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Recent
Stories
April
30, 2003
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
of Washington's Occupations
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
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Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
Faruqui
Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
"You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"
April
29, 2003
Gary
Leupp
Disorder and Opportunity: the Results
of the Iraq War
Uri
Avnery
Don't Envy Abu-Mazen
Anthony
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Brush with the Law
Mickey
Z.
POWs: Then and Now
CounterPunch
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How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents
Robert
Fisk
Did the US Murder Journalists?
Chris
Floyd
Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria
Wayne Madsen
About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents
Wallace
Gagne
Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby?
Eliot Katz
Playing Catch with Cracked Globes
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/29
April
28, 2003
Ann
Harrison
Fighting Back: Medical Marijuana
Patients Sue Ashcroft
Robert
Jensen
Lack of WMD Kills the Case for War
Peter Phillips
Total Information Control
Ron
Jacobs
Get the US Out of Iraq and Its Military Out of Our Minds
Mark Hand
Peace Park: The Pentagon Solution
to a Baseball Stadium Dilemma
Linda
S. Heard
Repeat After Me: Iraq is Weapons Free
Kurt Nimmo
US Military Bases: the Spoils and
Deceptions of War
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/28
April
26 / 27, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and
the End of Civil Liberties
Saul
Landau
Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism
William
A. Cook
Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria
William
S. Lind
Now the Real War Starts
John Chuckman
In Jesus's Name:
Franklin Graham's Christian Empire
David
MacMichael and Ray McGovern
Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find?
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Robert
Sandels
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Peace Activists and Dock Workers
Mickey
Z.
Our Ba'athists
Anthony
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Nader Plays Pullman
Scott
Handleman
The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
Claud Cockburn
Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet
Poets'
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Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/26
April
25, 2003
David
Vest
It's Not the Oil; It's the Art!
Steven
Higgs
All About Tucker Carlson
Walt
Brasch
The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance
Alexander
Cockburn
The Decline of American Journalism:
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Zeynep
Toufe
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CounterPunch
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Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound
Hammond
Guthrie
Springtime in Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
Website
of the Day
Having
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April
24, 2003
Lois
Whitman
An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the
Child Detainees at Guantanamo
Uri
Avnery
Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos
David
Lindorff
Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in
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John Grebe
Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
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Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists
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Our Man in Baghdad
Annie
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Do You Regret Being an American?
Harold
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Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
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Bush's War Web Log 4/24
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Muscles
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April
23, 2003
Anthony
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When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
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Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
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Standard
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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
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Sam
Hamod
What's the Deal with This War?
Kurt
Nimmo
Shi'a Will to Power
Gary
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At last! The Necessary Evidence
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
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John
Stanton
Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel?
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
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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
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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
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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'
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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
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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
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May
Day Edition
May 1, 2003
What About Guantanamo?
About Cuba
By DIANA JOHNSTONE
The so-called "Casey Letter" protesting
repression in Cuba has received numerous signatures and aroused
considerable controversy. I would like to explain here, with
line by line comments, why I would not sign this letter. (Full
text of the letter at the end of my commentary.)
"We are women and men of the democratic
left, united by our commitment to human rights, democratic government
and social justice, in our own nations and around the world.
In solidarity with the people of Cuba, ..."
This is the sort of beginning that inevitably
tempts me to say, "So what?" It smacks of pious self-congratulations.
If the trials in Cuba are unjust, one doesn't need to display
"politically correct" credentials to criticize them.
But perhaps all that is left to an ever more ineffectual "left"
is to claim the right to define who is "left" and who
is not.
"...we condemn the Cuban state's
current repression of independent thinkers and writers, human
rights activists and democrats." Again, what allows these
Americans to define who is "independent" and who is
a "democrat"?
In the Cuban context, this may be somewhat
ambiguous. But again, if the trials are truly unjust, it doesn't
matter whether the thinkers are "independent democrats"
or not. Procedure is procedure.
"For 'crimes' such as the authorship
of essays critical of the government and meeting with delegations
of foreign political leaders, some 80 non-violent political dissidents
have been arrested, summarily tried in a closed court, without
adequate notice or counsel, convicted, and given cruel, harsh
sentences of decades of imprisonment."
Summarily trying anybody in a closed
court without adequate notice or counsel, etc., is bad practice,
period. But I don't see how it is possible to know so much about
what went on since the court was closed. Was it all simply about
innocent meetings with delegations of foreign political leaders?
Not with CIA agents perhaps? As for "non-violent",
I have written another note on that, pointing out that the United
States, with its vast wealth and power, is able to use all methods,
those of the powerful and those of the weak, including "non-violence"
(U.S. agents taught "non-violence" to the well-subsidized
"Otpor" movement in Serbia to get rid of Milosevic...
which did not preclude using violent groups as well). Considering
the Bush administration's campaign of "regime change"
(by no means "non-violent", as illustrated in Iraq),
one may assume that the Cuban authorities have reason to worry
about subversion in their country, possibly in preparation for
invasion. One may also worry that Cuban authorities may be rattled
and make serious mistakes. And it is perfectly reasonable to
point out that principles of justice should be respected even
in dire circumstances.
