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Today's
Stories
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
December 19, 2003
Elaine Cassel
Courts
Rebuke Bush for Trampling the Constitution
Robert Fisk
Raid
on Fantasyville: Shooting Samarra's Schoolboys in the Back
Zoltan Grossman
The
Occupation Has Failed to "Capture" the Loyalty of Iraqis
Mike Whitney
Bush's
Afghan Highway to Nowhere
Harold Gould
Has the Radical Arab Strategy Really Worked?
Gary Leupp
The
Neocon's Dream Memo
December 18, 2003
Ann Harrison
A
Landmark Victory for Medical Pot
John L. Hess
Catfish
Blues: The SOB's from Out of Town
Karyn Strickler
Ebola
is Good for You!
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Duryodhana
Dies
Harry Browne
Hail
Jim Hickey, the "Irish Hero" of the Colonial Occupation
of Iraq
Hammond Guthrie
Captured in Abasement
December 17, 2003
Robert Fisk
Saddam's
Cold Comforts
Gideon Levy
"Don't
Even Think About the Children"
Marjorie Cohn
The Fortuitous
Arrest of Saddam: a Pyrrhic Victory?
Andrew Cockburn
Saddam's
Last Act
December 16, 2003
Robert Fisk
Getting
Saddam...15 Years Too Late
Mahajan / Jensen
Saddam
in Irons: The Hard Truths Remain
John Halle
Matt
Gonzalez and Me
Josh Frank
The
Democrats and Saddam
Tariq Ali
Saddam
on Parade: the New Model of Imperialism
December 15, 2003
Robert Fisk
The Capture
of Saddam Won't Stop the Guerrilla War
Dave Lindorff
The
Saddam Dilemma
Abu Spinoza
Blowback on the Stand: The Trial of Saddam Hussein
Norman Solomon
For
Telling the Truth: the Strange Case of Katharine Gun
Patrick Cockburn
The
Capture of Saddam
Stew Albert
Joy to the World
December 13 / 14, 2003
Bill and Kathleen Christison
Chickenhearts
at Notre Dame: the Pervasive Fear of Talking About the Israeli
Connection
Stan Goff
Jessica Lynch, Plural
Tariq Ali
The Same Old Racket in Iraq
Jeffrey St. Clair
The Map is not the Territory
Marty Bender / Stan Cox
Dr. Atkins vs. the Planet
Christopher Brauchli
Mercury Rising: the EPA's Presents to Industry
Gary Leupp
On Marriage in "Recorded History", an Open Letter to
Gov. Mitt Romney
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The Saga of Iran's Alleged WMD
Larry Everest
Saddam, Oil and Empire: Supply v. Demand
William S. Lind
How to Fight a 4th Generation War
Fran Shor
From Vietnam to Iraq: Counterinsurgency and Insurgency
Ron Jacobs
Child Abuse as Public Policy
Omar Barghouti
Relative Humanity and a Just Peace in the Middle East
Adam Engel
Pretty Damn Evil: an Interview with Ed Herman
Kristin Van Tassel
Breastfeeding Compromised
Ben Tripp
On Getting Stabbed
Susan Davis
"The Secret Lives of Dentists", a Review
Dave Zirin
Does Dylan Still Matter? an Interview with Mike Marqusee
Norman Madarasz
Searching for the Barbarians
Poets' Basement
Guthrie and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Dean on Race
December 12, 2003
Josh Frank
Halliburton,
Timber and Dean
Chris Floyd
The
Inhuman Stain
Dave Lindorff
Infanticide
as Liberation: Hiding the Dead Babies
Benjamin Dangl
Another Two Worlds Are Possible?
Jean-Paul Barrois
Two States or One? an Interview with Sami Al-Deeb on the Geneva
Accords
David Vest
Bush
Drops the Mask: They Died for Halliburton
December 11, 2003
Siegfried Sassoon
A
Soldier's Declaration Against War
Douglas Valentine
Preemptive
Manhunting: the CIA's New Assassination Program
John Chuckman
The Parable of Samarra
Peter Phillips
US Hypocrisy on War Crimes: Corp Media Goes Along for the Ride
James M. Carter
The
Merchants of Blood: War Profiteering from Vietnam to Iraq
December 10, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
The
War According to Newt Gingrich
Pat Youngblood / Robert
Jensen
Workers
Rights are Human Rights
Jeff Guntzel
On Killing Children
CounterPunch Wire
Ashcroft Threatens to Subpoena Journalist's Notes in Stewart
Case
Dave Lindorff
Gore's
Judas Kiss
December 9, 2003
Michael Donnelly
A
Gentle Warrior Passes: Craig Beneville's Quiet Thunder
Chris White
A Glitch
in the Matrix: Where is East Timor Today?
