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May 6, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Paradoxes of Israel
Rep. Ron Paul
End Corporate Welfare, Pull
the Plug on the Ex-Im Bank
Hussein
Ibish
Devastation
Only Feeds Resistance to Israeli Rule
May 5, 2002
Jeffrey St. Clair
High and Dry in the Mojave
May 4, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Sharon
the Merciless
and Arafat the Corrupt
Sam Bahour
New United States of Israel
Alexander
Cockburn
Extreme
Solutions:
Priests and Palestinians
May 3, 2002
Arundhati Roy
Democracy and
Religious Fascism
Wayne
Madsen
Dispatch
from Paris:
Le Pen's Strange Coalition
Yigal Bronner
A Journey to Beit Jalla
CounterPunch
Wire
Otto
Reich Named to Board of School of the Americas
John Troyer
Hatemongers Try to Cleanse History:
Gays and 9/11
John Stauber
Big
Food/Tobacco/Booze
Attacks "Mad Cow" Authors
Kathleen Christison
Before There Was Terrorism
May 2, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Rep.
Dick Armey Calls for Ethnic Cleansing of Palestinians
Rami Kaplan
Israeli Soldiers Resisting
the Occupation:
Why We Refuse to Fight
Carol
Norris
Subterranean
Mini-Nuke Blues
Bernard Weiner
A Peek Inside Colin Powell's Personal
Diary
May 1, 2002
Badiou,
Michel, Lazarus
French
Elections:
What is to be Done?
Baruch Kimmerling
The Battle of Jenin as
an Inter-Ethnic War
Edward
Hammond
Hiding
History:
NAS Suppresses Chem/Bio War Documents
Kristen Schurr
Inside Gaza
Sam Bahour
Corporate
America and
the Israeli Occupation
Jacques Ranciere
Prisoners of the Infinite
April 30, 2002
Mike Leon
Chomsky,
Letters to the Writer and the Peace Movement
Dave Marsh
The FBI and the Music
Industry: Paying the Cost to Feed the Boss
Steen
Sohn
Something
Rotten in Denmark:
New Danish Government's Alliance with Far Right
Desmond Tutu
Apartheid in the Holy Land
Christopher
Reilly
Kissinger:
the Wanted Man
April 29, 2002
Larry Hales
At the Church of the Nativity
Michael
Colby
The
Times Does Brockovich:
Ralph Nader with Cleavage?
CounterPunch Wire
Bank Robs Publisher,
Vows to Repeat
Gavin
Keeney
So
Long, Frank O. Gehry?
April 28, 2002
Michael Neumann
The Jewish Left and Palestine
April 27, 2002
Dr. Susan
Block
Adelphia
Going Down:
Cover Ups, Censorship
and Naughty Accounting
Jordy Cummings
Stuck Inside the Journalism School
Pyramid
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Set
This Flag on Fire!
April 26, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Act
Now to Stop the Killing
of an Innocent Man
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Anti-Bribery
Law Takes a Hit
Tariq Ali
Letter to a Young Muslim
April 25, 2002
Francis
A. Boyle
Home
Brew? Biowarfare,
Terror Weapons and the US
Adam Federman
"And the Earth Wept"
Bush at Saranac Lake
Stanton
and Madsen
US
Media Interests:
Champions of Profit, Propaganda and Puffery
Aaron Hawley
Cop a Buzz Day in Vermont:
Education v. Incarceration
David
Vest
Code
Red: Politics and Wordplay at the Vatican
Bernard Weiner
Time Out! A Pause for Longer-Range
Thinking
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
Standing
with the Peace Movement
April 24, 2002
David Vest
State of Politics in France:
Code Bleu
Jean Fallow
A20
in Seattle:
Cops Get Rough, Again
Kevin Alexander Gray
Help Save the Life of an Innocent Man:
Ask for Clemency for Ricky Johnson
Tanya
Reinhart
Jenin,
the Propaganda Battle
Todd May
Drowning Children, Palestinians and American
Responsibility
Alexander
Cockburn
The
Loneliest Road
Nir Rosen
The Broken Home:
Revisiting Israel
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
A
Big Blow to Big Tobacco
April 23, 2002
Brian Wood
Where Is the Aid for the Victims in
Jenin?
