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Today's
Stories
September 21,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Attention
Deficit America
September 20,
2004
Cockburn /
Buncombe
Get
Fallujah
David Price
Relying
on Phonies: What If The Problem with Phone Polls is That They
Are Phone Polls
Dave Lindorff
How
Dems Fight: Tigers Against Nader, Pussycats Against Bush
Harry Browne
Pre-Nup at Leeds: Talked Out, But Does IRA Give Up?
Mark Wesibrot
Bush's
Ownership Society: No Taxes for Owners, Only Workers
Karyn Strickler
The Keys to the White House v. the Shrum Curse?
Uri Avnery
The Temple Mount Bombers
September 18
/ 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
Septemeber
17, 2004
Ray McGovern
Gossing
Over the Record
Patrick Cockburn
The New Iraqi Economy: Baghdad's Thriving Kidnapping Industry
Lee Sustar
The State of Working America: an Autopsy of the American Dream
Mike Whitney
John Kerry: 195 Lbs. of Political Helium, Not an Ounce of Sincerity
Victor Kattan
Black September
Ray Hanania
Israel's Demographics
Greg Bates
Nader's Victories: a Mid-Campaign Assessment
Website of
the Day
The Road to Hell
September 16,
2004
Landau / Hassen
Meet
the New Villain: Syria
Joanne Mariner
Inside
Darfur: a Photo Essay
Patrick Cockburn
US
Offers Conflicting Accounts of Baghdad Bloodbath
Greg Moses
Four Million Children Might Be News
Joshua Frank
Nader in the Battleground States
Christopher Brauchli
The Bush Drug Lottery Flops
David Himmelstein
Folke Bernadotte: a Rosh Hashonah Remembrance
Website of the Day
The Abu Ghraib Index
September 15,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Hell
on Haifa Street
Ron Jacobs
Oppose War, Not Just Bush
David Lindorff
Blanking Out Dissent
Joanne Mariner
Talking About Darfur: Is Genocide Just a Word?
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein
An Open Letter to Madonna: Please Don't Support Israeli Apartheid
Dave Zirin
Is the NFL Ready for Us?
Yigal Bronner
"They
Are Building Walls Around Us"
September 14,
2004
Gary Leupp
The
Problem of Chechnya
Jennifer van
Bergen
What's
Wrong with Torture?
Stan Goff
Wake Up and Smell the Jungle Rot
Patrick Cockburn
The
Punishment of Fallujah: US Precision Strickes...on Ambulances
Anis Memon
Nader
in Michigan
Michael Donnelly
The Nuance Comes Off: Former Naderites Beg for Kerry Votes
Werther
Zell Miller: the Peckerwood Pericles
Website of
the Day
Osama Bin Forgotten?
September 13,
2004
Gabriel Kolko
Elections,
Alliances and the American Empire
Phillip Cryan
How Do You Say "Death Squad?": Language in Colombia's
War
Patrick Cockburn
One of Baghdad's Bloodiest Days: "I'm a Journalist! I'm
Dying! I'm Dying"
Noah Leavitt
The War on Civil Liberties
Robert Jensen
Highjacking Catastrophe: Bush, the Neo-Cons and 9/11
Mike Whitney
Alan Greenspan: Fed-Master to the Wealthy
John Chuckman
Stop Talking About the "Election"
Mike Burke
Kerry/Edwards Website Censors Discussion of Israel/Palestine
Issues
CounterPunch
Wire
The Quotations of David Cobb: "I Don't Care How Many Votes
I Get"
Website of the Day
Keep It In Your Pants: the Bush Plan to Combat Teen Promiscuity
September 11
/ 12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Swatting
at Flies
Fred Gardner
Yet Another Prozac Scandal
Saul Landau
When Our Assassins Go Free
Jennifer Van Bergen
How to Beat Bush: a Simple Strategy for the Average American
Roger Burbach
/ Jim Tarbell
The Real Dead Enders: Iraq and the Crisis of Empire
Christopher Reed
9/11 in an Historical Context: a Minor Event When Compared to
Worldwide War Casualties
Francisc Catalin
An ABC of American Interventions
Carl Estabrook
Big Science and Government Terror
Bernard Chazelle
Anti-Americanism: a Clinical Study
Sharon Smith
Third Party Blues
Dave Lindorff
Perhaps This Time We're the Silent Majority
Mike Whitney
Fallujah: an Iraqi Beslan?
Frederick B.
Hudson
Their Sons Perished in the Flames, But Not Their Faith
Mickey Z.
Round Up the Usual Suspects: a Look Back at 9/11
Ron Jacobs
Redneck Music for the New Century
Greg Moses
Soap Opera Moments in Texas School Funding Trial
Benjamin Dangl
/ Andrew Kennis
An Interview with Leslie Cagan
Poets Basement
Del Papa, Albert, Gelman
September 10,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
Disappointment
at Samarrah?
