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New Special Double Issue on the War Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: The US vs. Iraq: the Thirteen Year War; The Sanctions That Killed; Bombing Iraq Every 3 Days Since the Ceasefire of 1991; What Would Gore Have Done?; The Rise of the Neocons; Israel's Proxy War Plan; Why Did It End So Quickly?; The Coming Occupation; Re-educating Iraqis, American-style; Those Reconstruction Contracts; Media Hawks; Christian Crusaders; Democratic Candidates and the War; Smart Bombs Go Haywire; Inside the Mind of Santorum; Gore Vidal on John Kerry; Thomas Pickering: the Bad Seed. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Or Call Toll Free 1-800-840 3683 or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558

Recent Stories May 1, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole Iain Boal A May Day Message to the FCC: "We Are Many; They are Few" Diana Johnstone About Cuba Sam Hamod Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Intelligence Fiasco Lee Sustar Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff Their Pockets Peter Linebaugh May Day at Kut and Kenthal Stew Albert Straight Shooters Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/01 Website of the Day South Bay Mobilization   April 30, 2003 Ashley Smith Under Uncle Sam's Thumb: a History of Washington's Occupations Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/30 Gary Leupp Shooting Schoolboys: Preliminary Thoughts on the Fallujah Massacre Robert Jensen Fighting Alienation in the USA Wayne Madsen The Four Horsemen of Propaganda Ahmad Faruqui Bush's Strategic Myopia About the Middle East Gabriel Kolko Iraq, the US and the End of the European Coalition Adolfo Perez Esquivel A Nobel Laureat's Letter to Bush: "You Talk of Freedom; You Detest Freedom"     April 29, 2003 Gary Leupp Disorder and Opportunity: the Results of the Iraq War Uri Avnery Don't Envy Abu-Mazen Anthony Gancarski Brush with the Law Mickey Z. POWs: Then and Now CounterPunch Wire How to Spin Israel on the Hill: Internal Lobbying Documents Robert Fisk Did the US Murder Journalists? Chris Floyd Bush Telegraphs His Punches on Syria Wayne Madsen About Those Iraqi Intelligence Documents Wallace Gagne Pilgrimage or Demolition Derby? Eliot Katz Playing Catch with Cracked Globes Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/29   April 28, 2003 Ann Harrison Fighting Back: Medical Marijuana Patients Sue Ashcroft Robert Jensen Lack of WMD Kills the Case for War Peter Phillips Total Information Control Ron Jacobs Get the US Out of Iraq and Its Military Out of Our Minds Mark Hand Peace Park: The Pentagon Solution to a Baseball Stadium Dilemma Linda S. Heard Repeat After Me: Iraq is Weapons Free Kurt Nimmo US Military Bases: the Spoils and Deceptions of War Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/28   April 26 / 27, 2003 Elaine Cassel The Other War: Bush, Ashcroft and the End of Civil Liberties Saul Landau Iraq War: a Policy of Christian and Jewish Fundamentalism William A. Cook Sharon Recruits US as Mercenaries Against Syria William S. Lind Now the Real War Starts John Chuckman In Jesus's Name: Franklin Graham's Christian Empire David MacMichael and Ray McGovern Ex-CIA Analysts on WMD: Where? Find? Plant? Gary Leupp Why the War on Iraq was (and Remains) Wrong Robert Sandels Cuba Crackdown: a Revolt Against Bush's National Security Strategy? CounterPunch Wire An Open Letter to Jerry Brown on Oakland Police Violence Against Peace Activists and Dock Workers Mickey Z. Our Ba'athists Anthony Gancarski Nader Plays Pullman Scott Handleman The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors Claud Cockburn Evelyn Waugh's Ear Trumpet Poets' Basement Matt Simon, Sam Hamod, Hammond Guthrie and Stew Albert Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/26   April 25, 2003 David Vest It's Not the Oil; It's the Art! Steven Higgs All About Tucker Carlson Walt Brasch The Shock and Awe of American Ignorance Alexander Cockburn The Decline of American Journalism: the Case of Judy Miller Zeynep Toufe A Letter to the People of Iraq from an Anti-War Activist CounterPunch Wire Season of the Witch: Jeane Kirkpatrick Unbound Hammond Guthrie Springtime in Iraq Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/25 Website of the Day Having a Great Time, Wish You Were Here: Postcards from a War   April 24, 2003 Lois Whitman An Open Letter to Rumsfeld on the Child Detainees at Guantanamo Uri Avnery Abu vs. Abu: It's Not About Egos David Lindorff Day Care in the Name of National Security? About Those Kids in Camp X-Ray John Grebe Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple Dokhi Fassihian Monster.Com: Ethnic Cleansing on the Web? CounterPunch Wire Israeli Army Chief Threatens Peace Activists Sam Hamod Our Man in Baghdad Annie C. Higgins Do You Regret Being an American? Harold A. Gould Will They Hate Us Forever? Stew Albert Big Brother in Bed Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/24 Website of the Day Muscles Abroad   April 23, 2003 Anthony Gancarski When Young Mothers Die in Combat Chris Floyd Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach by Example Marjorie Cohn Tax the War Profiteers William Lind The Fourth Generation of Modern War Dave Marsh Nina Simone: Freedom Singer Binoy Kampmark Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq David Vest Who's Looting Whom? Standard