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New Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively to Subscribers: Patrick Cockburn's Eyewitness in Baghdad: Saddam's Stuffed Horse; Inside the Looting of the Iraq National History Museum; the Rise of the Guerrilla War; Jeffrey St. Clair on The Anatomy of a Swindle: How the Bush Administration is Giving Away Public Lands to Its Political Cronies; Scott Handleman on the Return of the Aliens: Why the CIA Was Paranoid About UFOs. Remember, the CounterPunch website is supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide web audience is soaring, with more than 60,000 visitors a day. This is inspiring news, but the work involved also compels us to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. 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

Coming in September From AK Press Featuring Essays by: Edward Said, Robert Fisk, Michael Neumann, Shahid Alam, Alexander Cockburn, Uri Avnery, Bill and Kathy Christison and More Today's Stories August 11, 2003 Uri Avnery Who Will Save Abu Mazen?   Recent Stories Alexander Cockburn California's Glorious Recall! Saul Landau Bush and King Henry Gary Leupp On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism" and the Censored 9/11 Report Paul de Rooij The Parade of the Body Bags Michael Egan History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy Rob Eshelman A Home of Our Own Daoud Kuttab Life as an ID Card Philip Agee Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba Jeffrey St. Clair Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man Walt Brasch Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird" and the Rigtheous Right Christopher Brauchli Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi Josh Frank Mean, Mean Howard Dean Elaine Cassel Will the Death Penalty Ever Die? Sean Carter Total Recall Poets' Basement Hamod, Engel, Albert August 8, 2003 John Chuckman What the US Says Goes Roberto Barreto Defend the Vieques 12! Bruce Gagnon Iraq War Emboldens Bush Space Plans Elaine Cassel The Reign of John Ashcroft Dave Lindorff Snoops Night Out Website of the Day Zero Boy     August 7, 2003 M. Shahid Alam It the US a "Terrorist Magnet?" Toni Solo Neo-liberal Nicaragua: a New Banana Republic Adam Lebowitz Hiroshima Commemorated: the View from Japan Hanan Ashrawi When the Bully Whines Niranjan Ramakrishnan Conscience Takes a Holiday Jason Leopold Wolfowitz Lets Slip: Iraq Not Behind 9/11; No Ties to Al-Qaeda Mike Kimaid What's the Score? Elaine Cassel The Smell of VICTORY: Ashcroft's Latest Stinkbomb Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians   August 6, 2003 Steve Higgs Going to Jail for the Cause: It's Not Easy Confronting King Coal David Krieger Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Robert Fisk The Ghosts of Uday and Qusay Christopher Brauchli Bush's War on the National Forests Elaine Cassel No Fly Lists Stan Goff Military Equipment and Pneumonia Hugh Sansom An Open Letter to Nicholas Kristof on the Nuking of Japan   August 5, 2003 Uri Avnery The Prisoner of Ramallah: Arafat at 74 Forrest Hylton Terrorism and Political Trials: the View from Bolivia Ray McGovern "We Cook Estimates to Go" David Morse Poindexter's Gambit Edward Said Orientallism: 25 Years Later George W. Bush My Darn Good Resumé Hammond Guthrie It's Incremental, Watson! Website of the Day National Prayer Day August 4, 2003 Bruce K. Gagnon Another Peace Activist Detained by Airport Cops: My Story David Lindorff Fear-Mongering About Social Security Mark Zepezauer George F. Will: Descent into Self-Parody James Plummer Tracking You Through the Mail Mickey Z. Marriage Insecurity from Sharon to Bush Bruce Jackson News that Isn't News: How the NYT's Pimps for the White House August 2 / 3, 2003 Tamara R. Piety Nike's Full Court Press Breaks Down Francis Boyle My Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, is a Moral Cesspool David Vest Sons of Paleface: Pictures from Death's Other Side Neve Gordon Nightlife in Jerusalem Uri Avnery Their Master's Voice: Bush, Blair and Intelligence Snafus Robert Fisk Paternalistic Democracy for Iraq Jerry Kroth Israel, Yellowcake and the Media Noah Leavitt What's Driving the Liberian Bloodbath: Is the US Obligated to Intervene? Saul Landau The Film Industry: Business and Ideology Ron Jacobs One Big Prison Yard: the Meaning of George Jackson Thomas Croft In the Deep, Deep Rough: Reflections on Augusta Amadi Ajamu Def Sham: Russell Simmons New Black Leader? Poets' Basement Vega, Witherup, Albert and Fleming   August 1, 2003 Joanne Mariner Stopping Prison Rape Alex Coolman Who Moved My Soap: Trivializing Prison Rape Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Stan Goff Injury and Decorum: The Missing Wounded in Iraq Wayne Madsen Europe Unplugs from the Matrix Robert Fisk Wolfowitz the Censor Elaine Cassel Ashcroft Loses Big in Puerto Rico Website of the Day Stop Prisoner Rape   July 31, 2003 Ray McGovern The Prostitution of Intelligence Brian Cloughley Wolfowitz's Operative Statement Sheldon Hull The RIAA's Jihad: The Devil's Music (Industry) Elaine Cassel The Next Time You Crack a Lawyer Joke, Think of These Attorneys Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: Propaganda and Bush's Wars Hammond Guthrie Speculation Blues Website of the Day Army of One? Congratulations to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD   July 30, 2003 David Lindorff Poindexter the Terror Bookie Marjorie Cohn Why Iraq and Afghanistan? It's About the Oil Elaine Cassel How Ashcroft Coerces Guilty Pleas in Terror Cases Zvi Bar'el The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War Lisa Walsh Thomas Killing Mustafa Hussein: Death of a Child, Birth of a Legend? Sean Carter Pat Robertson's Prayer Jihad: God, Sodomy and the Supremes ND Jayaprakash India and Ariel Sharon Steve Perry Bush's Top 40 Lies Standard Schaefer Correction about Bloomberg and Outscourcing Website of the Day Bring Them Home Now!   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 Elaine Cassel Civil Liberties Watch Michel Guerrin Embedded Photographer Says: "I Saw Marines Kill Civilians" 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.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