Michael Donnelly
Democrats v. Democracy
Alan Farago
Mosquitoes in a Hurricane
Doug Giebel
Karl Rove's Terror Playbook
Mike Whitney
Bob Graham's Political Tsunami
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
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 for More Stories.
|
September 21, 2004
"We Are
Not Secure"
Kerry's
"Unwavering Commitment" to Securing a Middle East Realm
By
GARY LEUPP
Kofi Annan, who replaced Egypt's Boutros
Boutros-Ghali as UN Secretary-General in 1996 (due solely to
a U.S. veto of a second Boutros-Ghali term, probably resulting
from the secretary-general's support for Palestine) has for the
last eight years avoided antagonizing the sole remaining superpower.
But even the soft-spoken, controversy-shy, aristocratic Ghanaian
recently told the BBC that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was "illegal."
This was immediately treated
by the U.S. corporate press as somehow controversial,
while the U.S., U.K. and Australia indignantly sought clarification.
But leading war advocate and neocon Richard Perle had informed
a London audience last November that "international
law" (if observed) would in fact have prevented the
U.S. invasion. Most of the world already knew the Iraq attack
was criminal, as did at least some of the proud criminals themselves.
So one might expect that, here in das Heimatland, the
presidential candidate from the Democratic Party (the rank-and-file
of which oppose the war), would duly mention this in his campaign
homilies. But no; instead we get from John Kerry the (accurate)
accusation that "Bush misled this nation into war,"
along with the (dubious) assertion that the Massachusetts senator
has a "plan to end the war" in Iraq "within four
years," i.e., sometime during his presidency, having made
sure it is not "a haven for terrorists."
It seems Kerry wants to ensure
that the whole Middle East is free of "terrorists"
(as the State Department selectively and idiosyncratically defines
them) as a result of "reforms" he wishes to undertake
during the presidency he so ineptly seeks. In an article published
in Forward ("legendary name in American journalism
and a revered institution in American Jewish life") August
27 entitled, "An
Unwavering Commitment To Reforming the Middle East,"
the power-aspirant definitively set down his thoughts on the
region, making it clear that he is committed to precisely
the same world-transforming agenda as that of his rival.
He begins with the statement, "Across the Middle East,
the United States and Israel are facing a range of crucial security
challenges."
[Comment.] This is true, of
course, and since Kerry is here addressing a largely Jewish audience,
he can justifiably focus on common U.S.-Israel goals as he sees
them. But he might have added that all the countries in
the Middle East are facing security challenges. Citizens of any
nation who happen to live or travel in, for example, insecure
war-ravaged Iraq, discontented Saudi Arabia, or insurrection-challenged
Turkey are insecure. Syria and Iran face the ultimate security
challenge: U.S. or U.S.-Israeli attack. Palestinians face numerous,
daily security challenges, even the prospect of the "ethnic
cleansing" of the West Bank. Kerry's piece means to say,
and were thus better titled, "An Unwavering Commitment To
Reforming the Middle East to Meet Security Challenges to the
U.S. and Israel in that Region So Hostile to Us Both."
Kerry immediately refers to
Saudi Arabia, which (notwithstanding the July 2002 Defense Policy
Board briefing sponsored by Richard Perle, which proposed regime
change in the kingdom and called it both "the
strategic pivot" of the Middle East and an "enemy
of the USA"), has been on the margins of the Bush world-transforming
program. (This is not, as Michael Moore hints in Fahrenheit
9-11, because of some conspiracy involving the Bush family
and House of Saud, but because the administration---having embraced
the neocons' approach to Iraq, Iran, Syria and Palestine--sees
little advantage in demonizing the Saudi kingdom at this time.)
But perhaps because the Bushites haven't adequately claimed the
cause of Saudi change, Saudi Arabia has emerged as Kerry's pet
target. "We are not secure," he declares, "while
Saudi donors fund terror"
[Comment.] Of course the Saudi
regime, probably the main target of al-Qaeda, wants very
badly to eradicate terror cells on Saudi soil, and seems to be
bending over backwards to meet U.S. demands for specific measures
against Saudi organizations, citizens, and religious and financial
institutions that support "terrorism." This is to
protect itself, and also to deflect the heat Riyadh has felt
unremittingly since 9-11. U.S. officials routinely express thanks,
adding, "But still not enough!" To really be enough,
Saudi efforts would have to include a termination for support
of Palestinian organizations which Washington (but not
Arab opinion) see as "terrorist" in relation, not to
the U.S., but towards Israel (which it must be emphasized remains,
technically speaking, a separate country). But the latter two
are conflated in Kerry-thought as surely as they are in Bush-thought.
Nor are we secure, the Massachusetts
senator continues, "while Iran pursues a nuclear weapons
program"
[Comment.] Not that we (Americans)
would be secure if it didn't, or if it (like at least
eight other nations) did actually have one. Security is
of course a relative concept, and as such rhetorically manipulable.
But the U.S. itself would be little more at risk if Iran had
nukes than it has become since Pakistan acquired them. (When
was the last time you lost sleep worrying about Pakistani nukes?)
The above "we," in any case, is not the U.S. but "the
United States and Israel" and it is fair to say that Iranian
nukes would indeed make Israel less secure militarily, especially
if in future it does something particularly offensive to the
whole world, such as re-invade Lebanon, or Syria, or expel Palestinians
from the West Bank. Israel would at least be obliged to factor
into policy the nuclear status of a rival power. But that's what
many nations, including all of nuclear Israel's neighbors, have
had to do for some years now.
Nor are we secure, declares
Kerry, "while Syria sponsors terrorist operations."
[Comment.] This refers to
Syria's hospitality towards Palestinian militant groups and Lebanon's
Hizbollah. Hizbollah attacked U.S. forces during Reagan's ill-fated
intervention in Lebanon in the early 1980s, viewing the U.S.
presence as an extension of the Israeli invasion, which produced
an international outcry and was widely condemned in Israel itself.
If one wants to stoke American security fears about Syria, one
only has to conflate Hizbollah with Syria (even though its ties
have been more with Iran), and (having labeled any resistance
to the U.S. occupation of Iraq as "terrorist"), with
the Iraqi and "foreign" resistance fighters in the
neighboring country. The fact is, Syria does not want to be invaded,
and fearing invasion, is inclined to cooperate with the U.S.
(President Assad's aide Mohammed Nassif actually met with Richard
Perle and Wolfowitz aide Jaymie Durnan in January 2002 to try
to negotiate a rapprochement; the neocons were not interested
in these, or Iraqi peace overtures.) http://www.counterpunch.org/leupp11102003.html
Syria has cooperated in the fight against al-Qaeda. But Washington,
having pronounced Damascus "on the wrong side of history,"
and applauded Israeli attacks on the country, wants nothing other
than regime change. Kerry wants it too.
"We are not secure,"
adds Kerry, "while Iraq is at risk of becoming a haven for
terrorists."
[Comment.] At risk?
Any competent analyst knows that Iraq has long since, in the
wake of invasion, become such a haven. Even if stories of "foreign"
(Arab) fighters, such as al-Zarqawi's group, are exaggerated,
and even if many described as "terrorists" are really
legitimate Iraqi resistance fighters, surely in its very disorder,
occasioned by unpopular occupation, Iraq attracts or produces
"terrorists" as it never did under Saddam's brutal
rule. 30,000 civilian deaths can generate a lot of enraged relatives
inclined to wreak vengeance, with what some would call "terrorism,"
on American troops, their allies and Iraqi collaborators. The
longer the U.S. remains in Iraq, the less secure and more terror-targeted
American troops will be. And the longer the war lasts, the more
hatred it will generate globally towards the U.S. government,
if not the American people, although some people don't distinguish
between the two. Indeed we are not secure, because George Bush's
policies are churning out terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
"And," Kerry continues:
"we are not secure while Israel, the one true democracy
in the region, remains the victim of an unrelenting campaign
of terror."
[Comment.] This is a democracy
premised on a Jewish majority and Jewish privilege, which must
not be threatened by the return of Palestinian refugees, or even
by natural demographic trends that will inevitably produce a
(voting) Israeli Arab majority population within decades, unless
the situation is carefully engineered to sustain the Zionist
project. Like Athenian democracy, it may allow for the passionate
airing of alternate views. But it excludes from participation
several million affected by its decisions. Is a "true
democracy?" I suppose it's as true as the Athenian, or that
of the early U.S.A., the latter of course excluding the female,
the African, the propertyless, and the populations subject to
"Indian removal." There is a connection between the
nature of this "democracy" and the terror it confronts.
"If we continue without
a more effective strategy [to deal with Saudi Arabia, Syria,
Iran, and Palestine] we are not supporting our ally as best we
can."
[Comment.] Kerry is saying:
I can better implement the basic Bush plan than he can.
"For too long," he
thunders, "America has not led, and Iran's program has advanced.
Let me say it plainly: a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable.
I believe we must work with our allies to end Iran's nuclear
weapons program and be ready to work with them to implement a
range of tougher measures, if needed."
[Comment.] Totally on board
John Bolton's program! Kerry boasts that he co-sponsored in the
Senate the "Syria Accountability Act" pushed for by
Bolton, and unlike Bush will not delay in imposing further sanctions
against Syria.
Further, he will lessen U.S.
dependence of Middle East oil, presumably so that his administration's
policies won't be hobbled by the need to cooperate with some
of the above-named regimes. He will "use bold diplomacy
to get governments to recognize the growing crisis of resurgent
anti-Semitism, and take action to deal with it ---not hide it."
