Cockburn
/ St. Clair's Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
May
15 / 16, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Green Lights for Torture
May
14, 2004
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's POW Porn
Ron
Jacobs
Secret History of the War on Drugs
William
Blum
God, Country and Torture
Michael
Donnelly
The People v. Corporate Greed: A Victory on the North Coast
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
India Shines
Stephen
Gowans
Building Democracy in Iraq and Other
Absurdities
May
13, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Where is Kerry?
Colm
O'Laithian
Torture and Degradation: Revenge American Style?
Saul
Landau and Farrah Hassan
Wal-Mart: Scrooge with Hi-Tech Accounting
Practices
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush on the Inhumane Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners
Willliam
James Martin
Deir Yassin Massacre Recalled
Marc
Salomon
Reality TV Bites
Forrest
Hylton
Law 'n Order in La Paz: All Quiet
on the Southern Front?
May
12, 2004
Blanton
/ Kornbluh
Prisoner Abuse: Cheney Warned in
1992
Virginia
Tilley
So, Who's to Blame?
Bruce
Jackson
James Inhofe, the Dumbest Senator
of Them All
Thomas
P. Healy
No Enemies: Making Peace with Bert Sacks
Linda
S. Heard
Racism and Ignorance: a Lethal Cocktail in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
Spinning Torturegate
Lisa
Viscidi
The People's Voice: Community Radio in Guatemala
Jack
Heyman
View from the Bay Bridge: Longshoremen Plan Mass Workers March
on DC
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Rummy's Reprieve
CounterPunch
Wire
Teamsters Corruption Scandal: Hoffa Exec. Assistant Alleged to
Have Quashed Investigation into Mob Influence
Christopher
Brauchli
Detention Camp, USA
William
S. Lind
Bush's Waterloo?
May 11, 2004
Mark
Engler
On the "Necessity" of Torture
Ray
McGovern
More Troops? A March of Folly
Kurt
Nimmo
Dirty Nukes and Jefferson's Grand Experiment
Mickey
Z.
Less Than Hero
Christopher
Reed
Torture on the Homefront: America's Long History of Prison Abuse
Dennis
Hans
When John Negroponte was Mullah Omar
Bruce
Jackson
Pete Seeger at 85
Mike
Whitney
Killing al Sadr
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Shrinking the Guatemalan Military
William
A. Cook
The Unconscious Country: Righteous Indignation,
Nakedly Displayed
May
10, 2004
Robert
Fisk
From Hollywood to Abu Ghraib: Racism
and Torture as Entertainment
Wayne
Madsen
The Israeli Torture Template: Rape,
Feces and Urine-Soaked Cloth Sacks
Col.
Dan Smith
The Shame of Abu Ghraib
Joe
Bageant
John Ashcroft, Keep Your Mouth Off My Wife!
Ron
Jacobs
Rummy's Prisongate Blues: Don't Leave Mad; Just Leave
Ben
Tripp
Getting in Touch with Your Inner Savage
Ray
Hanania
Why They Hate Us: Racism, Bigotry and Abuse
Reza
Fiyouzat
"Mishandled" Invasions
Diane
Christian
Images & Abstractions &
Genitals
Website
of the Day
Crushing Iraqi Skulls with Tanks for Sport?
May
8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
May
7, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
10 Prisons; 9,000 Prisoners: US Detention
Facilities in Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
UnAmerican? I Wish It Were So
Robert
Fisk
An Illegal and Immoral War
Ahmad
Faruqui
The 50th Anniversary of Dien Bien
Phu
Alexander
Zaitchik
From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib: Doesn't It Ring a (Prison)
Bell?
Mike
Whitney
The Price of Victory
Norman
Solomon
This War, Racism and Media Denial
M.
Shahid Alam
A Comic Apology
May
6, 2004
Jeffrey
St. Clair
They Did It for Jessica: Smeared with
Shit; Kicked to Death
Kathy
Kelly
May Day in Pekin Prison: Prison Labor
for the War Machine
Werther
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: War as Vegas
Casino Game
Lawrence
Ferlinghetti
Totalitarian Democracy
Robert
Fisk
"Smoke Him": Video Shows Wounded
Men Being Shot by US Helicopter
John
Janney
Torturing the Way to Freedom?
