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Today's
Stories
October
15, 2003
Uri Avnery
Three
Days as a Living Shield
October
14, 2003
Eric Ridenour
Qibya
& Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre
Elaine
Cassel
The
Disgrace That is Guantanamo
Robert
Jensen
What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People
David Lindorff
Talking Turkey About Iraq
Patrick
Cockburn
US Troops Bulldoze Crops
VIPS
One Person Can Make a Difference
Toni Solo
The CAFTA Thumbscrews
Peter
Linebaugh
"Remember
Orr!"
Website
of the Day
BRIDGES
October
11 / 13, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Kay's
Misleading Report; CIA/MI-6 Syrian Plot; Dershowitz Flaps Broken
Wings
Saul Landau
Contradictions: Pumping Empire and Losing Job Muscles
Phillip Cryan
The War on Human Rights in Colombia
Kurt Nimmo
Cuba and the "Necessary Viciousness" of the Bushites
Nelson P. Valdes
Traveling to Cuba: Where There's a Will, There's a Way
Lisa Viscidi
The Guatemalan Elections: Fraud, Intimidation and Indifference
Maria Trigona and Fabian
Pierucci
Allende Lives
Larry
Tuttle
States of Corruption
William A. Cook
Failing America
Brian
Cloughley
US Economic Space and New Zealand
Adrian Zupp
What Would Buddha Do? Why Won't the Dalai Lama Pick a Fight?
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
The Strange and Tragic Case of Sherman Marlin Austin
Ben Tripp
Screw You Right Back: CIA FU!
Lee Ballinger
Grits Ain't Groceries
Mickey Z.
Not All Italians Love Columbus
Bruce
Jackson
On Charles Burnett's "Warming By the Devil's Fire"
William Benzon
The Door is Open: Scorsese's Blues, 2
Adam Engel
The Eyes of Lora Shelley
Walt Brasch
Facing a McBlimp Attack
Poets'
Basement
Mickey Z, Albert, Kearney
October 10, 2003
John Chuckman
Schwarzenegger
and the Lottery Society
Toni Solo
Trashing
Free Software
Chris
Floyd
Body
Blow: Bush Joins the Worldwide War on Women
October
9, 2003
Jennifer
Loewenstein
Bombing
Syria
Ramzi
Kysia
Seeing
the Iraqi People
Fran Shor
Groping the Body Politic
Mark Hand
President Schwarzenegger?
Alexander
Cockburn
Welcome
to Arnold, King for a Day
Website of the Day
The Awful Truth about Wesley Clark
October
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Schwarzenegger
and the Failure of the Centrist Dems
Ramzy
Baroud
Israel's
WMDs and the West's Double Standard
John Ross
Mexico
Tilts South
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Repub Guru Compares Taxes to the Holocaust
James
Bovard
The
Reagan Roadmap for Antiterrorism Disaster
Michael
Neumann
One
State or Two?
A False Dilemma
October
7, 2003
Uri Avnery
Slow-Motion
Ethnic Cleansing
Stan Goff
Lost in the Translation at Camp Delta
Ron Jacobs
Yom Kippurs, Past and Present
David
Lindorff
Coronado in Iraq
Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Outing a CIA Operative? Why A Special Prosecutor is Required
Cynthia
McKinney
Who Are "We"?
Elaine Cassel
Shock and Awe in the Moussaoui Case
Walter
Lippman
Thoughts on the Cali Recall
Gary Leupp
Israel's
Attack on Syria: Who's on the Wrong Side of History, Now?
Website
of the Day
Cable News Gets in Touch With It's Inner Bigot
October
6, 2003
Robert
Fisk
US
Gave Israel Green Light for Raid on Syria
Forrest
Hylton
Upheaval
in Bolivia: Crisis and Opportunity
Benjamin Dangl
Divisions Deepen in Third Week of Bolivia's Gas War
Bridget
Gibson
Oh, Pioneers!: Bush's New Deal
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey
Wasserman
The Bush-Rove-Schwarzenegger Nazi Nexus
Nicole
Gamble
Rios Montt's Campaign Threatens Genocide Trials
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
Website
of the Day
Guerrilla Funk
October
3 / 5, 2003
Tim Wise
The
Other Race Card: Rush and the Politics of White Resentment
Peter
Linebaugh
Rhymsters
and Revolutionaries: Joe Hill and the IWW
Gary Leupp
Occupation
as Rape-Marriage
Bruce
Jackson
Addio
Alle Armi
David Krieger
A Nuclear 9/11?
Ray McGovern
L'Affaire Wilsons: Wives are Now "Fair Game" in Bush's
War on Whistleblowers
Col. Dan Smith
Why Saddam Didn't Come Clean
Mickey
Z.
In Our Own Image: Teaching Iraq How to Deal with Protest
Roger Burbach
Bush Ideologues v. Big Oil in Iraq
John Chuckman
Wesley Clark is Not Cincinnatus
William S. Lind
Versailles on the Potomac
Glen T.
Martin
The Corruptions of Patriotism
Anat Yisraeli
Bereavement as Israeli Ethos
Wayne
Madsen
Can the Republicans Get Much Worse? Sure, They Can
M. Junaid Alam
The Racism Barrier
William
Benzon
Scorsese's Blues
Adam Engel
The Great American Writing Contest
Poets'
Basement
McNeill, Albert, Guthrie
October
2, 2003
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
What's
So Great About Gandhi, Anyway?
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
The
Ashcroft-Rove Connection
Doug Giebel
Kiss and Smear: Novak and the Valerie Plame Affair
Hamid
Dabashi
The Moment of Myth: Edward Said (1935-2003)
Elaine Cassel
Chicago Condemns Patriot Act
Saul Landau
Who
Got Us Into This Mess?
Website of the Day
Last Day to Save Beit Arabiya!
October 1, 2003
Joanne
Mariner
Married
with Children: the Supremes and Gay Families
Robert
Fisk
Oil,
War and Panic
Ron Jacobs
Xenophobia
as State Policy
Elaine
Cassel
The
Lamo Case: Secret Subpoenas and the Patriot Act
Shyam
Oberoi
Shooting
a Tiger
Toni Solo
Plan Condor, the Sequel?
Sean Donahue
Wesley
Clark and the "No Fly" List
Website of the Day
Downloader Legal Defense Fund
September
30, 2003
After
Dark
Arnold's
1977 Photo Shoot
Dave Lindorff
The
Poll of the Shirt: Bush Isn't Wearing Well
Tom Crumpacker
The
Cuba Fixation: Shaking Down American Travelers
Robert
Fisk
A
Lesson in Obfuscation
Charles
Sullivan
A
Message to Conservatives
Suren Pillay
Edward Said: a South African Perspective
Naeem
Mohaiemen
Said at Oberlin: Hysteria in the Face of Truth
Amy Goodman
/ Jeremy Scahill
Does
a Felon Rove the White House?
Website
of the Day
The Edward Said Page
September 29, 2003
Robert
Fisk
The
Myths of Western Intelligence Agencies
Iain A. Boal
Turn It Up: Pardon Mzwakhe Mbuli!
Lee Sustar
Paul
Krugman: the Last Liberal?
Wayne Madsen
General Envy? Think Shinseki, Not Clark
Benjamin
Dangl
Bolivia's Gas War
Uri Avnery
The
Magnificent 27
Pledge
Drive of the Day
Antiwar.com
September
26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Alan
Dershowitz, Plagiarist
David Price
Teaching Suspicions
Saul Landau
Before the Era of Insecurity
Ron Jacobs
The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and
the Patriot Act
Brian
Cloughley
The Strangeloves Win Again
Norman Solomon
Wesley and Me: a Real-Life Docudrama
Robert
Fisk
Bomb Shatters Media Illusions
M. Shahid Alam
A Muslim Sage Visits the USA
John Chuckman
American Psycho: Bush at the UN
Mark Schneider
International Direct Action
The Spanish Revolution to the Palestiniana Intifada
William
S. Lind
How $87 Billion Could Buy Some Real Security
Douglas Valentine
Gold Warriors: the Plundering of Asia
Chris
Floyd
Vanishing Act
Elaine Cassel
Play Cat and Moussaoui
Richard
Manning
A Conservatism that Once Conserved
George Naggiar
The Beautiful Mind of Edward Said
Omar Barghouti
Edward Said: a Corporeal Dream Not Yet Realized
Lenni Brenner
Palestine's Loss is America's Loss
Mickey
Z.
Edward Said: a Well-Reasoned Voice
Tanweer Akram
The Legacy of Edward Said
Adam Engel
War in the Smoking Room
Poets' Basement
Katz, Ford, Albert & Guthrie
Website
of the Weekend
Who the Hell is Stew Albert?
September
25, 2003
Edward
Said
Dignity,
Solidarity and the Penal Colony
Robert
Fisk
Fanning
the Flames of Hatred
Sarah
Ferguson
Wolfowitz at the New School
David
Krieger
The
Second Nuclear Age
Bill Glahn
RIAA Doublespeak
Al Krebs
ADM and the New York Times: Covering Up Corporate Crime
Michael
S. Ladah
The Obvious Solution: Give Iraq Back to the Arabs
Fran Shor
Arnold and Wesley
Mustafa
Barghouthi
Edward Said: a Monument to Justice and Human Rights
Alexander Cockburn
Edward Said: a Mighty and Passionate
Heart
Website
of the Day
Edward Said: a Lecture on the Tragedy of Palestine
The Great Alejandro Escavedo Needs Your Help!
September 24, 2003
Stan Goff
Generational
Casualties: the Toxic Legacy of the Iraq War
William
Blum
Grand Illusions About Wesley Clark
David
Vest
Politics
for Bookies
Jon Brown
Stealing Home: The Real Looting is About to Begin
Robert Fisk
Occupation and Censorship
Latino
Military Families
Bring Our Children Home Now!
Neve Gordon
Sharon's
Preemptive Zeal
Website
of the Day
Bands Against Bush
September
23, 2003
Bernardo
Issel
Dancing
with the Diva: Arianna and Streisand
Gary Leupp
To
Kill a Cat: the Unfortunate Incident at the Baghdad Zoo
Gregory
Wilpert
An
Interview with Hugo Chavez on the CIA in Venezuela
Steven
Higgs
Going to Jail for the Cause--Part 2: Charity Ryerson, Young and
Radical
Stan Cox
The Cheney Tapes: Can You Handle the Truth?
Robert
Fisk
Another Bloody Day in the Death of Iraq
William S. Lind
Learning from Uncle Abe: Sacking the Incompetent
Elaine
Cassel
First They Come for the Lawyers, Then the Ministers
Yigal
Bronner
The
Truth About the Wall
Website
of the Day
The
Baghdad Death Count
September
20 / 22, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Silliest Show in Town
Alexander
Cockburn
Lighten
Up, America!
Peter Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Execution of Robert Emmet
Anne Brodsky
Return
to Afghanistan
Saul Landau
Guillermo and Me
Phan Nguyen
Mother Jones Smears Rachel Corrie
Gila Svirsky
Sharon, With Eyes Wide Open
Gary Leupp
On Apache Terrorism
Kurt Nimmo
Colin
Powell: Exploiting the Dead of Halabja
Brian
Cloughley
Colin Powell's Shame
Carol Norris
The Moral Development of George W. Bush
Bill Glahn
The Real Story Behind RIAA Propaganda
Adam Engel
An Interview with Danny Scechter, the News Dissector
Dave Lindorff
Good Morning, Vietnam!
Mark Scaramella
Contracts and Politics in Iraq
John Ross
WTO
Collapses in Cancun: Autopsy of a Fiasco Foretold
Justin Podur
Uribe's Desperate Squeals
Toni Solo
The Colombia Three: an Interview with Caitriona Ruane
Steven Sherman
Workers and Globalization
David
Vest
Masked and Anonymous: Dylan's Elegy for a Lost America
Ron Jacobs
Politics of the Hip-Hop Pimps
Poets
Basement
Krieger, Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Ted Honderich:
Terrorism for Humanity?
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.
|
October
15, 2003
The General and the
Governor
Two
Measures of American Desperation
By
SUNIL K. SHARMA and JOSH FRANK
Enthusiastic support for front-running Democratic
presidential contenders Wesley Clark and Howard Dean from liberals
and some progressives reveals the dismal state of oppositional
politics in America.
