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October
4, 2001
Robin Blackburn
Road
to Armageddon
Noam
Chomsky
Chatting
with Chomsky
Tony
Blair
The
Dossier on bin Laden
Norman
Madarasz
Canada
Kow-Tows to US
Lorenzo Ervin
No Palestinian
Ever
Called Me Nigger
October
3, 2001
Peter Bell
Hitchens
and Coulter:
Love at Last?
Patrick
Cockburn
Waiting
Is the Hardest Part
Jeff
Chang
Clear
Channel Fires
Davey D!
John Chuckman
War
on Terror:
Crusade Without a Definition
Mahajan/Jensen
Tough
Talk Won't Solve
Problems of Terrorism
Ariel
Dorfman:
America
the Wounded
Lennie
Brenner
Dr.
Watson in Afghanistan
Steve
Perry:
Ashcroft's
Scare Tactics
October
2, 2001
Patrick
Cockburn:
Inside
an Afghan Hospital
Richard
Manning:
A
Vietnam Vet on Patriotism
St. Clair/Cockburn:
Tarnished
Star,
Tom Ridge in Vietnam
October
1, 2001
Noam
Chomsky:
Memo
to Hitchens
Hizam
Bitar:
Refuting
Michael Kinsley
David Grenier:
The
Good, The Bad,
and the Ugly
Douglas
Valentine:
Homeland
Insecurity
Carl
Estabrook:
Stop Bush's Killing
Mahajan/Jensen:
Food,
Fear and War
Patrick
Cockburn:
Ready
to Strike
Cockburn/St.
Clair:
Things
Could Be Worse
Terry
Allen:
Early
Profit-taking and 9/11
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 3, 2001
8-Page Special
Issue
Aftermath
Diary
Ashcroft's Onslaught
on
Civil Liberties
Ridge Long Groomed
for
Cheney's Job
Those CIA Killing
Bids
Never Stopped
The Not-So-Great
Mayor Giuliani
Crop Duster
Ban
Will Save Lives
Madeleine Albright's
Deadly Legacy
How the Bin
Laden Women
Fled Bel Air
Tom Ridge's
Vietnam
Same as Kerrey's?
A CounterPunch
Journey
to Ramallah
A Word About
God
Nostrodamus
Jam-maker
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James
Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas
Valentine
Al
Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
New Stories:
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October 9,
2001
The Rout That Wasn't
By David Vest
What if they proclaimed a rout and nobody
ran away?
The headlong retreat of the
Sierra Club (and others) from any stance that could be construed
as critical of the administration may have led wishful thinkers
to assume that American progressives, leftists, radicals and
environmentalists would be deserting their positions and principles
faster than raw Taliban conscripts facing the 101st Airborne.
If anyone was running for shelter,
they would not depart unpelted. Christopher Hitchens accused
people of being "soft on crime and soft on fascism."
Andrew Sullivan, writing in
the Wall Street Journal, went even further, saying that "one
of the silver linings of these awful times" is the discrediting
of the peace movement, exposed at long last as a dithering lot
who, "forced to choose between the West and the Taliban
... simply cannot decide."
We had only to contrast such
"softness" and indecision with the fervor of fading
TV anchor people and failed presidential candidates, who cried
out to the Commander-in-Chief to "just show me what line
to stand in, and by God I'll be there." (It would be unkind
to inquire whether any of these heroic, aging volunteers were
in any peril of being taken up on the offer and sent into harm's
way.)
So thrilling has been the rhetoric
that it seems almost churlish to point out that there is no patriotic
duty to stop thinking. If there were, President Bush would surely
have told us so in his speech to Congress.
What he has told us is that
while many support the United States, some will support it in
different ways. Some will send troops, some will offer the use
of air strips, etc.
At home, some will express
their support by displaying signs that read "Nuke 'em, GW!"
Others will perform a different
service. They will attempt to deepen our understanding of what
is happening and why, and to keep human suffering to a minimum
in the aftermath of September 11. And they will keep calling
our attention to the ordinary business of life and what is being
done to it in the name of multinational corporations.
They are not unaware that people
are trying to kill us and that thousands of our fellows have
already been killed by murderers who were undoubtedly trying
to kill even more when they destroyed the World Trade Towers.
They readily concede that the
threat is real and that "the rules have changed." But
which rules? Not the rules of logic, which remain in effect as
of this writing.
A false dilemma is still a
false dilemma. A faulty either/or proposition is not made valid
by bombs.
Examples: Either you support
the West or the Taliban. Either you cry for blood or you are
"soft on fascism." You support G. W. (in whatever he
may do) or you don't.
"Now, hold on a minute,"
as we used to say in Alabama.
When drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge comes up for a vote, are you going to
ask your representatives "whether they support the West
or the Taliban"?
I support the fact that Bush
has not personally resorted to language that questions the patriotism
of anyone who doubts his policies. This may only be because he
does not perceive that there are enough of them to bother with,
but nevertheless it is a fact. (There was that unfortunate little
"people need to watch what they say" moment from Ari
Fleischer, but I can't say I really felt a chilling effect.)
I supported Bush when he visited
a mosque and said that people who assault other Americans because
of how they look are the "worst," and that America
won't stand for such behavior. That was wonderful of him, and
he made time for that when the demands on him were at their peak.
I supported him because he
wasted no time in making it clear he didn't share the hateful
views of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. I don't know anyone
who opposed him when he did that. I hope it means he won't be
making any more trips to Bob Jones University. (He hardly needs
to, now; with his current popularity why would he want to suck
up to the hard right?)
I supported him when he made
a good speech to the Congress. I told people that it seemed to
me he became the president that night, certainly in the popular
perception. I assume he understands that popular approval can
disappear as rapidly as it came, having observed his father's
rapid descent from Alexander the Great status to a distracted
guy looking at his watch during the debates.
I support the fact that he
has not yet listened to people whispering, "Nuke 'em, GW!"
However, all this may already
be irrelevant. I think it entirely possible that the defining
issue of his administration is NOT going to be his conduct of
this war. It could easily be his governance of the country during
his prosecution of the war.
It is not what Bush does with
regard to the Taliban that will distinguish him from Al Gore
(or Bill Clinton) or perhaps even from Ralph Nader.
It is what he will do with
regard to corporations and whole industries lining up for bailouts
and special treatment. It is what he will do for American workers
besides extending their unemployment benefits. It is what he
will do about preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It is how successfully he will resist (or exploit) the opportunity
to "use" the war to validate his domestic policies.
In other words, it could well
boil down to exactly the issues Nader predicted the next administration
would be judged by.
That is why nothing that happens
in Afghanistan, even success, will discredit the movement here
at home, which, far from shrinking, appears to be young and daily
growing. The next time people are asked whether they support
Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee, the answer may yet prove interesting.
CP
David Vest is a writer, poet and piano player
for the Cannonballs. A native of Alabama, he now lives in Portland,
Oregon. Visit his webpage for samples of the Cannonballs' brand
of take no prisoners rock & roll and other Vest columns:
http://www.mindspring.com/~dcqv
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