home / subscribe / donate / about us / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events

Thanks CounterPunchers! A tremendous outpouring of support over the past two weeks allowed us to meet and exceed our $30,000 fundraising goal, meaning we will also receive the full share of that matching grant. Our heartfelt gratitude goes out to all contributors! But here's a sobering thought: CounterPunch gets 70,000 visitors each day, but only 550 of you kicked in. It's not too late to support this website or buy a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else. The current issue features a startling report by economist Robert Pollin on peasant suicide rates in developing nations, such as India. And remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. 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 CounterPunch Events: St. Clair in Olympia / Tariq Ali in Seattle

Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included) Today's Stories December 2, 2003 Andrew Cockburn Tired, Terrified, Trigger-Happy December 1, 2003 Fawzia Afzal-Khan Unholy Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism Dave Lindorff Bush's Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam Harry Browne Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland Wayne Madsen Wagging the Media Herman Benson The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize? Gilad Atzmon About "World Peace" Bill Christison US Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes November 29 / 30, 2003 Peter Linebaugh On the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone Gary Leupp Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos Saul Landau Lying and Cheating: Bush's New Political Math Michael Adler Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative Anthony Arnove "They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview with John Pilger Greg Weiher Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam Stephen Banko, III A Soldier's Dream Forrest Hylton Empire and Revolution in Bolivia Toni Solo The "Free Trade" History Eraser Ben Terrall Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali Standard Schaefer Unions are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes Richard Trainor The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay Bridge Mark Gaffney US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again Adam Engel The System Really Works Dave Lindorff They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool Susan Davis Framing the Friedmans Neve Gordon Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace Mitchel Cohen Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Ben Tripp Capture Me, Daddy Poets' Basement Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith   November 28, 2003 William S. Lind Worse Than Crimes David Vest Turkey Potemkin Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks Wayne Madsen Wag the Turkey Harold Gould Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited Gabriel Kolko Vietnam and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything? South Asia Tribune The Story of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words Website of the Day Bush Draft November 27, 2003 Mitchel Cohen Why I Hate Thanksgiving Jack Wilson An Account of One Soldier's War Stefan Wray In the Shadows of the School of the Americas Al Krebs Food as Corporate WMD Jim Scharplaz Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer Neve Gordon Gays Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa November 26, 2003 Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: the Case of a Rape Foretold Bruce Jackson Media and War: Bringing It All Back Home Stew Albert Perle's Confession: That's Entertainment Alexander Cockburn Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities David Orr Miami Heat Tom Crumpacker Anarchists on the Beach Mokhiber / Weissman Militarization in Miami Derek Seidman Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates Kathy Kelly Hogtied and Abused at Ft. Benning Website of the Day Iraq Procurement November 25, 2003 Linda S. Heard We, the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy Diane Christian Hocus Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators Mark Engler Miami's Trade Troubles David Lindorff Ashcroft's Cointelpro Website of the Day Young McCarthyites of Texas   November 24, 2003 Jeremy Scahill The Miami Model Elaine Cassel Gulag Americana: You Can't Come Home Again Ron Jacobs Iraq Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over? Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant     November 14 / 23, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Clintontime: Was It Really a Golden Age? Saul Landau Words of War Noam Chomsky Invasion as Marketing Problem: Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy Stan Goff An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq: Hold on to Your Humanity Jeffrey St. Clair Bush Puts Out a Contract on the Spotted Owl John Holt Blue Light: Battle for the Sweetgrass Hills Adam Engel A DC Lefty in King George's Court: an Interview with Sam Smith Joanne Mariner In a Dark Hole: Moussaoui and the Hidden Detainees Uri Avnery The General as Pseudo-Dove: Ya'alon's 70 Virgins M. Shahid Alam Voiding the Palestinians: an Allegory Juliana Fredman Visions of Concrete Norman Solomon Media Clash in Brazil Brian Cloughley Is Anyone in the Bush Administration Telling the Truth? William S. Lind Post-Machine Gun Tactics Patrick W. Gavin Imagine Dave Lindorff Bush's Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First Tom Crumpacker Pandering to Anti-Castro Hardliners Erik Fleming Howard Dean's Folly Rick Giombetti Challenging the Witch Doctors of the New Imperialism: a Review of Bush in Babylon Jorge Mariscal Las Adelitas, 2003: Mexican-American Women in Iraq Chris Floyd Logical Conclusions Mickey Z. Does William Safire Need Mental Help? David Vest Owed to the Confederate Dead Ron Jacobs Joe: the Sixties Most Unforgiving Film Dave Zirin Foreman and Carlos: a Tale of Two Survivors Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert, Greeder, Ghalib and Alam   Congratulations to CounterPuncher David Vest: Winner of 2 Muddy Awards for Best Blues Pianist in the Pacific Northwest!   