Now
Available from
CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included)
Today's
Stories
February 25, 2004
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
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
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.
|
February
25, 2004
Metaphor Madness
Saddam's
Sex Therapist & the Rape of Free Speech
By DR. SUSAN BLOCK
"As night fall does not come at
once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a
twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it
is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change
in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims
of the darkness."
U. S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas
in 1976
I was running late, on my way to a Westside LA
book soirée for David Corn and the Scheer Boys (Robert
& Christopher) and their timely tomes about Bush's
(various and sundry) Lies, when Kim said there was a guy
on the phone asking how I knew American soldiers were raping
Iraqi women.
"Huh?" I replied.
Kim shrugged.
"Another crackpot," I figured.
"Give him the e-mail address. Do not give him the office
address." One war-loving bozo threatening to throw acid
in our faces was more than enough.
"Okay, but he wants to talk to you."
"Of course, he does. Give him the
number to call the show Saturday night, and we'll chat about
it on the air."
"Okay" I heard Kim repeat my
words to whoever was on the phone as I slipped on my jacket.
Then she stopped me again. "He says he won't call the show,
and he's going to report that you refuse to answer questions
for his article in the Boston Globe."
Yikes. This was more than just another
right-wing lunatic. This was a right-wing lunatic with a readership
of over 3 million. I took the phone. "Charlie Radin from
the Boston Globe, Jerusalem office," the friendly but forceful
Yankee twang informed me. And to what did I owe the pleasure?
His world-weary sigh told me I'd better sit down. Then his weirder-than-my-weirdest-nightmare
of a story tumbled out.
According to my new pal Charlie, the
biggest Islamist newspaper in Turkey, Yeni
Safak, had published a front page article alleging that US
troops were raping thousands of Iraqi women, and their primary
"source" for this explosive allegation was none other
than little old moi.
What? I had never said any such thing.
Which Kafka novel had I just wandered into?
I had written several columns critical
of the war. In one of the pieces, published in mid-April, 2003,
entitled "Rape
of Iraq," I used "rape" as a metaphor for
the American invasion.. But I had never said, in writing, on
the air or even in conversation, that Americans were literally
raping Iraqi women. Using me as a "source" for the
allegation that American troops were committing literal rapes
against Iraqi women would be farcical if it weren't so terrible.
Talk about LIES. This was a whopper. But then, the Neo-War on
Terror seems to be a Battle of Lies Against Counter-Lies, with
blood-lusty faith-based frauds on both sides of the battlefield.
Needless to say, I don't know if American
troops are raping Iraqi women. I do know they've killed Iraqi
women, as well as men and children, because, like everybody else,
I've seen the pictures and read the reports. I think death is
a substantially worse fate than rape. But that's just my opinion.
Apparently, a lot of people, including
some Islamists, think that rape is worse than death. I am told
that this has something to do with the way they twist and turn
the words of the Koran into misogynist contortions that confound
the Western mind. Of course, we Westerners can just turn to our
own Christian fundamentalists, some of whom maintain that it's
better to let a woman die in childbirth than allow her to have
an abortion, to understand just how religion can be perverted
into murderous imperatives based on nothing but sexual taboos
and intense patriarchal paranoia.
I asked Charlie if he'd actually read
"Rape of Iraq." He had not. Off went the jacket and
down I sat, diligently e-mailing him a link to the piece online,
as well as a couple of my other related articles, "Bukkake
Bombing Crusade" and "Sex,
Lies and WMDs," to show him that though I have never
written about literal rapes in Iraq, I have often used various
aspects of sex as metaphors for the war.
For instance, back in the summer of '02,
when Dubya was first squawking like a barnyard fowl about invading
Iraq, and Saddam was reacting with his signature mafioso swagger,
I wrote "Cockfight
in the Baghdad Corral." Needless to say, I didn't mean
that the two leaders were literally going to strip down and duke
it out naked in the desert--though that could have been interesting,
and a lot less destructive for the rest of us. I was using "Cockfight"
as a metaphor for Bush's and Saddam's treacherous macho strutting.
Similarly, I called the actual American
invasion of Iraq a "rape," since that seemed to be
an apt metaphor for the way we brutally inserted ourselves into
this weakened, sanction-wracked country without anything close
to "consent" from said country or the rest of the world.