Shaefer Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson Andrew Rodman Lawn Poem Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/23 Website of the Day Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East   April 22, 2003 Edward Said The Appalling Consequences of the Iraq War are Now Clear Sam Hamod What's the Deal with This War? Kurt Nimmo Shi'a Will to Power Gary Leupp At last! The Necessary Evidence Carl Estabrook Oblivious Americans: They Distort, We Subside John Stanton Iran's Reza Pahlavi: a Puppet of the US and Israel? Ramzy Baroud What Else Hasn't Israel Told America? Steven Sherman About That Cuba Letter Wayne Madsen Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult Stew Albert Creep Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/22 Website of the Day Critical Media Literacy in Times of War   April 21, 2003 Elaine Cassel An Administration in Contempt Gary Leupp Easter Thoughts on Liberation, Jesus and Kanaka WaiWai Roger Witherspoon Why Michigan Needs Affirmative Action Uri Avnery At Midnight, a Knock on the Door Col. Dan Smith Early Lessons from Iraq Jo Freeman After the Protest Comes Politics Michael Berry The Friedman Absurdities Gray Brechin Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss Bob Riedel The Taliban from Texas Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 4/21   April 19, 2003 Gary Leupp The Rape of History Saul Landau Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's War, Wait for Armageddon Michael J. Fellows Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia Pablo Mukherjee Roadmap to Resistance Omar Barghouti Sharon's Bloody Beat Anthony Gancarski Tony Blair: the Most Powerful Man in the World Mickey Z. Animals: the Other Collateral Damage Will Potter When Police Attack Journalists William MacDougall America's In-Bedded Journalism Neve Gordon Haunted by History Adam Engel Wal-Mart and Peace Dr. Susan Block Art Bombs: American Libertines for Peace Poets' Basement Albert, Buono, Guthrie Steve Perry War Web Log 4/19 Song of the Weekend Baghdad to Basra   April 18, 2003 Uri Avnery Operation "Syrian Freedom": This One's Not About Oil Jorge Mariscal "They Died Trying to Become Students": the Future of Latinos in an Era of War and Occupation Mickey Z: Coalition of the Unindicted: Only Losers Get Tried for War Crimes Hussein Ibish Syria and the Road to World War IV Reza Ladjevardian Tarqeting Iran? Do It With TV, Not Cruise Missiles Matania Ben-Artzi You Are Not Protecting My Son's Rights: a Letter to the President of Israel's Supreme Court Bruce Jackson Jews Like Us Joe Allen My Lai Revisited Carl Estabrook Support Our Euphemism Steve Perry War Web Log 4/18 Website of the Day Meet the Victims of War   April 17, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in the Patriot Missile System Joanne Mariner Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications for the Pentagon Issam Nashashibi Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman to Baghdad Wayne Madsen Another Sign of the "End Times" for American Journalism Robert Fisk The Army of Occupation Boris Kagarlitsky Virtual Saddam Takes Aim Biljana Vankovska A Personal View of Iraq: Where is the Truth? Dan Brook Oil War: Fueling the Empire Stanley Heller Bomb and Steal: This is What Privatization Looks Like Tim Robbins A Chill Wind is Blowing Through This Nation Harold A. Gould Iraq After the War Steve Perry War Web Log 4/17   Hot Stories Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" Uzma Aslam Khan The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War: What America Says Does Not Go Paul de Rooij Arrogant Propaganda Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.   Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

May 2, 2003 Coalition of the Ignorant Question Those Writing History By JOHN TROYER While addressing American troops in Qatar earlier this week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld placed the recent military action in Iraq into the following historical context: "It will certainly take its place alongside the Berlin Wall, the liberation of Paris. And each of you made that happen." While I do not doubt for a minute a good number of George W. Bush administration officials really believe the removal of Saddam Hussein from office is on the scale of World War II and/or the Cold War, I'm not quite ready to edit the history books. I know a good number of Eastern Europeans who have seen the toppling of statues only to flee civil war and watch their cities destroyed. Yet Rumsfeld's strategy is straightforward and part of a much larger administration tactic regarding Iraq and Hussein. Even before the events on Sept. 11, 2001, measures were being taken to yank Iraq out of U.S. history and reposition it, as we all know now, in the "axis of evil." Interesting note on the term "axis of evil"--former Bush speechwriter David Frum originally coined the "axis of hatred" but head Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson preferred the word "evil" because it sounded more biblical. Even before the war began, all 30-plus days of it, Iraq was no longer a former U.S. ally gone bad, nor did previous U.S. presidential administrations have any involvement in the region. It was a smart move on the part of the Bush administration for the following reason: More than any physical battle involving soldiers, the real war will be how the definitive history describing the U.S. liberation of Iraq is written. The story of what's taking place in Iraq proper and the entire Middle East region is a far from finished narrative with a great many things riding on the following items. Both Hussein and large quantities of biological/chemical weapons need to be located. In the case of Hussein, the Bush administration does not have the luxury of a bin Laden-esque specter lurking around caves in Afghanistan. To not find Hussein will only complicate an already unstable reconstruction process. As well, until chemical and biological weapons are located, not a barrel or two of something but the tons described by Bush in various speeches, the already debilitated U.S. credibility abroad will largely self-destruct. Finding antiquities from Iraqi museums and libraries would also be nice, but I imagine the oil ministry still needs guarding. In no way am I saying the shift in power is doomed to fail in Iraq. On the contrary, I really hope Bush administration officials understand what kind of project they have on their hands. When war becomes policy, it means following through until the end. Actually, I suggest all Iraqi-Americans keep transcripts of the speech Bush made in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this week about rebuilding Iraq because the promised partnership with Afghanis has not prospered as promised in the 2002 State of the Union address. Perhaps that's just old history and I need to focus on the new history being written in Iraq. So I return to the speech by Rumsfeld because in large part his placement of the events in Iraq may be written as a grand liberation. What the Bush administration has working for it is an American population unbelievably stupid when it comes to current events, geography and most importantly, history. Maybe stupid is too strong a word, but I do believe that more Americans could tell me whom the finalists are on "American Idol" (Nielsen ratings last week: more than 11 million viewers for both nights) versus where Kabul is and/or why it is important to U.S. foreign policy. I also imagine most Americans still cannot find Iraq or any country in the Middle East on a map. It seems unfair to begin asking people why the Iraqi National Congress and Ahmad Chalabi are important since our man casual Friday Jay Garner, always wearing his Gap best, is equally unknown. To be clear, I am not playing favorites--the epidemic of stupidity cuts across all political agendas. And these problems will only compound as states such as Texas (the largest consumer of textbooks in America next to California) have difficulty finding money in the education budget to purchase history books for students. As goes Texas, so goes the rest of the country when textbook publishers do not have the largest markets to sell their books. Still, I have a private hunch Rumsfeld's writing of history will stick in the years to come. Last fall I began quizzing my students on various events in world history with a short answer test on the first day of class. Since I teach a course on the writing and reading of history it seemed fair to ask, for example, during what years the American Civil War was fought and what happened at Hiroshima. I also ask where the Berlin Wall was located, and it is surprising to learn that the Berlin Wall is/was in China, Israel and the former Yugoslavia to name a few locations. No kidding. It's even more disheartening to contemplate the number of students who do not know what happened at Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki largely because their high school teachers never discussed the events. Rumsfeld's assertion will succeed because vast numbers of Americans won't have a clue to know the difference. So goes the writing of history. Over the last year and a half, a number of Bush administration critics have lambasted what looks to be a new American empire growing by leaps and bounds. While I agree the current military occupation is largely colonialism by another name, I see an empire in decline, not ascension. The ability to sustain any kind of empire means having a population infrastructure capable of running the machinery of control. Both the infrastructure and the population are beginning to break down, making the decline only a matter of time. Not soon, but quicker than most people realize. The problem seems less about Americans not having the stomachs for foreign occupation; rather, we lack the brains to make it happen. In the event anybody thinks I am being cynical, I'm not. I am hopeful something good comes from the productive stupidity currently running the United States. Perhaps at some point in the writing of history a quiet historian will point out all the opportunities missed by a faux American empire reveling in mediocrity. I blame Sept. 11, 2001--it's just easier that way. John Troyer is a columnist for the Daily Minnesotan He welcomes comments at troy0005@tc.umn.edu. Yesterday's Features Jeffrey St. Clair Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole Iain Boal A May Day Message to the FCC: "We Are Many; They are Few" Diana Johnstone About Cuba Sam Hamod Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Intelligence Fiasco Lee Sustar Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff Their Pockets Peter Linebaugh May Day at Kut and Kenthal Stew Albert Straight Shooters Steve Perry Bush's War Web Log 5/01 Website of the Day South Bay Mobilization   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /