edition
February 28 / 29, 2004
The Kucinich Campaign
Good
Fight; Wrong Battlefield
By RON JACOBS
I recently attended a town meeting on the war
and upcoming elections. The question of the evening was could
one vote to end the war? A number of opinions were expressed,
varying from the left position that voting for any of the Democratic
challengers would not end the war to those who felt that the
danger presented by four more years of Bush demanded that they
vote for anybody but Bush. Somewhere between these two positions
was that of the Kucinich supporters.
The position of these individuals is
that Kucinich does represent a true alternative to the war party
and, if he gets enough votes, his delegates can influence the
direction of the Democratic Party on issues dear to the left
and liberal segment of the US population: the war, civil rights
and liberties, jobs, health insurance, women's rights, and education.
The socialists and Greens tended to disagree with this speculation,
arguing instead that the role of candidates like Kucinich was
to bring the left into the Democratic Party fold-in essence,
moving the Left to the right. The Kucinich supporters saw their
role in another light, one that is quite similar to the role
supporters of Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy saw themselves
in 1968. That is, they saw themselves as moving the Democratic
Party to the left.
What is Kucinich's position on the war
and occupation of Iraq, then? According to his literature, he
has a ten-point plan to end the US occupation. In essence, the
plan would turn the entire process over to the United Nations.
Here it is:
The United States must ask the United
Nations to manage the oil assets of Iraq until the Iraqi people
are self-governing.
The United Nations must handle all the
contracts: No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, No contracts
to Bush Administration insiders, No contracts to campaign contributors.
All contracts must be awarded under transparent conditions.
The United States must renounce any plans
to privatize Iraq. It is illegal under both the Geneva and the
Hague Conventions for any nation to invade another nation, seize
its assets, and sell those assets. The Iraqi people, and the
Iraqi people alone must have the right to determine the future
of their country's resources.
The United States must ask the United
Nations to handle the transition to Iraqi self-governance. The
U.N. must be asked to help the Iraqi people develop a Constitution.
The U.N. must assist in developing free and fair elections.
The United States must agree to pay for
what we blew up.
The United States must pay reparations
to the families of innocent Iraqi civilian noncombatants killed
and injured in the conflict.
The United States must contribute financially
to the U.N. peacekeeping mission.
The United Nations, through its member
nations, will commit 130,000 peacekeepers to Iraq on a temporary
basis until the Iraqi people can maintain their own security.
U.N. troops will rotate into Iraq, and
all U.S. troops will come home.
The United States will abandon policies
of "preemption" and unilateralism and commit to strengthening
the U.N.
While certain aspects of this plan are
certainly forward thinking, especially the points regarding privatization
and reparations, the overall plan fails to acknowledge the role
that the UN played in the First Gulf War and the sanctions.
Because of its support for both of these assaults on the Iraqi
people, the UN is almost as hated as the US in Iraq. That is
why its headquarters was attacked in Summer 2003 and also why
Kofi Annan is hesitant to reinstate the UN presence in the country.
Although Mr. Kucinich might differ, the United Nations, as it
currently exists, cannot be the vehicle that administers Iraq.
It is stained with the blood of too many of that country's people.
In short, the only thing that would change if the Kucinich plan
were put into place would be the nationalities of the occupying
soldiers.
As mentioned previously, however, there
are other parts of Kucinich's plan that deserve the support of
the antiwar movement. Foremost among these are the points calling
for reparations and an end to the privatization of Iraq's assets
and social services. Another is the desire to bring the troops
home within 90 days of the plan's implementation and Kucinich's
apparent belief that "It was wrong to go in and it's wrong
to stay." Unfortunately, the plan's dependence on the UN
is a flaw that likely renders it stillborn.
If one recalls US history, s/he will
know about the peace plank presented by the antiwar forces in
the Democratic Party of 1968. This plank had four main points:
An unconditional end to the bombing of
North Vietnam
Negotiations for a mutually phased withdrawal
of US and North Vietnamese forces from South Vietnam.
Encouraged the South Vietnamese government
to negotiate a provisional government with the National Liberation
Front of Vietnam (Viet Cong)
Reduction of violence and offensive operations
to enable withdrawal of foreign forces.
This peace plank was opposed by the non-electoral
left, most of who demanded immediate withdrawal of all US forces.
It was also opposed by the right wing of the Democratic Party,
who thought that the US should, in essence, finish what it had
started. As we know, none of the peace candidates were nominated
in 1968 and the Democratic Party candidate, Hubert Humphrey,
was defeated in a very close election by Republican Richard Nixon.
What many of us probably don't know or recall is that the peace
plank was voted down in committee after a good amount of arm-twisting
and backroom dealing by the party's leadership (who supported
the war). The antiwar movement's representatives in Chicago
were not only beat up in the streets by police, they were marginalized
inside the convention hall as well. Consequently, most of its
members decided to boycott the elections. A small minority argued
that Humphrey was better than Nixon and voted for the man. Indeed,
some of the latter continue to this day to blame the rest of
the left for the ascent of Nixon.
I mention this bit of history because
I see a striking familiarity to today's arguments in the antiwar
movement around the 2004 election. If the town meeting I attended
is any indication, there are those who will boycott the election,
those who will vote for a third party candidate, and those who
will vote for the Democrat, even if he supports the war. The
Kucinich campaign hopes to make it to the convention where it
plans to present its peace plan for Iraq (among it many other
progressive positions). Of course, these people will be politely
listened to and then, in all likelihood, ignored until their
votes are needed in 2008. After the convention, Kucinich supporters
will then have to decide which of the choices described above
they will make.
After the 1968 convention and election,
the Democratic Party underwent some grassroots changes that were
designed to put more power into the hands of the delegates and
local organizations. This meant that the national leadership
would have to give up some of its power. The result of these
changes was the campaign and nomination of George McGovern in
1972. McGovern ran on an explicitly antiwar platform that called
for immediate withdrawal of US forces from Vietnam. He also
supported a guaranteed annual income, legislation guaranteeing
workers the right to unionize and the right to strike, and affordable
health care. His proposals were the most radical of any serious
contender for the US president since Henry Wallace's run on the
Progressive ticket in 1948. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership
let him hang out to dry and Richard Nixon was re-elected to what
he hoped would be four more years of war and repression. The
American people lucked out when Nixon was forced to resign after
articles of impeachment were drawn up against him because of
his role in the Watergate break-in and cover-up.
Since the 1972 Democratic campaign, the
right wing of the party has regained control-assuming that it
ever really lost it. In 2004, we have seen the effects of this.
John Kerry and John Edwards were for all essential purposes,
washed up in early February, and Howard Dean was the frontrunner.
Then, the party leadership got busy. Now Howard Dean is on
the sidelines and Kerry and Edwards are sharing the front seat.
This didn't happen because of Dean's gaffes, it happened because
he threatened the party's right wing-represented today by the
so-called Democratic Leadership Council. It's not that Howard
is a radical, it's that he was too much of a maverick and therefore
unpredictable. God knows, he might have done something that
his supporters wanted him to do, like institute health insurance
for all or end the war. I think that is unlikely, but the possibility
was apparently too much for the party leaders.
Mr. Kucinich may be fighting the closest
thing to the good fight in electoral politics today, but one
has to seriously wonder if he's waging his battle in the wrong
arena.
Ron Jacobs
is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground,
which is being republished by Verso.
He can be reached at: rjacobs@zoo.uvm.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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