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Today's Stories

January 13, 2004

Adolfo Gilly
Chonchocoro: The Prisoner and the Presidents

 

January 12, 2004

Ben Tripp
No Stan for the Kurds

Norman Solomon
The Dixie Trap: Democrats and the South

Mike Whitney
O'Neill's Revenge

Jason Leopold
From the Very First Instant It Was About Iraq

Uri Avnery
Syria's Peace Proposal

 

January 10 / 11, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Bush as Hitler? Let's Be Fair

Susan Davis
Dangerous Books

Diane Christian
On Lying and Colin Powell

Lisa Viscidi
Exhumations: Unearthing Guatemala's Macabre Past

Daniel Estulin
Destroying History in Iraq

Saul Landau
Homeland Anxiety

Elaine Cassel
Who's Winning the War on Civil Liberties?

Bruce Jackson
Making the Shit List

Christopher Brauchli
Baptizing Hitler's Ghost

Francis A. Boyle
The Deep Scars of War

Lee Ballinger
Cold Sweat: Sweatshops and the Music Industry

Patrick W. Gavin
Hillary's Slur: Mrs. Lott?

Ramzy Baroud
What Invaders Have in Common

Michael Schwartz
Inside the California Grocery Strike

Gary Johnson
An Interview with Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page

Dave Zirin
An Interview with Marvin Miller on Unions and Baseball

Mark Hand
A Review of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon

Poets' Basement
Thomas, Daley, Curtis, Guthrie and Albert

 

January 9, 2004

David Lindorff
The Misers of War: Troop Strength and Chintzy Bonuses

Kurt Nimmo
Saddam's Defense: Summon Bush Sr. to the Stand

Mike Whitney
Orange Jumpsuits for the Bush Clan?: The Carnegie Report on Iraq's Non-existent WMDs

Deb Reich
Palestinians and Israelis: This War is Unwinnable

David Vest
Disabled Vets Fire Back at Rumsfeld

 

January 8, 2004

Neve Gordon
Israeli Refuseniks Sentenced to Jail

Lenni Brenner
Dr. Dean and the Godhead

Ray McGovern
Bush: Driving Without Breaks

Mark Scaramella
Inside the DA's Office: Lies, Errors and Tedium

Yves Engler
Bush's Mexican Gambit

James Hollander
Journalists Under Fire: the Death of José Couso in Baghdad

 

January 7, 2004

Democracy Now!
Uncharitable Care: How Hospitals are Gouging and Even Arresting the Uninsured

Greg Weiher
The Bush Administration's Ongoing Intelligence Problem

Ben Tripp
The Word of the Year, 2003

Dave Lindorff
Dean and His Democratic Detractors

Michael Leon
The NYT Does Chomsky

Bob Boldt
God Talk

Ramon Ryan
Small Victories and Long Struggles: the 10th Anniversary of the Zapatista Uprising

 

 

January 6, 2004

Dave Lindorff
RNC Plays the Hitler Card: MoveOn Shouldn't Apologize for Those Ads

Ron Jacobs
Drugs in Uniform: Hashish and the War on Terrorism

Josh Frank
Coffee and State Authority in Colombia

Doug Giebel
Permanent Bases: Leave Iraq? Hell No, We Won't Go

John Chuckman
Sick Puppies: David Frum's New Neo-Con Manifesto

Rannie Amiri
The Politics of the Iranian Earthquake

John L. Hess
A Record to Dissent From

Thacher Schmid
A Cheesehead's Musings on the Sunday NYT

David Price
"Like Slaves": Anthropological Thoughts on Occupation

 

January 5, 2004

Al Krebs
How Now Mad Cow!

Kathy Kelly
Squatting in Baghdad's Bomb Craters

Jordy Cummings
The Dialectic of the Kristol Family: Putting the Neo in the Cons

Fran Shor
Mad Human Disease: Chewing the Fat Down on the Farm

Fidel Castro
"We Shall Overcome": On the 45th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

Gary Leupp
North Korea for Dummies

 

 

January 3 / 4, 2004

Brian Cloughley
Never Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History

Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time

William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11

Glen Martin
Jesus vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse

Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage

Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble

Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia

Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left

Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case

Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power

Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy

William Blum
Codework Orange!

Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara

Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA

Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler

Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100

Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick

Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes

Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis

 

 

January 2, 2004

Stan Cox
Red Alert 2016

Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans

Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana

Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?

David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth


January 1, 2004

Randall Robinson
Honor Haiti, Honor Ourselves

David Krieger
Looking Back on 2003

Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs

Stan Goff
War, Race and Elections

Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac

Website of the Day
Embody Bags


December 31, 2003

Ray McGovern
Don't Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation

Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria

Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned

Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George

Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead

 

 

 

December 30, 2003

Michael Neumann
Criticism of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism

Annie Higgins
When They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary

Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades

Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish

Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat

Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?

 

 

December 29, 2003

Mark Hand
The Washington Post in the Dock?

David Lindorff
The Bush Election Strategy

Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War

Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?

Uri Avnery
Israel's Conscientious Objectors

 

December 27 / 28, 2003

Alexander Cockburn
A Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul

Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World

Saul Landau
Iraq at the End of the Year

Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David Meggysey

Robert Fisk
Iraq Through the American Looking Glass

Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?

Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0

Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution

Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market

Susan Davis
Lord of the (Cash Register) Rings

Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California

Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish

Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce

Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music

 

 

December 26, 2003

Gary Leupp
Bush Doings: Doing the Language

 

December 25, 2003

Diane Christian
The Christmas Story

Elaine Cassel
This Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us

Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock

Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead

Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem

Alexander Cockburn
The Magnificient 9

Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season

 

 

 

December 24, 2003

M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics of Empire

William S. Lind
Marley's List for Santa in Wartime

Josh Frank
Iraqi Oil: First Come, First Serve

Cpt. Paul Watson
The Mad Cowboy Was Right

Robert Lopez
Nuance and Innuendo in the War on Iraq

 

 


December 23, 2003

Brian J. Foley
Duck and Cover-up

Will Youmans
Sharon's Ultimatum

Michael Donnelly
Here They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco

Uri Avnery
Sharon's Speech: the Decoded Version

December 22, 2003

Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks

Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?

Marjorie Cohn
How to Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue

Kathy Kelly
The Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"

 

December 20 / 21, 2003

Alexander Cockburn
How to Kill Saddam

Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy

Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali

David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole

Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis

Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the Islamic World

Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee

Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush

Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared

Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression

Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN

Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and Latino Prisoners

Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler

John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane

Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful

Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis

Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race

Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie

 

 

 

 



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January 13, 2004

On War

How 2004 Looks from Potsdam

By WILLIAM S. LIND

At the beginning of a new year, it is traditional for columnists, commentators and other harmless drudges to take a look at their crystal ball and forecast what the year may bring. Fortunately, I have superior technology. My home telephone was made in 1918. When I need to see down the road a bit, I just call the Kaiser (he is, after all, my reporting senior). I got through to Potsdam a few nights ago, and here is what der Allerhoechste thinks may be in store for us in 2004:

* In Iraq, the War of National Liberation led by the Baath will diminish as the Baath itself fragments. This may lead to a "pause" of sorts in the guerilla war, which the neo-cons will falsely hail as a sign of American victory. In fact, the splintering of the Baath will move Iraq even farther away from being able to recreate a real state. As the Baath fades, true Fourth Generation forces will rise, leading to more fighting among Iraqis and an eventual multi-sided, permanent Iraqi civil war. Attacks on Americans will rise again as various Fourth Generation entities seek to show that they are the deadliest enemy of the Crusaders. 2004 will also see the Shiites play a more active role. If Mr. Bremer tries to thwart them by rigging elections (or just not having them), our troops are likely to end up with their hands full of Shiite.

* His Majesty foresees three other interesting possibilities in Iraq. First, another long, hot summer with no security and little electric power may generate an intifada on the Palestinian model; the U.S. Army's use of Israeli tactics increases this possibility, because it leads Iraqis to visualize themselves as Palestinians. Second, the morale of American troops in Iraq, already low, may decline to the point where the U.S. Army starts to crack, much as the German Army did in August, 1918. Third, when the Marines go back into Iraq, they will use very different tactics from the Army, tactics that might have worked had they been applied earlier. But again like Germany in 1918, the situation will be too far gone for any tactics to redeem it.

* The war in Afghanistan will unroll like all previous Afghan wars. The Taliban will slowly but steadily retake the countryside, while we cling to Kabul and try to prop up our puppet government. The only question is when we, like the British and the Soviets, will recognize reality, give up and go home.

* Far more important than either Iraq or Afghanistan is Pakistan, where the state is crumbling. 2004 may well be the year when it goes over the edge, handing the international Islamic jihad 40-50 nuclear weapons. His Majesty said, "General Musharraf is about where I was at the beginning of November, 1918."

* Throughout the Islamic world, al Qaeda and other non-state forces will thrive and grow. Speaking of Libya's recent attempt at a rapprochement with the United States, His Majesty said, "I had a good laugh when your neo-cons, who make my former advisors look intelligent, claimed Quaddafi did this out of fear of the U.S. What terrifies him and drives him toward other states, including America, is fear of non-state elements inside Libya. This is just one small example of the unholy alliances states will make with other states, and non-state forces will make with other non-state forces. At our last tabagie, my ancestors from the time of the wars of religion in Europe were all nodding and saying that it will soon be time for them to go back, because it will all be so familiar."

* Look for non-Islamic Fourth Generation forces to make their mark in the United States. America is now making war on the FARC in Columbia, and it is likely to return the favor. "Remember, they've got a better distribution system in the United States than the Reichspost had in Germany."

* "Your government's color-coded alert system is almost as effective as my U-boat war was in undermining your own strategy," His Majesty volunteered. "The other side knows exactly what intelligence indicators you look for, and it is playing you like a glockenspiel. When it is not going to do anything big, it feeds you false indicators to make you jump, undermining your own people's sense of security and making your enemy look stronger that he is. Of course, when something real is coming, there will be no indicators at all."

I knew there was a Zapfenstreich in Heaven that night, and I did not want to keep my Sovereign on the phone with the petty concerns of earth. But I did follow up his last comment with a final question: was "something real" likely to happen in 2004? His Majesty sighed. "Look for something big, real big, right before your election. Al Qaeda has an excellent sense of timing."

"But wouldn't that help reelect George Bush?" I asked, puzzled.

"Ja, genau," the Kaiser replied. "I guess you haven't spent enough time at court to really understand these things. As Bismarck said to me just yesterday, al Qaeda and George Bush need each other."

William S. Lind's column "On War" appears weekly in CounterPunch.

Weekend Edition Features for January 10 / 11, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Bush as Hitler? Let's Be Fair

Susan Davis
Dangerous Books

Diane Christian
On Lying and Colin Powell

Lisa Viscidi
Exhumations: Unearthing Guatemala's Macabre Past

Daniel Estulin
Destroying History in Iraq

Saul Landau
Homeland Anxiety

Elaine Cassel
Who's Winning the War on Civil Liberties?

Bruce Jackson
Making the Shit List

Christopher Brauchli
Baptizing Hitler's Ghost

Francis A. Boyle
The Deep Scars of War

Lee Ballinger
Cold Sweat: Sweatshops and the Music Industry

Patrick W. Gavin
Hillary's Slur: Mrs. Lott?

Ramzy Baroud
What Invaders Have in Common

Michael Schwartz
Inside the California Grocery Strike

Gary Johnson
An Interview with Former Heavyweight Champ Greg Page

Dave Zirin
An Interview with Marvin Miller on Unions and Baseball

Mark Hand
A Review of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon

Poets' Basement
Thomas, Daley, Curtis, Guthrie and Albert


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