November 13, 2003 Jack McCarthy Veterans for Peace Booted from Vet Day Parade Adam Keller Report on the Ben Artzi Verdict Richard Forno "Threat Matrix:" Homeland Security Goes Prime-Time Vijay Prashad Confronting the Evangelical Imperialists November 12, 2003 Elaine Cassel The Supremes and Guantanamo: a Glimmer of Hope? Col. Dan Smith Unsolicited Advice: a Reply to Rumsfeld's Memo Jonathan Cook Facility 1391: Israel's Guantanamo Robert Fisk Osama Phones Home Michael Schwartz The Wal-Mart Distraction and the California Grocery Workers Strike John Chuckman Forty Years of Lies Doug Giebel Jessica Lynch and Saving American Decency Uri Avnery Wanted: a Sharon of the Left Website of the Day Musicians Against Sweatshops November 11, 2003 David Lindorff Bush's War on Veterans Stan Goff Honoring Real Vets; Remembering Real War Earnest McBride "His Feet Were on the Ground": Was Steve McNair's Cousin Lynched? Derek Seidman Imperialism Begins at Home: an Interview with Stan Goff David Krieger Mr. President, You Can Run But You Can't Hide Sen. Ernest Hollings My Cambodian Moment on the Iraq War Dan Bacher The Invisible Man Resigns Kam Zarrabi Hypocrisy at the Top John Eskow Born on Veteran's Day Website of the Day Left Hook   November 10, 2003 Robert Fisk Looney Toons in Rummyworld: How We Denied Democracy to the Middle East Elaine Cassel Papa's Gotta Brand New Bag (of Tricks): Patriot Act Spawns Similar Laws Across Globe James Brooks Israel's New War Machine Opens the Abyss Thom Rutledge The Lost Gospel of Rummy Stew Albert Call Him Al Gary Leupp "They Were All Non-Starters": On the Thwarted Peace Proposals November 8/9, 2003 Kathleen and Bill Christison Zionism as Racist Ideology Gabriel Kolko Intelligence for What? The Vietnam War Reconsidered Saul Landau The Bride Wore Black: the Policy Nuptials of Boykin and Wolfowitz Brian Cloughley Speeding Up to Nowhere: Training the New Iraqi Police William Blum The Anti-Empire Report: A Permanent Occupation? David Lindorff A New Kind of Dancing in Iraq: from Occupation to Guerrilla War Elaine Cassel Bush's War on Non-Citizens Tim Wise Persecuting the Truth: Claims of Christian Victimization Ring Hollow Toni Solo Robert Zoellick and "Wise Blood" Michael Donnelly Will the Real Ron Wyden Please Stand Up? Mark Hand Building a Vanguard Movement: a Review of Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder Norman Solomon War, Social Justice, Media and Democracy Norman Madarasz American Neocons and the Jerusalem Post Adam Engel Raising JonBenet Dave Zirin An Interview with George Foreman Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert and Greeder November 7, 2003 Nelson Valdes Latin America in Crisis and Cuba's Self-Reliance David Vest Surely It Can't Get Any Worse? Chris Floyd An Inspector Calls: The Kay Report as War Crime Indictment William S. Lind Indicators: Where This War is Headed Elaine Cassel FBI to Cryptome: "We Are Watching You" Maria Tomchick When Public Transit Gets Privatized Uri Avnery Israeli Roulette November 6, 2003 Ron Jacobs With a Peace Like This... Conn Hallinan Rumsfeld's New Model Army Maher Arar This is What They Did to Me Elaine Cassel A Bad Day for Civil Liberties: the Case of Maher Arar Neve Gordon Captives Behind Sharon's Wall Ralph Nader and Lee Drutman An Open Letter to John Ashcroft on Corporate Crime   November 5, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Just a Match Away: Fire Sale in So Cal Dave Lindorff A Draft in the Forecast? Robert Jensen How I Ended Up on the Professor Watch List Joanne Mariner Prisons as Mental Institutions Patrick Cockburn Saddam Not Organizing Iraqi Resistance Simon Helweg-Larsen Centaurs from Dusk to Dawn: Remilitarization and the Guatemalan Elections Josh Frank Silencing "the Reagans" Website of the Day Everything You Wanted to Know About Howard Dean But Were Afraid to Ask   November 4, 2003 Robert Fisk Smearing Said and Ashrawi: When Did "Arab" Become a Dirty Word? Ray McGovern Chinook Down: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Vietnam Woodruff / Wypijewski Debating the New Unity Partnership Karyn Strickler When Opponents of Abortion Dream Norman Solomon The Steady Theft of Our Time Tariq Ali Resistance and Independence in Iraq   November 3, 2003 Patrick Cockburn The Bloodiest Day Yet for Americans in Iraq: Report from Fallujah Dave Lindorff Philly's Buggy Election Janine Pommy Vega Sarajevo Hands 2003 Bernie Dwyer An Interview with Chomsky on Cuba November 1 / 2, 2003 Saul Landau Cui Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off Noam Chomsky Empire of the Men of Best Quality Bruce Jackson Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver Brian Cloughley "Mow the Whole Place Down" John Stanton