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Today's
Stories
November
6, 2004
Carl
G. Estabrook
Who Killed Cock Robin?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Green Out
Rahul
Mahajan
Fallujah and the Reality of War
November
5, 2004
David
Vest
The Not-Bush Brothers: a Fond Farewell
Elizabeth
Boylan
The Dems and Faith-Based Politics
Conn
Hallinan
War Crimes and Iraq
David
Zonsheine
Poetry and the Courage to Refuse
Cynthia
McKinney
It's a New Day!
Elaine
Cassel
Running from the Religious Right
Chris
Geovanis
First Protect Your Vote: Lessons for Democrats on Fixing Elections
from Chicago
Rob
Ritchie
Election 2004 by the Numbers
Jo
Guldi
The Beast of History is In
November
4, 2004
Sharon
Smith
The Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Lesser-Evilism
CounterPunch
Wire
Bush Voters: 2000 v. 2004
Ben
Tripp
My Fellow Americans...Get Stuffed!
Michael
Donnelly
Why Not Blame Rosie?
Vijay
Prashad
An Election of Homophobia and Misogyny
Jules
Rabin
De Profundis: the Morning After
Robert
Jensen
Politics and Professions of Faith:
"Your Rich Men are Full of Violence"
Zoltan
Grossman
Blue State Secession: the Only Solution?
Jonah
Birch
1968 and Today
Dave
Lindorff
What Went Wrong?
Jack
McCarthy
I Knew It Was Over When Michael Moore Showed Up: He Was For Nader...Before
He Was Against Him
Donna
J. Volatile
Ahoy Kerrycrats! Welcome to Our Nightmare
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bright Side of Black Tuesday
November
3, 2004
James
Hodge / Linda Cooper
The CIA and Abu Ghraib: 50 Years of
Training Torturers
Ann
Harrison
The Ghost Votes in the Machine: Voting Snafus Across the Nation
Greg
Moses
Blues for Fallujah
Anis
Memon
The Moral (Values) of This Election
Mickey
Z.
Post Mortem
Josh
Frank
The Dems Should be Ashamed
Chris
Floyd
No Ways Tired: Defeat, Dissent and the Bush Machine
spArk
Smoke Signals from Portland: Karmic Blowback and the Democrats
Friedrich
von Schiller
Folly, Thou Conquerest
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Democrats in End Time: Who to Blame
Now?
November
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Democratic Elections in Historical
Perspective: The Wrong Side Wins
Lance
Selfa
Selling the War on Terror
Laura
Carlsen
The US Elections and Latin America: Can the US Ever be a Good
Neighbor?
James
Davis
To Control the Event: Attention Bicyclists
Richard
Oxman
Getting Up with Osama
Dr.
Ira Kay
A Mental Map of the Bush Presidency
Jesse
Walker
Frankenstein v. Chucky: the Halloween Election
Thomas
C. Mountain
Election '24, Deja Vu?: LaFollette, Nader, & the "Most
Important Election of Our Lifetimes"
November
1, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and
Blew It
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate Confirmed; Press Yawns
Greg
Bates
Nader Voter Survey Results
Roger
Morris
Novel Politics: Only Fiction Can Do
This Election Justice
Diane
Christian
Death Tolls
Lenni
Brenner
Secularists Be Warned: Christlike Kerry Roams Spiritual Universe
Christopher
C. Conway
Can the Left Sink Any Lower?
Francis
Boyle
Legal Elites and the Iraq War: the Nazis Had Their Law Professors,
Too
Jason
Leopold
Rummy's Failed War Plan
Website
of the Day
Dylan Resurrects "Masters of War"
October
30 / 31, 2004
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The Long March and the Million Worker
March
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Weekend
The Origins of Halloween
October
29, 2004
Harry
Browne
No Justice for Peace Activist in County
Clare
October
28, 2004
Forrest Hylton
"The Gas is Ours:" Bolivia's
Ghosts of October
Col. Dan Smith
Rebellion
in the Ranks
Alan Maass
Jon Stewart v. the Pundits
Ron Jacobs
Ecstasy
in Red Sox Nation
Alexander
Cockburn
Kerrycrats and the War
October
27, 2004
Jules
Rabin
Crammed with Distressful Politics
Dave
Lindorff
Bulgegate: the Lies Continue
Katherine
Van Tassel
On the Home Front: Both Parties
Ignore Working Parents
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Bi-Partisan Politics of Oil
October 26,
2004
Brian Cloughley
Three
Weddings and Lots of Funerals: Atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan
William Blum
Fear
Factors
Lenni Brenner
The
1964 Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Lessons for 2004
Ben Tripp
The
Chicken Salad Election
Fidel Castro
After the Fall
Greg Bates
The Nation's Flawed Calculus
Walter Brasch
Gag the Public: the War on Dissent
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
An Open Letter to Pat Buchanan
Mickey Z.
Rumble in the Jungle at 30: Ali, Foreman and the Congo
Amir Taheri
The Boom in Conspiracy Theories
Alexander Billet
Say It Ain't So, Bruce!: the Boss Endorses Kerry
Doug Giebel
The Religion of G.W. Bush
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
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.
|
Weekend Edition
November 6 / 7, 2004
The Balfour
Decision Reconsidered
The
Cults of the Jealous God
By
J.A. MILLER
Foreign Office
November 2, 1917
Dear Lord Rothchild,
I have much pleasure in conveying
to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following
declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which
has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
"His Majesty's Government
view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours
to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly
understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the
civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities
in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews
in any other country.
I should be grateful if you
would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist
Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour
"God is on your side!"
Zbigniew Brzezinski exhorting anti-Soviet Mujahideen on the border
of Afghanistan, 1979
On the 87th anniversary of the Balfour
declaration, the time has come to talk about the elephant in
the living room. The ceiling plaster in the basement is cracked
and sifting down a choking dust. A good deal of crockery has
been shattered. And I don't know if we,ll ever get the carpeting
clean. More than three years have passed since September 11,
2001 and the media, both mainstream and alternative, have scarcely
mentioned the elephant. If the subject was broached at all, the
tones were qualified, hushed. Of late, the subject is starting
to appear with more frequency, yet still with the approach oblique.
But speak we must about that elephant, and its name is Religion.
Marx famously wrote in 1844
that religion is the opiate of the masses. How quaint that statement
now seems conjuring up, as it does, sepia-toned scenes of slaves
in the old South, barefoot and hookworm-infested, caroling that,
beyond the grave at least, footwear would be available to all
God's chillun. Or perhaps the scene described by numerous 19th
century European travelers to Palestine of devout Russian peasants
inching on their knees, along miles of rough, unpaved road from
Jaffa to Jerusalem, bleeding and in pain, sustained in their
self-flagellating pilgrimage by visions of heavenly reward in
the next life.
More than 100 years has passed
since these images were registered. No longer does Marx's maxim
seem even remotely apposite: Religion has ceased to be the opiate
of the masses. Retaining the pharmaceutical metaphor, it would
seem rather that religion has morphed into an amphetamine for
masses, a sort of political speed, if you will. No longer does
religion sedate, inuring people to poverty and oppression, making
them malleable and resigned to worldly misery. Instead religion
now functions as a political-cum-psychotropic drug, hopping believers
up, inciting them to crash jets into buildings, mow down latter-day
Amalekites with an Uzi, swathe women behind impenetrable drapery,
justify land theft and civilian murder based on a toxic combination
of ancient texts and genetics, drown small children in bathtubs
or smash their skulls with bricks to wash away their "sins".
And the religion behind such ghastly acts is almost always monotheism.
Tawhid and Jihad indeed.
So, what exactly is going on
here? It seems a fair question to ask. Why then is no one asking
the question direct? No real probing of the ever-strengthening
link between monotheistic religion and right wing political ideology
seems to be taking place among progressives. Given the current
dire state of affairs, it seems to me critical that the light
of frank discussion be brought to bear on the subject with all
due speed. I invite all progressives, religious or otherwise,
to join the debate.
For my part, I would submit
that in the several hundred years since the much-ballyhooed and
highly overrated Enlightenment, any advances that had been taken
towards secularism and freethinking have been steadily and brutally
rolled back, deliberately and with malice aforethought. And a
prime non-military bludgeon used in this process has been the
three monotheistic religions or, as I prefer to call them, the
three Cults of the Jealous God. The chief executors of this
rollback have been the western capitalist elites and lately the
American branch thereof, whose manipulation of monotheism has
been unexcelled. [Please see Samir Amin's brilliant dissection
of the origins and continued strength of the monotheistic imperative
in American political culture published in the Egyptian newspaper
al-Ahram at the following link: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/638/focus.htm].
Monotheism by its very nature,
lends itself particularly well to this template of political
control, exclusivism and fear. A single, bullying God, who trumpets
his jealous nature, institutes a myriad of regulating laws threatening
followers for any misbehavior or unfaithfulness, and sits glowering
atop a hierarchy like a violent husband in need of a restraining
order, demanding utter obedience from believers with an impunity
rivaling any totalitarian regime. Transferring that religious
fear and obedience to a temporal ruler is a natural segue. "Thou
shalt have no other God before me" is but hairsbreadth away
from images of The Leader proliferating on walls and TV screens
everywhere. Being warned that criticism of The Leader is "unpatriotic"
is directly related to having no other leaders before The Leader.
It is no accident that the Hasidim, whose very name is related
to the verb "to envy, to be jealous" are the prime
cultic bulwark of the Likud and the violent and rapacious settler
movement. Likewise, the rapture-besotted Christian religious
right provides the very bedrock of support for Bush and his murderous
policies.
Islam, although somewhat of
a latecomer to modern fundamentalism, has made up for lost time
with a vengeance. The earliest appearance of regressive Islam
in the Arabian peninsula, the Wahhabi movement, was soundly defeated
by the modernizing pasha of Egypt, Muhammad Ali in 1818 and it
remained circumscribed until brought out of retirement and revitalized
by partnering first with the British in expelling the Ottomans
and then with the Americans in exploiting oil. In 1969 I sat
in an introductory class on the history of the Arab East at the
American University of Beirut, where the Muslim professor dismissed
the Hanbali school of Islamic law with a sneer, comparing its
adherents to American Puritans, intolerant and intolerable, and
announced with some satisfaction that at least they had been
restricted in influence to the Arabian Peninsula. Look now, 35
years later, what the Wahhabis and their patrons have wrought.
So how did monotheism become
an instrument of public policy, and such an effective one at
that? How did the distinction between church/synagogue/mosque
and state become blurred? It is my contention that the most effective
shot fired across the bow of modern secularism was the Balfour
Declaration, promulgated 87 years ago this election day. The
significance of this declaration has long been obfuscated by
historians, either deliberately or subconsciously, who tend to
view it as an interesting but minor historical footnote. However,
the importance of the declaration in underpinning the current
bloody times in which we live should not be underestimated.
An obscure essay published
in Arabic in 1970 by I.N. Saad posited that the main impulse
behind the Balfour Declaration was not to win Russian/European/Jewish
support for allied war efforts as is commonly held, but rather
was a calculated attempt by the British ruling class who, recognizing
that many of the supporters and leaders of the October revolution
were Jewish, sought to undermine Bolshevism by luring Jewish
supporters away from the alarming ideology of communism with
a heady mix of religion, racially-based nationalism, free real
estate in a pleasant climate and a chance to kick around the
native population. The publication of the Balfour Declaration
on November 2, 1917, so soon after the success of the October
revolution in Russia, was no coincidence.
Lord Balfour, aristocratic
and eccentric, rejoiced in the nickname of "Miss Nancy"
derived from
his affectation of continually taking his own temperature during
lengthy parliamentary sittings. But during the days of empire,
this trademark British eccentricity often came paired
with a mean streak. Arthur's other nickname "Bloody Balfour",
in honor of his brutal application of the repressive Irish Crimes
Act, is perhaps the more revealing moniker of the two. Faced
with the Red Menace, the Bloody Lord intuitively grasped the
efficacy of monotheism to manage people and events. In authoring
the infamous declaration, Miss Nancy succeeded beyond his wildest
dreams. Repercussions from the Balfour Declaration have echoed
down over these hundred years, leaving a trail of blood and misery
in its wake, snowballing into increasing fanaticism on all sides
which culminated in the spectacular events of 9/11 and beyond.
The concept behind the Balfour Declaration active enlistment
of monotheism to combat socialism - became clarified and refined
as the century progressed and its insidious application morphed
into a malignant force which has brought little else to mankind
but hatred, injustice and destruction.
Examples of the applied concept
are legion. Meir Kahane successfully incubated the Judeo-Taliban
concept as early as the 1960s, and the Gush Emunim followed suit,
manifesting the militant Jewish fundamentalism thus released
by Bloody Balfour's promise. "Save Soviet Jewry" signs
sprouted on American synagogue lawns throughout the 1980's, in
bold consonance with the US project to undermine the Evil Empire,
an effective religious contribution to the cold war effort. Christianity
likewise performed yeoman service for the anti-communist crusade
since the end of WWII. From pledges of allegiance and opposition
to abortion to the sudden election of a Polish pope and the felicitous
subsequent appearance of Solidarinosc, all contributed mightily
to weakening socialism's grip and appeal.
The most recent application
of the Balfour principle is the diabolical American-Wahhabi axis,
pioneered by the unrepentant and strutting Brzezinski, which
created the mujahideen and enabled their campaign against socialism
in Central Asia and elsewhere, with what results we have seen.
Sincerely flattering the U.S., Israel generated an imitative
spin-off by strengthening Hamas against the secular PLO. The
fall of communism accelerated the whole process while the relentless
American monotheistic campaign continued internally throughout:
Media derision of "secular humanism", promotion of
school vouchers, school prayer and faith-based initiatives, abortion
doctor harassment and murder, a sitting president who acknowledges
in public (with nary a murmur of protest) that he consults and
receives instructions from a Higher Father. The list is endless,
and the trend is clear: Monotheism has been a spectacularly successful
tool in combating the specter that once haunted Europe.
The inability of progressives
to uncritically face and identify the political component of
religious fundamentalism sometimes beggars belief. A recent article,
published on Counterpunch, is but one example. In a "reflective"
piece on 9/20/04, Uri Avnery lays blame for the extremist "mutation"
in Judaism squarely on its "connection with the territory
[of Palestine], the soil" This barefaced apologetic attempts
to absolve both the people and the religion of any wrongdoing
and, instead, lays the blame on the land, nay, the very soil
of Palestine! Bizarrely anthropomorphizing of a piece of territory,
Avnery would have readers believe that some kind of mystical
and perhaps cancerous vapors arise from Palestinian earth that
cause normal people to go quite mad and decent religion to corrode.
Prof. Michael Neumann, took another approach recently on this
same venue, proposing the "scholarly" view that fundamentalism
is a symptom, not a cause. These pronouncements by otherwise
intelligent, progressive thinkers, if left unchallenged, have
the effect of deflecting critical examination away from the active
role of monotheism as a tool wielded by oppressive governments
to maintain and strengthen their grip. Until progressives, both
atheists and believers alike, can squarely face the capacity
of monotheism and its followers to function as a prime emotional
"enforcer" of an imperial status quo against secularist
and social justice movements and work to strip religion of its
public policy role, more death and destruction will ensue.
In addition calling for debate about the regressive role of monotheism,
I hereby propose that the single most important blow that can
be struck against the advancing tide of monotheistic fundamentalism
that threatens us all is to boldly and without qualification
support the creation of a single secular, democratic state in
Israel/Palestine. The Green Party of the United States has already
made this a
platform plank, albeit in an overly timid and qualified fashion.
Repudiating the racism and religious exclusivity inherent in
a political entity based on some kind of genetic/religious criteria
would be a splendid opening shot in a progressive effort to roll
back the long assault on secularism. I contend that taking this
liberating step would free progressives everywhere, but most
particularly in the United States, where they have been hogtied
in all their activist efforts, as Jeffrey Blankfort has cogently
argued, by their inability to properly address this issue.
Quite frankly, the notion of a secular democratic state in Palestine/Israel
and anywhere else in the Middle East scares the pants off of
the Israeli ruling class and its American co-conspirators, not
to mention their faithful, silent ally, the Saudi monarchy. Few
American progressives understand the critical fact that Saudi
Arabia and Israel have been the indispensable twin theocratic
pillars of American foreign policy in the Middle East for more
than a half-century. If one of those pillars should become secular
and democratic, the trough at which all the complicit partners
have gorged all these years would be soon shuttered.
At this point of my peroration,
no doubt many readers will fume and sputter, "But what about
_____?" And the blank here can be filled in any one of
the numerous instances of sincere, religious individuals or groups
who have initiated or otherwise struggled for progressive causes,
in the name of their faith. The examples such groups and individuals
are legion and their efforts are indeed laudable. But this is
not what is at issue. Rather, what is at issue is the importance
of understanding and criticizing the ways in which monotheism
has functioned as an enabler and enhancer of reactionary policy
both historically and in the present moment. Any efforts that
monotheists of good will make to work for progressive outcomes,
(which is their right and is always welcome) are but a drop in
the bucket towards repairing the damage wrought over the years
by monotheism rampant. The close connection between theology
and public policy can and must be effectively severed.
Progressives everywhere must
fight back against the endarkenment which has gradually but inexorably
crept upon us. To do this effectively, they must understand
and accept the role that monotheism has played in this deadly
process. Further, they must face and publish unapologetically
the bitter truth that Zionism has been a constant motif in the
whole sordid process from its very inception. To deny this reality
is to be complicit. It is time to openly call for the disengagement
of religion from public policy, to disconnect religion from state.
It is high time to prize the elephant out of the living room
and shove it out into the back yard, nay, the back forty, where
it can graze harmlessly and in peace.
We must begin to roll back
the assault on secularism now and the first order of business,
on this the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, is a vigorous,
unambiguous advocacy by progressives everywhere of the Palestinian
right of return and creation of a single, secular and democratic
state in Israel/Palestine. This is where the process started
in 1917 and this is where it will be stopped.
J.A. Miller lived and studied in the Middle East
for many years. She can be reached at: jsec_miller@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for October 30 / 31, 2004
Winslow
T. Wheeler
Spartacus Tells All
Bruce
Anderson
Notes from the Big Empty: When the Hippies Invaded NoCal
Vicente
Navarro
They Worked for Franco: How Sec. of State Cordell Hull and Nobel
Laureate Camilo Jose Cela Collaborated with the Fascist Regime
Robin
Blackburn
How Monica Lewinsky Saved Social Security
Greg
Bates
A Question of Character: What Makes Nader Tick?
Nancy
Welch
The American Health Care Crisis: an Interview with Dr. David
Himmelstein
William
Lind
Election Day: Which Menendez Brother Will You Vote For?
Brian
Cloughley
Uzbekistan and Bush Hypocrisies
Suzan
Mazur
Oops They Did It Again: the NYTs the Paper of Record and Rip-Offs
Greg
Moses
Standing at the Graves of Iraq
John
Chuckman
Osama's Endorsement
Richard
Oxman
Why Not Accept Osama's Offer?
Ken
Avidor
Landscape of Fear: When Ugly is Suspicious
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Bush, Ba'ath and Beyond
Hope
Bastian
Strangling Cuba's Economy
P.
Sainath
Tower of Gabble: Toward a Sustainable Rhetoric
Dave
Zirin
Bush League: Why MLB Owners Support the Prez
Jon
Swift
The Dry Drunk Thang: Put a Cork in It
Ron
Jacobs
The Joke's on Me: a Review of Bob Dylan's Chronicles Vol. 1
Alexander
Billet
Taking Theatre Back: Are the States Ready for "Stuff Happens"?
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Laymon, Norris, Ford and Albert
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