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February
28, 2002
M. Shahid
Alam
Samuel
Huntington:
Peddling Civizational Wars
St. Clair
/ Cockburn
Rumble
from the Jungle:
Ecaudorian Farmers Fight
DynCorp's ChemWar
February
27, 2002
Eric Hobsbawm
The
Future of War and Peace
John Troyer
About
that WTC Memorial
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Wired
for Democracy
or Business?
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
February
26, 2002
Jonathan
Steele
Kabul's
Loss
Vasily
Streltsov
The
Pentagon in
the Transcaucusas
CounterPunch
Wire
How
Corporations Use Shadowy "527" Groups to Influence
Politicians
Lt. Col.
Robert Bowman
ABM
Treaty: Alive or Dead?
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
A
Prayer for America
February
25, 2002
John Clarke
Interrogated
at US Border
Blankfort,
Poirier, Zeltzer
ADL
Blinks, Settles Spying Case
Alex Lynch
Naked
from Sin:
The Ordeal of Nahla
and Sami Al-Arian
John Chuckman
Ashcroft
Speaks in Tongues
February
24, 2002
David
Vest
Skate
Date
February
23, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Axis
of Evil and
Media Monopolies
Bahour/Dahan
Cracks
in the Occupation
February
22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Axel
of Evil: Sex Crimes
and the Constitution
February
21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The
Philippines: Second Front in US's Global War
David
Vest
Reagan
Clone Project?
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Chicago
School and Corporate America: Rotten to the Core
February
20, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
The
Shallow Throat Document
Kay Lee
The
Prison Guard Who Never Owned Up to His Crimes
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
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February 28,
2002
Before We Bomb Iraq
By Rep. Ron Paul
The war drums are beating, louder and louder.
Iraq, Iran, and North Korea have been forewarned. Plans have
been laid and, for all we know, already initiated, for the overthrow
and assassination of Saddam Hussein.
There's been talk of sabotage, psychological
warfare, arming domestic rebels, killing Hussein, and even an
outright invasion of Iraq with hundreds of thousands of US troops.
All we hear about in the biased media is the need to eliminate
Saddam Hussein, with little regard for how this, in itself,
might totally destabilize the entire Middle East and Central
Asia. It could, in fact, make the Iraq "problem" much
worse.
The assumption is that, with our success
in Afghanistan, we should now pursue this same policy against
any country we choose, no matter how flimsy the justification.
It hardly can be argued that it is because authoritarian governments
deserve our wrath, considering the number of current and past
such governments that we have not only tolerated but subsidized.
Protestations from our Arab allies are
silenced by our dumping more American taxpayer dollars upon
them.
European criticism that the United States
is now following a unilateral approach is brushed off, which
only causes more apprehension in the European community. Widespread
support from the eager media pumps the public to support the
warmongers in the administration.
The pro and cons of how dangerous Saddam
Hussein actually is are legitimate. However, it is rarely pointed
out that the CIA has found no evidence whatsoever that Iraq
was involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Rarely do we hear that Iraq has never
committed any aggression against the United States. No one in
the media questions our aggression against Iraq for the past
12 years by continuous bombing and imposed sanctions responsible
for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children.
Iraq's defense of her homeland can hardly
be characterized as aggression against those who rain bombs
down on them. We had to go over 6,000 miles to pick this fight
against a third-world nation with little ability to defend itself.
Our policies have actually served to
generate support for Saddam Hussein, in spite of his brutal
control of the Iraq people. He is as strong today - if not stronger
- as he was prior to the Persian Gulf War 12 years ago.
Even today, our jingoism ironically is
driving a closer alliance between Iraq and Iran, two long-time
bitter enemies.
While we trade with, and subsidize to
the hilt, the questionable government of China, we place sanctions
on and refuse to trade with Iran and Iraq, which only causes
greater antagonism. But if the warmongers' goal is to have a
war, regardless of international law and the Constitution,
current policy serves their interests.
Could it be that only through war and
removal of certain governments we can maintain control of the
oil in this region? Could it be all about oil, and have nothing
to do with US national security?
Too often when we dictate who will lead
another country, we only replace one group of thugs with another
- as we just did in Afghanistan - with the only difference being
that the thugs we support are expected to be puppet-like and
remain loyal to the US, or else.
Although bits and pieces of the administration's
plans to wage war against Iraq and possibly Iran and North Korea
are discussed, we never hear any mention of the authority to
do so. It seems that Tony Blair's approval is more important
than the approval of the American people!
Congress never complains about its lost
prerogative to be the sole declarer of war. Astoundingly, Congress
is only too eager to give war power to our presidents through
the back door, by the use of some fuzzy resolution that the
president can use as his justification. And once the hostilities
begin, the money always follows, because Congress fears criticism
for not "supporting the troops." But putting soldiers
in harm's way without proper authority, and unnecessarily, can
hardly be the way to "support the troops."
Let it be clearly understood- there is
no authority to wage war against Iraq without Congress passing
a Declaration of War. HJ RES 65, passed in the aftermath of
9/11, does not even suggest that this authority exists. A UN
Resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq, even if it were
to come, cannot replace the legal process for the United States
going to war as precisely defined in the Constitution. We must
remember that a covert war is no more justifiable, and is even
more reprehensible.
Only tyrants can take a nation to war
without the consent of the people. The planned war against Iraq
without a Declaration of War is illegal. It is unwise because
of many unforeseen consequences that are likely to result. It
is immoral and unjust, because it has nothing to do with US
security and because Iraq has not initiated aggression against
us.
We must understand that the American
people become less secure when we risk a major conflict driven
by commercial interests and not constitutionally authorized
by Congress. Victory under these circumstances is always elusive,
and unintended consequences are inevitable.
Ron Paul, M.D.,
represents the 14th Congressional District of Texas in the United
States House of Representatives.
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