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Today's
Stories
February 12, 2004
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Jordan
Green
Democratic Patronage in Northern New
Mexico
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
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.
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February
12, 2004
You Call This "Civilized?"
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
By ROBERT JENSEN
President Bush's call for changes in international
rules on the sale of nuclear equipment would effectively revoke
the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty's provision allowing countries
to pursue atomic energy if they pledge not to build nuclear weapons.
Bush argued for the change by saying
that the world's consensus against proliferation "means
little unless it is translated into action. Every civilized nation
has a stake in preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction."
But there is another important aspect
of that international consensus, also written into the Non-Proliferation
Treaty, which the United States signed:
"Each of the Parties to the Treaty
undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective
measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an
early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a Treaty on general
and complete disarmament under strict and effective international
control."
That is, the treaty directs those states
already possessing nuclear weapons to engage in honest attempts
at reducing and eventually eliminating nuclear weapons.
The old "arms race" between
the former Soviet Union and the United States may be over, but
has the United States -- the nuclear giant of the world, and
hence the nation in the strongest
position to take a leadership role -- acted in "good faith"
to eliminate its own nuclear weapons and encourage others to
do the same? Do the actions of the United States since that treaty
went into effect in 1970 indicate any intention to honor its
provisions?
Sadly, the answer is no. Instead, the
United States -- with its overwhelming military advantage in
the world, conventional and nuclear -- seems bent on continuing
to create, and threaten the use of, nuclear weapons.
Jacqueline Cabasso, executive director
of the Western States Legal Foundation (a public-interest organization
that monitors and analyzes U.S. nuclear-weapons programs) sums
it up this way: "The U.S. is spending more money on nuclear-weapons
research and development than ever before, giving its nuclear
arsenal new military capabilities and elevating the role of nuclear
weapons in its aggressive and unilateral 'national security'
policy." Cabasso cites ongoing work on such weapons as a
"Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator" as clear evidence
of U.S. intentions to pursue nuclear weaponry, not work toward
its elimination.
Perhaps more frightening, the Bush administration's
January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review laid out a nuclear policy
that calls for the development of low-yield or so-called "mini-nukes"
and integrates nuclear weapons with conventional strike options.
The review discusses possible first-use of nuclear weapons, even
against non-nuclear countries if the United States believes a
country may use chemical or biological weapons against the United
States or its allies. The review's language -- "U.S. nuclear
forces will continue to provide assurance to security partners,
particularly in the presence of known or suspected threats of
nuclear, biological, or chemical attacks or in the event of surprising
military developments" -- not surprisingly makes the world
nervous.
Bush would do well to listen to his own
words, such as this comment on "Meet the Press" last
weekend: "See, free societies are societies that don't develop
weapons of mass terror and don't blackmail the world."
On the heels of a U.S. invasion of Iraq
that virtually the whole world opposed and which had no legal
authority, U.S. citizens should face the unpleasant fact that
we have the most extensive arsenal of weapons of mass terror,
and that much of the world is frightened of how they might be
used.
Though U.S. citizens typically have a
self-indulgent belief that their country can be trusted with
such weapons (despite the painful reality that the United States
is the only country to have ever dropped an atomic bomb), the
world's fears are not irrational. Again, Bush's own words, from
his 2002 speech at West Point, make the point: "We cannot
put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign non-proliferation
treaties, and then systemically break them."
Every "civilized nation" has
a stake not only in preventing the spread of weapons of mass
destruction, but also pressuring the nuclear powers to honor
the Non-Proliferation Treaty and move toward a more secure world
in which no nation can threaten the ultimate horror. It is the
task of U.S. citizens to push our own government toward that
civilized policy.
Robert Jensen
is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin
and author of "Citizens
of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity."
He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
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