I don't know whom he refers to here as hiding this problem, but
he declares "I will support the creation of an office within
the State Department dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, as
well as adding reporting on acts of anti-Semitism around the
world to the State Department's annual human rights reporting."
[Comment.] Sounds fine in principle,
although he's talking about tax dollars, and about a concept
often misapplied and debated. (Should the State Department take
a stand on Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ? Or
on the media's handling of the Israeli spying investigation?)
One might wonder whether an office to combat Islamophobia around
the world (and especially in this country) might be just
as needed and valuable at this time. Or why not a State Department
office dedicated to fighting homophobia globally?
Kerry supports Ariel Sharon's
announced withdrawal from Gaza. But: "The success of the
withdrawal," he states, "also requires a real Palestinian
effort to establish security---to ensure Gaza does not remain
a haven for terrorists to launch attacks on Israel. Experience
has made very clear that for the Palestinians to meet this key
test, new Palestinian leadership is required, as Yasser Arafat
has proven himself not to be a partner for peace."
[Comment.] Plainly, should
the withdrawal not occur, Kerry will blame the Palestinians and
their democratically elected leader. Since the intifada
will likely continue (the Palestinian Authority police apparatus,
vitiated as it has been by Israeli attack, is probably unable
to suppress it even if it wanted to), a President Kerry will
be content to have the illegal settlers stay.
Kerry embraces the wall the
world condemns, specifically joining the neocon unilateralists
and declaring that the International Court of Justice should
not discuss the matter. "I believe that we must stand with
Israel, supporting our ally's right to build a security fence
and to allow its own Supreme Court---not the International
Court of Justice---to address the issue of the route of the fence."
Kerry will work with "the Palestinian community" to
"empower new, responsible Palestinian leadership committed
to a permanent end to terror and promotion of democracy."
He agrees with Bush that the current leadership is not so committed,
and that new, "responsible" leaders wait in the wings
for help from the Americans (who've been so helpful and evenhanded
all these years).
Kerry says he "will never
compromise America's special relationship with our ally Israel,"
and will "as Presidentnever pressure Israel to make concessions
that will compromise its security."
[Comment.] Kerry (who once
strutted and fretted his antiwar hour on the stage, that message
heard no more when it became useful to depict his Vietnam war
record as "heroism") is in effect telling his supporters:
I, reporting for duty as
your Commander in Chief, will pursue the same objectives as my
predecessor. I, like him, offer unwavering, unconditional support
to Israel in its confrontation with Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese,
Iranians and anybody else, recognizing the political expediency
of this stance, and understanding that a contrary position would
mean political suicide. I will depict Arab nations not firmly
aligned with the U.S., and even some that are, as enemies or
threats. I will do the same with Iran. I will unite with my supporters
in criticizing Bush's "handling" of the war, but I
will not challenge the assumption that the U.S. should now remake
Iraq so that its government is friendly to both the U.S. and
Israel. Not to do so---to suggest that we merely withdraw and
leave Iraqis to local emerging leadership that might continue
to dispute the very legitimacy of the Israeli state, and/or insist
on a role of Islam in official life that might encourage anti-Zionism---would
hurt my candidacy.
Kerry's campaign is obviously
responsive to the enormously influential pro-Israel lobby, that
draws primarily on Southern Christian fundamentalist voters.
But I don't think his (or the Bush administration's) stance on
Iraq is actually determined by that lobby, and the Israeli question.
The issue, rather, is this: In the aftermath of the Cold War,
and the U.S. emergence as the sole (military) superpower declining
vis-à-vis Europe and East Asia as an economic power, how
should the U.S. deal with complicated, politically divided and
vulnerable, oil-rich Southwest Asia? Washington could leave the
region to its own leaders' devices (as international law suggests
it do), or it can impose "regime change" such as it
has already achieved in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush policy
has been to damn the world, the United Nations, the Vatican and
all who noted the obvious (that the invasion of Iraq was illegal),
and to bully a handful of allies into significant cooperation
in the Iraq occupation, while aspiring to acquire the lion's
share of contracts for reconstructing what it has destroyed and
punishing war-foes by threatening to cancel the Saddam regime's
contractual obligations to them. The Kerry policy is to reconcile
Europe (Russia, Germany, France) by promising to split the Iraqi
pie in exchange for "peace-keeping" troops who will
share the cost of ongoing, "globalized" occupation,
and to treat Syria and Iran as problems to be confronted through
consultation with allies. This is the nuanced difference between
the two candidates running for president on the ticket of U.S.
imperialism, who while appealing to all politically powerful
constituencies interested in the Middle East, represent rival
factions of an ideologically unified, ruling "two party
system" that they'd like to export (under the brand name
"Democracy") to the complicated and resistant outside
world.
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
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
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