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July
23, 2003
David
Lindorff
On Cleaning Out the Barn: New Meanings
for Old Headlines
Uri
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Caesar's Favor
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22, 2003
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Christian
Bad Guy / Good Guy: War Forces;
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Solidarity and Student Protests in Iran
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Plugging Iraq into Globalization
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Smith
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Smile, You're on Federal Camera
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Iraq Coalition Casualties
July
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Edward
Said
Imperial Arrogance and the Vile Stereotyping
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Jacobs
Shut Up and Shoot
Allan J.
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Elaine
Cassel
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Christopher
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Bruce
Jackson
Third and Arizona, Santa Monica
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by Claim
July
19 / 20, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
Will the Pax Americana be More Sustainable
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Julian
Bond
We Shall be Heard
Cynthia
McKinney
Bush's Racial Politics at Home and Abroad
Mel
Goodman
What is to be Done with the CIA?
Jason Leopold
Tenet Blames Wolfowitz
Mickey
Z.
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Doug Giebel
Impeachment as the Message
Jon
Brown
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Mano Singham
Cheney's Oil Maps
Steven
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Nickle, Dimed and Slimed at UNC
Robin Philpot
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Khaldoun
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St. Clair
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Lenni
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Jones
Three Dog Night
Adam
Engel
Video Judas Video
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of the Weekend
Illegal Art
July
18, 2003
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Vest
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Rahul
Mahajan
Deceit Runs Deep
John Chuckman
Enron-style Management in a Dangerous World
Harold
A. Gould
The Bush-Musharraf Conclave
Alvaro
Angarita
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Grenier
Sovereignty and Solidarity in Indian Country...Rhode Island
Dave Lindorff
Bush and Hitler: a Response to the Wall Street Journal
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July
17, 2003
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Jacobs
Sometimes Even the President of the
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Walsh Thomas
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Martin
Schwarz
Bush Pre-emptive Strike Doctrine is the Bane of Non-Proliferation
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Norman
Madarasz
Third Ways and Third Worlds: Lula at the Progressive Governance
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Pankaj
Mehta
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Marjorie
Cohn
Bush, War Lies & Impeachment: the
Boy Who Cried Wolf
Hammond
Guthrie
(Dis) Intelligence Revisited
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July
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Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Told White House to Hype
Dubious Uranium Claims
William
Cook
Defining Terrorism from the Top Down
Elaine
Cassel
Judge Brinkema v. Ashcroft: She Whom
Must Not Be Obeyed
Jason
Leopold
How Can They Justify the War If WMDs Are Never Found?
Linda Heard
Bondage or Freedom?
Raymond
Barrett
From Detroit to Basra
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Back to the Future in Guatemala:
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July
15, 2003
Kathleen
and Bill Christison
Why We Resigned from VIPS
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft's War on Legal Whistleblowers:
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Chris
Floyd
Barge Poles: Oil Wars and New Europe's Mercenaries
Jason
Leopold
CIA Warned White House Last October that Niger Docs were Forgeries
Gaius Publius
Considering the Obvious: Fool Us Once, Fool Us Twise...Please
John
Troyer
The Niger Syndrome
Becky Gillette
No Conspiracy at Coffeen Nature Preserve: a Response to David
Orrr
Uri
Avnery
The Bi-National State: The Wolf Shall
Dwell with the Lamb
Website
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Cost of Iraq War
July
14, 2003
Lisa
Taraki
Hot Days in Ramallah
Walter
Brasch
Bush: the Pretend Captain
SOA
Watch
Training Colombia's Killers in the US
Dan Bacher
Yurok Tribe Denounces Klamath River Salmon Killers
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Unglued
Website
of the Day
Coalition for Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties
July 12 / 13, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
The Double Wall Before the Future
Standard
Schaefer
The Coming Financial Reality: an
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John Feffer
A Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
Ron
Jacobs
Shades of Gray in Iran
Elaine
Cassel
Judicial Terrorism Against the Bill of Rights
Tom
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Civil Liberties After 9/11
David Lindorff
New White House Slogan: "Case Closed. Just Move On"
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Leopold
The Mini-War Against Iraq Prior to 9/11
Lee Sustar
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Mickey
Z.
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Sam Hamod
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Baroud
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Jeffrey
St. Clair
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Engel
Parable of the Lobbyist
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Sanders
A Review of Ralph Lopez's American Dream
Poets'
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July
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Conn
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The Coin of Empire
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Wise
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S. Herman
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David Orr
Coffeen-gate: What's Going on at the Sierra Club Foundation?
David
Lindorff
An Iraq War & Occupation Glossary
Website
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Dead Malls
July
10, 2003
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Dealing with the Devil: the Bloody
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Donahue
Bush and the Paramillitaries: Coddling Terrorists in Colombia
Yemi
Toure
Who Outted Bush in Afrika?
Robert
Jensen
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Ali
Abunimah
US Leaves Injured Iraqis Untreated
Joanne
Mariner
Federal Courts, Not Military Commissions
Website
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Electronic Iraq
July
9, 2003
David
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Is the Media Finally Turning on
Bush?
David
Krieger and Angela McCracken
10 Myths About Nuclear Weapons
Mickey
Z.
Why Speak Out?
Lee Sustar
The Great Medicare Fraud
John
Chuckman
The Worst Kind of Lie
Gary Leupp
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Website
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Songs for the Bush Years
July
8, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Bully on the Bench: the Pathological
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Alan
Maass
Nights of Fire and Rage in Benton Harbor
Chris
Floyd
Troubled Sleep: Getting Used to the American Gulag
Linda
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America's Kangaroo Justice
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Cloughley
They Tell Lies to Nodders
Charles
Sullivan
Bush the Christian?
Saul
Landau
The Intelligence Culture in the National Security Age
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Occupation Watch
July
7, 2003
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Blum
The Anti-Empire Report
Harvey
Wasserman
The Nuke with a Hole in Its Head
Ramzy
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Peace for All the Wrong Reasons
Simon
Jones
What Progressives Should Think About
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Lesley
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Fear, Pain and Shame in Aceh
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The Draw
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Perry
Bush's Wars Web Log 7/3
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Dead on the Fourth of July
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July
23, 2003
Avoiding Plato's Republic
in America
Anarchy is the
Only Hope
By JOHN STANTON
The philosopher Plato was right when he opined
that democracy ultimately leads to anarchy and then tyranny.
But he was wrong to dismiss anarchy which, arguably, is the happy
medium between failed democracy and treacherous tyranny. The
USA has begun its flirtation with anarchy. But anarchy, like
democracy, is anathema to the ruling classes and can't be tolerated
for any length of time. As a result, the ruling classes will
create a crisis and will attempt to implement a society as described
in Plato's Republic_an alternative to representative government.
The USA will transition from anarchy to a Platonic tyranny sometime
during the second term (2004-2008) of George Bush II.
That is, unless anarchy takes hold.
Anarchy would be a positive development
for the USA and the world. In time it would erode the power of
the public and private national institutions that are the oppressive
tools of control for the wealthy and those who exercise political
and military power. But the opponents of change have read their
Plato too. And they know that Plato's answer to democracy, anarchy
and tyranny was to design a Republic that would solidify the
position of the ruling classes. Plato's Republic provides for
a system which, among other things, depends on proper breeding
and training of the ruling and ruled classes, placating the military
leaders, and authoritarian and paternal control of the masses.
In Plato's Republic, leaders commune
with the gods and find meaning in nature's movements that are
invisible to the vast backwash of humanity. When the rulers speak,
the ruled listen and obey without hesitation. All know their
place in Plato's society. The USA is ripe for such a system and
those who rule know it. Americans believe what they are told
to believe. For example, fully 80 percent of the Americans believed
George Bush II when he stated that pre-invasion Iraq had scores
of unmanned aerial vehicles armed with biological weapons ready
to rain death on the continental USA, and that Saddam Hussein
was responsible for the attacks in New York City and Arlington,
Virginia on September 11, 2001. Thomas Jefferson's quaint statement
about the American public being "intelligent" was wildly
off the mark. Of course, then again, he was not referring to
the public but to his well-to-do peers.