Decades of unremitting right wing assaults
on every sphere of American life has so jerked the political
landscape to the right, that instead of clamoring for sweeping
or even revolutionary changes as in days long past, the main
battle-cry coming from "the left" is "Anybody
But Bush."
Long before the first primary, genuinely
progressive platforms of Democratic candidates such as Al Sharpton
and Dennis Kucinich have been deemed unrealistic and unworthy
of consideration not only by the media, as can be expected, but
by liberal activists and advocacy groups who often concede privately
that they prefer a Kucinich, Sharpton or Ralph Nader.
As the US threatens to expand the Empire,
with news of American soldiers killed in our illegal occupation
of Iraq a daily occurrence a war many Americans are waking
up to realize they were deceived into supporting under false
pretenses, as the economy continues to go down the toilet (the
costs of occupation pushing the decline), and as the wealthiest
of Americans are lavished with tax breaks while services benefiting
the common good are eviscerated, it's no wonder that Bush's popularity
ratings are at pre 9/11 levels. In this degraded climate, simply
to say you're an anti-war, anti-Bush candidate is to draw cheers
from a battered opposition. And while they may be an improvement
over Bush, have our standards so declined that we get weak in
the knees when business-as-usual candidates like Clark and Dean
summersault over a low hurdle?
Another White Knight
from Little Rock
Four-star general Wesley Clark first
came to public attention as the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO
during the US war on Serbia in 1999, and was until recently a
CNN military analyst. Early this year, a grassroots campaign
to draft Clark to run for the presidency formed and, mostly through
the internet, garnered many signatures. Their efforts received
an unlikely boost in the form of a letter from left-liberal author
and filmmaker Michael Moore urging Clark to run. Moore claims
that his article/letter helped generate 30,000 letters to the
Draft Clark campaign and, sure enough, a few days later Clark
declared his candidacy. Yet a look at the real Wesley Clark's
past makes us wonder why so many liberals and erstwhile progressives
like Moore are so gaga over Clark.
It's often said that Clark is "our
best hope" to beat Bush because he's a general, and no one
can tarnish his anti-Bush positions on Persian Gulf Slaughter
II, the Patriot Act, and other reactionary policies with the
charge that he's an "unpatriotic", "anti-American"
loon (as Dean is sometimes categorized). It's a rather strange
assertion considering there have only been six generals elected
as president in American history, Eisenhower being the most recent,
Andrew Jackson being the last Democrat. Generals who've been
elected were major war heroes like George Washington and Ike.
Nobody thinks Clark inhabits that pantheon.
Clark's decision to run as a Democrat
is but a recent development, and his allegiance to the Party
is questionable at best. Clark's first presidential vote was
for Richard Nixon. He subsequently voted twice for Ronald Reagan
and then for George Bush the Elder. Up until just two years ago,
Clark was delivering speeches at GOP fundraisers in his home
state of Arkansas, fuelling speculation he was considering a
run for the Oval Office as a Republican. In a speech he gave
at a fundraiser for the Pulaski County Republican Party, May
11, 2001, Clark praised Ronald Reagan's Cold War actions, Bush
Sr.'s foreign policy, and singled out the current administration's
hyper-unilateralist national security team: "We're going
to be active, we're going to be forward engaged. But if you look
around the world, there's a lot of work to be done. And I'm very
glad we've got the great team in office: men like Colin Powell,
Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Paul O'Neill --
people I know very well -- our president, George W. Bush. We
need them there, because we've got some tough challenges ahead
in Europe."
Clark only declared himself a Democrat
this past August. Why the decision to run as a Democrat? A hint
can be found in a recent Newsweek article. After 9/11, Clark
had expected the Bush Administration to enlist him in their "war
on terror."
"After all, he'd been NATO commander
and the investment firm he now worked for had strong Bush ties.
But when GOP friends inquired, they were told: forget it. Word
was that Karl Rove, the president's political mastermind, had
blocked the idea. Clark was furious. [Clark] happened to chat
with two prominent Republicans, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and
Marc Holtzman. . . . "I would have been a Republican,"
Clark told them, "if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls."
Soon thereafter, in fact, Clark quit his day job and began seriously
planning to enter the presidential race -- as a Democrat. Clark
late last week insisted the remark was a "humorous tweak."
The two others said it was anything but. "He went into detail
about his grievances," Holtzman said. "Clark wasn't
joking. We were really shocked." (Newsweek, September 29,
2003)
"Anti-War"
Ain't What it Used to Be
So why are liberals and progressives
so star struck over Clark? One is the widespread perception that,
as Michael Moore writes in his aforementioned letter, Clark "oppose[s]
war." As the media watchdog group FAIR reveals in a review
of statements made by Clark before, during and after the Iraq
war, if Clark is "anti-war" then clearly the term has
been gutted of any meaning.
* In an article published in The Times
of London, April 10, Clark savors America's great "victory"
over Iraq: "Liberation is at hand. Liberation--the powerful
balm that justifies painful sacrifice, erases lingering doubt
and reinforces bold actions. Already the scent of victory is
in the air. Yet a bit more work and some careful reckoning need
to be done before we take our triumph. . . . President Bush and
Tony Blair should be proud of their resolve in the face of so
much doubt."
* As the US and its client Israel are
presently focusing the crosshairs on Syria and Iran, we have
Clark writing in the same article: "But the operation in
Iraq will also serve as a launching pad for further diplomatic
overtures, pressures and even military actions against others
in the region who have supported terrorism and garnered weapons
of mass destruction. Don't look for stability as a Western goal.
Governments in Syria and Iran will be put on notice--indeed,
may have been already--that they are 'next' if they fail to comply
with Washington's concerns."
Sounds straight out of the neo-conservative
Project for a New American Century playbook.
Many Clark supporters were stunned when
he told the New York Times on September 19 that he would have
voted for the congressional resolution authorizing Bush to attack
Iraq: "At the time, I probably would have voted for it,
but I think that's too simple a question." After pausing
to consider his statement, Clark repeated: "I don't know
if I would have or not. I've said it both ways because when you
get into this, what happens is you have to put yourself in a
position--on balance, I probably would have voted for it."
In response to the shocked reaction among
supporters to the "antiwar" candidate's statement,
Clark backpedaled the next day: "Let's make one thing real
clear, I would never have voted for this war." "I've
gotten a very consistent record on this. There was no imminent
threat. This was not a case of pre-emptive war. I would have
voted for the right kind of leverage to get a diplomatic solution,
an international solution to the challenge of Saddam Hussein."
Clark's claim to having a consistent
record is simply false. In October 2002, Clark traveled to New
Hampshire to endorse Katrina Swett's run for Congress. The Union
Leader newspaper reported that, "Clark, who supports a congressional
resolution that would give President Bush authority to use military
force against Iraq, said if Swett were in Congress this week,
he would advise her to vote for the resolution, but only after
vigorous debate." (October 10, 2002)
You're Either With
Us, Against Us
Clark's oft-repeated claim that the US
should act in concert with the international community to a reach
a diplomatic solution on Iraq is belied by statements he made
on CNN before the war:
* "I probably wouldn't have made
the moves that got us to this point. But just assuming that we're
here at this point, then I think that the president is going
to have to move ahead, despite the fact that the allies have
reservations." (1/21/03)
* "The credibility of the United
States is on the line, and Saddam Hussein has these weapons and
so, you know, we're going to go ahead and do this and the rest
of the world's got to get with us.... The U.N. has got to come
in and belly up to the bar on this. But the president of the
United States has put his credibility on the line, too. And so
this is the time that these nations around the world, and the
United Nations, are going to have to look at this evidence and
decide who they line up with." (2/5/03)
And let's not forget that as Supreme
Commander of NATO, Clark led an undeclared war against Serbia
that was never approved by the UN. Before the Kosovo War commenced
in March 1999, Clark repeatedly called for US air strikes against
Serbia.
Maximum Violence
It's instructive to look at Clark's actions
during the Kosovo War as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. Clark
waged a brutal air war against Serbia that brought death and
destruction mostly to civilians and the infrastructure that was
their life support but, by most post-war accounts, left the Serbian
military relatively unscathed. "We're going to systematically
and progressively attack, disrupt, degrade, devastate and ultimately,
unless President Milosevic complies with the demands of the international
community, we're going to destroy his forces and their facilities
and support." It's clear that Clark included as legitimate
targets schools, bridges, hospitals, electrical facilities, market
places, trains, refugee convoys, and media outlets. Clark bombed
Serbia with "an almost sadistic fanaticism" (William
Blum), making profligate use of deadly cluster bombs and depleted
uranium shell, of the sort now ravaging Iraq. The Washington
Post reports Clark "would rise out of his seat and slap
the table. 'I've got to get the maximum violence out of this
campaign-now!"
Independent estimates of the civilian
death toll in the Kosovo War range from over 500-2000, yet Clark
in testimony to Congress said there were between 20 to 30 instances
of "collateral damage."
Clark's attempts to cover up instances
of intentional NATO bombings of civilian targets have been exposed,
though not properly publicized. In one case, fourteen people
were killed in Grdenicka, Serbia on April 12, 1999 when a US
jet bombed a passenger train crossing a bridge. Clark claimed
the atrocity was a tragic mistake, as the pilot was firing on
the bridge and the train only came into view after the bombs
had been dropped. He showed two video films shot from the nose
of the remote control-guided bombs to support his claim, which
were later found to have been doctored. In fact, the train could
be seen on the bridge when the pilot bombed it, and he turned
around to make a second sweep on the burning bridge, dropping
a bomb directly on the carriage.
This is the anti-war, anti-unilateralist
candidate? Orwell must be rolling over in his grave.
Flunking Howard Dean's Foreign Policy
By now we have all heard of him. He has
rallied progressives with his populist rhetoric, and media hounds
have praised him from coast to coast-his name is Howard Dean,
and he wants your vote for President of the United States.
Iraq Debauchery
Ex-Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean,
catapulted onto the national stage when he announced his position
opposing Bush's unilateral attack on Iraq. He was the first Democrat
to enter the race for the White House, and therefore the first
Presidential candidate to speak out in opposition to Bush's dubious
war. However, he was never wholeheartedly opposed to dethroning
Saddam. And like Wesley Clark, he's swapped positions more than
once.
Dean announced back in September 2002
that if Saddam didn't comply with United Nations demands, the
US reserved the right to "go into Iraq." Dean claimed
he would have gladly endorsed a multilateral effort aimed at
destroying Saddam's regime. And on CBS's Meet the Press last
July, he said that the United States must up its pressure on
Saudi Arabia and Iran. "We have to be very, very careful
of Iran," he said, Bush "is too beholden to the Saudis
and the Iranians."
And as the quagmire in Iraq thickens,
Dean has boasted to the Washington Post that he has no intentions
of bringing US troops home. Later Dean decided to flip-flop that
stance, and stated in a New York Primary debate, "We need
more troops. They're going to be foreign troops (in Iraq), not
more American troops, as they should have been in the first place.
Ours need to come home." So which is it? It seems according
to Howard Dean that the Iraq disorder must go on at all costs.
He is just not quite sure whose soldiers should do the occupying.
When drilled during that same debate
about Bush's $87 billion Iraq package, Dean said that he would
support it, and that "we have no choice...we have to support
our troops." So do we support our troops by bringing them
home, or by financing the occupation? He hasn't clarified.
More recently, in an October issue of
the Jewish Week, Dean was quoted as saying that he has been very
clear in his support for "targeted assassinations"
of Palestinian terror suspects. He believes these men are, "enemy
combatants in a war," and added that, "Israel has every
right to shoot them before they can shoot Israelis."
Dean's Sharon Love
Affair
Dean's not-so-progressive stance on the
Israel/Palestine conflict may be for a good (or not so good)
reason. Dean's campaign fundraiser, Steven Grossman, is the ex-director
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the
most influential Israeli lobbying force in the United States-ranked
number four on Forbes top twenty-five most giving organizations
in Washington. AIPAC's unwavering ideology includes defending
Ariel Sharon at every mishap. Grossman himself spent many nights
in the Clinton White House-and it's a certainty he'll be doing
the same during a Dean tenure.
