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Today's Stories September 8, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Gaza is Dying September 7, 206 Marjorie Cohn Why Bush Really Came Clean About the CIA's Secret Torture Prisons Sharon Smith Downward Mobility: No Recovery for Workers René Drucker Colín The Fraud in Mexico Michael Donnelly Bush Family Values: About Those Nazi Appeasers John Borowski Scholastic Peddles a Fictitious Path to 9/11 to Kids Lucinda Marshall Bombing Indiana Charles Sullivan Katrina and the New Jim Crow: Ethnic Cleansing in New Orleans Jeffrey St. Clair The Remaking of Cataract Canyon: Part Four Jonathan Cook How Human Rights Watch Lost Its Way in Lebanon Website of the Day Rasta! Reggae's Joe Hill   September 6, 2006 Stephen Soldz Protecting the Torturers: Bad Faith and Distortions frm the American Psychological Assocation Dave Zirin Cops vs. Jocks: the Shooting of Steve Foley Ramzy Baroud The Gaza Maze: Who Gained Most from the Fox Reporters' Kidnapping Noel Ignatiev Democrats, Pwogs and the Lesser Evil Folly Dave Lindorff Bombing Without Regrets: The US and Cluster Bombs Norman Solomon Spinning Troop Levels in Iraq Binoy Kampmark The Death of Steve Irwin and the Politics of the Zoo Jeffrey St. Clair A Premature Burial: the Remaking of Cataract Canyon (Part Three) John Ross The Death of Mexican Presidency Website of the Day Flaming Arrows   September 5, 2006 Jonathan Cook Will Robert Fisk tell us the whole story? Time For A Champion of Truth to Speak Up Patrick Cockburn Better Not Meet at the Casbah Mike Whitney The Worst Secretary of Defense in U.S. History? You Be the Judge Roland Sheppard The Civil Rights Movement is Dead and So is the Democratic Party James Petras As Bush Regime Faces Twilight Slide, How Much Havoc Can Paulson Wreak? Alexander Cockburn Will Bush Bomb Teheran?   September 4, 2006 Clancy Sigal The Women Who Gave Us Labor Day Jeffrey St. Clair The Remaking of Cataract Canyon: Part 2 Anthony Alessandrini The Great Debate about Aroma Coffee: Why I Boycott Dennis Perrin The Great Debate in Tarrytown: Straight Zion, No Chaser Daniel Cassidy 'S lom to Slum Paul Craig Roberts The War Is Lost   September 2 / 3, 2006 Uri Avnery When Napoleon Won at Waterloo Jeffrey St. Clair A Premature Burial: the Remaking of Cataract Canyon Ralph Nader The No-Fault White House Noam Chomsky Viewing the World from a Bombsight Allan Lichtman Arrested Democracy: Letter from the Baltimore County Jail Stanley Heller When Criticism of Cluster Bombs is "Anti-Semitic" Rana el-Khatib Invasion's Child: the Making of Issa Peter Montague Taking on the Pentagon: Chemical Weapons to Burn Laura Carlsen Mexico on a Collision Course Dr. Susan Block Bush Hate Rising Joe Bageant Roy's People: Why Progressives Need to Listen to Orbison, Not Policy Wonks Scott Stedjan / Matt Schaaf A New Generation of Landmines? Gary Leupp The Emperor Has Been Exposed Stephen Fleischman The Great American Oligarchy Paul Balles Has Ahmadinejad Already Checkmated Bush? Ingmar Lee Canada's $450 Million Gift to Bush: the Softwood Lumber Slush Fund Jane Stillwater Burning Man: the Good, the Bad and the Evil Twin Ron Jacobs Dylan Faces the Apocalypse, Again St. Clair / Bossert Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Grima, Engel, Orloski and Davies Website of the Weekend To New Orleans: a Photo Journal   September 1, 2006 Uri Avnery Olmert Agonistes Paul Craig Roberts Of Wolves and Men (and Impotent Democrats) Bill Ayers Exclusionary Signs of the Times Kevin Zeese The Best War Ever Xochitl Bervera The Forgotten Children of New Orleans Norman Solomon Bush vs. Ahmadinejad: a TV Debate We'll Never See Alexander Cockburn Hezbollah Denounces Nasrallah Interview as a Fake Richard Neville Rupert Murdoch's Victims Website of the Day The Uranium Flood   August 31, 2006 David MacMichael Can the