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Today's
Stories
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
April 6, 2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The Anti-Empire
Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez del Solar
A Year
Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The Illegal
Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated US and
International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
March 30, 2004
William S. Lind
An Occurrence
in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't
Ron Jacobs
Assassinations, Hate Mail &
Justice
Mickey Z.
Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine"
Neve Gordon
Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination
Mark Scaramella
The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way
John Chuckman
The Countessa of Empire: Condi
Rice's Idea of Democracy
Greg Moses
Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order
Rai O'Brien
What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power
in Venezuela
Bill Christison
The
9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future
Website of the Day
Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl
March 29, 2004
John Maxwell
Crisis
in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold
J. Michael Springmann
Email
Spying & Attorney Client Privilege
Robert Fisk / Severin
Carrell
Coalition
of the Mercenaries
The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror
Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made
David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Bargain
Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism
Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American
Family
Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again
Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests
Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11
Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing
Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?
March 27 / 28, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts
Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria
William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the
US
Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army
Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?
Larry Birns / Jessica
Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America
John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"
John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus
Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?
Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists
Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy
Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids
Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?
The Kerry Quandry
Joel Wendland
Marxists
for Kerry
Josh Frank
Scary,
Scary John Kerry
Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer
March 26, 2004
Christopher Brauchli
There's
a Chill Over the Country
Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal
of Mordechai Vanunu
Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again
Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon
Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead
Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago
CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?
John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb
Website of the Day
Dick
is a Killer
March 25, 2004
Lee Sustar
Who
is to Blame for Lost Jobs?
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers
Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins
to Throw Off the Austerity Planners
Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"
Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups
Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela
Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded
Saul Landau
Is
Venezuela Next?
Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway
March 24, 2004
Gary Leupp
General
Musharraf's IOU
Richard Oxman
Shakespeare
for Kerry
William Lind
The Beginning
of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq
Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later
Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again
Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn
Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media
in Cuba
John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke
Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"
Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela
Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only
Fuel More Suicide Bombings
Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey
March 23, 2004
Phillip Cryan
The
Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks
Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?
Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections
Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George
Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble
JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"
Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black
CD
Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track
Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]
M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie
March 22, 2004
Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial
Executions
Uri Avnery
The
Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime
Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage
Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee
Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy
Scam
Greg Moses
Stop
Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March
Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation
Lenni Brenner
Report
from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace
Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations
Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment
Website of the Day
Enviros Against War
March 20 / 21, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Gay
Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path
Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne
Do?
Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act
Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"
William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall
Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism
Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War
John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon
Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man
Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity
Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss
Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?
Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism
Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun
Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!
Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill
Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet
Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility
Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis
Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election
March 19, 2004
Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero
to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home
Ann Harrison
So
Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?
William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"
Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote
Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup,
Mr. Bush
Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future
John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs
Vicente Navarro
The
End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend
Website of the War
Naming the Dead
March 18, 2004
Gila Svirsky
Rachel
Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency
Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million
from Saddam
William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing
Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative
Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment
Josh Frank
The Nader Question
Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy
Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey
Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain
Gary Leupp
The
Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost
Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key
March 17, 2004
Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on
Terror or Civil Liberties?
David MacMichael
Untruth
and Consequences
Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer
Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware
Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out
Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections
Peter Linebaugh
Bush:
Blanc Blanc
March 16, 2004
Lenni Brenner
James
Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights
Scott Boehm
Madrid
Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days
Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History
Behind the Spanish Elections
Sam Hamod and Alfredo
Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway
Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way:
Executing David Clayton Hill
Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran
Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War
on Terror"
Bill Christison
The
Aftershocks from Madrid
CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa
Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!
March 15, 2004
Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe
Mike Whitney
Justice
Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism
Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation
Greg Moses
Lessons
from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs
Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health
Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL
in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer
CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!
March 12 / 14, 2004
Gabriel Kolko
The
Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power
Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!
William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)
William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks
Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us
All Less Safe
Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars
Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists
Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor
Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge
Helen Scott and Ashley
Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?
Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy
of the American Prison
Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On
Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report
on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana
Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding
Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith
Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier
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
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April
7, 2004
An Open Letter to
the Anti-War Movement
What
are YOU Doing About Afghanistan?
