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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS Peter Kwong gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the "millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes to one of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on the planet. How China's leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn on What's wrong with the U.S. left. They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq. John Ross takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. 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 July 14 / 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Ramzy Baroud July 13, 2006 Rev. William
Alberts Ramzi Kysia Rep. John P. Murtha Radford / Santos Stan Cox Saul Landau José
Pertierra Website of
the Day
July 12, 2006 John Ross John Stauber Robert Boston Wayne S. Smith John Graham Kevin Prosen Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
July 11, 2006 Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin Mokhiber / Weissman Amira Hass Clare Hanrahan Brian Cloughey Felice Pace Raed Jarrar Website of the Day
July 10, 2006 Paul Craig
Roberts Uri Avnery Roger Burbach Ron Jacobs Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn
Stephen Green Paul Craig
Roberts Greg Moses Ralph Nader Laura Carlsen Conn Hallinan John Chuckman Fred Gardner Dr. Tod Mikuriya Pierre Tristam Lucinda Marshall David Swanson Heather Gray Dave Zirin
/ John Cox Mark Engler Michael Lettieri Ron Jacobs Jamal Juma' Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
July 7, 2006 John Ross July 6, 2006 Nick Dearden John Stanton Ralph Nader Laray Polk Saul Landau Joshua Frank William S. Lind Adelman / Lindorff Jonathan Cook Website of
the Day
Mike Whitney Saul Landau Ramzy Baroud Missy Comley Beattie Arthur Neslen Vincent Maruffi Paul Cantor Paul D. Johnson David Price
Col. Dan Smith Chris Floyd Marjorie Cohn James Brooks Medea Benjamin Matt Reichel Elisa Salasin Rick Wilhelm Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
July 3, 2006 Robert Bryce Dr. Bouthaina Shaban Julia Olmstead Dave Lindorff Andres Gomez Alan Singer Alexander Cockburn
Paul Craig
Roberts Stephen T.
Banko Daniel Cassidy Fawzia Afzal-Khan Jeff Taylor John Ross Greg Moses Laura Carlsen Justin E.H.
Smith Brian Cloughley Anthony Papa Mike Ferner Jerry Tucker Jane Goodall / Rick Asselta Phyllis Pollack Poets' Basement
June 30, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Heather Williams Burbach / Cantor Nick Dearden Michael J.
Smith Brian Concannon Virginia Tilley
Bill Quigley Ron Jacobs Paul Craig
Roberts June 28, 2006 Jorge Mariscal Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ramzy Baroud Dave Lindorff William S.
Lind Mike Ferner Zoltan Grossman
Marjorie Cohn Benjamin /
Jarrar William Hughes Doug Giebel Uri Avnery Alexander Cockburn
June 26, 2006 Don Santina Ralph Nader Dave Lindorff Rafael Rodriguez-Cruz Evelyn Pringle Jonathan Cook
June 23, 2006 Youmans / Erakat Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Col. Dan Smith
June 22, 2006 Marjorie Cohn Winslow T.