The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines William S. Lind Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit Ben Tripp The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes Christopher Brauchli Divine Hatred Dave Zirin An Interview with John Carlos Agustin Velloso Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle Josh Frank Howard Dean and Affirmative Action Ron Jacobs Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon Strickler / Hermach Liar, Liar Forests on Fire David Vest Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him Famous Adam Engel America, What It Is Dr. Susan Block Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn Poets' Basement Greeder, Albert & Guthrie   October 31, 2003 Lee Ballinger Making a Dollar Out of 15 Cents: The Sweatshops of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs Wayne Madsen The GOP's Racist Trifecta Michael Donnelly Settling for Peanuts: Democrats Trick the Greens, Treat Big Timber Patrick Cockburn Baghdad Diary: Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam" Elaine Cassel Coming to a State Near You: The Matrix (Interstate Snoops, Not the Movie) Linda Heard An Arab View of Masonry   October 30, 2003 Forrest Hylton Popular Insurrection and National Revolution in Bolivia Eric Ruder "We Have to Speak Out!": Marching with the Military Families Dave Lindorff Big Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of "Mission Accomplished" Philip Adams "Everyone is Running Scared": Denigrating Critics of Israel Sean Donahue Howard Dean: a Hawk in a Dove's Cloak Robert Jensen Big Houses & Global Justice: A Moral Level of Consumption? Alexander Cockburn Paul Krugman: Part of the Problem     October 29, 2003 Chris Floyd Thieves Like Us: Cheney's Backdoor to Halliburton Robert Fisk Iraq Guerrillas Adopt a New Strategy: Copy the Americans Rick Giombetti Let Them Eat Prozac: an Interview with David Healy The Intelligence Squad Dark Forces? The Military Steps Up Recruiting of Blacks Elaine Cassel Prosecutors as Therapists, Phantoms as Terrorists Marie Trigona Argentina's War on the Unemployed Workers Movement Gary Leupp Every Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures October 28, 2003 Rich Gibson The Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003 Uri Avnery Incident in Gaza Diane Christian Wishing Death Robert Fisk Eyewitness in Iraq: "They're Getting Better" Toni Solo Authentic Americans and John Negroponte Jason Leopold Halliburton in Iran Shrireen Parsons When T-shirts are Verboten Chris White 9/11 in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective   October 27, 2003 William A. Cook Ministers of War: Criminals of the Cloth David Lindorff The Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer Elaine Cassel Antonin Scalia's Contemptus Mundi Robert Fisk Occupational Schizophrenia John Chuckman Banging Your Head into Walls Seth Sandronsky Snoops R Us Bill Kauffman George Bush, the Anti-Family President     October 25 / 26, 2003 Robert Pollin The US Economy: Another Path is Possible Jeffrey St. Clair Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China James Bunn Plotting Pre-emptive Strikes Saul Landau Should Limbaugh Do Time? Ted Honderich Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany Thomas Nagy Saving the Army of Peace Christopher Brauchli Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit Laura Carlsen Latin America's Archives of Terror Diane Christian Evil Acts & Evil Actors Muqtedar Khan Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq John Feffer The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula Brian Cloughley Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies Benjamin Dangl and Kathryn Ledebur An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia Karyn Strickler Down with Big Brother's Spying Eyes Noah Leavitt Legal Globalization John Stanton Hitler's Ghost Haunts America Mickey Z. War of the Words Adam Engel Tractatus Ridiculous Poets' Basement Curtis, Subiet and Albert Website of the Weekend Project Last Stand       October 24, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Ashcroft's War on Greenpeace Lenni Brenner The Demographics of American Jews Jeffrey St. Clair Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited Sarah Weir Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty David Krieger WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button Mohammed Hakki It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East Harry Browne Northern Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't       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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

December 2, 2003 Stressed Out in Iraq Tired, Terrified, Trigger-Happy By ANDREW COCKBURN Among the less publicized incentives propelling Iraq overseer Paul Bremer's urgent dash to Washington last week was the concern in various quarters of the administration that the U.S. expeditionary force in Iraq is in a dangerously unstable state. "We are one stressed-out reservist away from a massacre," remarked one senior official closely involved in the search for an exit strategy. He was expressing the fear that a soldier, possibly a reservist, stressed beyond endurance by the rigors and uncertainties of his or her condition in a hostile land far from home, might open up with a machine gun on an Iraqi crowd, with obviously disastrous consequences for the future of the occupation. In case anyone considers this contingency unthinkably remote, examples already abound of overstressed U.S. soldiers behaving in a lethally trigger-happy fashion. As U.S. soldiers get more and more stressed, their tempers fray and you see more altercations on the streets, more browbeating of ordinary Iraqis by soldiers and, as a result, a general deterioration in the already tense relationship that helps convince Iraqis that the U.S. is nothing but an ugly, arrogant occupying army. In traveling around Iraq, I always stay well away from American convoys, for reasons well known to all Iraqi drivers and best illustrated by an incident (by no means unique) outside Fallouja last month. Gunners in an armored column responded to a roadside bomb blast by opening up, apparently indiscriminately, with heavy automatic weapons on traffic moving in the opposite direction on the other side of the highway median. Six civilians died, including four in a single minivan, some of whom were decapitated. An 82nd Airborne spokesman was later quoted as insisting that "the use of force was justified." Indiscriminate fire and other atrocities can be understood, if not excused, by the degree of stress endured by hot and exhausted soldiers terrified of an unseen enemy. U.S. Army Field Manual 22-51 addresses what it calls "misconduct combat stress behavior," which it deems most likely in guerrilla warfare. The manual notes that, "even though we may pity the overstressed soldier as well as the victims," such cases must be punished. The manual also identifies other stress behaviors, including looting and pil laging, practices that many people in Iraq--including non-Iraqis--report is widespread among the occupation force. "I keep hearing rumors about our attached infantry company. Apparently they are under investigation for a few 'incidents,' " a young officer based in the Sunni Triangle wrote home to his family in August. "It seems that whenever they get the chance, they steal money from the locals. I'm not talking about small amounts of cash, I'm talking about a nice, fat bankroll. They take the money during raids, while searching cars, while detaining locals." Questioned about various examples of misconduct, the official military response in Iraq tends to range from professed ignorance about the incidents to excuses like "these things happen in the heat of the action" to vague promises of future investigation. Yet surely the anonymous author of the U.S. Army Field Manual was correct in writing that "only a strong chain of command and a unit identity which says 'We don't do that, and those who do aren't one of us and will be punished' can prevent such behavior from happening." Despite this commendable official doctrine, professional military personnel specialists are seeing a worrying trend in the profusion of stress-related cases in Iraq. "It's not surprising," says Maj. Don Vandergriff, who teaches military science at Georgetown University. "After six months in an intense environment, units start to degrade, especially when they are in combat and are likely getting very little sleep." Vandergriff is also fiercely critical of the Army's practice of constantly rotating individuals, especially commanders, in and out of units. Morale and cohesion of the Army in Iraq "is deteriorating at four times the rate it did in Vietnam," he states. The high command should be seeking remedial measures, but perhaps the best we can hope for are the coldly realistic sentiments of the officer who wrote about the looting. "I really don't care for the Iraqi people, I don't care about helping them get back on their feet," he wrote in his letter. "However, I don't condone stealing from them, hurting them unnecessarily or threatening them with violence if it is not needed. We will never win hearts and minds here, but what these guys are doing is wrong. I am positive that this isn't happening in my company, and that's all I can really affect." With any luck, his superiors are developing the same sense of responsibility. There is always that stressed-out reservist to worry about. Andrew M. Cockburn is the co-author of "Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein" (Perennial Press, 2000). He can be reached at: andrew@counterpunch.org   Weekend Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003 Peter Linebaugh On the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone Gary Leupp Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos Saul Landau Lying and Cheating: Bush's New Political Math Michael Adler Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative Anthony Arnove "They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview with John Pilger Greg Weiher Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam Stephen Banko, III A Soldier's Dream Forrest Hylton Empire and Revolution in Bolivia Toni Solo The "Free Trade" History Eraser Ben Terrall Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali Standard Schaefer Unions are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes Richard Trainor The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay Bridge Mark Gaffney US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again Adam Engel The System Really Works Dave Lindorff They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool Susan Davis Framing the Friedmans Neve Gordon Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace Mitchel Cohen Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Ben Tripp Capture Me, Daddy Poets' Basement Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /