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Today's
Stories
June
3, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Palestinian Misery in Perspective
June
2, 2004
Brian
Cloughley
The Liars are Winning
Ray
McGovern
How Far Would They Go? Beware "Credible
Intelligence"
Josh
Frank
The Anybody But Bush Offensive
Mike
Whitney
The Afghanistan Failure: Bush's Warlord Patriots
Jackie
Corr
Iraq and Ireland: Three Tales from Butte, Montana
Robert
Jensen
The US Lost the Iraq War...and It's a Good Thing, Too
Alexander
Cockburn
"Bye, Bye Boonville!"
June
1, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Instant Karma: Bush's Sins Catch Up
with Him
William
A. Cook
Manufacturers of Fear and Loathing in
Rafah
Dave
Lindorff
Will the Times Clean House?
Kevin
Zeese
Inside the Kerry / Nader Meeting: Did
the Kerry Campaign Lie About What Was Discussed?
Jacob
Levich
Coming Soon: Return of the Draft,
a Bipartisan Production
Kathy
Kelly
Voices in the Wilderness v. the US
Government
Website
of the Day
Remind Us
May
29 / 31, 2004
Lee
Ballinger / Dave Marsh
The Origins of Memorial Day
Janine
Pommy Vega
Memo for Memorial Day
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
May
28, 2004
Rafael
Rodriguez Cruz
Curtain of Silence on the Cuban 5
Greg
Moses
Bush's Misleading Speech on Abu Ghraib
Dave
Lindorff
Dissing Independent Contractors:
Those Who Do the Dirty Work
Norman
Solomon
Leaping for Lies at the Times
Rep.
Bill Delahunt
Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Paul
McGeough
Chalabi Baba and the 40 Thieves
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India and Nehru: 40 Years After
Alexander
Cockburn
NYTs: "Maybe We Did Screw Up...a
Little"
May
27, 2004
Amy
Goodman / David Goodman
Fatal Errors: the Lies of Our Times
Douglas
Valentine
Ragging the Dogs of War at the
NYTs
John
L. Hess
The Times Confesses...Kind Of
Stew
Albert
Dellinger, the Wrestling Pacifist
Dave
Dellinger
a 1993 Interview
Christopher
Brauchli
Tax Breaks for Scions...to Hell with Poor Kids
Rampton
/ Stauber
Banana Republicans: Pumping Irony
May
26, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Goodbye, David Dellinger: He Was a
Friend of Ours
Robert
Fisk
The Things Bush Didn't Say in His Speech
Zeynep
Toufe
New Draft UN Resolution Permits Perpetual Occupation
Conn
Hallinan
Bush and Sharon: the Oil Connection
Tom
Stephens
2 + 2 is On My Mind: More Morons
and War Crimes
Derek
Medley
Protesting Gov. Bigot
CounterPunch
Wire
FBI Abducts Artist; Seizes Art
Andrew
Cockburn
The Trail to Tehran
May
25, 2004
Joe
Bageant
The Covert Kingdom: On Earth as It
is in Texas
Col.
Dan Smith
A Question of Human Dignity
Gary
Handschumacher
Visiting Lori Berenson: Time to Bring Her Home
Toni
Solo
A Developing War in the Andes
Marc
Estrin
September Song: Disturbing Questions
About 9/11
Stephen
Banko, III
A Vietnam Vet on "Supporting the
Troops"
Website
of the Day
The Wizard of Whimsy
May
24, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Dan Senor is Safe!
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Tricks & TortureGate: the
Missing Taguba Pages
Sam
Hamod
Gen. Zinni: "Wrong War, Wrong
Place, Wrong Time"
Mike
Whitney
The Wedding was a Bomb
Stan
Goff
Open Season on MAMs
Image
of the Day
A Photo from Abu Ghraib We Didn't See on the Front Page of the
NYTs
May
22 / 23, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
Colin Powell, a Political Obituary
Jeffrey
St. Clair
When War is Swell: Bush and the Carlyle Group
Elizabeth
Weill-Greenberg
Her Son Was Told He Wouldn't See Combat; Now He's Dead: an Interview
with Sue Niederer
Brian
Cloughley
America is Committing War Crimes in Iraq
Saul
Landau
Democracy in Latin America: Great for Investors; Not So Good
for People
Brandy
Baker
Feminists Stand By Their Man: Abortion, Judges and Kerry
Randall
Robinson
Bushwhacked in the Caribbean
Uri
Avnery
The Rape of Rafah
Ben
Tripp
Assume the Worst
Bruce
Anderson
News from Ecotopia: the Truth About the Wine Business
Josh
Ruebner
Why I Burned My Israeli Military Papers
Peter
Wolson, Ph. D.
Exhibitionistic Revenge at Abu Ghraib
Chloe
Cockburn
In Defense of "Troy": What Hector Could Teach Rummy
Linda
Burnham
Sexual Domination in Uniform: an American Value
Adrien
Rain Burke
War of the Necrophiliacs: Spc. Sabrina Harman and Her Corpse
David
Krieger
Charting a New Course for US Nuclear Policy
Ron
Jacobs
Turnaround
Poets'
Basement
Ford, Albert & LaMorticella
May 21, 2004
Ray
Close
The Canards of the Apologists
Christopher
Brauchli
"The Object of Torture is Torture"
Amira
Hass
Darkness at Noon
Jack
McCarthy
Camilo Mejia: Can the Son of a Sandinista Get a Fair Trial from
the US Army?
Bill
Kauffman
Nader v. Bush
Omar
Barghouti
No More Tears for America
Ghali
Hassan
Moral Failure of the "Free World" in Gaza
Christopher
Reed
How the CIA Taught the Portuguese to
Torture
Website
of the Day
Eric Idle on the Bush Administration: Fuck You, So Very Much
May
20, 2004
Andrew
Cockburn
The Truth About Chalabi
Kathy
Kelly
A Visit from the FBI
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Brown and Bored of Education in India
Tom
Stephens & John Philo
The War Crimes of Bush, Cheney & Co.
Sam
Bahour / Michael Dahan
Genocide by Public Policy
Robert
Ovetz
Ending the Race for the Last Turtle
Billy
Wilson
The Most Important Thing I Learned at School This Year
Website
of the Day
Rafah Today
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.
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June
3, 2004
A
Letter from Beirut
Caravaggio
in Iraq
By
SAMIA NASSAR MELKI
Of all the pictures to come out of Abu
Ghraib prison, the most striking is that of the naked prisoner
standing with his back turned to the camera, arms stretched out
and what seems like human excrement covering his well toned body.
Facing the man, and the camera, is an American GI, predictably
blond, predictably butch holding a menacing stick diagonally
to his chest.
Although horrifying in its
content, one cannot deny the beauty of the piece. That captured
moment of intense humiliation and degradation, pronounces itself
with all the drama and contrasting colors of a Caravaggio painting.
Baroque art, although maintaining
Renaissance Art's emphasis on the beauty of the human form in
both shape and proportion went a step further, it captured the
moment. The best example of that difference can be seen in the
sculptural rendition of the biblical story of David and Goliath.
Standing with his head turned sideways and his sling nonchalantly
thrown over one shoulder, Michael Angelo's David celebrates the
perfection of the human body through malleable stone, but one
would be forgiven if one forgets that this is the same Biblical
David about to face his overwhelming enemy Goliath. It is Baroque
Art's rendition of the same subject matter by its most prolific
artist, Bernini that denotes the difference. Bernini's David,
although as perfectly sculpted as Michael Angelo's, captures
the perils of the moment. Depicting the exact instance when David
is about to project his stone, his knees bent, his torso twisted,
his arms stretched backwards holding the sling, his jaw muscles
clenched and his eyes focused ahead, the viewer is caught in
the pinnacle moment of the whole story.
The pictures stemming from
Abu Ghraib might prove to be the images that capture the pinnacle
moment in this War in Iraq. This distilled moment of high drama
may prove to be the moment when the dynamics between East and
West irreversibly change.
The best of Baroque art invites
the viewer to be part of the artwork. In the case of Bernini's
David, it is the viewer who finds himself cast in the role of
Goliath. Looking at the pictures, the West cannot help but feel
monstrous. By viewing these atrocious pictures, the West becomes
part of the drama, the missing link in the circle of oppression.
They are Goliath, they are the oppressors, they certainly are
not the liberators.
For the Arab, more used to
being talked of, talked over or downright ignored in matters
as basic as the land beneath his feet, he finds himself the hero
of the piece, the central issue that can no longer be
ignored.
Forced to walk in a straight
line with his legs crossed, his torso slightly twisted and arms
spread out for balance, the Iraqi prisoner's toned body, accentuated
by the excrement and the bad lighting, stretches out in crucifix
form. Exuding a dignity long denied, the Arab is suffering for
the world's sins.
These two very different perspectives
have predictably resulted in very different reactions.
As the western elites were holding their breath awaiting the
much-dreaded reaction of the Arab world, they missed the point
of these pictures. In seeking to humiliate, the Americans have
humiliated themselves.
One should not underestimate
the effect of this shift in perception.
Long thought of as unworthy of self rule, the Arab has always
been portrayed as having the great fortune of residing on Oil
rich land but again cast as unworthy of his luck, hence unworthy
of his land, therefore unworthy of self rule (a philosophy that
beautifully ties in with Zionism's claim that the land of Palestine
is meant only for the Jews, God's chosen people, again a people
more worthy).
Now with the Abu Ghraib pictures
the reverse is true. It is the American that is seen as unworthy
of power and unfit to rule. Trying to write off this act as the
work of a few "bad apples", the West does not realize
that its credibility had started taking a beating a long time
ago, reaching its pinnacle at Abu Ghraib prison.
With Al-Jazeera reporters targeted
and killed, it has become obvious to its Arab viewers that the
West's version of free speech is a one sided monologue. Watching
Israel steal more Palestinian land unhindered and Sharon, the
architect of Palestinian dispossession called "A man of
Peace", whilst in an almost mirror like symmetry, the American
military behaving like its Israeli counterpart on Iraqi soil,
the once subservient Arab has realized that his resistance is
the last stop between the rule of law and the rule of the fist.
Long told that his culture
is substandard, his religion mad, his plight the result of his
own failings, the Arab is finally standing up, ready to take
exception. The West inspired respect when it held up the principles
it says it wants to propagate, without them, all that the Arab
feels is a heavy boot on his neck.
As the Arab watches the bulldozers
at Raffah render the defenseless homeless and the prisoners of
Abu Ghraib degraded and humiliated, it becomes obvious to his
part of the world that the rights conferred by International
Laws, the UN charter and Free Speech are being defended by the
Palestinian claiming his rights and the Iraqi protecting the
sovereignty of his land. If these now infamous pictures have
captured a moment, it is when the world realized that it is not
the advocators of human rights that defend them, but rather their
victims.
Samia Nassar Melki is an architect and writer living
in Beirut. Email: samianm@inco.com.lb
Weekend Edition
Features for May 29 / 31, 2004
Mike
Ferner
On Their Way to Abu Ghraib
Alfred
W. McCoy
The Cruel Shadow: the Long History of CIA Torture Research
Douglas
Valentine
An Open Letter to the NYT: Questions, Questions, Questions
Chris
White
First to Fight Culture: a Former Marine on the Marine Motto
Bruce
Anderson
The Awful Injustice to Tai Abreu
David
Vest
Get Ready for Kerry's War: the 100 Year Quagmire
Saul
Landau
Torture: the Logical Outcome of Bush's War for Democracy?
Kurt
Nimmo
Abu Hamza al-Mazri, Made in the USA
Elaine
Cassel
The Secrets of Surveillance: Ashcroft, Snoops, and Gag Orders
Will
Potter
The New War on "Terror": Protest the Torture of Chimps;
Get Arrested as a "Terrorist"
Ben
Tripp
They Fiddled While Nero Got the Matches
Dr.
Susan Block
Save Abu Ghraib!
Kia
Kojouri
Nukes, the US, Israel and Iran: an
Interview with Sasan Fayazmanesh
Mickey
Z
D-Day: 60 Years is Enough!
Jon
Brown
Correcting the Correction at the Times
Patrick
B. Barr
Pre-emptive War Insurance
Stephen
Gowans
Bad Apples in a Bad Barrel
Tom
Gorman
Gore on Bush in Iraq: the Approach May be Exotic, But It's Hardly
New
Dave
Zirin
Fighting for Boxers' Rights: an Interview with Eddie Mustafa
Muhammad
Gregory
Weiher
Bush to Arabs: "Go Get Yourself Some Democracy"
Erik
Cummings
Jung Meets Bush
Poets'
Basement
Davies, Ford, Kearney, McLellan and Albert
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