Plato had it right for he knew that the
endgame of all governing and profit/war-making classes has always
been to entertain each other on the domestic and foreign stage.
He also knew that those who rule need the masses as they serve
as both pawns and audience for the powerful. But like most elites,
Plato feared anarchy and democracy as too untidy.
A Few Meals Away from
Barbarism
How far have we come since Plato's time?
Oh, we can splice a few genes, build faster computers and automobiles,
and destroy with precision. But the human race is as barbaric
as ever led in 2003 by the most "enlightened" nation
on earth, the USA, which operates a death camp at a military
base in Cuba and concentration camps in Iraq. Bloodthirsty competition
for goods and resources still drive nations into the madness
of war. Powerful nations bribe weak nations for favors. Mercenary
armies span the globe and offer services. Corporations employ
slave labor. The poor are still poor. Income disparity has reached
record levels. Women and minorities must constantly remain vigilant
as their rights are always at risk. Ethnic conflicts plague the
world. The appeal of authoritarianism, the "good tyrant"
as Plato termed it, in this environment remains. After all, how
can the common person know what's good for him/her.
Most of humanity is just a few meals
and a paycheck away from the despair of begging the employer,
the bank, the credit card company, the government for help. In
short, they are at the mercy of powerful interests. And, alas,
that is the trick that every ruling class throughout time has
mastered. It is easy. Keep the masses on edge. Apply the hot
poker of foreign and domestic threats to their base drives of
greed, hunger, domination, control, competition and accumulation.
It is great sport and makes for wonderful theater. Folks like
Alan Greenspan, George Bush, Don Rumsfeld, Tommy Franks, Tom
Daschle, and Dick Gephardt must feel the power of Plato's Republic.
Which of them haven't thought themselves the equal of Plato or
one of his select few? They revel in the reality that they have
the power of life and death in their words. And in this they
are, indeed, Gods. That view allows, for example, Alan Greenspan
to opine that 10 million unemployed Americans don't matter in
the greater scheme of the global economy.
Imagine a system which eroded the power
of the institutions through which these people ruthlessly rule.
Ruling classes fear anarchy.
Good Riddance Representative
Democracy
Representative democracy was always an
iffy proposition and, contrary to popular belief, was never really
about broad based representation. For example, James Mill believed
that active participation by the majority of the people in a
democracy had little value. He suggested that only males over
40 years of age be allowed to vote figuring that the expense,
and theatrics, of voting was too expensive. He would have shaken
his head at US democracy. It costs an average of $1 million (US)
to run for a House of Representatives seat. It is roughly $5
million to run and keep a Senate seat. Include the perks these
elected folks get and the US Congress is little more than $1
billion dollar business enterprise. Toss in a couple of hundred
million for the US Presidency and, for someone like Bill Gates
of Microsoft, the allure of knowing that, for a mere $2 billion
dollars, the US Congress and the White House could be purchased
outright. And, in fact, that's just what corporations and the
wealthy do. And these days, they boast outright about which representative
or piece of legislation they own.
From 12 zip codes in the United States,
according to opensecrets.org
comes almost 80 percent of the funding for the Republican and
Democratic frontrunners for President. Only 30 to 40 percent
of Americans who are registered to vote actually schlep to the
polling place. And their reward? An "I Voted" sticker
sponsored, appropriately enough, by a corporation. Little wonder
fewer and fewer Americans bother to vote.
And what does a vote get an American
these days? Schizophrenic public policy that one is not expected
to challenge. Trust in us, say the Platonic Rulers of 2003. Tomorrow
it is regime change in "evil" Iran. But it is just
fine for General Electric and Halliburton do business in Iran
through offshore companies. Today, US troops will be sent to
"assist" Liberia (a country with lots of registered
oil tankers and making claims to the Gulf of Guinea's oil reserves).
But why not US troops for Burundi? Why not go into Zimbabwe and
clean up the mess there? Why not a Marshall Plan for Africa?