Christopher
Ketcham
Outlaw Heterosexual Marriage Now!
Alan
Farago
Dead Oceans: So Long, Thanks for the Fish
Sam
Hamod
Bush on Arab TV: Worthless and Demeaning
James
Brooks
Sullen Spring
William
S. Lind
On the Brink of Defeat in Iraq
May
5, 2004
Maj.
Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
Complete US Army Report on Abuse of
Iraqi Prisoners
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Kerry: a Lost Cause for Progressives?
Will
Youmans
Deal with the Devil: a Palestinian
Zionist and the End of the World
Patrick
B. Barr
Terrorists R Us: the Powerful are Exempt from the Label
Lawrence
Magnuson
Nightline's All-American Morgue
Greg
Moses
Pocketbook of Denuded Ideals
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Tormenting Prisoners, Torturing
Truth
Lee
Ballinger
Cinco de Mayo and Unity
Gilbert
Achcar
Bush's Cakewalk into the Iraq Quaqmire
Website
of the Day
Operation Phoenix & Iraq
May
4, 2004
Human
Rights Watch
A Timeline of Torture and Abuse Allegations
and Responses
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Privatized Torture
David
Peterson
CBS, Self-Censorship & Iraq
Barry
Lando
CACI's Private Torture Chambers
Patrick
Cockburn
Torture: Iraqis Disgusted, But Not Surprised
Dr.
Susan Block
Indecent Insurgents: Watch What You Say
Fidel
Castro
A Mindless, Unnecessary War
Mike
Whitney
Empire of Torture
Sonali
Kolhatkar
How to Stop the War: Demonstrate Against
John Kerry
Josh
Frank
The Lost Sierra Club
Stan
Goff
The Role: Another Open Letter to US Troops in Iraq
Agustin
Velloso
Spare Us Your Disgusting Ethics
Stew
Albert
American Know-How
Website
of the Day
Scenes from a Cover-Up
May
3, 2004
Virginia
Tilley
Let the Wall of Silence Fall
May
1 / 2, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
An Army in Disgrace, a Policy
in Tatters, the Real Prospect of Defeat
Robert
Fisk
"Good Guys" Who Can Do No
Wrong
Alexander
Cockburn
Watching Niagara: Stupid Leaders,
Useless Spies, Angry World
Heather
Williams
Gringo, We're Going Home: Latin
American Troops Flee Iraq
Diane
Rejman
An Army Vet on Torture in Iraq:
Abu Ghraib as My Lai?
Diane
Christian
Blood Spilling: Osama, Bush and
Sharon Speak the Same Language
Patrick
Cockburn
Seems Like Old Times in Fallujah
Dave
Lindorff
Bush's Torturous Logic: Shocked,
Shocked, Shocked
Chris
Floyd
Suicide Bomber: Neocons, Nihilists
and Annihilation
April
29 / 30, 2004
Dave
Zirin
A Pawn in Their Game: the Unlonesome
Death of Pat Tillman
Kathy
Kelly
The Warden's Tour
Greg
Weiher
Fallujah and the Warsaw Ghetto: the
Banality of Evil
Michael
S. Ladah
Terrorism and Assassination: the
Ultimate Depception
Patrick
Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
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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Weekend
Edition
May 15/16, 2004
Islam and Democracy
The Lesson from
Turkey
By JUSTIN E.H. SMITH
After Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration's
insistence that its misadventure in Iraq has anything to do with
promoting democracy should by now come across as grossly fraudulent
to any half-thoughtful, non-self-deluding adult. At the outset,
a charitable anti-imperialist could, if not share, at least conjure
some sympathy for the optimistic outlook of Thomas Friedman and
other opponents of tyranny who thought that the end of Hussein's
regime (for 'Hussein' is his surname, and he and I are not on
first-name terms) would trigger, by way of the domino effect,
the conversion of all those middle eastern, pre-Enlightenment
hold-outs into so many Jeffersonian republics. Beyond the obvious
difference, though, that American democracy, such as it is (or
once was), was born of revolution against a colonial power, and
not imposed by a colonial power, our anti-imperialist might also
have pointed out the hypocrisy of pretending to promote democracy
in the Islamic world while simultaneously denouncing the Turkish
parliament's rejection, shortly before the invasion of Iraq a
year ago, of $15 billion dollars in US aid and loans, offered
in exchange for permission to send over 60,000 more troops into
their country as part of a two-front invasion of Iraq.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz immediately criticized the Turkish military for not
playing "the strong leadership role we would have expected,"
while the body-snatched Christopher Hitchens took Turkey's refusal
as confirming something he'd long held, that Turkey is an "ally
we can do without." West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, in
contrast, courageously proclaimed on the senate floor: "It
is astonishing that our government is berating the new Turkish
government for conducting its affairs in accordance with its
own Constitution and its democratic institutions." Wolfowitz
evidently wanted Turkey to do what it indeed has traditionally
done throughout its 20th-century history: to override democratic
decisions that, in the long term, could easily spell the end
of its alliance with the US. As the great sociologist and theorist
of modernity Ernest Gellner has argued, modern Turkey's idiosyncrasy
lies in the fact that its periodic military coups really have
functioned to keep the democratic will of the Turkish electorate
and the governing bodies from straying too far from Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk's initial, revolutionary vision of what a secular, democratic,
Turkey should look like, which included, among other things,
alliance with Western, secular democracies. Amazingly, after
the civilian leaders have been roped back in and the voters humbled,
the military really does restore power to democratically elected
officials. This, then, has been a feature that has distinguished
Turkey from every other country in which military coups regularly
happen, for in all other cases we can be sure that the general
in charge, promising to restore power to civilian leaders just
as soon as order is restored, will be exceedingly careful not
to let things get sufficiently orderly to enable him to come
good on his promise. Military coups, on Gellner's analysis, are,
or have been, just a part of Turkey's unique system of checks
and balances.
Wolfowitz, presumably, and
likely without all that much knowledge of Kemalism's history,
would have liked to see the military step in at just the moment
that its new governing party began leading Turkey away from its
traditional role as a stalwart, strategic ally of the United
States. But a coup didn't happen this time; Turkey turned its
back on an ally and the military has not bothered to set the
matter right.
The religiously secular republic
created by Ataturk in the 1920s _when I taught at a state university
in Istanbul last year I used to watch female students remove
their head scarves in a booth just at the campus' entrance, so
as to comply with the law prohibiting religious dress in state
institutions_ has been compromised to some extent by the rise
of the AK Party (the acronym stands for "justice and development")
and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to presidential power.
There was some fear shortly after the election that, even in
licentious Istanbul, alcohol would be banned or severely regulated
(some of us were more afraid than others), and that instruction
at state universities would have to be conducted in Turkish only.
Bush, for his part (this before the Turks turned against him
and his bellicose scheme), praised a confused Erdogan on the
White House steps for being, like Bush himself, a man with deep
and abiding faith in the Almighty (and of course, as Bush's penetrating
work in comparative religion has revealed, this is the same Almighty).
It is of course an interesting
question for political theorists to ask to what extent a democracy
can or should allow antidemocratic movements to flourish inside
it. If too much is permitted to such movements, then they may
get what they are after, in which case the democracy that tolerated
them ceases to exist. If they are banned, the democracy is also
compromised, not by those who would bring it down, but by its
own zealous effort to not be brought down. Presumably, the more
robust a democratic culture, the more antidemocratic opposition
from within it can sustain, and this is why the protection of
the First-Amendment right to wax antidemocratic might be seen
as a reliable indicator of the health of American democracy.
And this, in turn, is why the ACLU really is patriotic, while
the Patriot Act is treasonous.
In Turkey, throughout most
of the 20th century, democracy was a rather more fragile thing,
and, for better or worse, was protected by the force of an armed
few against what could rightly be called the popular will. It
is a testament to the strength of Turkish democracy today, in
my opinion, that an Islamist party can be elected without intervention
by the military, and without any evident erosion, subsequently,
of the (limited) freedoms and opportunities that are part of
the Kemalist legacy and that distinguish Turkey in the Muslim
world from undemocratic secular states, such as Egypt, as well
as from undemocratic fundamentalist states such as Saudi Arabia.
What does this have to do with
Iraq? It is unlikely that this country, held together so effectively
by tyranny, could avoid splitting into at least three separate
enclaves if the US were to pull out abruptly. Of these three
parts, it is unlikely that any (except, perhaps, the majority-Kurdish
area) would put forth a leader with much sympathy for Western-style
democracy. The Shiites would rally behind an ayatollah, and the
Sunnis would fall back into Baathism. If Iraq is ever to arrive
where Turkey is now, it is safe to say that democratic culture
will have to be cultivated, which means in part that ayatollahs
and neo-Baathists will have to be blocked from gaining too much
power. This is a task that, under the best of circumstances,
may easily come to reek of illegitimacy, since it boldly denies
any performative contradiction in defending a political system
supposedly based on what the people want against what the people
want. If the task is to be carried out with any legitimacy at
all, it will be handed off to the United Nations without further
dallying, and preferably to Arab and Muslim states under the
auspices of the UN.
But of course nothing of the
kind is going to happen, at least not as long as the current
US administration is in power. For, as Wolfowitz's comment a
year ago about the outcome of democratic procedure in the Turkish
parliament reveals, the Bush administration can only perceive
as democratic what suits US interests. In Wolfowitz's eyes, if
an elected government makes a decision that reflects the popular
will of those who elected it, but not the will of the Bush administration,
then ipso facto this is not democracy. 'The will of the people'
means 'the will of the American people,' and 'the American people'
apparently means the cabal in power in Washington, since by their
own lights they are the ones with the real interests of these
people at heart. As Tom DeLay put it (and we might express some
thanks here to the house of representatives for giving us characters
who will say for their parties what officials elected to higher
offices can only intimate), the party in power is not out to
win any popularity contests, domestic or international, but to
secure the best future possible for the American people. 'Democracy'
has undergone a strange sort of semantic drift indeed, rivaled
perhaps only by the dazzling insistence made by hawks, and not
exactly discouraged by the mainstream media, that being concerned
about the well-being of US soldiers in Iraq can only mean 'supporting'
the troops, while supporting the troops must mean 'getting behind'
the president, which in turn means 'supporting' US foreign policy.
Ban alcohol, conflate church
(or mosque) and state, outlaw minority languages and cultural
practices. Just as long as you give us what we need when we ask
for it, we will recognize you as a democracy. As in the Cold
War, so today. The difference, though, is that fundamentalism,
the real threat today, unlike the perceived threat once posed
by the Communist bloc, is one that doesn't even pretend to like
democracy. How much more urgent a task this makes it, then, to
ensure that the term 'democracy' not be worn down into a blunt
tool of double-speaking war profiteers, but that it be made to
mean, by those of us who are horrified by its exploitation, what
it in fact means: government by the people through elected representatives,
so long as this ensures respect for social equality and individual
freedom, and even if this government by the people is at odds
with the interests of American democracy, or of the usurpers
who claim to represent it.
Justin E. H. Smith teaches philosophy at Concordia University
in Montreal, Canada. He can be reached at: justismi@alcor.concordia.ca
Weekend
Edition Features for May 8 / 9, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Torture: as American as Apple Pie
Adam
Jones
America's Srebrenica: What About the Hundreds of POWs Suffocated
and Shot at Kunduz?
Douglas
Valentine
Who Let the Dogs Out?: Torture, the CIA and the Press
Kurt
Nimmo
Rush Limbaugh and the Babes of Abu Ghraib
Brian
Cloughley
Humpty Dumpty is Falling
Lucia
Dailey
Forbidden Games
Joanne
Mariner
* * * *: Redacting Moussaoui
Mickey
Z.
Please Forgive U.S.? (There Are No Innocent Bystanders)
John
Chuckman
The Thing with No Brain
Doug
Giebel
Someone Knew: There Were No WMDs
Norm
Dixon
How the Bush Gang Exploited 9/11
Sam
Bahour
A Guiding Light Falls on Ramallah
Susan
Davis
Disorderly Conduct as Fine Art
Dave
Marsh
In a Pig's Eye: Alan Lomax, Dead But Still Stealing
Laura
Flanders
Life with Dick and Lynne
Dave
Zirin
Fans Push Spiderman Off Base
Carolyn
Baker
Why I Won't Vote in 2004
Prince
"Ain't No Sense in Voting"
Dr.
Susan Block
Onan for Two: Liberating Masturbation
Poets'
Basement
Smith, Sleeth, Ford, Albert and Saska
|