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Today's
Stories
November
4, 2003
Tariq
Ali
Resistance
and Independence in Iraq
November 3, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bloodiest Day Yet for Americans in Iraq: Report from Fallujah
Dave Lindorff
Philly's
Buggy Election
Janine Pommy Vega
Sarajevo Hands 2003
Bernie
Dwyer
An
Interview with Chomsky on Cuba
November
1 / 2, 2003
Saul Landau
Cui
Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off
Noam Chomsky
Empire of the Men of Best Quality
Bruce
Jackson
Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver
Brian Cloughley
"Mow the Whole Place Down"
John Stanton
The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines
William S. Lind
Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit
Ben Tripp
The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes
Christopher Brauchli
Divine Hatred
Dave Zirin
An Interview with John Carlos
Agustin Velloso
Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle
Josh Frank
Howard Dean and Affirmative Action
Ron Jacobs
Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon
Strickler
/ Hermach
Liar, Liar Forests on Fire
David Vest
Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him
Famous
Adam Engel
America, What It Is
Dr. Susan Block
Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn
Poets'
Basement
Greeder, Albert & Guthrie
October 31, 2003
Lee Ballinger
Making
a Dollar Out of 15 Cents: The Sweatshops of Sean "P. Diddy"
Combs
Wayne
Madsen
The
GOP's Racist Trifecta
Michael Donnelly
Settling for Peanuts: Democrats Trick the Greens, Treat Big Timber
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad
Diary: Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Coming
to a State Near You: The Matrix (Interstate Snoops, Not the Movie)
Linda Heard
An Arab View of Masonry
October 30, 2003
Forrest
Hylton
Popular
Insurrection and National Revolution in Bolivia
Eric Ruder
"We Have to Speak Out!": Marching with the Military
Families
Dave Lindorff
Big
Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of "Mission Accomplished"
Philip
Adams
"Everyone is Running Scared": Denigrating Critics of
Israel
Sean Donahue
Howard Dean: a Hawk in a Dove's Cloak
Robert
Jensen
Big Houses & Global Justice: A Moral Level of Consumption?
Alexander
Cockburn
Paul
Krugman: Part of the Problem
October
29, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Thieves
Like Us: Cheney's Backdoor to Halliburton
Robert Fisk
Iraq Guerrillas Adopt a New Strategy: Copy the Americans
Rick Giombetti
Let
Them Eat Prozac: an Interview with David Healy
The Intelligence
Squad
Dark
Forces? The Military Steps Up Recruiting of Blacks
Elaine
Cassel
Prosecutors
as Therapists, Phantoms as Terrorists
Marie Trigona
Argentina's War on the Unemployed Workers Movement
Gary Leupp
Every
Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures
October
28, 2003
Rich Gibson
The
Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003
Uri Avnery
Incident
in Gaza
Diane
Christian
Wishing
Death
Robert
Fisk
Eyewitness
in Iraq: "They're Getting Better"
Toni Solo
Authentic Americans and John Negroponte
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton in Iran
Shrireen Parsons
When T-shirts are Verboten
Chris
White
9/11
in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective
October 27, 2003
William
A. Cook
Ministers
of War: Criminals of the Cloth
David
Lindorff
The
Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer
Elaine
Cassel
Antonin
Scalia's Contemptus Mundi
Robert
Fisk
Occupational Schizophrenia
John Chuckman
Banging Your Head into Walls
Seth Sandronsky
Snoops R Us
Bill Kauffman
George
Bush, the Anti-Family President
October
25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
October
24, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft's
War on Greenpeace
Lenni Brenner
The Demographics of American Jews
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited
Sarah Weir
Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty
David
Krieger
WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button
Mohammed Hakki
It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East
Harry
Browne
Northern
Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't
October
23, 2003
Diane
Christian
Ruthlessness
Kurt Nimmo
Criticizing Zionism
David Lindorff
A General Theory of Theology
Alan Maass
The Future of the Anti-War Movement
William
Blum
Imperial
Indifference
Stew Albert
A Memo
October
22, 2003
Wayne
Madsen
Religious
Insanity Runs Rampant
Ray McGovern
Holding
Leaders Accountable for Lies
Christopher
Brauchli
There's
No Civilizing the Death Penalty
Elaine
Cassel
Legislators
and Women's Bodies
Bill Glahn
RIAA
Watch: the New Morality of Capitalism
Anthony Arnove
An Interview with Tariq Ali
October 21, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Beilin Agreement
Robert Jensen
The Fundamentalist General
David
Lindorff
War Dispatch from the NYT: God is on Our Side!