One month, it is a new US first strike nuclear weapons doctrine
and new live-fire nuclear testing plans at the Nevada Test site.
The next month the Bush Administration lectures the world about
the dangers of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Today the US economy
is recovering. But manufacturing data shows it isn't. But Americans
are chided for not spending enough and, in so doing, chastised
for not fulfilling their patriotic/economic duty. Last month,
US troops in Iraq were coming home. But this month their tour
has been extended because the war "wasn't planned right".
Today, the President and Congress are talking about job creation
for millions of Americans. But tomorrow, the President, Congress,
defense contractors and the Pentagon oppose Buy-American provisions
in the Pentagon's Defense budget which would create millions
of jobs for Americans. And, oh yes, the US Congress voted to
eliminate overtime pay for millions of Americans. And did you
know about "Mission Accomplished" in Afghanistan and
Iraq?
As reported by the Guardian, Americans
are more inclined in 2003 to believe rap stars than US politicians
or business and military leaders. They also know that lies and
damn lies are endemic to their society and that there are few
consequences for the most wretched systemic failures. Politicians,
military personnel, corporate executives are beyond reproach
for negligence leading to some of the most nefarious events in
US history. Pension theft, election fraud, homeland defense failures,
and leading the nation to war under false pretenses are not punishable
offenses.
Godwin's Anarchy
Representative democracy in America has
run its course. The only palatable option remaining is anarchy.
In 1793, William Godwin's work, Enquiry Concerning Political
Justice, set forth a workable system of anarchy. This was not
the stuff of violence that is typically associated with anarchy,
but, instead, the slow disintegration of governing political
and economic institutions and the gradual erosion of the policies
of competition, dominance and accumulation. Godwin recognized
that the ruling classes and their institutions stand as the greatest
barrier to freedom. Government was nothing more than a tool of
the wealthy and well-connected. Such is the state of affairs
in the USA.
"Government, under whatever point
of view we examine this topic, is unfortunately pregnant with
motives to censure and complaint. Incessant change, everlasting
innovation, seems to be dictated by the true interests of man
kind. But government is the perpetual enemy of change. What was
admirably observed of a particular system of government is in
a great degree true of all: They lay their hand on the spring
there is in society, and put a stop to its motion. Their tendency
is to perpetuate abuse. Whatever was once thought right and useful
they under take to entail to the latest posterity. They reverse
the genuine propensities of man, and, instead of suffering us
to proceed, teach us to look backward for perfection. They prompt
us to seek the public welfare, not in alteration and improvement,
but in a timid reverence for the decisions of our ancestors,
as if it were the nature of the human mind always to degenerate,
and never to advance."
Godwin's system of anarchy is all that
stands in the way of the tyranny of Plato's Republic.
John Stanton
is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security
matters. He the author (along with Wayne Madsen) of America's
Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II. Reach him at
cioran123@yahoo.com
Weekend Edition Features for July 19 / 20, 2003
Arthur
Mitzman
Will the Pax Americana be More Sustainable
Than the Dot.com Bubble?
Julian
Bond
We Shall be Heard
Cynthia
McKinney
Bush's Racial Politics at Home and Abroad
Mel
Goodman
What is to be Done with the CIA?
Jason Leopold
Tenet Blames Wolfowitz
Mickey
Z.
History Forgave Churchill
Doug Giebel
Impeachment as the Message
Jon
Brown
Whipping the Post
Mano Singham
Cheney's Oil Maps
Steven
Sherman
Nickle, Dimed and Slimed at UNC
Robin Philpot
Liberia: History Doesn't Repeat Itself, It Stutters
Khaldoun
Khelil
Capturing Friedman
Jeffrey
St. Clair
You Must Leave Home, Again: Gilad Atzmon's A Guide to the Perplexed
Lenni
Brenner
Sitting in with Mingus
Vanessa
Jones
Three Dog Night
Adam
Engel
Video Judas Video
Poets'
Basement
Foley, Smith and Curtis
Website
of the Weekend
Illegal Art
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