"These are violations of the most
elementary norms of due process of law, reminiscent of the Moscow
trials of the Soviet Union under the rule of Stalin."
Why this particular analogy? Do people
today really know so much about the Moscow trials that this comparison
is enlightening? History is full of violations of due process
of law, and although the professional human rights defenders
seem not to notice, a current example is going on right now in
The Hague. And right in Cuba, there is Guantanamo, but the Cubans
have no say in what goes on there...
"The democratic left worldwide has
opposed the US embargo on Cuba as counterproductive, more harmful
to the interests of the Cuban people than helpful to political
democratization."
Now wait a minute! "Counterproductive"?
But that depends on the purpose. Did the "democratic left"
enact the sanctions for its own (as declared above) noble purposes?
In that case, perhaps one could call them "counterproductive".
Or were the sanctions enacted by a U.S. government whose purpose,
on the contrary, was to please and eventually return to power
the same largely corrupt "business class" that has
moved to Miami where it exerts disproportionate influence as
a political lobby? In that case, the sanctions have not been
altogether "counterproductive", because they have caused
considerable hardships to the Cuban population, hardships which
can be blamed on the "regime". Such sanctions (as has
been shown already in Serbia or Iraq) cause rising disaffection
and a desire to do whatever is required in order to become a
"normal" country.
The "counterproductive" argument
is one that assumes that the purposes (of sanctions, in this
case) are laudable, but misguided. It is hard to understand the
nature of a "democratic left" which entertains such
an illusion.
"The Cuban state's current repression
of political dissidents amounts to collaboration with the most
reactionary elements of the US administration in their efforts
to maintain sanctions and to institute even more punitive measures
against Cuba."
Well, excuse me, but one could say that
this precise protest at this precise time "amounts to collaboration
with the most reactionary elements of the US administration"...
in their efforts "to institute more punitive measures against
Cuba."
Why not instead express concern that
the Cuban repression (never mind of whom...) risks being "counterproductive"
by giving the Bush administration a fresh pretext to engineer
"regime change"? Such an argument would render more
convincing the claim that the signatories are "in solidarity
with the Cuban people"...
"The only conclusion that we can
draw from this brute repression is that Cuban government does
not trust the Cuban people to distinguish truth from falsehood,
fact from disinformation." Is this really the ONLY conclusion?
A little more effort of the imagination is called for here...
"A government of the left must have
the support of the people: it must guarantee human rights and
champion the widest possible democracy, including the right to
dissent, as well as promote social justice. By its actions, the
Cuban state declares that it is not a government of the left,
despite its claims of social progress in education and health
care, but just one more dictatorship, concerned with maintaining
its monopoly of power above all else."
It is understandable that a "democratic
left", terminally remote from any exercise of power, or
even influence in its own society, can take upon itself the privilege
of excommunicating from such a "democratic left" a
besieged attempt at social revolution such as the one in Cuba.
If "left" means total powerlessness, any government
at all fails to qualify. But we might ask: if it is "just
one more dictatorship", why has the United States government
made such an exceptional effort for over forty years to destroy
it? Because it fails to achieve the standards of the "democratic
left"? Permit me to doubt that. And if the social progress
in education and health care are mere "claims", what
of all the dictatorships which fail to make such "claims"
and are never subjected to sanctions?
Fidel Castro has committed the terrible
impurity of managing to keep a left government in power for forty-four
years. To be pure, he should have kept to the standards of the
"democratic left"... following the example of the democratically
elected Guatemalan reformist Jacobo Arbenz, forced to resign
after three years in office by a U.S.-backed putsch, or Salvador
Allende, murdered by a U.S.-backed putsch. The "democratic
left" was unable to save those leaders, but it still has
the self-confidence to condemn the survivor for displaying such
tenacity. Surrender, Castro! Then perhaps you may gain the approval
of the "democratic left".
Diana Johnstone
is the author of The
Politics of Euromissiles: Europe's Role in America's World
and FOOLS'
CRUSADE Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions. She can
be reached at: DianaJohnstone@compuserve.com
Today's
Features
Ashley
Smith
Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History
of Washington's Occupations
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/30
Gary
Leupp
Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre
Robert
Jensen
Fighting Alienation in the USA
Wayne
Madsen
The Four Horsemen of Propaganda
Ahmad
Faruqui
Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East
Gabriel
Kolko
Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition
Adolfo
Perez Esquivel
A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush:
"You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"
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