Coming
Soon!
From Common Courage Press
Recent
Stories
June
12, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
June
4, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal
Walks
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
John Chuckman
Blackmail as Policy
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
Steve
Perry
Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript
June
3, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
June
13, 2003
Shi'ite Happens
From
Winning a War to Occupying a Nation
By SAUL LANDAU
"For bureaucratic
reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction
(as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason
everyone could agree on."
Paul Wolfowitz
to Vanity Fair, May 9, 2003
The Bible on lies: "Can
both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?"
James 3:11
NIV
Having fibbed his way into a war
with a disarmed and weak enemy, Bush now gloats over his victory.
Acting as if he understood his grandiose albeit vague statements
about historic alliances, W held forth in old and new Europe
before going to Egypt to "make peace in the Middle East."
The new empire visits
the old world. After 9/11, Washington demanded that its junior
partners simply rubber stamp Washington's plans, like making
war against Iraq. This placed a level of unprecedented stress
on the formal and informal alliances that emerged from World
War II and from the post Soviet era.
For example, most of
the partners except the British, Australians, Poles and a few
lesser powers -- asked for a just cause to back such a war. Saddam
Hussein is evil, Bush first explained.
And? They responded.
Blair and Bush then stared
pointedly at their intelligence chiefs.
And, poof, the intelligence
agencies delivered reasons. Saddam had illegally accumulated
dangerous stockpiles of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
He planned not only to use them, but to give them to the 9/11
gang with whom he had close ties. The CIA and British intelligence
reluctantly agreed to these unsupported claims.
Then, the media, Congress
and the UN began to debate them as axioms: should we disarm Saddam
with or without war?
Documents from Africa,
Bush claimed, proved Saddam had a nuclear capacity. The US and
British government claimed further proof by citing dissident
Iraqi "experts," who affirmed Saddam's bio and chemical
weapons programs.
The nuclear documents
turned out to be forgeries, the exiled Iraqis had not said what
US officials claimed and neither Bush nor Blair had hard evidence
of Saddam constituting an imminent threat to "security."
In March, Bush declared
that the UN inspectors, who had found nothing, had diddled long
enough. The time had come for war to disarm Saddam Hussein. It
took the Americans more time to conquer Iraq than it did the
Germans to defeat Poland at the onset of World War II. And the
Poles fought back!
Now, Bush has switched
roles from conquering hero to world statesman -- and commander
of the US colonial government in Iraq.
In this role, he has
had little to celebrate. The June 1 Los Angeles Times reported
three Americans died in a vehicle accident in Iraq and in another
road mishap and a US supply truck ran over and killed a three
year old Iraqi child. During the course of the week, the US military
occupation command reported several incidents of Iraqis firing
at and killing US soldiers. US troops are afraid to go out at
night, reported Robert Fisk in the May 31 Independent.
Just another week of
routine colonial occupation, a tradition sorely lacking in US
history unless, of course, one includes Indian and Mexican territory.
But as Bush insisted
on the urgency of Middle East peace, the media still referred
to George Washington Bush, not quite the President who never
told a lie, but rather the one who last month dressed like a
fighter pilot and landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and photo-op-bonded
with the troops. Tony Blair did the photo-op session with British
troops in Iraq: two heads of state who never served in the military
act like seasoned veterans relating to warriors.
Iraqis ignore such nonsense.
They compare their current plight under colonial occupation with
Saddam's dictatorship. One Arab on a May 31 news report on World
Link TV, said Saddam was bad but we had water and electricity.
Indeed, Saddam's gang had both systems operating after Coalition
bombs destroyed the water and electrical generating systems during
Gulf War I.
The fact that most Iraqi
soldiers and civilians didn't fight means that they don't think
of themselves as a defeated people who must abide by the rule
of the winners especially the British who had occupied Iraq in
previous colonial incarnations. But when looting broke out, the
liberating GIs stood by. Indeed, for weeks the Americans did
not fashion a constabulary and Iraqis got truly pissed off.
As the intense summer
heat descends on much of the country, the threat of disease looms
heavily. A May 21, 2003 UN Daily Briefing reported that damage
from fighting and the persistent looting have rendered the Al
Rustumia sewage plant inoperable, resulting in one million tons
of raw sewage discharged daily into the Tigris and Dayala Rivers.
