Wars
of the Laptop Bombers
Today's
Stories
February 28,
2005
Diana Johnstone
Censorship
and the Empire
February 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
An
American Jew Laments Decline in Jewish Influence
Noam Chomsky
Nuclear
Terror at Home
Rev. William E. Alberts
Rhetoric in the Air; Reality on the Ground
Fred Gardner
AARP Gets Pot-Baited
Gary Leupp
Bush and Camus on Freedom
Saul Landau
An Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon (Part 3): the Miami
Mafia
Robin Philpot
Second Thoughts on the Hotel Rwanda
Yitkhak Laor
In Praise of the Facts
Ben Tripp
Out of Sight; Out of Mind
Justin Taylor
Zizek Seen Over the Handlebars
Jack Random
The Wounds from Wounded Knee
Rafael Renteria
Ward Churchill and White America
Jim B.
Reflections on the Eve of Fatherhood
Seth DeLong
Land Reform in Venezuela: More Like Lincoln Than Lenin
John Chuckman
A Season of Depressing Political Reruns
Alison Weir
Relativity, LA Times Style
Richard Oxman
Political Solitude: From Garcia Marquez to Maria Full of Grace
Dr. Susan Block
It Always Rains in California: All About Female Ejaculation
Poets' Basement
Landau, Lowell, Louise, Davies, Soderstrom, Norris & Albert
February 25,
2005
Roger Burbach
Murder
in the Amazon
Behzad Yaghmaian
Iranian Distrust of America: 50 Years in the Making
Kurt Nimmo
Conclave of the Brats
Joshua Frank
Diagnosing the Green Party
John Farley
How to Stop the War in Iraq: Punish Pro-War Politicians
Lawrence Reichard
The D'Aubuisson Memorial: Flowers of Evil
Pratyush Chandra
The Royal Coup in Nepal and Global Imperialist Designs
David Smith-Ferri
When
the Battlefield has No Borders
Website of
the Day
The 2005 Election in 3-D
February 24,
2005
Omar Waraich
The
Galloway Saga: Smearing an Anti-War Politician
Brian Cloughley
Bribing and Twisting Amerian Journalists: Valerie Plame &
30 Pieces of Silver
Tom Wright
Torture Nation: Abu Ghraib, a Year Later
Sharon Smith
The Anti-War Movement After Kerry: Learning All the Wrong Lessons
Dave Lindorff
Do These Roosting Chickens Have Flu?
Fred Feldman
Lynching Ward Churchill
James Reiss
On Hearing About a Plot to Assassinate President Bush
Diane Christian
Bad
Blood: Ritual & Sexual Torture in Iraq
Website of
the Day
The Gray Line
February 23,
2005
Werther
The
Poisoned Well: What the CIA's Nazi Files Can Tell Us About Iraq
W. John Green
A Salvador Option for Iraq? How Negroponte Changes the Ground
Rules
James Petras
A New Face to Bush Foreign Policy?
Conn Hallinan
Cornering the Dragon: the Return of the China Lobby
Joe Pietri
Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs (For Consumers and
Cops)
Louis Proyect
Hunter Thompson and the "New" Journalism
Alexander Cockburn
Hunter
S. Thompson and Gonzo
Website of
the Day
Did You Make the Blacklist? Why Not?
February 22,
2005
Naseer Aruri
The
Politics of the Hariri Assassination: Remapping the Middle East
Richard Manning
The
Economy of Hunger: Starvation is Part of the Economic Plan
William A.
Cook
Righteous
Racism Running Rampant
Paul Craig Roberts
The Agents of Instability
Ken Krayeske
Dr. Thompson is Out
Dave Zirin
How the Owners Destroyed the NHL
Kirkpatrick
Sale
Imperial
Entropy: the Collapse of the American Empire
February 21,
2005
Hunter S. Thompson
"He
Was A Crook"
John Ross
Mexico:
the Pentagon's Proxy Army in Iraq
Ward Churchill
What Did I Really Say? Why Did
I Say It?
