Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
January 5, 2004
Gary Leupp
North
Korea for Dummies
January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
January 2, 2004
Stan Cox
Red Alert
2016
Dave Lindorff
Beef, the Meat of Republicans
Jackie Corr
Rule and Ruin: Wall Street and Montana
Norman Solomon
George Will's Ethics: None of Our Business?
David Vest
As the Top Wobbleth
January 1, 2004
Randall Robinson
Honor
Haiti, Honor Ourselves
David Krieger
Looking
Back on 2003
Robert Fisk
War Takes an Inhuman Twist: Roadkill Bombs
Stan Goff
War,
Race and Elections
Hammond Guthrie
2003 Almaniac
Website of the Day
Embody Bags
December 31, 2003
Ray McGovern
Don't
Be Fooled Again: This Isn't an Independent Investigation
Kurt Nimmo
Manufacturing Hysteria
Robert Fisk
The Occupation is Damned
Mike Whitney
Mad Cows and Downer George
Alexander Cockburn
A Great Year Ebbed, Another Ahead
December 30, 2003
Michael Neumann
Criticism
of Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Annie Higgins
When
They Bombed the Hometown of the Virgin Mary
Alan Farago
Bush Bros. Wrecking Co.: Time Runs Out for the Everglades
Dan Bacher
Creatures from the Blacklight Lagoon: From Glofish to Frankenfish
Jeffrey St. Clair
Hard
Time on the Killing Floor: Inside Big Meat
Willie Nelson
Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?
December 29, 2003
Mark Hand
The Washington
Post in the Dock?
David Lindorff
The
Bush Election Strategy
Phillip Cryan
Interested Blindness: Media Omissions in Colombia's War
Richard Trainor
Catellus Development: the Next Octopus?
Uri Avnery
Israel's
Conscientious Objectors
December 27 / 28, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
A
Journey Into Rupert Murdoch's Soul
Kathy Kelly
Christmas Day in Baghdad: A Better World
Saul Landau
Iraq
at the End of the Year
Dave Zirin
A Linebacker for Peace & Justice: an Interview with David
Meggysey
Robert Fisk
Iraq
Through the American Looking Glass
Scott Burchill
The Bad Guys We Once Thought Good: Where Are They Now?
Chris Floyd
Bush's Iraq Plan is Right on Course: Saddam 2.0
Brian J. Foley
Don't Tread on Me: Act Now to Save the Constitution
Seth Sandronsky
Feedlot Sweatshops: Mad Cows and the Market
Susan Davis
Lord
of the (Cash Register) Rings
Ron Jacobs
Cratched Does California
Adam Engel
Crumblecake and Fish
Norman Solomon
The Unpardonable Lenny Bruce
Poets' Basement
Cullen and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Activism Through Music
December 26, 2003
Gary Leupp
Bush
Doings: Doing the Language
December 25, 2003
Diane Christian
The
Christmas Story
Elaine Cassel
This
Christmas, the World is Too Much With Us
Susan Davis
Jinglebells, Hold the Schlock
Kristen Ess
Bethlehem Celebrates Christmas, While Rafah Counts the Dead
Francis Boyle
Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Alexander Cockburn
The
Magnificient 9
Guthrie / Albert
Another Colorful Season
December 24, 2003
M. Shahid Alam
The Semantics
of Empire
William S. Lind
Marley's
List for Santa in Wartime
Josh Frank
Iraqi
Oil: First Come, First Serve
Cpt. Paul Watson
The
Mad Cowboy Was Right
Robert Lopez
Nuance
and Innuendo in the War on Iraq
December 23, 2003
Brian J. Foley
Duck
and Cover-up
Will Youmans
Sharon's
Ultimatum
Michael Donnelly
Here
They Come Again: Another Big Green Fiasco
Uri Avnery
Sharon's
Speech: the Decoded Version
December 22, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Pray
to Play: Bush's Faith-Based National Parks
Patrick Gavin
What Would Lincoln Do?
Marjorie Cohn
How to
Try Saddam: Searching for a Just Venue
Kathy Kelly
The
Two Troublemakers: "Guilty of Being Palestinians in Iraq"
December 20 / 21, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
How
to Kill Saddam
Saul Landau
Bush Tries Farce as Cuba Policy
Rafael Hernandez
Empire and Resistance: an Interview with Tariq Ali
David Vest
Our Ass and Saddam's Hole
Kurt Nimmo
Bush
Gets Serious About Killing Iraqis
Greg Weiher
Lessons from the Israeli School on How to Win Friends in the
Islamic World
Christopher Brauchli
Arrest, Smear, Slink Away: Dr. Lee and Cpt. Yee
Carol Norris
Cheers of a Clown: Saddam and the Gloating Bush
Bruce Jackson
The Nameless and the Detained: Bush's Disappeared
Juliana Fredman
A Sealed Laboratory of Repression
Mickey Z.