In an interview with The Forward magazine,
Dean admitted that his position on Israel was "closer to
AIPAC's" than Palestinian advocates. He has also announced
his support for the wall now separating Palestinians from their
homeland, as well as championing Israel for taking their battles
over the border into Syria. "If Israel has to defend itself
by striking terrorists elsewhere, it's going to have to do that,"
Dean said in a CNN interview with Judy Woodruff, "terrorism
has no place in bringing peace in the Middle East nations have
the right to defend themselves just as we defended ourselves
by going into Afghanistan to get rid of Al Qaeda."
Dean is also opposed to curtailing any
of Israel's loan guarantees from the United States. Even though
he's claimed he'll take an "even-handed" approach to
the bloody conflict, Dean has made it clear he'll support the
billion dollar US loan guarantees to Israel. His own campaign
website exclaims that the United States should "maintain
its historic special relationship with the state of Israel, providing
a guarantee of its long-term defense and security."
Why all the Hype?
So how did Dean get labeled a progressive
antiwar candidate? Dean wonders himself, "[I'm] out here
talking about a balanced budget and a healthcare system run by
the private sector," Dean said in a New York Times article,
"It's pathetic I'm considered the most progressive candidate."
He's even remarked on the campaign trail that he doesn't "think
the Democrats are going to be able to beat the President with
the equivalent of Bush-Lite." So why isn't he offering
us a clear alternative, or at least acknowledging they exist?
Don't count on Dean for that. It is unlikely
he'll be hailing the true progressives in the Democratic Primaries-Dennis
Kucinich and Al Sharpton-anytime soon. Why would he point his
supporters to their camps? Dean's generous patrons have anteed
up over ten and a half million dollars in small donations since
his campaign's inception. Their loyalty has pushed the ex-Governor
into top contention for the Democratic nomination for President.
Looking over some of Dean's hawkish foreign
policy positions, it's difficult to see what all the hype is
about. The Right has so controlled the political landscape in
the US, that Howard Dean and Wesley Clark look decent to some
progressives. Even if either pull it off by winning their party's
nomination, and unseat Bush-the Left will still not be "victorious."
Desperate Americans
It's hard to imagine that either Dean
or Clark would be monumentally different than George W. Bush.
Perhaps they would. However, its clear our struggles must continue
well beyond the 2004 elections. The Democrats may save us from
Bush, but with the likes of Governor Dean and General Clark leading
the oppositional pack-its apparent the Democrats won't be able
to save us from themselves.
Sunil K. Sharma
is the editor of Dissident
Voice, a radical on-line newsletter that is "dedicated
to challenging the lies of the corporate press and the privileged
classes it serves." ()
Josh Frank
is a writer and activist living in New York City. This article
will appear in the upcoming issue of Left-Turn
Magazine.
They can be reached at: frank_joshua@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for Sept. 26 / 28, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Kay's
Misleading Report; CIA/MI-6 Syrian Plot; Dershowitz Flaps Broken
Wings
Saul Landau
Contradictions: Pumping Empire and Losing Job Muscles
Phillip Cryan
The War on Human Rights in Colombia
Kurt Nimmo
Cuba and the "Necessary Viciousness" of the Bushites
Nelson P. Valdes
Traveling to Cuba: Where There's a Will, There's a Way
Lisa Viscidi
The Guatemalan Elections: Fraud, Intimidation and Indifference
Maria Trigona and Fabian
Pierucci
Allende Lives
Larry
Tuttle
States of Corruption
William A. Cook
Failing America
Brian
Cloughley
US Economic Space and New Zealand
Adrian Zupp
What Would Buddha Do? Why Won't the Dalai Lama Pick a Fight?
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
The Strange and Tragic Case of Sherman Marlin Austin
Ben Tripp
Screw You Right Back: CIA FU!
Lee Ballinger
Grits Ain't Groceries
Mickey Z.
Not All Italians Love Columbus
Bruce
Jackson
On Charles Burnett's "Warming By the Devil's Fire"
William Benzon
The Door is Open: Scorsese's Blues, 2
Adam Engel
The Eyes of Lora Shelley
Walt Brasch
Facing a McBlimp Attack
Poets'
Basement
Mickey Z, Albert, Kearney
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