Abu Spinoza
The Occupation Concertina: Pentagon Punishes Iraqis Israeli Style
Laura Carlsen
The FTAA: a Broken Consensus
Richard Trainor
Process and Profits: the California Bullet Train, Then and Now
Josh Frank
Politicians as Usual: Gore Dean and the Greens
Ron Jacobs
Remembering
John Lennon
December 8, 2003
Newton Garver
Bolivia
at a Crossroads
John Borowski
The
Fall of a Forest Defender: the Exemplary Life of Craig Beneville
William Blum
Anti-Empire
Report: Revised Inspirations for War
Tess Harper
When Christians Kill
Thom Rutledge
My Next Step
Carol Wolman, MD
Nuclear
Terror and Psychic Numbing
Michael Neumann
Ignatieff:
Apostle of He-manitariansim
Website of the Day
Bust Bob Novak
December 6 / 7, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
The
UN: Should Be Late; Never Was Great
CounterPunch Special
Toronto Globe and Mail Kills Review of "The Politics of
Anti-Semitism"
Vicente Navarro
Salvador Dali, Fascist
Saul Landau
"Reality
Media": Michael Jackson, Bush and Iraq
Ben Tripp
How Bush Can Still Win
Gary Leupp
On Purchasing Syrian Beer
Ron Jacobs
Are We Doing Body Counts, Now?
Larry Everest
Oil, Power and Empire
Lee Sustar
Defying the Police State in Miami
Jacob Levich
When NGOs Attack: Implications for the Coup in Georgia
Toni Solo
Game Playing by Free Trade Rules: the Results from Indonesia
and Dominican Republic
Mark Scaramella
How to Fix the World Bank
Bruce Anderson
The San Francisco Mayor's Race
Brian Cloughley
Shredding the Owner's Manual: the Hollow Charter of the UN
Adam Engel
A Conversation with Tim Wise
Neve Gordon
Fuad and Ezra: an Update on Gays Under the Occupation
Kurt Nimmo
Bush Gives "Freedom" Medal to Robert Bartley
Tom Stephens
Justice Takes a Holiday
Susan Davis
Avast, Me Hearties! a Review of Disney's "Pirates of the
Caribbean"
Jeffrey St. Clair
A
Natural Eye: the Photography of Brett Weston
Mickey Z.
Press Box Red
Poets' Basement
Greeder, Orloski, Albert
T-shirt of the Weekend
Got Santorum?
December 5, 2003
Jeremy Scahill
Bremer
of the Tigris
Jeremy Brecher
Amistad
Revisited at Guantanamo?
Norman Solomon
Dean
and the Corp Media Machine
Norman Madarasz
France
Starts Facing Up to Anti-Muslim Discrimination
Pablo Mukherjee
Afghanistan:
the Road Back
December 4, 2003
M. Junaid Alam
Image
and Reality: an Interview with Norman Finkelstein
Adam Engel
Republican
Chris Floyd
Naked Gun: Sex, Blood and the FBI
Adam Federman
The US Footprint in Central Asia
Gary Leupp
The
Fall of Shevardnadze
Guthrie / Albert
RIP Clark Kerr
December 3, 2003
Stan Goff
Feeling
More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money
Joanne Mariner
Profit Margins and Mortality Rates
George Bisharat
Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora?
Mickey Z.
Tear Down That Wal-Mart
John Stanton
Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario
Harry Browne
Shannon
Warport: "No More Business as Usual"
December 2, 2003
Matt Vidal
Denial
and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom
Benjamin Dangl
An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas
Sam Bahour
Can It Ever Really End?
Norman Solomon
That
Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test
Josh Frank
Trade
War Fears
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
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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December
26, 2003
Bush Doings
Doing
the English Language
By GARY LEUPP
Our English language is a first-class language,
the language of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. It's wonderfully
diverse, produced by a mix of peoples originally speaking
Celtic, Germanic, or Romance languages. So it's richer in synonyms
than some other languages. Often, sets of synonyms derive respectively
from the Germanic and the French or Latin. Germanic words often
seem more concrete, Romance language words more abstract. "Work"
has a Germanic feel to it, and sure enough, it is in fact from
Old English werc, which also occurs in Old High German.
"Labor" on the other hand comes from
Latin via Old French.
Now, when you type the word "do"(that
most basic of words) into your Microsoft Word Thesaurus, you'll
get nine synonyms. Some (like "perform," "execute,"
"accomplish"), come from French language influences
that trickled down from the Norman elite into the British masses
from 1066. Others are Germanic. "Get something done"
for example etymologically combines Old Norse and Old English.
In this fine synonym-rich English language,
which I love, we have developed a convention whereby a writer
or speaker strives to avoid repetitious use of a single word
in a sentence or paragraph, lest he or she be seen as dull. And
since you can often express yourself with more clarity by avoiding
verbal repetition, you're encouraged in school (the better ones,
anyway) to use what the language gives you, minimally.
Doing the Middle
East
Now in this fine language, this English
language, U.S. President George W. Bush, at a Washington Christmas
party, spoke to a journalist with the Israeli newspaper Yediot
Aharonot as follows.
"Now is the time to do a lot in
the Middle East, and I am determined and committed to doing that.
You can be sure that I have done a lot until now, but I am going
to keep on doing. I am going to continue to be active and committed
to my vision."
I encountered this item on a Yahoo-News
hyperlink from antiwar.com. It seemed to come from AFP (Agence
France-Presse), so I briefly wondered to myself how that
would have been rendered in French. I couldn't find the French-language
AFP original on line easily, and my high school French is pretty
rusty, so I used one of those translation programs and got the
following: "Est maintenant l'heure de faire beaucoup dans
le Moyen-Orient, et je suis déterminé et commis
à faire cela. Vous pouvez être sûr que j'ai
fait beaucoup jusqu'ici, mais je vais continuer à faire.
Je vais continuer à être en activité et commis
à ma vision." This sounds like really bad French,
due in part to the overuse of faire. French prose is often
cited for its clarity; this statement may strike French people
as insultingly vague, coming from an American president in these
troubled times.
Then I wondered about how this would
run in Japanese, which I speak daily, so it's always in my head.
The Japanese "do" verb most appropriate to use here
is suru, and its various forms. Bush would say that in
this Chûtô de takusan suru jiki (time to do
much in the Middle East), he's dedicated to sore o suru
(doing that). He'd note ima made shita koto (things I've
done up to now). A Japanese translator would tend to add some
elegance to his statement, reducing one of the "do"s
by ganbaru (do one's best) or some such alternative. In
Japanese literature generally, the repetition of a word is not
a style flaw; the "do" verb could cascade endlessly
so long as it helps convey a heartfelt or formally pleasing statement.
But the Bush statement would sound childlike if translated literally,
and a Japanese translator is typically a kind, deferential person
who wants to avoid making a prestigious American sound like a
sumo wrestler.
In German, what I get off the net is:
"Ist jetzt die Zeit, im Mittler-Osten viel zu tun, und ich
werde am Tun das festgestellt und festgelegt. Sie können
sicher sein, daß ich viel bis jetzt getan habe, aber ich
werde auf dem Tun halten. Ich werde fortfahren, aktiv und festgelegt
an meinem Anblick zu sein." What impresses me here is the
strong presence of Tun (Doing) as a capitalized noun. Bush is
committed to his Doing.
Anyway, after reading the above-quoted Bush statement, and thinking
about the "do" verb in different languages,
and the use of the word "do-do" in baby talk,
and such, I reread the article in which it occurred. I realized
that what Bush probably really meant to say was that there had
been charges that his administration was insufficiently active
in "the quest for Middle East peace," but that he was
in fact doing a lot. What are these Doings? He has come
out in favor of a Palestinian state; the U.S. proposed a U.N.
resolution on such a state in March 2002. (Some might say this
promotion of Palestinian statehood is an achievement of the second
Bush presidency. It seems a necessary move. The bombing of Afghanistan
had produced much anger in the Muslim world, from Pakistan to
Indonesia. The planned war against Iraq was going to inevitably
generate more anger. And in March 2002, 20,000 Israeli troops
were dispatched to search villages, refugee camps and cities
on the West Bank and Gaza, producing much bloodshed. If there
was ever a good time to support Palestinian statehood, it was
then.) And of course Bush has proposed a Roadmap to Peace involving
exchange of land for peace, or peace for land.
Doing Arafat
But the U.S. decision to promote a Palestinian
state has had little practical significance. Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon has consistently demanded that Palestinian terror
attacks on Israelis stop before Israel withdraws from Palestinian
lands and recognizes a Palestinian state. In December 2001 his
government declared the Palestinian Authority a "terror-sponsoring"
entity and cut off ties with it. (The U.S. has maintained ties
through the Palestinian Prime Minister, a figure created at U.S.-Israeli
insistence as an alternative to Yasir Arafat.) The Israeli Defense
Force (IDF) has so crippled the Palestinian Authority police
force that it can't possibly be expected to prevent all terror
attacks; yet when attacks occur (conducted by several uncontrollable
groups), Sharon's government accuses the Authority and Arafat
specifically. The Israeli deputy prime minister has publicly
opined that it might be good to assassinate Arafat.
Initially chiding Sharon for the ferocity
of the attacks on Palestinian cities and towns, Bush wound up
calling him "a man of peace" in April 2002. This surprised
some people, if only because an Israeli government commission
report blamed him for the massacre of some 1000 Palestinians
in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, which Israel
invaded in 1982. An effort by Palestinians and Lebanon to prosecute
Sharon for war crimes through the Belgian judicial system, which
allows Belgian courts to try anyone responsible for serious human
rights abuses, wherever they might have occurred, was thwarted
by a higher court's judgment that since Sharon isn't in Belgium
he can't be tried.
In a much-awaited statement in June 2002,
Bush declared that the U.S. will "support the creation of
a provisional state of Palestine" if Palestinians
"embrace democracy, confront corruption and firmly reject
terror." It was basically a call for Palestinians to remove
Arafat from power; create an alternative power apparatus that
will "confront corruption" well enough to satisfy the
(corruption-free) Bush administration; dismantle Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, and the al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades; and stop using violence
against Israelis. Bush was echoing Sharon's position: give us
peace, we'll give you land. The Palestinians counter: Land for
peace.
What would Bush, advertised this Christmas
as an action figure, really like to be doing in the Middle East?
Well, echoing Sharon, Dubya told the Israeli journalist mentioned
above:
"We must get rid of Arafat."
Let's repeat that, because it's very
important. It's actually the point of this column concerning
Bushdoings.
"We must get
rid of Arafat."
So here's the plan. First of all, a big
campaign through the most credible media (CNN, Fox, MSNBC) to
link Arafat with terrorism. That will be easy to do; Arafat's
been around a long time and all over the Muslim world so if you
want links to "terrorism," you'll find links. Of course
Arafat and the Palestinian Authority had nothing to do with
9-11, and there don't seem to be major links between al-Qaeda
and the Palestinian groups on the Washington "terror"
list. But people who can believe that Saddam was involved with
9-11 can certainly be persuaded that Arafat was involved too.
Recall the Gaza refugee camp women ululating at the news of the
attacks? Imagine how useful that would be in the campaign to
get rid of Arafat. (A man who encourages hatred for America!
Whose followers celebrated the attacks upon America!
A man who encourages terrorism against the state of Israel, and
therefore against God's Plan!)
Those planning to get rid of Arafat will
not wish the media to mention Arafat's involvement in the Oslo
Accords and his 1994 Nobel Peace Prize. Or to mention that in
January 1996 he was democratically elected as first president
of the Palestinian Governing Council. They may wish to deflect
attention from his 1988 declaration to the U.N. that Palestinians
could accept a sovereign Israeli state. They will try to conflate
Arafat with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein into a trinity
of Evil. But that, of course, is preposterous. These men have
nothing in common but their Arab-ness.
If the (anti-Palestinian) Stage
Three in The Terror War
(which I expect to overlap Stage Four, the Conquest of Syria)
leads to the death or humiliation of Arafat, I would think that
the whole region might explode. I mean, how much humiliation
can the affected cultures sustain? Some of us believe that some
people high up in the U.S. government want to take over Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, etc. They've explained
their reasons in papers that dryly touch on oil and pipelines;
water; military bases; evolving U.S. relations with Europe, Russia,
China, India and Japan; Israel's security.
But publicly, as justification for doing
so, they just keep repeating: "9-11." Maybe they really
believe that whatever they think are good American values can
be implanted in various peoples, from the Khyber Pass to Mesopotamia,
under conditions of military occupation, leaving everyone happy
and grateful and never ever inclined in future to attack Israel.
Maybe they want the Palestinians to be happy and grateful too,
when the U.S. arm-twists Israel into allowing them a Bantustan-like
state. Or maybe they anticipate that their actions will invite
resistance, but are so confident of their ability to meet that
resistance, that they will just bludgeon on ahead with the game
plan. You'd think that the quagmires in Afghanistan and Iraq
would cause them to rethink their programs for regime change
in Syria and Iran. But no, they're trying to strike while the
iron's hot.
So following some preparation of public
opinion, they will authorize or at least accept action against
Arafat. But why does President Bush (who claims to have fulfilled
God's command to "smite" bin Laden and Saddam), want
to get rid of this democratically elected Palestinian
president who has met cordially with past U.S. presidents? To
keep on doing what he's committed to doing, of
course. Bush is committed to "his vision." (Recall
how the first Bush was chided for not having a vision,
and so he had to really work on what he called "the vision
thing"?) In Dubya's vision, Good triumphs over Evil in the
Holy Land during his presidency, while he gives the orders from
the White House, smirking at his good fortune to be the President
and knowing exactly what he's doing. Among other things, that
means doing in Arafat.
Gary Leupp
is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor
of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa, Japan
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for Dec. 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
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