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military Recruiting on Channel One: Geometry 101, Brought to
You by the US Navy
David Swanson
Fighting for a Living Wage, State by State
Dave Lindorff
All the News That's Fit to Fake
Stew Albert
Fear and Loathing: HST
Michael Neumann
Strategies
in Palestine: a Shrinking Pie in the Sky
February 19
/ 20, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Back
to Salem: Paul Shanley and the Return of "Recovered Memory"
Kathleen Christison
Struggling
for Justice in Palestine
Ted Honderich
On Being Persona Non Grata
Gary Leupp
Self-Hating Gays: Welcome to the White House & Welcome to
Commit Suicide
Don Santina
Reparations for the Blues
Jennifer Roesch
John Negroponte: Dirty Warrior
Scott Richard
Lyons
Ward
Churchill and the Identity Police
Chris Clarke
Ward Churchill and Liberal Outrage
George Beres
Censorship in the Land of Wayne Morse: Gagging W. Churchill in
Oregon
Harry Browne
The Belfast Heist: the Plot Unravels
Manuel García,
Jr.
Who Killed Rafik Hariri?
Mark Scaramella
Lessons from the Hidden Afghan War
Michael Donnelly
Whatever Happened to John Edwards?
John Pilger
First, They Attack the Past
Norman Madarasz
Death Wish for Reform in Brazil?
Surendra Devkota
The Monarchy in Nepal
Deborah Rich
How Anti-GMO Ballot Measures May Miss the Mark
Fred Gardner
When Dr. Tod Met Merle Haggard
CounterPunch
News Service
About King Mswati: Political Developments in Swaziland
Richard Oxman
CounterPunching Arthur Miller
Poets' Basement
Albert, Giebel, Tripp, Engel and Orkin
February 18,
2005
Ben Moxham
In
East Timor, the Nightmare Continues
Dave Lindorff
The
Scum Also Rises: the Bloody Career of John Negroponte
Larry Birns
Negroponte: a Resume of Death Squads, Deceptions and Bribery
Gregory Elich
N, Korea's Phantom Nukes and the US's Subversion of Diplomacy
Samuel Logan / John Meyers
The Future of Colombia's Paramilitary Death Squads
Nicole Colson
Shock and Awe on Civil Liberties: From Lynne Stewart to Ward
Churchill
Suzan Mazur
Whose National Security Are We Talking About?
Mickey Z.
"One
Man Has Stopped Killing"
February 17,
2005
Joshua Frank
Hogtying
of the Deaniacs
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
Willing Sychophants: the Conservative Media
Robert Fisk
Under
the Shadow of Death in Lebanon
Christopher
Brauchli
Where
Time Stands Still: Kinsey and Darwin in Cobb County, GA
Dr. Teresa
Whitehurst
Military
Recruitment TV: Why Send Them to College, When Your Kid Can be
Cannon Fodder?
Alison Weir
Russia, Israel and Media Omissions
Ahrar Ahmad
A Review of Shahid Alam's "Is There an Islamic Problem?"
Saul Landau
An
Interview with Cuban VP Ricardo Alarcon: "The US Tramples
the Laws It Wrote"
Website of the Day
Petition to Support Ward Churchill
February 16,
2005
Robert Fisk
Lebanon:
a Battlefield for the Wars of Others
Kevin Zeese
Creating a Real Ownership Society: Share the Wealth; Protect
Retirement
Gary Leupp
Meanwhile, in Nepal...
Ron Jacobs
Why the Iranian Opposition Should Not Trust the Bush Administration
Jessica Leight
Oil-Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff
Greg Moses
Houston, You've Got a Problem: Documenting Voting Irregularities
in Texas
Mark Engler
The Last Porto Alegre
Jack McCarthy
Where's the Outrage About Pat? Buchanan Does a Churchill
Bill Christison
US
Foreign Policy Dangerously Slanted Toward Israel
Website of the Day
The
World is Melting: a Photo Survey by Gary Braasch
February 15,
2005
CounterPunch
News Service
Dean
a "Safe" Moderate, Says NYT Citing CounterPunch
Robert Fisk
The
Killing of Mr. Lebanon
Uri Avnery
"Sharm-al-Sheikh,
We Have Come Back Again"
Stan Cox
Fighting Big Pharma in Little Digwal
Mickey Z.