Government barely exists
and now hundreds of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, recently demobilized
and thrown out of jobs, further complicate the task of colonial
administrator L. Paul Bremer.
Last week, Iraqi soldiers
in Basra demanded that the British occupiers pay them. Other
soldiers in different cities threatened violence if the Americans
didn't meet their demands. Mark Kingwell, writing in the May
28 National Post, quotes one Arab: "The Americans promised
us food and medicine and freedom. But we have lost our homes,
our land, our crops ... If we don't have a solution, we will
fight the Americans even if they kill us. It is better than sitting
here with nothing and just dying."
Patrick Cockburn wrote
in the May 30 Independent that "all this military triumphalism
ignored the disastrous reality of post-war Iraq." Although
Iraqis generally hated Saddam, they have not taken to the US
and Britain either. If the occupying powers "are going to
stay, they are going to have to fight."
In the 19th Century Americans
discovered that it was easier to kill Indians easier than govern
them. Will we successfully apply colonial rule to Iraq when we
never could in our own country, the Philippines or Puerto Rico?
Yet, before the war even began, the ahistorical President Bush
held forth a utopian reconstruction plan for Iraq.
Indeed, the President
attacked nation-building ideas as utopian when he campaigned
in 2000. But formal empire carries burdens. Indeed, the brilliance
of past US empire consisted precisely in its informality. The
US controls where it counts, in the economy and military, and
lets the natives rule themselves as long as they remain obedient.
This method has allowed
the United States to remain free from the costly and embarrassing
burdens born by the older empires of Europe. It even allowed
the United States to declare its interest in upholding international
law since it has traditionally used covert ops to overthrow disobedient
governments.
Iraq has changed that
long and successful trajectory. The world now sees through the
transparent rhetoric, as Kingwell observes, that the United States
"dresses up self-interest as universal benefit."
As some colleagues rejoiced
in the TV images of Iraqi freedom. I shrugged and said that we
had witnessed that the United States military could easily defeat
a disarmed third world country. Now watch and see the very Republican
Bechtel Corporation make a quick $680 million to rebuild what
our air force needlessly destroyed.
Air power destroyed Iraq,
but can't run the place after conquest. The Iraqis are not cooperating
with the vague US plans to "democratize" the entire
region (a word that translates to the people of the area as shopping
malls, Disneyland and elections in which candidates insult each
other on TV and don't talk about the issues).
Instead of western democracy,
"Shiite happens" as one email said, referring to the
impending change from the once secular Iraqi society to one in
which religious police have emerged in the form of committees
to prevent vice and to promote virtue, à la Iran during
the Ayatollah.
"Doing good"
in the world has provided US foreign policy with a highly successful
veneer for informal imperialism. As Iraq descends into chaos
and ethnic fighting, Bush confidently asserts that his plan for
a US style Middle East will begin to unfold. The world's greatest
empire still hidden from the American public has started to remake
ancient societies in its image. It does so behind the veneer
of its war against terrorism. It does so as long as the US public
remains distracted and disconnected from its own interests and
history.
Our leaders have flaunted
John Quincy Adams' July 4, 1821 warning to not seek "foreign
monsters." Hey, how do you justify a $400 billion military
budget without having at least one foreign monster? The Bushies
took the nation into war by exaggerating the threat of the Saddam
monster. Now they count on national memory to focus only on the
victory of the US Armed Forces in Iraq while filtering out their
lies about the causes of the war. Veni, vidi, vici and all of
that old Americana!
Saul Landau's work also appears on www.rprogreso.com. He is a fellow of the Institute
for Policy Studies and teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University.
His films on Iraq and Cuba are distributed by Cinema Guild 800-723-5522.
He can be reached at: landau@counterpunch.org.
Today's
Features
Gary
Leupp
The Intel-gate Row in Britain: a Chronology
Ahmad Faruqui
The Tragic Legacy of the Six Day
War
Wayne
Madsen
Unfit for Office: Time for Rumsfeld to Resign
Laura Carlsen
Hunger and Security
Tarif
Abboushi
Warm and Fuzzy in Aqaba
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/12
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|