Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
August 27, 2003
Steve Niva
Israel's Assassination Policy: the
Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Recent
Stories
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
27, 2003
Hiding the Body Count
The
Little Deaths
By BRUCE JACKSON
Every few days the U.S. Department of Defense
issues a terse press release of US military deaths in Iraq from
non-combat causes. These lack drama or narrative so they are
hardly ever noted in newspapers or television newscasts in places
other than the hometowns of the newly dead. The DoD release for
August 25, 2002, for example, read, in its entirety:
Pfc. Michael S. Adams, 20, of Spartanburg,
S.C., died on Aug. 21 in Baghdad, Iraq. Adams was participating
in a small arms fire exercise on the range when a bullet ricocheted
and ignited a fire in the building. He died as a result of injuries
sustained during the fire. Adams was assigned to 1st Battalion,
35th Armor Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.
Spc. Stephen M. Scott, 21, of Lawton,
Okla., died on Aug. 23 in Baghdad, Iraq. Scott died as a result
of non-combat injuries. Scott was assigned to the 3rd Armored
Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.
Pfc. Vorn J. Mack, 19, of Orangeburg,
S.C., died on Aug. 23 near the Hadithah Dam, west of Ar Ramadi,
Iraq. Mack jumped into the Euphrates River to take a swim and
did not resurface. A search party found Mack's body downstream
on Aug. 24. Mack was assigned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment,
Fort Carson, Colo.
These incidents are under investigation.
The U.S. does not, as a matter of public
record, keep any listing of Iraqi civilian and paramilitary kills
(but some nonmilitary people try: see Iraq
Body Count ). There was no attempt at a count during
the formal part of the war; there is no admission of a continuing
count during this continuing part of the war. I have no doubt,
however, that they do have their own body count of the civilian
dead since the U.S. occupation of Iraq began. They're just not
distributing the numbers. They fear misinterpretation by people
like you and me.
How is one to tell the difference between
a family machinegunned to death by nervous 19-year-olds worrying
that the car heading their way is a bomb and a guerilla driving
a car that is in fact a bomb machinegunned to death by some other
nervous 19-year-olds? How is one to tell the difference between
a suicidal religious fanatic out for some American blood and
some poor sonofabitch who goes amok and attacks a U.S. soldier
because his eldest child just died because the  hospital U.S. missiles blew up last spring
is still not functioning and even if it had been he couldn't
have gotten the dying child through U.S. military barricades
anyway? How is one to know if the woman screaming and waving
her hands is just pissed off because she hasn't had any electricity
or potable water since last spring or if she's got a bomb under
that flowing dress?
No American military official, in the
heat of a Mesopotamian summer, can make those distinctions. That
would require investigations, time, personnel. It would require
disciplining soldiers who shot too quickly or with no justification
at all. Put an American boy on trial for murder in a place like
this? For the death of one of them? Never.
Except for the most egregious civilian
deaths, which is to say those that take place when a lot of independent
witnesses are present, the kills are all of guerillas, Al Qaeda,
paramilitary whatevers, or they are ignored entirely. It's like
Vietnam: if it's dead it's V.C. The only difference is, in Vietnam
they bragged about the body count and in Iraq they hide it.
The count may be hidden from us, but
they are not hidden from Iraqis. The deaths are real and specific.
The dead all have names, every single one of them. They have
families, every one of them.
Here's one of those names Iraqis know:
a man named Mazin turned a corner in a prosperous Baghdad neighborhood
on the afternoon of Sunday, July 27, going home with his wife
and teenage son. He was driving a Toyota Corona. Task Force 20,
the U.S. military's hit squad assigned to hunt down people close
to Saddam, was just then mounting a raid on a house where they
thought some bad guys might be holed up. Soldiers backing up
the raiders had set up a roadblock. When they saw Mazin's Toyota
they immediately opened fire, blowing off the right half of his
head. The wife and son, witnesses said, were injured and were
taken away by the Americans.
A man named Mazin, who lived in a comfortable
neighborhood, going home on a Sunday afternoon with his wife
and son. He's dead. Maybe they are too.
They add up, these deaths, day after
day, no matter how many times a well-groomed one-star general
tells an air-conditioned press corps that things are going well,
things are under control, our boys are doing a wonderful job,
thank you for your attention, God bless the United States of
America and its President..
And then there are the journalist deaths.
Seventeen of them now, the most recent a Reuters photographer
shot dead by U.S. troops shortly after identifying himself to
U.S. troops as a Reuters photographer. Only two of the journalist
deaths were embedded-one was a vehicular accident, the other
died in his sleep, like some of the G.I.s in the DoD non-combat
death reports. The others were all shot to death or missiled
to death, most of them by U.S. forces. (Proving that it is, on
the whole, better to see only what they want you to see while
embedded than look at what's really going on when you're not.)
The total number of U.S. military dead
in Iraq since President George W. Bush's melodramatic San Diego
harbor aircraft carrier declaration of the war's end now exceeds
the number who died in combat. We don't know how many civilians
were killed by U.S. missiles and bombs and guns before Bush's
carrier declaration. If the post-carrier-declaration doesn't
yet exceed the pre-carrier-declaration they will. This is not
going to stop.
Every day, more deaths. More G.I.s killed
and maimed in official attacks with demonstrable bad guys that
get reported in the press. More G.I.s killed and dying by accident
or for unexplained reasons that are noted only in those almost
invisible minimal DoD press releases. More Iraqis killed and
maimed by U.S. soldiers making their world safe for democracy.
Every day, the little deaths. This war
that we won.
Bruce Jackson,
SUNY Distinguished Professor and Samuel P. Capen Professor
of American Culture at University at Buffalo, edits the web journal
BuffaloReport.com.
His most recent book is Emile
de Antonio in Buffalo (Center Working Papers). Jackson
is also a contributor to The
Politics of Anti-Semitism. He can be reached at: bjackson@buffalo.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
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