Radio
Active North of the Border: an Interview with Chris Cook
Dave Zirin
Bashing Bush: Jose Canseco Comes Clean
Nadia Martinez
Ending
World Poverty? Opening at the World Bank, Apply Now
Lila Rajiva
"Little Eichmanns" and the 'Harijan': the Danger of
Magical Thinking in Politics
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
American Job Sell Out
February 14,
2005
Robert Jensen
Ward
Churchill: Right to Speak Out; Right About 9/11
Brian Cloughley
Kuwait's Freedom, Bush-style
Patrick Cockburn
Outcome
of the Iraqi Elections: Shortages, Corruption, Guerrilla War
Gary Leupp
Post-election Iraq: What Next?
Michael Donnelly
Sacred Nature: Just Another Commodity?
Dave Lindorff
When Bush Came to My Neighborhood
Elaine Cassel
The
Lynne Stewart Verdict
February 12
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill's Genes
Saul Landau
Alarcon
Speaks: an Interview with the Vice President of Cuba
Paul Craig
Roberts
Nothing
to Fear But Bush Himself
Patrick Cockburn
Two Years After the Fall of Saddam, the Resistance Controls All
Major Roads into Baghdad
John Feffer
Bush
v. N. Korea: Round Two
Mickey Z.
Right to Remain Silent; Duty to Speak
Kurt Nimmo
Viva la Cucaracha!
Fred Gardner
Waiting for Raich
Dave Zirin
Fighting the New Republic(ans)
John Chuckman
Hiroshima, Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
A Leftist on the Bush Payroll
Carol Norris
"Buddy, Can You Spare a Dwarf?"
Robert Fisk
No Middle East Peace Without Justice
Frank / Chowkwanyun
Muzzled Activist in an Age of Terror: the Case of Sherman Austin
Mike Whitney
Condi's Euro Tour
Deborah Frisch
A Psychologist's Defense of Ward Churchill
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Reading Khomeini in Colorado
Christine TenBarge
What's So Special About Ward?
Ron Jacobs
Curtis Mayfield's Train to Jordan
Dr. Susan Block
Chemistry of Love: a Valentine's Greeting
Poets' Basement
Louise, Smith-Ferri, Ford and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Free Sherman
February 11,
20055
Manuel Garcia,
Jr
The
Eight Percent War
Kurt Nimmo
Ann
Coulter's Racism: Where's Geronimo When You Really Need
Him?
Dave Lindorff
Guckert
or Gannon? The Perfect Plant; He Fit Right In
Larry Birns
War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom: Democracy According to Elliott
Abrams
Bill Quigley
Twenty Questions: a Social Justice Quiz
Tom Barry
Bush's State of Delusion
Jennifer Van
Bergen
Lynne
Stewart's Conviction Hurts Us All
February 10,
2005
Dave Lindorff
What
Academic Freedom?
Christopher Brauchli
The Love of Slaughter: From Rwanda to Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
In Baghdad, It's Easy to Get Killed
Nicole Colson
Have the Democrats Surrendered on Abortion Rights?
Suzan Mazur
More
on the Assassination of Lumumba from Mr. Garsin of Kinshasha
Michael Donnelly
Salvaging an Opposition
Mike Stark
Driving Ossie Davis: "Give Them a Little Truth, a Little
Hope"
Greg Moses
Taking
Jesus Back from the Hijackers
Website of
the Day
The Missionary Positions
February 9,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Duck
and Cover Redux: Bunker Busters and City Levellers
Mickey Z.
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
John Ross
Hecho
en Mexico: the Iraqi Election
Tom Barry
Ambassador of Lies: Elliott Abrams, the Neocon's Neocon
Conn Hallinan
The
Coup in Nepal: Nursing the Pinion
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Vision for Iraq: Cricket is Fine, But Chess is "Absolutely
Forbidden"
Steen Sohn
Danish PM Says It's OK for Israel to Violate UN Resolutions
Tim Wise
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians
Website of
the Day
Support Antiwar.com
February 8,
2005
Patrick Cockburn
Shia/Kurd
Coalition to Dominate New Iraqi Govt.: "It's an Electoral
Pact, Not a Party"
Brian Cloughley
Out
of the Mouths of Generals: "It's Fun to Shoot Some People"
Steve Breyman
Against the Selfishness of the "Ownership Society"
Harry Browne
"Don't
Get on that Plane!": Soldiers Seek Asylum in Ireland
Doug Giebel
"We Love Free Speech in America": the People, the President
and Ward Churchill
Nate Collins
The Censorship of Ward Churchill and Dancehall Reggae: It's the
Same Beast
Dave Lindorff
It's Time for a Labor-Oriented Newspaper
David Smith-Ferri
Sanctions and the Health Crisis in Iraq
February 7,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Bush's
War on Jobs
Carolyn Baker
The New McCarthyism on Campus: Churchill and the Attack on Higher
Ed
Joshua Frank
Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Ward Churchill
Mickey Z.
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
Patrick Cockburn
The
Kidnapping Gangs of Iraq
Mike Whitney
Tom Friedman: Scribe for New Age Imperialism
Stacie Jonas
Pinochet: Fit to be Tried
Dave Zirin
A Miserable Super Sunday: Clinton, Bush and the FBI
Tariq Ali
Imperial
Delusions
February 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Ward
Churchill and the Mad Dogs
Kurt Nimmo
A Ward Churchill Kind of Day
Joshua Frank
Liberals Trash Ward Churchill
P. Sainath
Mumbai's Man-Made Tsunami
Patrick Cockburn
Sistani's Triumph; Allawi's Bust
Laura Carlsen
Bush, Rice and Latin America
Dave Lindorff
How the NYT Killed the Bush Bulge Story
Pamela Olson
West Bank Story
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Future of Sudanese Refugees in the West
Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
A Threatened UN in King George's Court
Roger Burbach
World Social Forum: a Tale of Two Presidents
Robert Fisk
History by Laptop
David Swanson
James Forman and the Liberal-Labor Syndrome
Justin E.H. Smith
Gay Marriage: a Report from Canada
Cacie Hart
The "State" of the Union: More War and a Ban on Love
Ron Jacobs
Chairman Bob Avakian: a Revolutionary Life
Mickey Z.
Viewing America from the Outside
Ben Tripp
Republican Heroes: a New Breed of Good Guy
Ben Sonnenberg
France at the End of the Devil's Decade: Renoir's Rules of the
Game
Poets' Basement
Smith-Ferri, Davies, Collins, & Albert
Website of
the Weekend
John Trudell: How to Earn a 17,000 Page FBI File
February 4,
2005
Brian Cloughley
The
Army Symphonist: "Sometimes the Only Way to Change the Behavior
of Someone Like That is to Kill Them"
Bill Christison
Election
Parallels: Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
Elaine Cassel
Did Zoloft Make Him Do It?
Jacob Levich
Chomsky and the Draft
Kanak Mani Dixit
Return of the Royalists in Nepal
Ron Jacobs
The
Downward Spiral in Iraq
February 3,
2005
Ward Churchill
On
the Injustice of Getting Smeared: a Campaign of Fabrications
and Gross Distortions
Sharon Smith
Resisting
Soldiers Need Our Support
Mickey Z.
Leslie
Gelb Asks Iraq: Who's Your Daddy?
Mike Whitney
President of Alienation: a Desperate State of the Union
Jenna Orkin
9/11 the Sequel: the Toxic State of Lower Manhattan
Saul Landau
Elections Won't Prevent Civil War in Iraq
Yitzhak Laor
Strange is the Silence
Dave Lindorff
The
Assault on Social Security: a New Campaign of Lies
February 2,
2005
David Domke
/ Kevin Coe
Bush's
Brand of Christianity
Noam Chomsky
Iraq
After the Elections
M. Shahid Alam
O'Reilly's
Fatwah on "Un-American" Professors: FoxNews Puts Me
in Its Crosshairs
Richard Oxman
Ringing in 1984 with Ward Churchill and Derrick Jensen
Joshua Frank
The Suckering of Howard Dean
Dave Lindorff
A History Lesson from the NYT
Nina Hartley
Feminists for Porn
Website of the Day
War is a Racket
February 1,
2005
Joshua L. Dratel
The
Torture Memos
Patrick Cockburn
New Doubts About Allawi
Robert Fisk
"The Only Decent Food We Get is at Funerals"
Uri Avnery
The Stalemate
Col. Dan Smith
"W" Stands for Withdrawal
Alison Weir
Making America as "Secure" as Israel
Alan Farago
Heaven and Hell in the Everglades
Ray Hanania
Low Voter Turnout of Iraqi Expatriates: Less Than 10% of Qualified
Voters
Paul Craig
Roberts
American
Police State
Website of the Day
Statisticians Refute Official Rationale for Exit Poll Errors
December 22,
2004
James Petras
An
Open Letter to Saramago: Nobel Laureate Suffers from a Bizarre
Historical Amnesia
Omar Barghouti
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Patrick Cockburn / Jeremy Redmond
They Were Waiting on Chicken Tenders When the Rounds Hit
Harry Browne
Northern Ireland: No Postcards from the Edge
Richard Oxman
On the Seventh Column
Kathleen Christison
Imagining
Palestine
Website of the Day
FBI Torture Memos
December 21,
2004
Greg Moses
The
New Zeus on the Block: Unplugging Al-Manar TV
Dave Lindorff
Losing
It in America: Bunker of the Skittish
Chad Nagle
The View from Donetsk
Dragon Pierces
Truth*
Concrete
Colossus vs. the River Dragon: Dislocation and Three Gorges Dam
Patrick Cockburn
"Things Always Get Worse"
Seth DeLong
Aiding Oppression in Haiti
Ahmad Faruqui
Pakistan and the 9/11 Commission's Report
Paul Craig
Roberts
America
Locked Up: a System of Injustice
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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
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J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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Here for More Stories.