John Chuckman
I,
George:
Gomer as Claudius
Norman Madarasz
French Presidential Elections
Absenteeism and Le Pen
Dr. Susan
Block
Bernard
Parks, Goodbye:
A Farewell to My Chief
Joan Smith
Who Will Rid Us of
These Pedophile Priests?
April 22, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
EPA
Ombudsman Resigns
in Protest
Dave Marsh
DeskScan: What's Playing
at My House This Week
Ron Jacobs
A20
in DC: Taking the
Message to the Beast's Belly
Kathy Kelly
An Open Letter to
Israeli Soldiers
Irit Katriel
Word
Games and Body Bags
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
We Come for Peace
Daniel
Bar-Tal
Is
There a Way Out?
Occupation, Terror
and Understanding
David Wilson
A Week of Coups, But Now
The Freedom Train Hits Town
Shaik
Ubaid
Today
I Was a Palestinian
April 21, 2002
Michelle Campos
Suckered Again in Israel
Mike Leon
200,000
in DC Protest Say:
"We Are All Palestinians Today"
C.G. Estabrook
Sex and Power in Catholicism
Kathy
Kelly
Gimme
Some Truth Now
A Walk Through Jenin
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Cockburn
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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
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May
6, 2002
Invasion of Iraq
It's Sooner
Than You Think
by Fran Schor
Over the last several months news reports of Bush
Administration plans concerning the invasion of Iraq and the
toppling of Saddam Hussein have appeared with relative frequency
in the mainstream media. However, with very few exceptions those
reports have emphasized either that these are contingency plans
that have not been operationalized or the target date has been
postponed until next year. In light of some recent circumstantial
evidence and on-going signals from the White House, the later
story especially, published in the New York Times, now seems
like a case of Pentagon disinformation. The invasion of Iraq
may be sooner than we are being led to believe by the propaganda
machine.
Among the more telling signals not discussed
yet in the mainstream media is the revelation that a number of
MASH units are being called up to report for duty in July. These
same units will be committed up to a 6 month period from the
July date, that is, through the fall congressional elections.
Added to this is the increasing reserve call-up of troops and
the deployment of more warships to the region, including war
games in the coming weeks with India. Further evidence of a push
for a late summer/early fall invasion is the churning out of
weapons, including the so-called "low-yield" nuclear
bunker buster bomb.
With the White House still publicly committed
to a "regime change" in Iraq, is there any doubt that
the Bush Administration is undeterred by the lack of support
anywhere in the international community for a war against Iraq?
Even the Blair government, with potential back-bench trouble,
is nervous about a war with Iraq, especially because it was unable
to generate any hard evidence against Saddam Hussein's complicity
with Al-Qaeda networks. Given the continuing unilateralism of
the Bush Administration, there is no reason to believe that the
Pentagon hasn't been given a green light for its invasion plans.
Of course, the conflict in Israel/Palestine
may be seen as a complicating factor. Certainly, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, and Jordan, all staunch US allies, have made very vocal
their criticisms of the Sharon government and the need for a
just settlement for the Palestinians. Nonetheless, several factors
have further underscored the reluctance of the Bush Administration
to push Israel into accepting the Saudi and Arab League peace
proposal. Among those factors are the hard-line congressional
supporters of Israel and the just completed pro-Sharon Joint
Congressional Resolution. Also, Pentagon hawks see Israel as
the key ally in the war of terror in the Middle East. Hence,
it's just as likely that Sharon's visit to Washington will consider
Israel's role in the invasion of Iraq since Israel's military
power may be required to keep the Arab states occupied during
a US full-scale attack on Iraq. In fact, a recently published
story by an Israeli military analyst suggests that Sharon would
attempt to capitalize on the war against Iraq to settle scores
with other Arab states and even to begin a horrific "transfer"
of Palestinians to Jordan.
While Colin Powell and the State Department
are making noises about an international summit on the Middle
East, given the intransigence of the Sharon government, it's
possible such a summit would provide a convenient forum to present
dramatic new "evidence" of some violation by Saddam
Hussein that would warrant a military response by the US. Given
the recent involvement of the US in the attempted coup of the
Chavez government in Venezuela, is it also not probable that
a pretext to invade Iraq could be manufactured with the covert
aid of US agents? This pretext would also provide a cover under
the "war against terrorism" to circumvent the necessary
Congressional debate and declaration of war. (Given the craven
responses by the Congress in this area, it's hard to imagine
there would be a majority to oppose such a war!)
The domestic fallout from a war against
Iraq in the late summer/early fall would be to once more use
the drumbeats of mindless militarism and punitive patriotism
to dominate the political agenda and muffle any sound of dissent.
Given the fact that some Democrats are beginning to criticize
the Bush Administration on domestic policy, shifting the spotlight
to waving the flag could effectively silence the Democrats and
give the politically bankrupt Republicans the only forum through
which they could effectively attempt to marginalize the electoral
opposition. Of course, such a war could also potentially criminalize
dissidents and a fledgling peace movement. Certainly, the Patriot
Act has put in place all the repressive instruments for punishing
anyone who gives aid and comfort to suspected terrorists.
While no one can predict any scenario
with absolute certainty, there should be some clear understanding
of why this Administration is hell-bent on a war with Iraq. Beyond
the transfer of massive amounts of tax monies to the wealthy,
the only real substantive imperative pushing policy for the Bush
Administration is expanding the military and elaborating further
the role of US hegemony throughout those areas of the world where
oil is a fundamental resource. With so many members of the Bush
White House bathed in the politics of oil (George W., Cheney,
Rice, etc.), there is certainly an economic interest in taking
out Saddam Hussein and putting in power a more pliant regime,
ala Afghanistan. Also, given the conflicts of interest inside
this Administration with the military-industrial complex (e.g.
the Rumsfeld-Carlucci-Carlyle connection), there is an overwhelming
push for deploying more and more weapons and troops around the
world.
Of course, there should be no illusions
that an invasion of Iraq would be an easy "victory."
One Pentagon study pointed to an "acceptable" death
rate of 20,000-30,000 US soldiers. The arrogance of such chilling
scenarios is further compounded by the lack of estinates of the
number of "acceptable" Iraqi deaths. Given that this
and previous Administrations have been willing to sanction the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians by the withholding
of vital medicines and materials, what number of actual deaths
by missiles, bombs, and even potentially "low-yield"
nuclear weapons would the Bush Administration tolerate? What
level of disruption in the Middle East and potential blowback
would be tolerable? Given the near-religious zeal of Pentagon
hawks and evangelical fervor by Bush himself in fulfilling his
destiny to rid the world of one of the linchpins the "axis
of evil," it's not difficult to imagine the moral blindness
and near insanity of such policy-makers in their pursuit of war
against Iraq.
The final question remains whether the
citizens of the United States would tolerate such a maniacal
war in their name. Certainly, the passions of the Middle East
will be inflamed. No doubt what's left of the left in Europe
will be in turmoil over an invasion of Iraq. How quickly and
effectively an opposition will mobilize in the US will, to some
extent, determine how homicidal the Bush Administration will
be in its warmaking. Unfortunately, unless there is some totally
unforeseen circumstances, there will be an invasion of Iraq sooner
than later. And the sooner we plan to try to stop the war, or,
at least, deter the worst ravages of such a war, the better for
all concerned.
Fran Shor
teaches at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is an anti-war
activist and member of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.
He can be reached at: f.shor@wayne.edu
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