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Recent
Stories
June
12, 2003
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
June
4, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal
Walks
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
John Chuckman
Blackmail as Policy
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
Steve
Perry
Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript
June
3, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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June
12, 2003
Unfit for Office
Time
for Rumsfeld to Resign
By WAYNE MADSEN
It is no secret that Donald Rumsfeld treats his
flag rank officers with contempt and disdain. Rumsfeld's latest
dissing of his senior officers came when he chose retired General
Peter Shoomaker, the former head of the US Special Operations
Command, to succeed outgoing Army Chief of Staff General Eric
Shinseki.
Rumsfeld was faced with the problem that
neither of the two active duty generals he first asked to take
the Army Chief of Staff job, wanted it. CENTCOM commander General
Tommy Franks, fresh from his victory over Iraq, decided to retire
rather than preside over Rumsfeld's plan to restructure the U.S.
Army into small mobile SWAT teams. Shinseki's Vice Chief of Staff,
General John Keane, turned down Rumsfeld's offer because of his
wife's illness.
Rumsfeld vainly looked for others to
take their turn in the lion's den. The job that every flag rank
officer covets was systematically turned down by Army commanders
around the  world: General B.B. Bell of the US Army
European Command, General James Campbell of the US Army Pacific
Command, General Larry Ellis of the US Army Forces Command, and
General Philip Kensinger, commander of the US Army's Special
Operations Command.
The deputy head of CENTCOM, Lt. Gen.
John Abazaid, an Arab-American, also turned down Rumsfeld. Shinseki,
Franks, Keane, and Abazaid could not stand the thought of putting
up with Rumsfeld and his chickenhawk advisers on a daily basis.
It was Rumsfeld's gruff manner that similarly forced Army Secretary,
retired General Thomas White, to resign.
In its typical "Inside the Beltway"
sycophantic manner, The Washington Post described Shoomaker,
who Rumsfeld selected over the heads of every one of his 3- and
4- star active duty generals as an "innovative" move.
The Post also hailed Shoomaker's experience as the head of the
Special Operations Command as fitting in with Rumsfeld's plans
to transform the Army. The Post conveniently omitted the fact
that Rumsfeld has had problems with the current head of Special
Operations, General Charles Holland, who Rumsfeld obnoxiously
said had a "case of the slows" in developing war plans
against Iraq. In Rumsfeld's world, it's "my way or the highway."
Anyone who has ever taken a management course knows that is considered
a totally ineffective leadership method by most experts.
The Post also downplayed the obvious
unprecedented nature of Rumsfeld's choice of a military retiree
to be Chief of Staff. The paper referred to President John Kennedy
naming retired Army Chief of Staff General Maxwell Taylor as
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Fine, but not even then-Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara, who had his fair share of arguments
with his flag ranks, treated them with as much disdain as Rumsfeld.
The Post also states that retired Joint Chiefs Chairman Lyman
Lemnitzer was called from active duty to head NATO in the 1960s.
NATO commander is largely a political and ceremonial job without
much military clout. That is the reason why Rumsfeld exiled former
Marine Corps Commandant General James Jones to head NATO after
the top Marine clashed with the mercurial Defense Secretary.
Rumsfeld has also stuck it in the eye
of the Navy. He had gone out of turn in having a Navy Joint Chiefs
Chairman when he named General Richard Myers, an Air Force general,
to the post. Rumsfeld has now chosen to bypass the Navy again
by extending Myers' to a second term. No wonder one senior Navy
Admiral rolled his eyes in utter disgust as he was describing
the current state of affairs within the "five-sided puzzle
palace."
And in a final blow to his officers,
Rumsfeld decided to stay away from General Shinseki's June 11
retirement ceremony.  Was Rumsfeld off
on some important military mission? No, alas, this poor excuse
for a Secretary of Defense was in Tirana, Albania thanking that
nation's kleptomaniac government for signing up to the "coalition
of the willing" in the war on Iraq. Never mind that Albania
sent no troops to the war.
When I was in the Navy, we had our share
of friendly (and even some serious) rivalries with the other
services. And while I have never been a supporter of incessant
Pentagon wasteful spending and the revolving doors inherent in
the military-industrial complex, I cannot tolerate such shabby
treatment of professional military officers by the likes of Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz, and Feith.
Shinseki was obviously referring to how
thin the Army has been spread in his farewell address. To his
troops he said, "today, nearly 370,000 of you are on point
for the Nation in more than 120 countries around the globe."
These nations include those where Big Oil, not the "Nation,"
is the raison d'etre for the Bush admnistration's foreign and
military policies: Iraq, western Afghanistan, the Gulf, Colombia,
the Horn of Africa, the Caucasus, Southeast Asia, and former
Soviet Central Asia. But Shinseki, all the professional, opted
to keep his remarks on the positive side. Rumsfeld would have
not been so magnanimous.
To paraphrase another Army official during
the McCarthy hearings, "Mr. Rumsfeld, have you no shame,
sir? Have you no shame?" It's high time you and your band
of neo-cons pack your bags and return some semblance of sanity
to the Pentagon. Every day you remain on the job, our nation,
its people, and its armed forces are put in more and more jeopardy.
We just can't afford that. Do the right thing and go.
Wayne Madsen
is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist.
He wrote the introduction to Forbidden
Truth. He is the co-author, with John Stanton, of the
forthcoming book, "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of
George Bush II."
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
Today's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
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