Wheeler Tanya Reinhart Mike Marqusee William Blum
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Bastille
Day Weekend Edition Why Would They Want to Go There?Japan and Pre-Emptive StrikesBy RON JACOBS Does Japan's leadership want to relive its imperial past? The first hints of this possibility came when Tokyo sent troops to Iraq. The more frightful and historically reminiscent hint came over the weekend, when Japan's defense minister suggested that Tokyo should attack northern Korea. If I were Korean--northern or southern, this statement would have angered me more than it does anyhow. After all, the history between the two countries is anything but pretty. Japan's legacy in Korea is one of invasion, occupation, exploitation and slavery. Underlying it all is a dynamic very similar to the dynamic that underlies many of Washington's dealings with non-white peoples. In a word, Japan perceives itself to be superior to Korea. Although many white skinned folks can not tell the difference between a Korean and a native of Japan, there is a form of racism present in the Asian countries that is no less ugly than that found in the US. It is based less on skin tone and more on other cultural and historical differences. Japan has invaded the Korean peninsula a number of times. Each time its armies occupied the countryside and took many prisoners. Often these prisoners were enslaved. This occurred most recently during the Second World War. The first recorded invasion of Korea by Japan was in 1692. These attacks continued for six years. More recent antagonisms between the two states began at the end of the 19th century, as Japan expanded into mainland Asia, defeating China and Russia in two wars fought between 1895 and 1905. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea and made it a colony. Korea was ruled by Japan for thirty-five years. Koreans were not allowed to speak their own language or to learn about their history during this time in an effort to obliterate the Korean culture. Japan plundered land and food. On March 1, 1919 many Koreans were killed or put in prison nationwide as as they protested the colonial rule. This day is remembered as a day of resistance and patriotism by most Koreans. Another form of resistance can be seen in Korea's insistence on maintaining its cultural heritage and language. During World War Two, Japan used Korean labor and stole Korean women to serve as prostitutes for members of the Japanese military in Korea and Japan. When the Japanese were finally defeated and Korea was temporarily divided by Washington and Moscow, Washington used Japanese troops and Koreans who had collaborated with the Japanese occupiers as security forces in the southern sector. This naturally intensified the already existing enmity between the Koreans and Japanese. After World War Two, the Japanese military was stripped of most of its powers and a new constitution was written that forbade Japan from using its military to resolve issues. Despite this ban, however, the country's military strength currently stands at approximately 180,000. This is a small number when compared to the nearly 2 million military members that the United States currently deploys, and certainly adds a bit of fuel to the argument that should Japan decide to stage a pre-emptive attack on northern Korea to destroy its missiles, the US military would be right behind the Japanese. Indeed, there is a security agreement in place that guarantees a US armed response should Japan be attacked by a force that it could not repel. It seems safe to assume that should Japan attack northern Korea that any response by Pyongyang would be of such a magnitude. Japan has always walked a line between its independence from Washington and its dependence on the same. Even when governments were in power that wanted US troops off Japanese territories (esp. Okinawa), the likelihood of that happening was minimal. The current government of Junichiro Koizumi is a right wing government that has sent troops to Iraq, antagonized Koreans and Chinese by its support of revisionist history books in Japan's schools and by Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine--a memorial to Japan's war dead. These visits in particular have angered China and Korea because of the number of convicted Japanese war criminals buried there--men who were convicted of the deaths of thousands. Although Koizumi has stated that Japan will never take the path to war, the deploying of troops to Washington's disastrous endeavor in Iraq and the current attempts to redefine the nature of self-defense to allow a pre-emptive strike on Pyongyang's missile sites belie this statement. The shrine visits, especially, worsened relations with China and South Korea, two important trading partners, and caused the cancellation of a series of bilateral meetings in late 2005. His party also canceled plans for the building of a neutral, non-militaristic shrine that might have stemmed criticism. There are those to the right of Koizumi (in his party and other smaller groups) that would like to remove Article 9 --the article that states "The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized".--from the Japanese constitution entirely. These elements, perhaps seeing a new Japanese empire, are also interested in seeing Japan develop an independent military policy. Whether or not the desire of some in the Japanese government and military will succeed in their drive for an offensive Japanese military capability remains to be seen. If they do, not only will it require an interpretation of self-defense based on Washington's interpretation of that term in its dealings with the world, it will also signify the intensification of a festering arms race in Asia. This arms race, already joined by India, Pakistan, China, and Iran, is a direct result of Washington's policy of war and duplicitous diplomacy. If the Clinton administration had kept true to the promises it made to Pyongyang back in 1993 nuclear "crisis," it is less likely that Pyongyang would have test-launched those missiles in early July. If George Bush had not called Iran and northern Korea members of an "axis of evil," and invaded Iraq, it is unlikely that Tehran would be enriching uranium with a possible plan to develop nuclear weaponry. If Washington was not the belligerent capital that it is, more nations might be considering the inclusion of their own "article 9" in the laws of their countries. Ron Jacobs is author of The
Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground,
which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill
Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's new collection on music,
art and sex, Serpents
in the Garden. He can be reached at: rjacobs3625@charter.net
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