This was the rape of a land and its history, the bombing of homes
and infrastructure, the killing and maiming of thousands of citizens,
the looting of stores and museums. Though these things may be
just as bad or (in my opinion) a lot worse than the literal rape
of a woman, they are obviously not the same thing. Only a fool
or a miscreant would say otherwise.
Satisfied I'd given Charlie sufficient
reading material to enlighten him, I grabbed my jacket and went
off to Stanley Sheinbaum's lovely home to honor The Five Biggest
LIES Bush Told Us About Iraq and The Lies of George W.
Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception, all the while
fretting about the Islamist lies about me (pourquoi moi?)
spreading around the mosques and cafés of Istanbul. With
both sides of the Terror Wars competing to tell the biggest,
most frightening fibs, where did that leave the peace-hungry
liberals among us? Sipping wine and eating cheese, that's where.
"Here we are in Hollywood, the capital
of storytelling," I addressed the august progressive assemblage
which included Robert Greenwald, Tom Hayden and Cindy Asner,
"but the Bushies and the Islamists are beating us
at our own game. Their stories have captured the American imagination.
Don't we have better storytellers than they have?" Everyone
nodded, but no one had an answer, and neither did I.
I raced home full of camembert and cabernet
(don't worry, I wasn't driving), and called my pal Charlie to
see if he'd read "Rape of Iraq." It being morning in
Jerusalem, he was just having his coffee. "It's obvious
that you're using "rape" as a metaphor," he assured
me. I felt a waterfall of relief wash over me; at least, there
was some value to the truth, even in terrorized times.
"But this thing has gone way beyond
what you wrote," he continued (speaking of truth, for the
purpose of storytelling, and since I didn't tape record him,
I am paraphrasing Charles Radin's words here). "Yeni Safak
is a very popular publication in Turkey. A lot of people read
that piece where you are quoted-or, excuse me, as I see now,
misquoted--as the primary source for saying that American
soldiers are raping Iraqi women. It's all over the street."
So much for the truth.
"The story got so big that the American
Embassy in Turkey issued a statement about you."
Oy.
Usually, one to fan the flames of publicity, I felt myself melting
in the conflagration.
"You won't like it," Charlie
assured me. Then, with that reporter's cocky attitude when he
knows he's got his subject's undivided attention, he read aloud:
EMBASSY STATEMENT
Ankara, October 23
A front-page article in yesterday's "Yeni
Safak" newspaper carried the false claim that U.S. forces
have been responsible for the rape of thousands of Iraqi women
since the beginning of the conflict in Iraq. These outrageous
allegations were based on a U.S. "source" best known
for her pornographic web-sites and erotic television program.
We believe it is irresponsible for a serious newspaper to present
such false claims from a clearly unreliable source on its front
page as if they were fact. We view this article as a deliberate
attempt to mislead Turkish readers and to damage the strong ties
between the Turkish and American people."
Charlie awaited my reaction like a hunter;
confident his prey will enter the trap. I took a deep breath
and didn't bite, not at first. "If the American Embassy
wants to write about what they call my 'pornographic websites
and erotic TV program,' that's fine," I said evenly. "The
way people describe what I do says more about them than me."
Charlie was obviously disappointed. Where was my outrage? I relished
his frustration, then wound up taking the bait: "But why
do they call me an 'unreliable source' when I wasn't a source
at all?" Here I was, ridiculously and atrociously misquoted
by a gang of thuggish tabloid hacks drinking way too much Turkish
coffee, then hung out to dry by my own embassy, blithely expanding
upon the lie the Islamists had started.
"Why not just say that I never made
these "claims?" Why continue their lie?" I asked
Charlie. But even as I spoke, I knew my question was naïve.
The American Commander-in-Chief hadn't bothered to make sure
that Saddam really had WMDs before invading Iraq, so why would
some tunnel-visionary American Embassy press apparatchik bother
to do his homework (and actually read the so-called "source"
material) before spitting out a press release? Moreover, this
horny little apparatchik just couldn't resist holding up my lacy
panties like a flag to his famously prudish readers, as if to
say: "Look, look, she's not just a stinking liberal, she's
a filthy pornographer!"
"But that's not the worst part"
Charlie had that you-better-sit-down tone to his voice again.
I was already seated, but my heart sank into the floor as he
continued, "Did you hear about the guy who blew himself
up in the HSBC bank in Istanbul, killing 12 people?"
"Yes," I said. I remembered
reading that the suicide-bomber's son had said that before his
father had gone off to kill himself and 12 other people, he had
been upset over news that American soldiers were raping Iraqi
women. I hadn't connected this with my "Rape of Iraq"
piece at the time; after all, "Rape of Iraq" wasn't
about literal rapes. Even Charlie could see that! But here he
was, connecting the dots of blood to me
"Oh no" I murmured, horrified
but still vaguely aware that my new confidant was a right-slanting
reporter who would quote me as "admitting responsibility"
or "regretting" what I wrote, or some such nonsense,
if I so much as apologized. Or maybe even if I didn't. So I just
sucked in my sadness and anger, silently mourning the deaths
of these innocents immolated in the madness of Ilyas Kuncak (the
suicide bomber), linked to me through a web of lies.
"How do you feel about that?"
I heard Charlie asking me, poking around for a juicy emotional
quote. I felt like throwing up, and I mumbled something about
being "appalled," as I pictured everyday men and women
filling out their deposit slips, then suddenly exploding into
bits of flesh and bone and sorrow, permanent withdrawals, each
leaving behind his or her own rippling circles of grief.
"So I gotta write this piece,"
Charlie was saying, almost apologetically. "It's a big story,
and you're in the middle of it, even though you had nothing to
do with it."
"When is it coming out?" I
asked meekly, wondering whether I was on trial or had become
a cockroach.
"That I can't tell you," he
was back to his ratatat reporter self. "I file it in a day
or two, then I'm off to Thailand for a little R&R."
"Can you e-mail me a heads-up before
it appears?"
"No, no e-mail, no computers, nothing.
When I get away from the insanity, I get away."
So Charlie was going to write whatever
Charlie was going to write, that being his right. And then he
would make his getaway. But since the American Embassy, my embassy,
still had its nasty little lie-based press release up on their
website, I felt I had to set the record straight. It was now
mid-morning in Turkey, so I figured I'd give the culprits a buzz.
I think they were slightly shocked and awed to hear from the
so-called "source" of the rape rumors herself. When
I finally got Chief Embassy Press Officer Joseph (Joe) Pennington
on the phone, he gave me his full attention, making sure I had
his cell phone number, brushing off my waking him in the middle
of the night, and promising to print a letter from me on the
front page of the Embassy website correcting their egregious
error. Joe even suggested I sue Yeni Safak for libel. When I
said I didn't know any Turkish attorneys, he replied that he
could find one for me. I declined, but was impressed that he
wasn't treating me like the "unreliablepornographer"
his press release had said I was. Maybe that was because by the
time, he returned my call, he'd made it a point to actually read
the article.
I was steaming, but tried to keep my
letter to the embassy brief, apolitical and polite (here it is
in English
and in Turkish).
As promised, Joe printed it on the front page of the American
Embassy website. Within a few days, it migrated to an archive
page, where it continued to provide some level of personal vindication,
at least in my head.
Though, naturally, I couldn't sleep.
I have no idea what Kuncak's victims looked like, but they haunted
me, as did the faces of the children blown to bits by Shock and
Awe, as did the body parts of the young American soldiers being
killed in Iraq as "occupiers" almost daily.
Then the Globe piece appeared: Rumors
of rape fan anti-i-American flames: Paper's claim against troops
widely believed Lurid, yes. But no, Charlie didn't technically
misquote me. However, being a skilled sensationalist reporter
writing for a paper that tilts jauntily rightward, he managed
to make me sound vaguely responsible for Kuncak's mass murder/suicide.
It's all in the tone, of course.
As predicted, Charlie didn't let me know
when the piece was published. I found out through an avalanche
of e-mail from Boston Globe readers who not only wanted to blame
(and hang) me for Kuncak's killings, but for various other Islamist
atrocities, not to mention all ill will born by Muslims toward
Americans, as well as all combat-related deaths in Iraq since
Bush announced the "end to major combat operations."
As the piece came out just after the holidays, the e-mails calling
me "traitor" and "bitch" started invading
my box while I was in the South of France (where all the best
traitors and bitches go en vacances). Ah, nothing like
a few letters from home to make you proud to be an American I've
excerpted some here:
Rape of Iraq
Letters from Home
W A R N I N G
Some of the following e-mails contain foul language, as well
as explicit sexual, violent and religious imagery, which may
not be appropriate for children. Editor's Note: E-mails have
been cut for space, but typos, misspellings and other errors
and idiosyncrasies have been left unmolested.
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 8:21 AM
Subject: Susan Block
From: kpellone@prodigy.net
Dear Susan, You are causing Americans to die because of your
leftist perverted lies about America and Iraq.Fuck you, your
gays, your Muslims, your socialists and communists and all others
who serve SatanLike the immputant Muslims, you fight a losing
battle to ! destroy the Judeo-Christian God and his followers.
On your death bed remember these words and ask God for forgivness
or accept Satans painful grasp. It is your choice ass-hole. Love,
and God Bless your ignorant heart, Kevin
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 8:07 AM
Subject: Rape???
From: Jvboog@aol.com
I am appalled by your statements regarding American soldiers
raping thousands of Iraqi'sYou are an incredibly horrible person
and you deserve to be driven out of this country.
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 12:08
PM
Subject: Dr. Susan Block
From: larry5150@earthlink.net
Please, drag your cum sucking ass off American soil before any
body else is "raped" because of you!
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 12:25
PM
Subject: TREASONOUS
From: BonDud@aol.com
You should be tried for treason. You knew VERY WELL what you
wrote would cause concern and YOU are responsible for the deaths
from the suicide bombers who believe our soldiers are raping
these women. YOU SHOULD BE HANGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You CERTAINLY don't deserve the protectioin living in the US
affords you. Move to another country and see gow long your porn
crap survives I can picture Al Gore now, having his picture taken
with Osama bin Laden, with the hope of peace from the bombings
in the USGO GWB!!!!! Bonnie Dudley
PS may the next terrorist get YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can only hope.
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 12:33
PM
Subject: cunt
From: "Rod Barlow" yenrod@pacbell.net
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 2:02 PM
Subject: Dr. Block
From: VCATIONGUY@aol.com
Dr. BlockYOU are directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds
of people. I'd encourage you in the future to please keep your
public comments to something you know about, sucking and f#cking!
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 7:08 PM
Subject: The Rape of Iraq
From: sam stonier
Hi Dr suzy Next time - before you keep spewing forth that drivel
out of your filthy cunny hole - try to stop to think about the
consequences of your shallow, attention grabbing articles. Have
a nice day. Regards, Sam
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2004 10:39
PM
Subject: Bombing In Turkey
From: Kane17th@aol.com
I shall do my best to let HBO know they have a killer on their
network.
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 12:39
PM
Subject: Dr. Susan Block
From: james.russel@iomartdsl.com
They created the phrase "Loose lips sink ships." for
people like you.
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 8:21 PM
Subject: Excuse me but...
From: eanderson5@earthlink.net
Get over your "man-hate" doc. It's a wonder that you
don't sleep alone...Eric J. Anderson, Orlando, Florida Home:
(407) 291-9599 Mobile: (407) 616-0198
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:45 PM
Subject: Ignorant Ass
Sent: tgalebach@black-hole.com
You pathetic excuse for a human being, this world doesn't need
people like you or Saddam.
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:43 PM
Subject: Dr. Susan Block
From: J.Rudnick@cox.net
Regarding Dr. Susan Block and her so-called "Rape of Iraq",
that bitch should be hung for sedition.
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 6:04
AM
Subject: Mail for Ms. Susan
From: sayger2@vei.net
Ma'am: As I read the article I sense an anger in you which I
know was not diminished in any way by the writingbut I do realize
that you are a very intelligent woman and one who needs Jesus
Christ in her life badly - because only He can save you from
this anger which can destoy you. Sam Sayger Hernando, MS 662
233 0339
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 11:16
AM
Subject: Iraq
From: TelEqSal@aol.com
After seeing the report that you alone are responsible for your
own suicide bomber--how do you feel about it? As a typical liberal
you probably will have a million excuses why you're "NOT
REALLY " responsible, you in fact, are. Congratulations
on using your status as a "sex educator" to kill people.
I think what you probably need is a real man to take your mind
off of things you have no conception of.
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:09
PM
Subject: You selfish idiot
From: marisaurgo@hotmail.com
Oh, Lord Jesus! May He save you If you weren't so damn stupid,
I would say you are evil.
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:26
PM
Subject: Comments
From: zponape@comcast.net
I am not in disagreement with your web site; however, I am in
disagreement with your outrageous comments about rape in Iraq.
You ought to know by now that the uneducated in the Muslim countries
will spread rumors as real at the drop of a hat. Your bad choice
of words was repeated an equally ignorant publication called
the Boston Globe who left wing mentality is equal to Hitler's
Brown Shirts.
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 2:20
PM
Subject: Responsible for the death of innocent citizens in Turkey
because of your evil tongue
From: signaramarsvl@qwest.net
You guys are the most worthless piece of trash that this country
has produced you use sex to make money you cause hatred and evil
to spread threw this world while you cash in and you even kill
people in other countries by writing shit on the internet like
the car bomb in turkey was because of you and others around you.
Well tell the devil hi for me when you meet him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* * *
And so on. A couple days into the onslaught,
I received the most prominent right-wing crackpot response to
date: James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal online dubbed
me "Saddam's
Sex Therapist." At least he didn't call me Saddam's
Hair Stylist. Things could always be worse.
Still, all in all, I was laid pretty
low. Not only was I feeling wrenching grief for the people who
died in the bank explosion--or as much wrenching grief as a "stupid
shallow evil treasonous typical liberal" like me can feel.
Not only was I wondering if I was indeed the "worthless
piece of trash" that all these arbiters of taste, goodness,
patriotism and punctuation claimed I was. I was constantly looking
over my shoulder for one of my e-mail pen pals to goosestep out
of cyberspace, throw a noose around my neck and hang me. Then,
I'd imagine, he or she would toss my wretched corpse into one
of Bush's famous Free Speech Zones, where I could exercise my
First Amendment rights to my dead heart's content.
Flying into New York on Orange Alert,
I worried that the friendly customs folks would look up my passport
on their computers, see "Saddam's Sex Therapist" or
"filthy cunny hole" and send me back to Cannes.
I know, it's neurotic, but less controversial journalists have
been turned away from America's welcoming arms in recent months.
I even found myself wondering if my "choice
of words" in "Rape of Iraq" was indeed ill-conceived.
After all, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell had blamed gays, feminists
and the ACLU for 9/11, so why should I be blameless? I contemplated
self-censorship, wondering if maybe I should have been less graphic,
like, called it the "Nonconsensual Ravishment of Iraq."
Then I snapped out of it. Why was I letting
these willfully thickheaded neo-fascists get to me? They were
as bad as the Islamist fanatics who misquoted me. The facile
lies, the crazed religiosity, the proud ignorance, and the violent,
you're-either-with-us-or-against-us, frothing-at-the mouth, anti-sex
hatred was the same, just with different names, different languages,
different shades of brown.
In the Biblical sense, it's a Battle
of Brothers, Ishmael and Isaac, sons of Abraham, brothers of
shame. Ishmael's own father Abraham cast him out of his house
into the wilderness. Isaac felt that same father's knife against
his throat, ready to kill him as a "sacrifice" to God.
Through myth and procreation, Ishmael and Isaac, the two traumatized
sons of Abraham, spawned tribes that spawned nations "under
God," nations at war. Now I had become a pawn in the divine
fratricide.
Of course, I'm not the only one. I'm
just one of many billions through the ages, shunted hither and
yon by religious terror warriors. Bush II's loathsome little
war was launched on a pack of lies boiling in a pot of cooked
data. Lies about WMD, lies about Saddam's relations with Osama,
lies about how much the "Iraqi People" wanted America
to invade-uh, liberate--their country. Millions of Americans
(not to mention the majority of the rest of the world) opposed
this war passionately, vociferously, and with metaphors. Many
of these protestors and dissenters have had their patriotism
questioned, their reputations slandered, their spouses exposed,
their records subpoenaed, their lives endangered, their names
put on lists for nothing but their stance against Bush's War.
I am, as far as I know, the only one
with the WSJ-endowed title of "Saddam's Sex Therapist."
Wow. Do your kegel exercises, Saddam! Don't neglect your sexual
health just because you're in prison now! We'll talk about your
fantasies of Britney Spears singing "Toxic" as she
executes you with a ruby-studded scimitar in our next session...
Interestingly, around the time that Taranto
was merrily scourging me and the "anti-American left"
as the reason "why they hate us," one of his Journal
colleagues, Peggy Noonan, was busy misquoting the Pope, saying
he'd given the papal thumbs up to Mel Gibson's gory new film
The Passion of the Christ, uttering the Holy Endorsement,
"It is as it was." Pope John Paul II's longtime personal
secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, immediately asserted
that the pontiff had never said any such thing nor does His Holiness
ever make Signs of the Thumb to endorse any movie. Of course,
the damage (or promotion) had already been done, and Gibson's
film got the boost it coveted. Jesus. I never thought
I'd identify with the Pope. But here we were, both being dangerously
misconstrued by WSJ columnists within a few short news days of
each other.
So, excuse me for using sexual metaphors
yet again, but I feel as if my words were abducted, forced to
wear a burqa, brutalized, misused and abused by a gang of crazed
Islamists, after which I was cast out by my own Embassy and then
stoned by my own countrymen and women, kind of like the way some
men will punish their own wives and daughters when they have
been raped.
But I stand by my words, and I would
write them again, knowing what I now know. Why? First, if I had
not written "Rape of Iraq," could that possibly have
saved the lives of those innocents burned up in Kuncak's bombing?
No. The liars would have found ways to spin their lies without
me. Where there's a will, there's a lie. And obviously, Yeni
Safak had the will. Recently, I had someone translate the Yeni
Safak piece from Turkish to English
for me, and its statements about me and my writings are full
of Turkish camel crap mixed with a few too many whiffs of the
hookah.. Clearly, Yeni Safak was bent upon claiming that Americans
were raping "thousands" of Iraqi women and, if they
hadn't "found" me, they would have misused somebody
else as a "source," and Kuncak would have believed
it (if that was indeed his motive), and committed his dirty deed.
Second, almost a year later, I must say
that "Rape of Iraq" holds up rather well. I wrote it
in a burst of emotion while the first American "victory"
tanks rolled into Baghdad, as the bombing continued and the looting
began. I called the invasion a rape and not a murder because
in invading Iraq, we didn't kill it. We didn't destroy this great
and ancient country, home of so much of our civilization's ancestry
in Sumer, Babylonia and Ur. I called it a rape because rape is
an act of violent penetration, humiliation and subjugation that
doesn't (necessarily) destroy the victim, but attempts to use
her or him to satisfy the rapist's desires.
Rapists often make excuses for their
actions, i.e., She wanted itI thought she wanted it She was
dressed like a slut. So the architects of the American invasion
of Iraq have made their excuses: There were WMDWe thought
there were WMD Saddam was a dangerous man and we needed to take
him out for humanitarian reasons. Just as rape gives sex
a bad name, the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq has given humanitarian
military intervention a bad name.
The figurative similarities between rape
and the Bushies' brutal, balls-out invasion of Iraq are even
more painfully obvious now than they were before. The deplorable
conditions of post-war Iraq say it all: this was a forced entry.
Most of us don't search our TV sets for "Smiling Iraqis"
anymore. We now know what we've done, even if some of us don't
care to admit it. Even my most self-righteous hate mailers can't
say that the metaphor was wrong.
And metaphor was all I meant it to be.
I wasn't referring to individual American troops raping Iraqi
women or anybody else.
Then, oddly, or maybe not so oddly, shortly
after the Globe's report on "Rumors of Rape" and Taranto's
tizzy, the Denver
Post published an article about confirmed reports of American
troops actually raping--not Iraqis--but other American troops.
What a sad, disturbing irony. What a dirty little war.
By the way, just to set another record
straight, allegorically sticking it between the fat oil-drenched
cheeks of the lying, war-gaming, Constitution-trashing drunken
sailors in the Bush House does NOT make me a Saddam Lover. It
makes me a sodomy lover.
And if you don't think that's a metaphor,
have I got a war to sell you.
Dr. Susan Block
is a sex educator, cultural commentator, host of The Dr. Susan
Block Show and author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure. Visit
her website at http://www.drsusanblock.com
Send all hate mail, love letters, commentary,
questions and confessions to her at liberties@blockbooks.com
© February 22, 2004, Dr. Susan Block
For reprint rights, please contact rox@blockbooks.com
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
Keep CounterPunch
Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home / subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|