Iran Nuke Crisis be Defused? John Ross Diary of the Mexican Earthquake Edward Said Mahfouz, 9/11 and the Cruelty of Memory Amira Hass The Burden of Collaboration Missy Comley Beattie Circle in a Spiral: Families at War Lee Sustar The Case of Elvira Arellano: Racism, Divided Families and Deportation Jonathan Cook Israeli Myths: Deception as a Way of Life Website of the Day The Case for Impeachment: CSPAN   August 30, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts The Five Morons Revisited George Salzman The Revolutionary Surge in Oaxaca Dave Lindorff I Am a Curious Yellowcake: the Armitage Confession and the Niger Question Leigh Davis Privatizing New Orleans' Schools Alan Maass The Crimes Katrina Exposed: an Interview with Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Slonsky Mike Whitney Pop Goes the Bubble!: the Great Housing Crash of '07 Eliza Ernshire Murder on Rucarb Street Website of the Day CNN = iPoop2? August 29, 2006 Saul Landau Misreading Cuba, for 47 and a Half Years Jeffrey Buchanan Human Rights and the Realities of Returning to New Orleans: Lip Service and Profiteering Dave Lindorff War? What War? James Brooks The US Peace Movement and Hezbollah John F. Burnett Katrina and the Media: "I Know Y'All Want Our Story, But We Need Help" Walter A. Davis J'Accuse: the Media and Jonbenet Ramsey Rich Gibson Detroit Teachers Strike Again Amira Hass The Accidental Immigrant Paul Craig Roberts Bush Turns His Terror War on the Homeland   August 28, 2006 John Walsh With Lieberman's Loss, the Lobby Takes a Second Hit Sibel Edmonds / William Weaver Hillary Clinton: a Fool's Vessel Ramzy Kysia For Israel's Security? A Visit to Houla, Lebanon Ron Jacobs An Interview with Nativo Lopez Gideon Levy The Reservists' Protest Missy Beattie Yes, Virginia, There is a Rumsfeld Virginia Tilley Putting Words in Ahmadinejad's Mouth August 26 / 27, 2006 Weekend Edition Uri Avnery America's Rottweiler Alexander Cockburn Israel on the Slide Jordan Green Profiting from Disaster: Greed Has Stallled Gulf Coast Recovery, But Made Some Very, Very Rich Azmi Bishara Israel at a Loss Ray Close Why Bush Will Choose War Against Iran: Reflections of a Former CIA Analyst Gary Leupp The Lebanon Ceasefire and the Coming Assault on Iran Ralph Nader AIDS in Black America Joe Allen Free Gary Tyler: Thirty Years of Injustice Fred Gardner The Miraculous Resurrection of Dr. John Lee Dave Lindorff The Crime of Frag Weapons David Krieger Why are There Still Nuclear Weapons? Stephen Fleischman Jurassic White House: the Reptilian Brain of George W. Bush Mary Turck Elections and Lessons from Mexico Walter Brasch Sports Afoul: Canned Hunts Jim Scharplaz Oil and the American Farmer Israel Shamir The Grapes of Wrath Alexander Cockburn About That Nasrallah Interview Charles Henderson Scientology: a Typically American Religion? Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Grima, Ford and Mickey Z.   August 25, 2006 Elena Everett The Women of New Orleans After Katrina Juan Cole Iran's Nuclear "Threat" Chris Moore Religious Motives Behind Iraq War Deception?: Revelations from the Watada Court Martial James Marc Leas How Lebanese Civilians Thwarted Israel's War Plans Salah Obeid The Price of Ignoring the Elephant Claudio Albertani Mexico Piquetero Tom Barry Gangster Diplomacy: Elliot Abrams in Jerusalem Website of the Day Congress, the Defense Budget and Pork: a Snout to Tail Charcuterie August 24, 2006 CounterPunch News Service Penis Pump or Bomb? Bum Rap at O'Hare Uri Avnery Stop the Cancer, End the Occupation Nermeen al-Mufti "The Strong Do as They Can": an Interview with Noam Chomsky Norman Solomon The Mythical End to the Politics of Fear Megan Wiles American Responsibility and Palestine Laura Santina Busting Loose of the War Engine: a Female Perspective Mike Whitney Restarting the 34 Day War Seth Sandronsky Millionaires Make a Killing as Killings Continue Christopher Brauchli Consider the Uighurs: Freedom in a Cage   August 23, 2006 Dr. Trudy Bond Calling Dr. Mengele: APA Whitewashes Torture By Shrinks Ramzy Baroud The Real Terrorism Plot Ron Jacobs The Liberal Warmongers are at It Again Heather Gray Palestinian Sense of Place: You Can't Bomb It Away Amira Hass The Occupier Defines Justice Mavis Anderson Castro's Health and US Meddling Ingmar Lee The Great Game Goes On: India's Occupation of Ladakh Francis Boyle Statement on Behalf of Lt. Watada John Ross Mexico Approaches the Combustion Point August 22, 2006 Gilad Atzmon Israel Must Win Jack Heyman The Iron Heel Revisited: Cops as Provocateurs on the Docks Eamon McCann Bereft Belfast Mother Charges Security Firms with Wanton Murder in Iraq Sharon Smith Bush's Failing War on Terror: When in Doubt, Go Racist Edward S. Herman Faith-Based Analysis Ramzi Kysia My Journey to South Lebanon Bill Quigley Trying to Make It Home: New Orleans One Year After Katrina August 21, 2006 Jonathan Cook Caught in a Net of Delusion Paul Craig Roberts Artificial Recovery; Real Job Losses Kathy Kelly Israel's "Proportionate Response": Measured Amid the Wreckage Mike Roselle Irony Runs Through It: Making a Ruckus Lenni Brenner Mayor Bloomberg: the Flying Faker Maher Osseiran Osama's Confession; Osama's Reprieve   August 19 / 20, 2006 Weekend Edition Uri Avnery The 155th Victim Eliza Ernshire Terror and Freedom on the West Bank Virginia Tilley Inside 1701: What the UN Ceasefire Resolution Actually Says Kathy Kelly Funerals at Qana: a Journey to Southern Lebanon Marc Levy You are What You Dream: "Before you talk of heroes you must feel, taste, touch, smell the horror." Stephen Bradberry / Jeffrey Buchanan Hopes and Homes: Subject to Seizure on the Katrina's Anniversary Barbara Rose Johnston Banking on Violence: Guatemalan Genocide and US Security William Blum Perpetual Fear: Saved Again, Praise the Lord! Stephen Fleischman Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon Ralph Nader The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith Dave Lindorff Busted, Again: Bush is Two Times a Criminal Fred Gardner When Cannabis Failed to Sell David Krieger Nuclear Insecurity Dan La Botz The Minutemen: Mad at the Wrong Guys Poets' Basement Davies / Engel   August 18, 2006 Brian M. Downing American Generals and Iraq: Time to Call for a Rapid Withdrawal John Blair Divine Strike in the Bible Belt: Will They Bomb Bedford? Alan Hart The Lebanon War, a Post Mortem Craig Murray Hitting a Nerve: the Hair Gel Terror Hype Chris Dols Confronting Madison's NaziFest Emily Kirksey The Cuban Mirage: Self-Deception in Miami and Washington Joaquín Bustelo Forging a New Strategy for Immigrant Rights: Report from Chicago William S. Lind Beaten: Why the IDF Lost in Lebanon Podcast of the Day The F-22 PodCast Website of the Day Burn a Brick for Jesus   August 17, 2006 CounterPunch News Service "Goodbye to the Unipolar World": an Interview with Hasan Nasrallah Barucha Peller This Pain Has No Ceasefire Ramzy Baroud Lebanon: a Critical Battlefield for the New Middle East Rothem Shtarkman Gen. Dan Halutz: Inside Trader Craig Murray The UK Terror Plot: What's Really Going On? Samar Assad Gaza: One Year After Disengagement Mike Ferner Lt. Watada's Challenge Arnold Kohen A Second Rebirth for East Timor? Kevin Zeese Does the Invasion of Lebanon Foretell a Regional War? Missy Comley Beattie Open Wounds Uri Avnery From Mania to Depression Video of the Day Neil Young: After the Garden Website of the Day Art for Peace   August 16, 2006 Merav Yudilovitch Apocalypse Near: an Interview with Noam Chomsky on Lebanon Robert Fisk Behind the Lies of Bush and Blair: It Falls to Assad to Tell the Truth Mark Williams The Missiles of August: The Lebanon War and the Democratization of Missile Technology John Ross End Game Engulfs Mexico Christopher Brauchli The Poor Are Such a Nuisance John Walsh AIPAC Congratulates Itself for Slaughter in Lebanon Ron Jacobs Gee, Your Hair Smells Terror-ific!: Shampoo, Fear and Elections Rachard Itani It Ain't Over: What Did and Didn't Happen in Lebanon Felice Pace Forest Fires in the Klamath Mountains: The Real Threat is Not What You Expected Niranjan Ramakrishnan Lieberman the Enabler Frank, Sharma and Peterson Venezuela's Revolution of Hope: "In Two Years, Everything Has Changed!" Jonathan Cook Real Photo Fakers; Real War Crimes Website of the Day You Too Can Paint Like Jackson Pollock!   August 15, 2006 Andrew Ford Lyons Why Hezbollywood Was Born: Digitally Erasing a Massacre Binoy Kampmark Terrorism and the Art of Flying Robert Fisk Israel Wasn't Hoping for This Ralph Nader Bush to Israel: Take Your Time Destroying Lebanon Todd Chretien The US Antiwar Movement: Weak, Passive, Distracted Chris Floyd It's Bigger Than the Neo-Cons Mark Engler WTO: Best Left for Dead? George Galloway "You Don't Give a Damn:" the SkyNews Debate Laray Polk What's More Obscene: War or Sex? Trish Schuh Operation Change of Location?: Where Were the IDF Soldiers Captured? Website of the Day Jesus Never Existed August 14, 2006 Uri Avnery What the Hell Happened to the Israeli Army? Karim Makdisi The Flaws in the UN Resolution Kathy Kelly Approaching a Ceasefire Robert Fisk The Truce That Won't Last Norman Solomon Who's Afraid of Hillary Clinton? MoveOn, for One Sunsara Taylor Ned Lamont and the Antiwar Movement: False Hopes, Bad Terms and Ticking Clocks Robert Jensen Outside the Frame: The Limits of George Lakoff's Politics Mike Whitney The Litani Gambit: Ceasefire or Trojan Horse? P. Sainath An Indian Farmer About to Commit Suicide Writes a Note of Clarification Goretti Horgan The Raytheon Nine: Irish Antiwar Protesters Face "Terrorism" Charges Christopher Reed London Fog: Doubts Hang Over Terror Plot   August 12 / 13, 2006 Weekend Edition Jean Bricmont The De-Zionization of the American Mind Norman Finkelstein Should Alan Dershowitz Target Himself for Assassination? Robert Fisk How the London Terror Scare Looks from Beirut Adrian Grima Forget the 50 Civilians: Watching Lebanon from Malta Barucha Peller Letter from Lebanon: the Proximity of Death Omar Barghouti The UN, Lebanon and Palestine Adam Engel Tearing Down the Master's House: an Interview with Derrick Jensen Conn Hallinan How the Irish Could Save the Middle East John Stauber Meet the GOP's Latest Smear Machine: Vets for Freedom Rev. William Alberts Bush's Primetime Lies Still Go Unchallenged by the Press Fred Gardner Hollywood Does Cannabis: "Weeds," the First Season Lucinda Marshall Penis Politics: Does Dick Cheney Want Us All to Fly Nude? Ron Jacobs Kill the Precedent: an Interview with Rapper Nate Mezmer CounterPunch News Service Kerala Throws Out Coke and Pepsi Poets' Basement Katz, Davies and Orloski August 11, 2006 Col. Dan Smith Crimes Against Peace: Beyond Nuremberg John Ross Class War in Mexico City's Gridlock Michael Donnelly Sore Loserman, Redux William S. Lind Collapse of the Flanks Linda Milazzo Chertoff's New Math: Hair Gel Plot Might Have "Killed 100s of Thousands" Rep. Cynthia McKinney Something is Happening Around the World Azmi Bishara When the Skies Rain Death Henri Picciotto Jewish Dissidents Must Challenge Israel CounterPunch News Wire The Warrior Lawyer: Tom Crumpacker, 1934-2006 Dave Lindorff War Crimes in Lebanon Jonathan Cook From High Wycombe to Nazrareth: How I Found Myself with the Islamic Fascists   August 10, 2006 Uri Avnery The Buck Stops Where? Dave Marsh Who Are Mr and Mrs Lamont? Gabriel Kolko Reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Arthur Versluis How Neocons' Nazi Hero Schmitt Spawned Bush's Totalitarian Lunge Jennifer Loewenstein Awakening the Resistance August 9, 2006 Linda Schade Incumbents Beware: Peace Voters Mean Business Jackie Mason Defends Mel Gibson; Ridicules Abe Foxman Jonathan Cook Hypocrisy and the Clamor Against Hizbullah Gilad Atzmon Operation Security Roof Charles Hirschkind Doing the Lebanese a Favor Tom Barry Right-wingers Ramp Up War on Migrants Cockburn & St. Clair The Sweetness of Lieberman's Defeat   August 8, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Requiem for Baghdad Paul Larudee The Lebanese Nakba and Israeli Ambitions Joan Roelofs The Malleable US Constitution: a Deterrent to Democracy? Dimi Reider An Interview with IDF Refusenik Sgt. Zohar Milchgrub John A. Murphy The Democrats: a Party on the Run ... from Its Own Members! Eliot Katz The View from the Big Woods: In Which a NYC Antiwar Poet Takes a Summer Vacation in Canada's Boreal Forest Tim Llewellyn Into the Valley of Death Website of the Day Galloway Speaks!   August 7, 2006 Uri Avnery The Junkies of War Karim Makdisi The Draft UN Resolutions: the View from Beirut Nadia Hijab What Israel and the US Wanted May Not Be At All What They Get Sharon Smith Birth Pangs and Dead Babies Magan Wiles Encounter at an Israeli Checkpoint George Beres A New Kind of Bigotry: Lebanon War Exposes Strange Religious Bedfellows Rachard Itani Nice Try, Mr. Bolton Norman Solomon Some Nukes Are A-Okay with the US Media Stan Cox Presidential Doping Scandal Erupts! Mickey Z. Go Ahead, Please Stare at Her Chest Jonathan Cook The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN Website of the Day Sam Husseini Interrogates Newt Gingrich on Lebanon   August 5 / 6, 2006 Virginia Tilley Boycott Now!: the Case for Boycotting Israel Uri Avnery The Black Flag Patrick Cockburn Yes, It is a Crusade!: Blair's Mad Speech on Iraq Sgt. Martin Smith Military Training and Atrocities: Bad Apples from a Rotten Tree Gary Leupp America's Heroes on Trial Neve Gordon The New McCarthyism: Academic Freedom After 9/11 Ralph Nader Hey Joe!: the Ghosts of Lieberman's Past Peter Bouckaert For Israel, Innocent Civilians Are Fair Game Peter Montague Nukes Rising: Bush Oversees a Global Nuclear Expansion David Krieger Global Hiroshima: the Stakes Have Been Raised Michael Donnelly "Sir! No Sir!": the Story of the GI Anti-War Movement Fred Gardner Dr. Denney Sues the DEA Catherine Norris Seeking Justice Abroad: Spanish Courts Issue Arrest Warrants for the Butchers of Guatemala Imraan Siddiqi The Smokescreens of War: Moral Superiority, 9/11 and Islamic-Fascism Missy Comley Beattie One Year After the Death of Chase Comley Ira Kay Where is Geography? Getting Beyond the Place Name Game Dave Lindorff Let's Build a Wall Pratyush Chandra Nuclear Fascism in India Ron Jacobs Keeping It Radical St. Clair / Donnelly Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Katz and Davies Website of the Day Defend Bear Butte Video of the Weekend Rainbows Bust Pig Blockade   August 4, 2006 Ralph Nader Joe Lieberman and the Secret Chamber Brian Cloughley Osama Has Won Eliza Ernshire No Lights in Gaza: "We Have a Death Warrant for Your Home" Roger Assaf Letter from Lebanon: Adjusting the Heroic Commando Raid Story George Bisharat When I Last Saw Lebanon Remi Kanazi Out to Lunch: The US Media's "Special Relationship" Laura Carlsen Mexico's Critical Moment: The Boardrooms vs. the Street Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Fig (Leaflet) of Warning Derrick O'Keefe Ripe Fruit and Rotten Imperial Ambitions: US Reaction to Castro's Illness Mickey Z. Some Context on Castro and Cuba Col. Dan Smith The New Gonzales Standard for Torture: No Standards, No Accountability Website of the Day Israel's TV War August 3, 2006 Jonathan Cook Civilian Casualties and the War of Media Deception Uri Avnery Knife in the Dark Saree Makdisi Time to Call It Quits: Israel's Raid on Baalbeck's Hospital Robert Fisk The Family That Stays Together Dies Together Farrah Hassen Bush's Nutty Syria Policy: a Report from Damascus Nicola Nasser The De-Arabization of the Arab League Ron Jacobs The Hollow Body: When Exactly Did the UN Lose Its Street Cred? Mitchel Cohen Mexico Rising Seth Sandronsky Migrant Labor and Uncle Sam Bruce K. Gagnon Convert the Military Industrial Complex Alexander Cockburn Hezbollah's Top Ally in Israel August 2, 2006 John Ross Mexican Civil Resistance in Five Acts Chip Mitchell Kudos to Hitchens! Saul Landau Want Peace in the Middle East? End the Occupation Naseer Aruri The UN at the Dustbin of History: Does It Have the Capacity to Intervene? Winslow T. Wheeler Congress and the Pentagon: Co-Abusers of the War Budget Matthias Gebauer News on a Platter: the Middle East PR War Joshua Frank How the Kyoto Protocol Was (Al) Gored Bill Quigley Hiroshima, Nagasaki and North Dakota Manuel Yang A View of Gaza and Lebanon from the Interior Shamai Leibowitz Whitewashing Atrocities: the Tortured Language of War David Himmelstein Pulling the Plug on Israel Lara Marlowe The Total Destruction of Srifa Website of the Day As a Nuke Plant Falls   August 1, 2006 Michael Neumann What is to be Said?: War on the Blathersphere Robert Fisk Into the Meat Grinder: NATO and Lebanon Omar Barghouti The Massacre at Qana: Were Racism and Fundamentalism Factors? Marc Levy Whatever You Did in the War will Always be With You Diana Barahona / Jeb Sprague Reporters Without Borders and Washington's Coups Claud Cockburn Scenes from the Spanish Civil War Ross Eisenbrey When is a Raise Not a Raise? House Bill Actually Cuts Wages for Some Workers by $5.50 an Hour! Dave Lindorff Making the World Safe ... for Dictatorship John Chuckman Canada's Harper Blames the UN Dead Francis Boyle Prosecuting Israel: a War Crimes Tribunal May be the Only Deterrent to a Global War Phil Doe Bleak House Revisited: My Vacation in Water Court Stephen Soldz Psychologists, Guantanamo and Torture Website of the Day An Unfair War         Subscribe Online

September 7, 2006 The Perception Gap The War on Terror, as Others See It By NORMAN SOLOMON The USA's mass media constantly tell us how Americans see the "war on terror." But the same outlets rarely tell us much about how the rest of the world sees it. Five years after 9/11, the gap between perceptions is enormous. Countless polls confirm the overall chasm. Yet, day to day, the media messages that surround us in the United States simply recycle American views for American viewers, listeners and readers. But there are exceptions. A recent one aired on "PRI's The World," a co-production of Public Radio International, WGBH in Boston and the BBC World Service. "We decided to check in with people in different parts of the globe to get their perspectives on the White House's war on terror," the anchor said on the Sept. 5 broadcast. And for the next six minutes, the American audience got an earful -- from four speakers who were not just expressing their own views. Crucially, they were summing up the dominant outlooks in huge regions of the planet. The most sympathetic view of the U.S. "war on terrorism" came from a senior manager with Ernst & Young Security and Integrity Services, based in the Netherlands. He said: "The Europeans are still somewhat confused about what the focus of the war is. They see a lack of clarity from the United States as to what the goals of this conflict are, as to what the strategy is, as to what the standards are that the U.S. applies, and as to what the controls are that the U.S. has placed on itself in waging this war." By U.S. media standards, that's about the extent of mainstream critiques of the "war on terror." But outside the United States, that's about the mildest criticism you're likely to find. Consider the assessment that aired on the radio program from Rohan Gunaratna, author of the widely praised book "Inside al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror." Based in Singapore, he was principal investigator for the United Nations' Terrorism Prevention Branch. In Asia, said Gunaratna, "the vast majority of the Muslims believe that President Bush's campaign against terrorism has in fact increased the threat of terrorism and extremism very significantly after 9/11. With regard to Iraq, what they're saying is that the terrorists have recruited more people, radicalized more people and raised funds from Muslims just by projecting U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq as an attack against Islam and as an attack against the Muslims." Then came the assessment from Frank Njenga, a psychiatrist in Nairobi, who is president of the African Association of Psychiatrists and Allied Professionals. "The White House war on terrorism is generally viewed here in Kenya as a futile exercise that is exacerbating the insecurity across the world," Dr. Njenga said. "It is perceived from this end that the major perpetrators of terrorism in the world are the inequities that exist in the world -- economic, social and political. Those people who believe that they are downtrodden will continue to perpetuate acts of terrorism." And, Dr. Njenga added, "It is generally perceived that America has a major role to play in this inequitable distribution of resources across the world. In fact, the general perception is that the average American has no understanding, has no intention, has no will to understand anything that happens outside of the United States -- and for that reason their war on terrorism is a total misconception without any relevance to the real world where the majority of the people live." What about the predominant view from the Middle East? Rami G. Khouri is director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut and editor-at-large at the Daily Star newspaper, which is published throughout the region. On the radio segment, he said: "The American war on terror is perceived in Lebanon and much of the Middle East as a sign of the combination of arrogance and confusion that is driving American policy, not only in the Middle East but I think in much of the world." What Khouri had to say, few American pundits seem to want to hear: "While there's agreement that terror is a problem that must be fought -- and we have suffered from it much more than the United States has, we in this region in the Middle East -- there's also a sense that the United States has mis-diagnosed the nature of the terror problem, exaggerated its threat, confused hopelessly a whole range of different groups, some of which are terrorists, some of which are doing legitimate resistance to occupation -- and basically tried to come up with a new formula that substitutes for the cold war." Lest there be any misunderstanding, Khouri added: "The United States calls 'terrorists' anybody that it doesn't like or that Israel doesn't like, because people like Hezbollah and Hamas who are fighting a war of resistance against Israeli occupation are labeled as 'terrorists,' while most of the world sees them as legitimate resistance fighters when they're fighting the Israeli army." Such views are routinely expressed in news media almost everywhere in the world. But in the United States, our media insulation about the "war on terror" is extreme -- and dangerously self-deluding. The paperback edition of Norman Solomon's latest book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death," was published this summer.

Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Click Here to Order Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz WHAT'S INSIDE Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair   CounterPunch Speakers Bureau Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. The Book on 9/11 the White House Denounced as "ABSOLUTE GARBAGE"