Holiday Spirit at the UN
Ron Jacobs
In the Wake of Rebellion: The Prisoner's Rights Movement and
Latino Prisoners
Josh Frank
Sen. Max Baucus: the Slick Swindler
John L. Hess
Slow Train to the Plane
Adam Engel
Black is Indeed Beautiful
Ben Tripp
The Relevance of Art in Times of Crisis
Michael Neumann
Rhythm and Race
Poets' Basement
Cullen, Engel, Albert & Guthrie
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.
|
January
5, 2004
Squatting in Bomb Craters
Rebuild Baghdad; Rebuild
Ourselves
By KATHY KELLY
Oral traditions eventually recorded in the Book
of Exodus narrate the tales of the ancient Israelites' escape
from bondage in Egypt. A cruel Pharaoh was ruthless in his murderous
demands. Already crushed by the work of building monuments to
their oppressor, they were then ordered to also gather the straw
to make the bricks that would be used for building. It was the
last straw. The Israelites began to heed revolutionary calls
for escape.
Today I visited the former Iraqi Air
Defense Camp in Baghdad. Under Saddam Hussein's regime, now legendary
for ruthless repression, military officers and their families
were given decent housing. In this camp, they even had two swimming
pools. Heavily bombed during Operation Shock and Awe, the compound's
main buildings are now massive heaps of rubble, with a few long,
grey tubular US missiles scattered in the debris
Following the US led invasion of Iraq,
at least 400 families moved into this camp. It's one of several
similar vacated and bombed areas that have been "squatted"
by desperate families who prefer eking out an existence amid
the wreckage to whatever misery they left behind. Before the
Occupation, in poor neighborhoods such as the oft-cited Saddam
city, renamed Sadr City, several families would inhabit one hovel.
I can well imagine the infighting over
scarce resources that would inspire a young couple to pick up
their meager belongings and move. What's more, when local and
absentee landlords realized that there was no government system
to prevent them from evicting people and raising the rents, numerous
families found themselves kicked out of their homes at gunpoint
or unable to pay skyrocketing rents.
Under Saddam's regime, landlords would
face long drawn out court appeals in their efforts to evict people,
perhaps because the regime couldn't cope with greater numbers
of homeless and displaced people.
In spite of appalling conditions, it's
clear that the people who are squatting in this camp have gambled
on the possibility that enduring present hardships could lead
to something better in the future.
The children in the camp are among the
loveliest little ones I've ever met. They were shy, but smiling,
friendly, and incredibly well behaved. The collapsed buildings
and mounds of debris don't seem to phase them. Several of them
worked industriously atop hills of rubble, their little hands
digging for intact bricks. They bring the bricks to their parents
who use them to build new housing walls.
At least a dozen of the children have
large red spots covering their faces. It could be that they've
been bitten by midgets or fleas. But now visitors begin to wonder
if they're affected by contaminants from the bomb parts. A proper
needs assessment of this new housing area ought to be undertaken
right away. Clearly they will need a new ration distribution
system. For now, parents return to the "old neighborhood"
to pick up ration distributions, since they have no formal identification
as residents in the squatted camp. The new "householders"
need access to clean water, medical care, a clinic and a school.
Yet it seems unlikely that their dismal situation will gain much
attention in the near future.
Huddled over candles during the US war
to liberate Iraq, while gut-wrenching explosions continued late
into the night, my companions and I talked about how we must
work, in the future, not only to help rebuild Iraq but, even
more crucially, to rebuild ourselves, our way of life. We must
find a way to share our resources, live more simply, prevent
the US from going to war in order to exploit other people's resources.
The Pentagon system has become the new
Pharaoh. Our reliance on threat and force to resolve problems
inspires other leaders and cultures to act similarly. The warmongers
rob people of the resources needed to build a better world.
I think of the little ones digging for
bricks, growing up in desperate conditions, and I wonder what
sort of revolutions we can expect. The promised land that so
many of us learned about as we listened to scripture stories
will never be found by electing or following warmongers. We face
a tall agenda. Rebuild Iraq. Rebuild ourselves. And insist on
compassion for the little builders in Iraq who may be poisoned
by their very efforts to build a sheltering wall.
Kathy Kelly
is a co-coordinator of Voices
in the Wilderness. She is traveling to Iraq with a Voices
team which will be in Baghdad for the next two weeks. She can
be reached at: kathy@vitw.org
Weekend
Edition Features for January 3 / 4, 2004
Brian Cloughley
Never
Mind the WMDs, Just Look at History
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
The Wrong War at the Wrong Time
William Cook
Failing to Respond to 9/11
Glen Martin
Jesus
vs. the Beast of the Apocalypse
Robert Fisk
Iraqi Humor Amid the Carnage
Ilan Pappe
The Geneva Bubble
Walter Davis
Robert Jay Lifton, or Nostalgia
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft vs. the Left
Mike Whitney
The Padilla Case
Steven Sherman
On Wallerstein's The Decline of American Power
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Taiwan Hypocrisy
William Blum
Codework Orange!
Mitchel Cohen
Learning from Che Guevara
Seth Sandronsky
Mad Cow and Main Street USA
Bruce Jackson
Conversations with Leslie Fiedler
Standard Schaefer
Poet Carl Rakosi Turns 100
Ron Jacobs
Sir Mick
Adam Engel
Hall of Hoaxes
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert & Curtis
Keep CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|