|
February 28, 2005
A June Attack on Iran?
Year
Four in the Five Year Plan
By
GARY LEUPP
February
25.
According to Gen. Wesley Clark, a senior
U.S. military officer told him in the Pentagon as early as November
2001 that the administration planned, following the invasion
of Iraq, to conduct campaigns throughout the Middle East and
beyond. "Oh yes, sir, not only is it Afghanistan. There's
a list of countries. We're not that good at fighting terrorists,
so we're going after states: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia
and Iran. There's a five-year plan."
We're in the fourth year of
that plan, which proceeds apace. Afghanistan and Iraq are conquered,
dotted with U.S. military bases designed to be permanent. Libya's
been removed from the target list, due to some canny machinations
on Col. Muammar Qadhafi's part, and Somalia's drawing less attention
than Sudan. But Syria, Lebanon and Iran remain very much in the
crosshairs.
Flexibility is of course built
in to the Plan. One can't predict all the international factors
that might affect its timing, or the specific strategy appropriate
for the planned regime changes. But plainly the first priority
is to manipulate public opinion to acquire support for the planned
attacks. That means coordinating the dissemination of disinformation
through a compliant corporate press; posting paid agents within
that press, and purchasing the services of others; and favoring
the most bellicose and fascistic organs with official appearances.
It means maintaining the population in a state of anxiety and
paranoia through color-coded terror alerts, vague but alarmist
announcements of al-Qaeda actions (although there have been none
in the U.S. for three and a half years), and the repeated official
assertion that another 9-11 is "inevitable." It means
inculcating the belief in the masses that the "War on Terror"
is a war on acohesive thing (like "communism") that
will, like the Cold War, continue for generations, and must be
accepted fatalistically as the destiny of the USA, and subtly
linking that "war" with Christian fundamentalists'
belief in an inevitable confrontation between Good and Evil leading
up to the End Times. It means obtaining from a slavish, intimidated
Congress carte blanche to attack and contain dissent through
a regimen of regulations that vitiate the Constitution.
All this done, one wants to
link Syria and Iran to the Iraqi resistance, depicted as "terrorist,"
link them to Palestinian nationalism (also depicted as "terrorist"),
and raise a hue and cry about weapons of mass destruction as
was done in the case of Iraq. Then look for opportunities to
realize the aforementioned Five Year Plan.
What a godsend was the assassination
of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri! It's allowed
the Bush administration to ratchet up the campaign of vilification
of Syria, preparatory to the planned overthrown of the Syrian
regime, to new levels. The day after the event, it was clear
that the U.S. government would exploit the tragedy to build its
case for an attack on Syria. Never mind that Damascus immediately
condemned the bombing as a "criminal act of terrorism,"
and that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent his condolences
to the Hariri family. Never mind that Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim
Khaddam, described by NBC as "a longtime friend" was
among the first to visit Hariri's residence after his death and
marched in the
funeral procession. Never mind that a Syrian diplomat in Lebanon
stated "We will miss him," or that Syrian Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman (repeat: spokeswoman, secular Baathist Syria
being relatively progressive in regards to women's rights)
Buthaina Shaaban said, "We want a full investigation
to show who is behind this assassination." Never mind that
Lebanese Information Minister Elie Ferzli called accusations
that his or Syria's government assassinated Hariri "irresponsible."
