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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
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Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
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Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
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Wire
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Corrie
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The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
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October
15, 2003
Splitting Egypt from
the Arab World
Lessons
of the October War
By
AHMAD FARUQUI
On the 10th of Ramadan (October 6), Egypt and
Syria launched Operation Badr against Israeli forces in the Sinai
and the Golan Heights. The H-Hour [the hour of attack] began
14:05 with a vigorous attack by the Egyptian and Syrian air forces
on Israeli air bases and ground positions. Sixteen days later,
on October 22, a UN-sponsored ceasefire took effect.
The Ramadan War (Yom Kippur War as Israeli
call it) was similar in duration to the second war between India
and Pakistan that began on September 6, 1965. Egyptian president
Anwar Sadat had planned his war for 1971 but the onset of the
third India-Pakistan war caused him to change his plans. Several
lessons can be drawn from what is now called the October War.
The first lesson is that defeat in one
war often leads to a new war. Chaim Herzog, a former president
of Israel, states that "Israel's brilliant military victory
[in 1967] gave rise to a delusion of power on the Israeli side
and a deep sense of humiliation on the Arab side." Reflecting
this complacency, when asked about the threat posed by the Egyptian
air force, the Israeli chief of air staff had asked petulantly,
"what Egyptian air force?"
Second, the impact of tactical surprise
can be devastating. It acts as a force multiplier, as Israel
had shown with its preemptive air strikes in June 1967. It is
not always easy to achieve, as Pakistan had discovered on December
3, 1971 when the PAF's air sorties into India failed to achieve
any results since the Indians had anticipated them.
To prevent an Egyptian crossing of the
Suez Canal, Israel had constructed a 110-mile fortification known
as the Bar-Lev line along the Canal. It consisted of 26 forts
and an enormous continuous sand rampart that rose to a height
of 75 feet in places. Like any static fortification, the line
proved vulnerable in the end. However, unlike the Maginot line
which the Germans outflanked by going through Belgium in the
second world war or the Great Wall of China, which Chengez Khan
found could be opened easily by bribing the Chinese guards, this
one was breached by a remarkable feat of engineering.
At 0400 hours on October 7, Egyptian
sappers cut passes in the Bar-Lev line with German water pumps,
allowing 500 Egyptian tanks to pour into the Sinai. They had
trained in secret for nearly six years in the western desert
to develop techniques for creating sixty openings on each side
of the Canal. Gradually the Egyptian engineers perfected the
operation, enabling them to effect such an opening within five
to six hours. Sadat had been prepared to absorb 10,000 deaths
in the crossing of the Canal but the success of the sappers allowed
him to achieve this objective with only 208 deaths.
Third, success in war is ultimately tied
to the accuracy of intelligence estimates about the enemy's capabilities
and intentions. In October, 50,000 Egyptian troops were away
on Umrah and Israeli intelligence had rated the probability of
war breaking out on October 5 as "the lowest of the low."
Even Henry Kissinger was duped; he is on record as having stated
that "nothing would happen in October." Expecting an
attack in May, Gen. David Elazar, the Israeli chief of staff,
had ordered a partial mobilisation costing some US$11 million.
He wanted to carry out a preemptive strike but was forbidden
to do so by then-Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. When the
Arab attack did not materialise, the Israeli intelligence was
quick to say, I told you so. The vindication of their estimate
in May would be a major factor in the mistaken Israeli evaluation
in October.
Fourth, a pressed enemy is likely to
launch a counter-thrust. Israeli forces led by Maj.-Gen. Ariel
Sharon crossed the Canal into Egypt proper on October 15 and
within a day were endangering the Egyptian Third Army. However,
according to General Saad Al Shazli, the Egyptian chief of staff
who later authored "The Arab Military Option," this
counter-attack could have been forestalled if Egyptian forces
had pressed ahead with their march into Sinai and captured key
passes in the Sinai before the arrival of the Israeli reserves.
For such bold thinking, he was relieved of command.
Fifth, wars cannot be fought without
the right technology. To overcome Israeli advantages in air power
and armour, Egypt deployed mobile SAM-6 and SAM-7 missiles and
the Sagger and the RPG-7 anti-tank missiles. Indeed, the scale
of Israeli tank casualties led some to argue (prematurely) that
the tank had been rendered obsolete in modern warfare.
Sixth, third world countries cannot ignore
the realities of Great Power politics. To overcome Israeli losses,
America flew US$2.2 billion worth of arms and ammunition to Israel
aboard its giant C5 Galaxy planes. The airlift brought 22,000
tons of tanks, artillery, helicopters and ammunitions to Israel
over a one-month period. Involving more than 560 sorties, it
was the biggest such operation since the airlift to Berlin after
the end of World War II.
In retaliation, eleven Arab countries
led by Saudi Arabia's King Faisal imposed an oil embargo on October
17. They agreed to cut production by five percent from the September
level with a pledge to continue cutting five percent a month
until their results had been achieved. They also imposed a total
ban on oil exports to the US, the Netherlands, Portugal, South
Africa, and Rhodesia. The embargo reduced oil supplies in the
"free world" by nine percent and world trade in oil
by fourteen percent. The embargo ended in January 1974 once Egypt
and Israel agreed to cessation of hostilities.
Seven, it is best to learn the lessons
of war when they are still fresh. Shmuel Agranat, president of
the Israeli Supreme Court, headed a Commission to apportion responsibility
for the war. When a 40-page extract from the Agranat Commission
was released to the public in April, it caused the dual resignations
of Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. Gen. Elazar was
blamed for Israel's early set backs in the war and ordered to
resign. He died two years later, a brokenhearted man.
Sadat succeeded in regaining the Sinai
but in his anxiety to make peace with Israel, he split Egypt
from the rest of the Arab world. When he flew to Israeli-occupied
Jerusalem on November 19, 1977 and addressed the Knesset, he
alienated himself from many of his own countrymen. As he took
the salute at a military parade to commemorate the war on October
6 in 1981, three Egyptian soldiers gunned him down for having
failed to liberate Jerusalem.
Ahmad Faruqui
is an economist and author of "Rethinking the National Security
of Pakistan". He can be reached at faruqui@pacbell.net
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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