By SONALI KOLHATKAR
"We've come to think of Afghanistan
... as a sort of a backwater, as old news. But the war is still
going on there. There's the same pattern as in Iraq"
-- Seymour Hersh interview with Amy Davidson,
04/05/04.
Afghanistan has been devastated by the U.S. military
and neglected by the antiwar movement. I am writing to appeal
antiwar activists to seriously incorporate Afghanistan into their
work.
The U.S.'s war in Afghanistan was clearly
fought to maintain imperial credibility after the 9-11 attacks
and to provide a stepping stone to Iraq. And yet, I was saddened
that activists in the U.S. and other countries did not rise up
in significant numbers to resist the Afghanistan war which began
on October 7th 2001. While I was heartened with the rising up
of millions against the Iraq war in 2003, the situation in Afghanistan
continued to be sidelined by activists in the recent demonstrations
against occupation on March 20th 2004.
It is much easier to be against the blatantly
illegal Iraq war, as so many high-profile political figures are
doing these days: there was no connection to Al Qaeda in Iraq
(prior to the war), no weapons of mass destruction, plenty of
oily reasons, plenty of lies from the Bush administration, and
so on. But Afghanistan was another situation. How could we argue
that the U.S. should not bomb a country that was harboring terrorists
who attacked innocent U.S. civilians? Perhaps activists have
avoided Afghanistan because of its obvious links to Al Qaeda
and the tempting promise by Bush to deliver freedom for the most
oppressed women in the world.
At the recent high-profile 9-11 Commission
hearings Democrats and Republicans played the contest of "who
was tougher on terrorism." Unfortunately, this amounted
to proving who was capable of invading Afghanistan the earliest.
No mention was made of the devastating effects of the U.S. bombing
which resulted in the deaths of many more innocent Afghans than
innocent Americans on 9-11 (bombs are still dropping and killing
civilians). No mention was made of the use of internationally
condemned cluster bombs whose legacy is itself terrorist. But
most importantly, no mention was made of the U.S.'s own role
in creating conditions for terrorism in Afghanistan over two
decades ago, for which the Afghan people have been paying dearly.
It is crucial for antiwar activists to
know the history of the U.S. in Afghanistan - historical parallels
with today's operations are striking and the consequences are
predictable and devastating. In the late 1970s, the U.S. CIA
began funding and fueling extremist, misogynist factions in Afghanistan
against a Soviet invasion. Thousands of Arab and extremist religious
fighters were imported to the region to join the "jihad",
laying the ground work for Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's legacy.
After ten years of occupation, the Soviet Union withdrew from
Afghanistan while weapons and cash continued to flow from the
U.S. to the "Mujahedeen" warriors into the early 1990s.
The period that followed was the bloodiest era in Afghanistan,
during which tens of thousands of Afghans were killed by the
Mujahedeen with U.S. supplied weapons - the Mujahedeen fought
one another for power killing any civilians in their path and
raping women. In fact, the 1996 takeover by the Taliban was in
part easy because the Afghan population were desperately ready
for a change in their leadership. What the United States has
done today in Afghanistan is topple the hated Taliban and replace
them with the equally hated and feared Mujahedeen warlords of
old who simply regrouped under the title of "Northern Alliance".
A recent Pentagon-sanctioned report by
Retired Army Colonel Hy Rothstein concluded that the current
U.S. war had given "warlordism, banditry and opium production
a new lease on life" and "imposed additional, avoidable
humanitarian and stability costs on Afghanistan". The United
States is repeating its devastating tactics in Afghanistan and
once more causing the Afghan people great harm.
Under the U.S.'s watch, Afghanistan has
once more reclaimed its title of the world's largest drug producer,
responsible for 75 per cent of the world's opium and 80 per cent
of the heroin sold in Europe. The US is accusing the Taleban
of using the drug trade to finance their insurgency since being
overthrown. But in fact the U.S.'s friends are the drug producers.
Jack Blum, an expert in International Finance Crime testified
to the House of Representatives recently saying, "The revenue
of poppies is essential for the warlords supporting the United
States," in their fight against terrorism. Meanwhile, U.S.
prosecutors are investigating the recently ousted Haitian President
Aristide's connection to cocaine and touting a campaign of drug
trafficking as a reason why Haiti is better off without Aristide.
Afghan women in particular are paying
the greatest price for U.S. policies. Their emancipation was
upheld as one reason for going to war but two years later, they
are as shackled by the same warlords and the same hunger and
insecurity as they were before and during the Taliban's reign.
For some women, particularly in cities and villages outside the
relatively safer Kabul, things are worse. For example, tens of
women in the Western Afghan province of Herat have been committing
suicide by self-immolation.
So what can antiwar activists do?
Firstly, stay as informed about the U.S.'s
role in Afghanistan as you can and demand the media cover Afghanistan.
As a member of the alternative media (Pacifica), I have noticed
more coverage in the mainstream media of Afghanistan than in
the alternative media: this is shameful. Demand coverage of Afghanistan
from your local community radio station, alternative political
magazine, or favorite online news source.
Secondly, look to Afghans themselves
for what they want for their country. For example, the Revolutionary
Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) who I work in
solidarity with and who are on the forefront of anti-fundamentalist
and anti-imperialist work, have been calling for a United Nations
intervention and peace keeping forces for years. They have asked
sensibly, for the disarmament of warlords who rule the countryside
with impunity and foreign backing. Today the government of Japan
is funding a UN disarmament program in Afghanistan. Antiwar activists
can demand that the U.S. foot the bill for the entire program
- after all we will simply be disarming the very men we armed
who have inflicted terrorism on the Afghan people.
Thirdly, demand that the U.S. spend proportionately
as much on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan as it does in other
conflict situations. A RAND Corporation study revealed that "Kosovo,
for example, has a population of about 2 million, while Afghanistan
has a population of 23 million. But Kosovo received several times
more American and European assistance per capita to recover from
13 weeks of conflict than Afghanistan has received to rebuild
from 20 years of civil war". While Afghanistan and Iraq
have roughly the same area and population, in general, Afghanistan
is decades behind Iraq in standards of living. For example, life
expectancy in Afghanistan is 47 years compared to Iraq's 68 years.
Literacy for men is nearly half as much in Afghanistan as in
Iraq, while women are 3 times less literate in Afghanistan than
in Iraq. These effects are directly linked to decades of U.S.
fueled war which has set Afghan progress back by tens of years.
Fourthly, no matter who is in power,
remind them that you are watching their policies in Afghanistan,
just as you are watching their policies in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
Colombia, and everywhere else the U.S. empire reigns. Demand
that your local antiwar group, or the large mobilizing groups
you work with, include Afghanistan in their literature and signs.
Demand that every time an antiwar rally is held, there are prominent
speakers who address Afghanistan.
And finally, show sensitivity and respect
to the people of Afghanistan by not exploiting their victim-hood.
There are far too many books and movies depicting Afghans and
particularly Afghan women as mute, blue burka-clad figures who
are helpless. These images are convenient reminders of our superiority
and do not empower Afghans in their fight against the U.S's war
machine.
The Afghan people have been used and
betrayed by the United States too often. They are a brave people
with a history of anti-imperialism. But they are tired and they
are dying. And they are about to be used once more: during the
November 2004 Presidential elections. With the embarrassment
of Bush's policies in Iraq, Afghanistan will be held up as the
success story of the "war on terror". Afghan elections,
conveniently timed two months before Bush's re-election bid,
will be a model for <U.S.-sponsored> democracy in the "Muslim
world."
U.S. actions in Afghanistan are not failures
or mistakes, but crimes. Antiwar activists must see through the
veneer of "democracy" and "success" and judge
Bush's actions in Afghanistan as what they are: criminal. They
are the result of deliberate policy crafted by the Bush administration,
which is simply following in the footsteps of Clinton (who first
courted the Taliban in an effort to get a pipeline deal and then
bombed Afghanistan in), Bush Sr. (who allowed the Mujahedeen
to destroy Afghanistan with US-supplied weapons), Reagan (who
openly embraced the misogynist, fundamentalist Mujahedeen) and
Carter (who began the initial covert operations in the late 1970s).
Empire is being built on the backs of
Afghans and it is up to us as antiwar activists to recognize
it and address it.
Sonali Kolhatkar
is Co-Director of Afghan
Women's Mission. She can be reached at: sonali@afghanwomensmission.org
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B. Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
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