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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 5, 2006 David Price July 4, 2006 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
June 21, 2006 Ramzy Baroud Patrick Cockburn Gary Leupp Greg Moses
June 20, 2006 Fred Gardner Omar Waraich Christopher Reed CP Newswire Jonathan Cook
June 19, 2006 Bill Quigley John Walsh Mike Whitney Alexander Cockburn
June 16 / 18,
2006 Kathy / Bill
Christision Joseph Nevins Farrah Hassen Greg Moses Nicole Colson John Scagliotti Mokhiber / Weissmann
June 15, 2006 Kathy Kelly Norman Solomon Ron Jacobs Sam Bahour Ramzy Baroud CounterPunch Wire Gabriel Kolko Website of the Day
June 14, 2006 Nicole Colson Jonathan Cook Joseph Schechla Michael Carmichael Evelyn Pringle Ward Churchill Rev. William E. Alberts Website of the
Day
June 13, 2006 Medea Benjamin Anthony Alessandrini Paul D'Amato Dave Lindorff John Ross Gabriel Garcia Hilton Obenzinger Yitzhak Laor Juan Antonio
Ocasio Rivera Jennifer Van
Bergen Website of the
Day
June 12, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Mike Marqusee Lee Sustar Robert Fisk Michael J. Smith Felice Pace Jennifer Loewenstein Website of the Day
June 10 / 11,
2006 Robert Fisk Diane Christian Joe Allen Ralph Nader Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin /
John Cox Dennis Perrin Greg Moses John Chuckman Michael J. Smith Roger Burbach Ira Moskowitz Sam Bahour Seth Sandronsky Michael Berg Kirsten Roberts Ron Jacobs Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
June 9, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Eric Ruder Evelyn Pringle Mickey Z. Michael J. Smith Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
June 8, 2006 Chris Floyd Michael Dickinson Ron Jacobs William S. Lind Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Lloyd Williams Bill Christison Website of the Day
June 7, 2006 Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor John Walsh David MacMichael Mickey Z. Evelyn Pringle Myles Palmer Laura Ribeiro Website of the Day
June 6, 2006 Diane Christian Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Norman Solomon Darmont / Genovali Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Subcomandante Marcos Patrick Cockburn Website of the Day
June 5, 2006 Bruce Jackson Chris Floyd Michael Neumann Heather Gray William Hughes David Swanson Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
June 3 / 4, 2006 Robert Fisk James Petras Rosemary Radford Ruether Harry Clark Jeffrey St. Clair Ron Ridenour Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner Peter Montague John Walsh Greg Moses Sean Donahue Mike Whitney Dave Patten Ali Khan Robert Dotson,
MD Hammond Guthrie St. Clair / D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Day
June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly Alan Maass Mickey Z. Dave Lindorff Chris Kutalik Sunsara Taylor Sam Husseini Mike Ferner Website of the
Day
June 1, 2006 Brian Cloughley David Peterson Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Paul Rockwell Clifton Ross Kevin Zeese Website of the
Day
May 31, 2006 Dave Lindorff Joshua Frank Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz P. Sainath Ramzy Baroud Seth Sandronsky Mickey Z. Ralph Nader Jeffrey St. Clair Website of the Day
May 30, 2006 Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Gary Leupp John Ross Robert Jensen Michael Dickinson Michael Carmichael Tim Wise Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 27 / 29,
2006 Paul Craig Roberts Kathleen Christison Kathy Kelly Christopher
Reed Lawrence R. Velvel Tom Barry Gary Leupp Col. Dan Smith Ron Jacobs Don Fitz Fred Gardner Peter Montague Raymond Garcia John Farley Seth Sandronsky Tia Steele Lenni Brenner Dr. Susan Block Scott Michael Perey Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Recipe of the
Weekend Website of the Weekend
May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas
MacGregor Brian J. Foley Michael Dickinson Missy Comley Beattie Pierre Tristam Joe Allen Kona Lowell Roger Burbach Website of the
Day
May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Jeff Halper Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Bob Wing Elise Gould Robert Bryce Website of the Day
May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
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July 5, 2006 A Party Trapped by False AxiomsStar Democrats and the Prolongation of the Iraq WarBy SAUL LANDAU As Congressional Republicans dove in approval rating from 57% to 37% in May, some liberal Democrats wonder why their Party has not correspondingly leaped in opinion polls. One answer lies in Senator Hillary Clinton (NY), the Democrats' high profiler. She and a few other presidential aspirants have accepted Karl Rove's Orwellian axiom. By labeling irresponsible behavior as "responsible," Bush spinners have disabled their opponents. A mid June poll, for example, indicated that the public wants a withdrawal plan for Iraq. Bush calls this majority sentiment "irresponsible" and "cut and run" behavior when Democrats call for it. Leading Democratic candidates should scoff at such White House language. After all, they can point to Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who went to prison for taking payoffs from Jack Abramoff. The Republican lobbyist also bought favors from other key Republicans, in return for fancy golf trips and other perks. Even supposedly conservative Republican voters see their Representatives irresponsibly violating tradition: encouraging the growth of debt and deficit. Instead of convincing voters to turn toward them with a unified platform, including withdrawal from Iraq, Democrats face eternal division. Clinton, Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Virginia Governor Mark Warner, for examples, fell into Rove's "responsible" trap. They accept illogic: US military presence "stabilizes" rather than de-stabilizes. Facts stare at them. The US occupation of Iraq created chaos. The White House claims withdrawal rewards the enemy, although the US controlled Iraqi government has asked for a withdrawal by 2007 and the definition of "enemy" has become ambiguous. On June 20, the Pentagon admitted that Iraqi troops killed two of their own US trainers. Traditionally hawkish House
Democrats, like Vietnam veteran John Murtha (PA), call for immediate
withdrawal. Hillary sneers. While she does not "think it's
a smart strategy for the president to continue with his open