The U.S. government wants you to assume that Syria is responsible,
and the corporate press takes its cue from the government.
MSNBC noted the night after
the killing "growing suspicion that Damascus was involved."
(Whose suspicion? On what basis? How'd it "grow" so
fast?) State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was so coy.
"I have been careful to say we do not know who committed
the murder at this time," he
declared, adding, ""It reminds us even more starkly
that the Syrian presence in Lebanon is not good." Meanwhile
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, supported the U.S. ambassador's
recall from Damascus, declaring, "I think perhaps tightening
the screws somewhat more would be appropriate. Everything indicates
that Syria is harboring terrorists." Sen. Byron Dorgan,
D-North Dakota agreed that recalling the ambassador was "a
very serious step and will be an understandable signal to the
Syrians" who "have been identified as a country that's
engaged in state-sponsored terrorism." What they mean is
that Syria has friendly ties with Palestinian nationalists and
Lebanon's Hizbollah whom Washington labels "terrorists,"
and that "tightening the screws" on Syria for that
reason is made more feasible by the assassination of Hariri---if
only that assassination can be baselessly imputed to Damascus,
which it obviously can be. (Remember the USS Maine!)
But questions:
Why would Syria, which is in
Washington's sights and trying to get out of them through rational
if constantly rejected diplomatic efforts, assassinate this man?
Even if he did step down in
protest of the presence of Syrian troops in the country?
What possible gain could accrue
to Damascus from his murder in the present context?
Notice how the Syrian government
has announced in the face of relentless pressure from Washington,
and the large anti-Syria demonstrations in Lebanon (to which
foreign parties may have made some contribution), its intention
to withdraw more of the 14,000 troops currently deployed in Lebanon
(down from the peak of 35,000 in a force originally sent at Lebanese
Christians' request during the civil war in 1976, and subsequently
validated by the Arab League). This suggests that Syria really
doesn't want to be attacked by the U.S., or provide any pretext
for an attack if it can help it---even though Syria plausibly
argues that its troops are in Lebanon to provide stability in
a country vulnerable to civil war and Israeli invasion. (By the
way, in Lebanon there is one Syrian soldier per 270 Lebanese.
In Iraq, there is one U.S. occupation soldier per 170 Iraqis.
While the U.S. indignantly demands that Syria withdraw from Lebanon,
its next door neighbor with whom it shares a history and culture,
it insists on its own long-term military presence in a nation
thoroughly alien to it, whose people have made it clear they
want U.S. troops to go home. Don't expect CNN to point out this
irony, or the irony in the fact that while Washington insists
Syria leave Lebanon it puts no pressure on Israel to leave Syria's
Golan Heights, a region of 1200 square kilometers---three times
larger than Gaza---occupied since 1967 and illegally settled
by 18,000 Israelis.)
Let me, just as an exercise,
emulate Washington's suggestive technique. On September 26, 2004,
senior Hamas leader Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil was assassinated
by a car bomb in Damascus. The Israeli government did not confirm
its responsibility, but everything indicates it was responsible
for that criminal attack on foreign soil. Israel has been
identified as a country that engages in such terrorism. Israel
has more to gain than anybody if the mysterious assassination
of Hariri abets the existing neocon plan to destroy the anti-Zionist
regime in Damascus. Doesn't it? Or, gosh, might I be speaking
tendentiously, like the above-cited Senators Hutchison and Dorgan?
Some people might actually think that's wrong.
But back to Syria. Unfortunately
it seems that in this instance, France and the U.S. are on the
same page. France, the colonial power in Syria and Lebanon from
1920 to 1946, cosponsored last September's UN Security Council
resolution demanding Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. In doing
so it implicitly backed Washington's campaign of intimidation
against Syria. This followed the joint Franco-American effort
to oust Jean-Bertrand Aristide from the presidency in another
former French colony, Haiti, and France's bloody military intervention
(initially opposed, then supported, by the U.S.) in yet a other
former possession, Côte d'Ivoire. Bush has just suggested,
in Brussels, that Jacques Chirac might be "a good cowboy,"
and it just might be that two will team up to tackle that ornery
li'l doggie, Syria. Might be some heavy horse-trading going on
as we speak.
And then Iran.
Despite Europe's diplomatic
efforts to resolve the contrived "crisis" over Iran's
nuclear program, Britain's pointed objections to any U.S. attack,
and the Bush and Rice charm offensive denying any near-term intention
to bomb Iran, we're repeatedly told that all options are on the
table. Rice pontificates that Iran must "live up to its
international obligations," as though Teheran hasn't complied
thoroughly with the IAEA and received from its director Muhammed
ElBaradei confirmation that it has indeed met those obligations.
The neocons remain determined to discredit and remove ElBaradei,
as well as Kofi Annan. Cheney and Bush, as well as notorious
neocon John Bolton, have suggested that Israel might ("on
its own" as though it does such things without U.S. approval)
attack Iran to defend its nuclear self. The U.S. sows suspicion
about the very existence of any nuclear program in Iran, insisting
that Iran with all its oil doesn't need nuclear energy, even
though in the 1970s the U.S. actively promoted the Shah's nuclear
program. It insists that Iran's perfectly legal ambition to control
the whole nuclear cycle constitutes an intention to acquire nuclear
weapons, and that Iran must not be allowed to enrich uranium.
Iran replies that while it opposes nuclear weapons as anti-Islamic,
and will stand by the Non-Proliferation Treaty to which it is
signatory, it must insist on its right to enrich uranium. This
makes an attack very likely. The "secret" reconnaissance
missions within Iran, and the U.S. spy drones violating Iranian
air space suggests it's just a matter of time. And again, it's
Year Four, in the Five Year Plan.
Former UNSCOM arms inspector
and honest Republican ex-Marine Scott Ritter stated
recently in a talk in Washington state that Bush had "signed
off" on a decision to bomb Iran in June. Apparently Seymour
Hersh will be forthcoming with details in an article in the New
Yorker. This attack would seem to be a huge risk, further
destabilizing all of Southwest Asia and undoing any recent improvements
in the trans-Atlantic relationship. But perhaps the calculation
is as follows. Despite the love-fest underway in Europe this
week, the affirmations of the historic alliance rooted in common
values, the neocon project will proceed. Europe will protest
and NATO will suffer. Bush's team will risk that. They will woo
France with a big role in Syria and Lebanon, and if the attack
on Iran somehow leads to regime change, they'll divvy up the
spoils there, as in Iraq, with loyal Britain. They will still
get their empire, still come out with a strengthened hand vis-à-vis
all rivals including the protesting Europeans, and still enhance
the security of Israel. Their rosy scenario could be ruined if
the people of the region (always left out of the imperialists'
equations) do as they've done in Iraq and violently resist. But
even then the imperialists might take it in stride; at just 1,500
U.S. dead in Iraq, and 155 in Afghanistan, the conquest of Southwest
Asia so far has been a bargain.
* * * *
Scott Ritter, in the talk mentioned
above, also dropped this bombshell: he said that U.S. officials
falsified the January 30 Iraqi election results to reduce the
United Iraqi Alliance (i.e., Shiite) percentage of the vote from
56% to 48%. This is of special interest to me; on a CounterPunch
piece posted February 14, I posed merely for discussion the
question, "Why, when it had been widely predicted that the
Shiites' United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) would win about 60% of the
vote, did it only get 48%?"
Just seemed fishy to me then.
Now I'm trying to imagine how Shiites are going to feel if they
indeed come to believe that they were ripped off big time by
the supposed champions of "democracy." Please, Scott,
give the world the details.
* * * *
February 26
I see that Reuters reports
today: "In its drive to stop Iran gaining any ability to
make nuclear weapons, the United States is ready to give European
allies only until June to cajole Tehran before Washington
seeks U.N. sanctions, U.S. diplomatic documents show." So
June it will be then.
And now another godsend to
those salivating over an attack on Iranian ally Syria: the suicide
bombing in Tel Aviv that killed at least four Israelis. Hamas,
Islamic Jihad and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, who typically
like to take credit for what they really do, have all denied
responsibility. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas,
without naming anyone, attributes the attack to "a third
party," lending support to the thesis immediately floated
in the western press: Hizbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militia,
is the culprit. But Hizbollah has indignantly denied responsibility.
Cui bono? The U.S. and Israel depict Hizbollah
as a terrorist organization backed by Syria. Actually, Syrian-Hizbollah
ties are complicated historically, but Washington sees both as
"evil." Hizbollah, rooted in Lebanon's vast Shiite
community (40% of the Lebanese population) has indeed flourished
while Syrian troops have maintained their presence in the country.
Having inflicted a humiliating defeat on Israeli aggressors in
2000, forcing them to withdraw from southern Lebanon, Hizbollah
continues to attack the Israeli state, proudly and openly. But
again, it denies involvement in yesterday's attack.
I'm going to go out on a limb
and prophesize, hoping my prophesy is wrong. But I just betcha.
Bush will run with this "Hizbollah did it" thesis;
it will become a "Syria did it" thesis, and while in
the real world the Syrian regime tries to avoid doing anything
that might abet Washington's project to overthrow it, Washington
and Tel Aviv will take some action soon to inflict some punishment
for unproven crimes. No matter that even Bob Novak declares there's
"absolutely not a scintilla, not a shred of evidence to
connect Syria with the assassination of the former Lebanese prime
minister. None. Zero."
Before Bush's Tribunal of
Freedom and Godliness, Syria stands guilty until proven innocent.
The sentence on its regime was pronounced even before this Year
Four, as was the sentence on Iran. The plan is to execute both
before Year Five. "This notion that the United States is
getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous," declared
Bush in Europe. "Having said that, all options are on the
table." Indeed all the cards are on the table, they are
all ridiculous, because they're all in the same suit, all marked:
"Attack!"
* * * *
Later Saturday night, 10:10
EST. MSNBC headline: "Israel Blames Syria for Tel Aviv Attack."
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is blaming Islamic Jihad.
So maybe I was wrong in predicting that the fault would gravitate
from Hizbollah to Syria. Maybe the more vilified party, and bridge
to the targeted Damascus regime, will be Islamic Jihad. Recall
how in October 2003 Israel bombed
Syria following an Islamic Jihad attack on a restaurant in
Haifa.
Today, according to MSNBC,
Mofaz "did not immediately threaten retaliation against"
Syria. But the attribution of fault is now official, and I again
prophesy: Israel will hit Syria, with full U.S. multi-party support,
as the neocons in Washington ponder how to best achieve hegemony
over the "Greater Middle East."
* * * *
Sunday morning: The Independent
now reports that "Islamic Jihad also reversed earlier denials
of involvement by claiming responsibility on a website. 'Thank
God for the courageous martyr Abdullah Saeed Badran, 21, from
Tulkarem who managed to blow himself up at the entrance to the
Stage nightclub on the coast of Tel Aviv, killing or wounding
more than 50 Zionists,' the statement said."
I wonder about that "also,"
which pops out oddly in the body of the text, implying that this
news is part of an accumulation of evidence indicting Syria and
Islamic Jihad for the Tel Aviv bombing. But the bulk of the article
suggests that Syria indeed has no connection to the attack and
is making every effort to dissociate itself from it. It cites
a Syrian statement that Islamic Jihad's Damascus offices have
been shut down. (This action was taken many months ago on the
demand of Colin Powell.) The article notes that despite the website
claim, "there is still uncertainty" about "who
had recruited" Badran. It states that "there is no
immediate sign of [Israeli] military reaction" against Syria.
But recall how Richard Perle
stated following Israel's attack on Syria in October 2003: "I
am happy to see the message was delivered to Syria by the Israeli
air force, and I hope it is the first of many such messages."
Recall how Paul Wolfowitz stated,
"There will have to be change in Syria, plainly."
How John Negroponte said, "Syria
is on the wrong side in the war on terrorism," and how Colin
Powell declared, "if President Assad chooses not to respond
[to U.S. demands], if he chooses to dissemble, if he chooses
to find excuses, then he will find that he is on the wrong
side of history."
Recall how neocon heavy John
Bolton was scheduled to tell members of a House of Representatives
International Relations subcommittee that "Syria's development
of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons had progressed to
such a point that they posed a threat to stability in the region"---until
the intelligence community protested that this assertion was
just not believable.
These people lie. They set
people up. Then they attack. You just watch.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University,
and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author
of Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan;
Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan;
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.
He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle
of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial
Crusades.
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
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