August 11, 2003 A Ceremonial Journey Bush's Progress By MICKEY Z. Washington Post Staff Writer Mike Allen penned a piece called "Bush Cites 'Progress' Being Made in Iraq" (August 9, 2003) in which Allen claimed President (sic) Bush had begun "building a broad, new case that progress is being made in postwar Iraq despite the steady casualties besetting U.S. troops." What Allen was referring to is a 24-page White House report called "Results in Iraq: 100 Days Toward Security and Freedom." One hundred days and 119 dead U.S. soldiers after Bush hopped out of a fighter jet to announce "Mission Accomplished," the president-select explained, "We've made a lot of progress in a hundred days, and I am pleased with the progress we've made, but fully recognize we've got a lot more work to do." PROGRESS: 1. Movement, as toward a goal; advance. 2. Development or growth: students who show progress. 3. Steady improvement, as of a society or civilization. 4. A ceremonial journey made by a sovereign through his or her realm (hmm...) A couple of the Democratic presidential candidates responded to the report without actually challenging the premise that "progress" had been made. Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said the administration "should be changing course instead of celebrating." Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said that the "best way to win the peace, not just make progress, is to replace Americans with a broad array of troops that take the target off of American soldiers and eliminate the sense of American occupation." One more time, for Kerry and Edwards: PROGRESS: 1. Movement, as toward a goal; advance. 2. Development or growth: students who show progress. 3. Steady improvement, as of a society or civilization. 4. A ceremonial journey made by a sovereign through his or her realm Bush, of course, responded to the Democrats. "Pure politics," he repeated three times. "As far as all this political noise," he added, "it's going to get worse as time goes on, and I fully understand that, and that's just the nature of democracy." DEMOCRACY: 1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. 2. A political or social unit that has such a government. 3. The common people, considered as the primary source of political power. 4. Majority rule. 5. The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community. Illustrating the "progress" made during Iraq's transition to "democracy," the report claims, "health care, previously available only for Baathist [political party] elite, is now available to all Iraqis." Neither the report nor the Washington Post mentions the role of sanctions in the distribution of health care prior to the U.S. occupation. To Allen's credit, he does display a modicum of suspicion. In paragraph 13 (of 17), he writes: "The report does not mention the almost daily attacks on U.S. forces, or the kidnappings and carjackings that terrify many Baghdad residents. It does not mention Iraq's high unemployment or widespread lack of electricity. No documentation for the claims is included." But this is his only call for documentation. "The administration's emphasis on the justification for the war in Iraq has evolved," Allen writes, "and Bush today said the engagement there was aimed at preventing another attack like those on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in 2001." "I will not forget the lessons of September the 11th," Bush explained. Allen didn't explain what these lessons were or how this stance qualifies as "evolving." EVOLVE: 1. To develop or achieve gradually: evolve a style of one's own. 2. To work (something) out; devise. 3. Biology. To develop (a characteristic) by evolutionary processes. Allen also refrained from mentioning that, despite Bush's "evolution," a connection between Iraq and 9/11 has never been made. PROPAGANDA: 1. The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause. 2. Material disseminated by the advocates or opponents of a doctrine or cause: wartime propaganda. Here's to 100 more days of progress... Mickey Z. is the author of The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet and an editor at Wide Angle. He can be reached at: mzx2@earthlink.net. Weekend Edition Features for August 9 / 10, 2003 Alexander Cockburn California's Glorious Recall! Saul Landau Bush and King Henry Gary Leupp On Terrorism, Methodism, "Wahhabism" and the Censored 9/11 Report Paul de Rooij The Parade of the Body Bags Michael Egan History and the Tragedy of American Diplomacy Rob Eshelman A Home of Our Own Daoud Kuttab Life as an ID Card Philip Agee Terror and Civil Society: Instruments of US Policy in Cuba Jeffrey St. Clair Marc Racicot: Bush's Main Man Walt Brasch Schwarzenegger, "Hollyweird" and the Rigtheous Right Christopher Brauchli Bush, Bribery and Berlusconi Josh Frank Mean, Mean Howard Dean Elaine Cassel Will the Death Penalty Ever Die? Sean Carter Total Recall Poets' Basement Hamod, Engel, Albert   Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /