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CounterPunch March 22, 2003   The Refusals by LARRY DOBIE You asked this man who was a boy To take his life by his own hand, To freely give, himself destroy Upon those plains that echo Troy And see the best of men unmanned. If, after he had ceased to be, You'd set no other boys aflame With thoughts that he had fought to free Ought but his own fantasy, A task pursued by fools in vain; Or if, after I'd my self set free, Led my mad heart to its grave, You'd ceased to preach of liberty And thought, by thinking, you could save What is at birth in slavery And bound by flesh that falls away; We'd have known that you could promise More than we can promise you, And we'd be somewhat less self-conscious, We who say man must self choose If he's to stand before what is And do what he was born to do; And I'd be lying by my brothers Dead upon those plains so red, Or I'd be fighting with an other Where heroes fight, and fools led. Larry Dobie lives in Somerville, MA. He can be reached at: LDobie@MFA.Org   On The 3rd Day By HAMMOND GUTHRIE Talking heads suggest that dissenters must disclaim themselves by "supporting the troops" to privately detest--not publicly protest what they do Reality box paradox adding big brother "who-rah!" over reality's home companion night vision screen digitally exploding the laser-guided dawn in Baghdad Nausea vision throughout the day--air sickness converting mushroom clouds of death fireball carnage into world living room video games Yet, the streets are filled with hearts and souls, anti-war demands, prayers and screams resound and dissent will not be constrained by hypocrisy Hammond Guthrie is the author of AsEverWas: Memoirs of a Beat Survivor. He can be reached at: writenow@spiritone.com (C) 2003 Hammond Guthrie   Sons and Daughters of Baghdad by M. JUNAID ALAM The intent here is to impose a regime of Shock and Awe through delivery of instant, nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large --Excerpt from Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance Sons and Daughters of Baghdad Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near Stand in shock and awe At the strength of our much-burdened shoulders. Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near Watch as your homes and buildings burn Cower as the earth around you shakes Cry as your windows smash and shatter Run and flee as our armored forces gather Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near Watch the skies for the first signs of your freedom: Cruise missiles Electricity fizzles Microwave bombs 21,000 pound Laser-guided Radar-guided And God-guided munitions To bring your democracy to fruition. Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near We extend towards you our white hand Once embraced by many in vain: Indian, African, Vietnamese, And washed clean of their colored red stain. Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near Spread the good news to the hospitals To the cancer wards To the 500,000 Lying quietly in their tiny coffins And to those among you Who will soon join them. Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: The hour of your liberation draws near Rest assured--your fate is secured Prepared by the Messianic and the Chosen Inspired by the liberators of Palestine: By tanks, settlers, bulldozers, By starvation, torture, curfews By occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing By 1948 And 1492. Sons and Daughters of Baghdad: Shock and Awe is here Prepare your eulogies, your epitaphs For the hour of your liberation draws near. M. Junaid Alam, Northeastern University, Political Science Undergrad, Member of Northeastern University Campus Against War and Racism, alam.m@neu.edu   Chirac By HOP WECHSLER war is the only war no war the only war our en your in we're not n'est pas? wherefore our pétrole we won't (no more) who will liberté we will j'accuse Vichy France where are you we are you sacre bleu! who defends real Kurds? our wars only words Hop Wechsler is a freelance writer and poet whose work has appeared in RIBOT, Voyage Out, The Poet's Attic, The Philadelphia Daily News, and HiNgE (www.hingeonline.com). He can be reached at caverno@yahoo.com. Yesterday's Features Ben Tripp Blood for Oil: the Exchange Rate Cathy Breens Report from Baghdad: Mothers, Kids and Crash Kits Scott Handleman Fourth Generation Protesting: Shutting Down San Francisco Vanessa Jones Paint Them Red Brian J. Foley Patriotic Protest for Professors Zoltan Grossman After Saddam, a War on Iraqi Rebels? Philip S. Golub Inventing Demons Richard Lichtman On the Current Experience of Terror Milan Rai Blitz-Coup Pepe Escobar A Cheap Family Farce Floyd Rudmin The Nightmare at the Back Door: Nuclear Plant's as Terror Targets Chris Floyd See Rome (poem) Website of the War Iraq Body Count   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /   CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: Turkish Delights: a Pre-War Diary by Tariq Ali; The Plot to Frame the Zapatistas: Talkers and Cowards; Drugging Kids: The Plague of Neuroleptics; The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: a New Investigation. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month now. 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Take a Bite Out of Phil Knight's Bottom Line: Buy No Sweat Apparel! Alexander Cockburn Moran and the Dixie Chicks; Hitchens and Horowitz Peter Linebaugh Terror of the Petrolarchs Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Cooking Intelligence for War Anne Gwynne Anger and Tears at Israel's Wall of Apartheid Pablo Mukherjee Why Certain Liberals Love the War Adam Lebowitz The Fire Last Time: Remembering the Tokyo Air Raids Kurt Nimmo If You Care About Elizabeth Smart, Why Not the Kids of Iraq? John Ross Endgame in Baghdad: a Human Shield Returns Home to Protest Fran Shor The Grunts of Empire Ismael Hossein-Zadeh The Muslim World and the West: the Roots of Conflict Ben Tripp Support Our Troops...Quick! Dr. Susan Block Bukkake Bombing Crusade Harvey Wasserman The Emerging Superpower of Peace Anthony Gancarski Elizabeth Smart: the Face of War? Seymour Melman In the Grip of the Permanent War Economy Joe Quandt Do You Know What War Is? Adam Engel Indian Museum Poets' Basement Guthrie, Richey, Becker, Perelman and Katz March 8 / 9, 2003 Edward Said Who's In Charge? Bruce Jackson Elegy for Two Giraffes and a Zebra Perry Anderson The Casuistries of Peace and War Joanne Mariner Patriot Act II's Attack on Punishment William Lind A Warning from Clausewitz on 4th Generation Warfare Sam Husseini Why So Long for Iraq to Comply? Follow the Policy Forrest Hylton Business as Usual in Bolivia? David Lindorff Race and the Death Penalty in Pennsylvania Ben Tripp Is There a Eurologist in the House? Anthony Gancarski W's Personal Jesus Jon Elmer An Interview with William Blum Douglas Valentine The Clash of the Icons Norman Madarasz Radical Politics and the Writer: Maurice Blanchot Gordon Solberg There's Got to be a Better Way Poets' Basement Guthrie, Engel, Bernard Weekend Website The White House   February 28, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Meet the New Yorker's Chief Hack: Jeffrey Goldberg Saul Landau Now It's Personal Michael Neumann A Plea for Hysteria Karima Bennoume The UN: Tool for Peace or War? The Black Commentator The Rev. Sharpton and the Soul of the Democrats Jennifer Loewenstein Don't Turn Off the War Richard Levins Cuba's Biological Weapons: Why the World Needs More of Them M. Shahid Alam Is This a Clash of Civilizations? Clay Conrad Juries and Judges: What's Relevant? Ben Tripp Speaking in Tongues: a Guide to Gibberish in the Age of Bush Eliot Katz To Declare Preemptive War is to Declare a Bankrupt Imagination Kurt Nimmo Paying Through the Nose to Kill Iraqi Kids Matt Vidal George W. Bonaparte Mark Zepezauer Why the Right Hates America Mickey Z. The Anti----War Talk I Never Gave Jerry Kroth Jung and the Space Shuttle Revisited Shyam Oberoi Chronicle of a War Foretold Ron Jacobs What If the Firebombing of Baghdad Were a Nightclub Fire? Poets' Basement Eliot Katz and Jim Cohn Website of the Weekend Defense Tech   Subscribe Online 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