She offered no explanation of how US troops could restore security to a population 47% of whom justify attacks on Americans. 82% of Iraqis polled want the US out now. Hillary had no plan to regenerate electricity, create jobs, or restore order. Rove's "responsibility" means open-ended occupation of Iraq. This means more aberrant US military behavior. Does "responsible" describe" US troops'behavior in Haditha, where they massacred civilians on November 19, 2005, or murdered a man in Hamdaniya on April 26, 2006, who refused to become an informer? A sizeable section of the Party, led by Senators Russ Feingold (WI), John Edwards (SC) and John Kerry (MA), regaining his courage after waffling in 2004, demands immediate pullout. But Hillary's star casts an opportunistic shadow over such enlightened views. Hillary has taught her "responsible" (euphemism for vague?) language to another presidential aspirant. Virginia Governor Mark Warner "doesn't think we need to re-fight how we got into (the Iraq war). I think we need to focus more on how to finish it To set an arbitrary deadline or specific date is not appropriate." Warner's "morality" does not ask about Bush's original sin (or lie): "Regardless of whether we like how we got there, we need to finish the task. (Jim Geraghty National Review on Line Jan 19, 2006) If US troops leave precipitously whatever that means -- Iraq will descend into chaos and civil war, warn the "responsibles." The daily media reports widespread killing and chaos. Shi'ites kill Sunnis and vice versa; Shi'ites kill each other and Kurds fight both. God forbid Iraq breaks out into civil war! The US invasion and occupation caused this havoc. US troop presence exacerbates the suffering; yet "responsible" Democrats demand that "we don't cut and run." All Senators should read Gabriel Kolko's The Age of War. Wars don't turn out the way their initiators intended, Kolko explains. German, Austrian, French and British "statesmen" who started World War I did not foresee that poison gas and bombs dropped by airplanes would kill millions. Nor did they hope that Russians would overthrow the Czar and launch a communist revolution. Similarly, Hitler and Tojo saw war as a way to expand rather than reduce the power of their empires, not get Tokyo and Dresden firebombed and, in the case of Japan, fall victim to nuclear weapons. When Truman intervened in Korea, he believed his military experts who promised that superior US air power would quickly dispatch the lower technology foe. Similarly, the high tech military proponents did not conceive that the Vietnamese would "grab the Americans by the belt," (close range combat) as General Giap described his method for neutralizing US superior technology. These "responsible" military chiefs did not count on the sheer grit, discipline and determination of the Vietnamese resistance. Nor did they anticipate that a sizeable US public would mobilize for anti war activities inside the United States, leading to the building of a movement that would divide the country and sap the will of the military and political leadership and leave scars for decades. Kolko points out that "The Vietnam War was but one major milestone in humankind's repeated, futile experience in the twentieth century of making wars that profoundly shaped global political and social development in ways ultimately much more dangerous for the war-makers." US intervention in Southeast Asia had a profound and long-term effect on the United States one that is far from over. Indeed, the 2004 presidential election featured major supposed "scandals" involving Bush's service or non-service on the National Guard and Kerry's heroism or cowardice as a swift boat commander in Vietnam. Vietnam, too, became transformed by the American War. Not only did it lose 3 million people and suffer 4 million wounded, but the nature of US tactics provoked the urbanization of the country. By dropping Agent Orange to defoliate the countryside and by forcing peasants to leave their villages en masse, US war strategists helped shape an industrial Vietnam from an agricultural one a result of war that was totally unforeseen by either side. "After over a half century of surprises," wrote Kolko, "the ignorance and myopia of the men and women who embarked upon wars was as great as ever." No reporter has yet identified anyone who might have provided for Bush a worst case scenario, before or after the President decided to invade Iraq. Why then does Hillary think US troops, who can barely secure the narrow Green Zone territory in Baghdad, will magically restore national integrity to Iraq? US firepower and bombing technology killed Zarqawi of Al-Qaeda, but high tech US violence does not cure low tech violence in Iraq. The Democrats have failed to show courage and unity to win voters' support. They call for propping up social security and Medicare and increasing the minimum wage. Do they see these old saws as examples of political backbone? As divided and phlegmatic as the Party appeared on Iraq in its early June "Take Back America" conference, it is still crucial that they win at least one House. If corrupt, deceitful and incompetent Republicans regain control of the Senate and the House, it will show that American voters don't care how much they get screwed and they don't see the Democrats as a viable opposition. Each Democrat could point to Bush's initial lie and say: "The Administration lied then and now. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned on September 19, 2002: "No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." Three weeks later, Bush said: "This man poses a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined." (Sept. 26, 2002) A week later, he added: "The Iraqi regimehas developed weapons of mass death." (October 2, 2002) Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was a member of the National Security Council, indicated that "[i]n the 23 months I was there, I never saw anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass destruction." In September 2002, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency concluded "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has or will establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Instead of exposing the lie that led to the tangled web, Hillary and other "responsible" Senators like Lieberman perpetuate Rove's Orwellian notion of "responsibility." Like the White House, they defy logic by pushing an open ended death policy in Iraq. What a way to win back both Houses and the Presidency! Saul Landau is a fellow at the Institute for Policy
Studies. His forthcoming book, A Bush and Botox World,
will be published by CounterPunch Press this fall.
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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.                    |