William S. Lind
Bremer is Deaf to History
Bridget
Gibson
Fatal Vision
Alan Haber
A Human Chain for Peace in Ann Arbor
Peter
Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Hanging of Thomas Russell
October
20, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Chile's
Failed Economy: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Chris
Floyd
Circus Maximus: Arnie, Enron and Bush Maul California
Mark Hand
Democrats Seek to Disappear Chomsky
& Nader
John &
Elaine Mellencamp
Peaceful
World
Elaine
Cassel
God's
General Unmuzzled
October
18 / 19, 2003
Robert
Pollin
Clintonomics:
the Hollow Boom
Gary Leupp
Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War
Saul Landau
Day of the Gropenfuhrer
Bruce Anderson
The California Recall
John Gershman
Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes
Nelson P. Valdes
Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"
Kurt Nimmo
Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario
Tom Gorman
Al Franken and Al-Shifa
Brian
Cloughley
Public Propaganda and the Iraq War
Joanne Mariner
A New Way to Kill Tigers
Denise
Low
The Cancer of Sprawl
Mickey Z.
The Reverend of Doom
John Chuckman
US Missiles for Israeli Nukes?
George Naggiar
A Veto of Public Diplomacy
Alison
Weir
Death Threats in Berkeley
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart
Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Bob Dylan
Fidel Castro
A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir
Adam Engel
I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder
October
17, 2003
Stan Goff
Piss
On My Leg: Perception Control and the Stage Management of War
Newton
Garver
Bolivia
in Turmoil
Standard
Schaefer
Grocery Unions Under Attack
Ben Terrall
The Ordeal of the Lockheed 52
Ron Jacobs
First Syria, Then Iran
David
Lindorff
Michael
Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty
October
16, 2003
Marjorie
Cohn
Bush
Gunning for Regime Change in Cuba
Gary Leupp
"Getting Better" in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
The US Press and Israel: Brand Loyalty and the Absence of Remorse
Rush Limbaugh
The 10 Most Overrated Athletes of All Time
Lenni
Brenner
I
Didn't Meet Huey Newton. He Met Me
Website of the Day
Time Tested Books
October
15, 2003
Sunil
Sharma / Josh Frank
The
General and the Governor: Two Measures of American Desperation
Forrest
Hylton
Dispatch
from the Bolivian War: "Like Animals They Kill Us"
Brian
Cloughley
Those
Phony Letters: How Bush Uses GIs to Spread Propaganda About Iraq
Ahmad
Faruqui
Lessons
of the October War
Uri Avnery
Three
Days as a Living Shield
Website
of the Day
Rank and File: the New Unity Partnership Document
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
October 14, 2003
Eric Ridenour
Qibya
& Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre
Elaine
Cassel
The
Disgrace That is Guantanamo
Robert
Jensen
What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People
David Lindorff
Talking Turkey About Iraq
Patrick
Cockburn
US Troops Bulldoze Crops
VIPS
One Person Can Make a Difference
Toni Solo
The CAFTA Thumbscrews
Peter
Linebaugh
"Remember
Orr!"
Website
of the Day
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Behold,
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Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
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CounterPunch Exclusive:
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November
4, 2003
Chinook Down
Sounds
Like Vietnam
By RAY McGOVERN
The loss of 16 US troops and wounding of 20 others
Sunday, when a US helicopter was downed by a missile in Iraq,
brings to mind the fateful attack by Viet Cong guerrillas on
US forces in Pleiku, Vietnam on February 7, 1965.
The Johnson administration immediately
seized on that attack, in which nine US troops were killed and
128 wounded, to start bombing North Vietnam and to send 3,500
Marines to South Vietnam. Unlike the US advisory forces already
in country, the Marines had orders to engage in combat, marking
the beginning of the Americanization of the war. By 1968 US forces
had grown to over 536,000.
From the outset, my colleagues in CIA
were highly skeptical that US forces could prevail in Vietnam
even with hundreds of thousands of troops. CIA analysts were
quick to remind anyone who would listen of the candid observation
made by General Philippe LeClerc, whom France sent to Vietnam
shortly after WW-II. The French general reported that, mainly
because of the strong commitment of the Vietnamese nationalists/communists
and their proven proficiency in guerrilla war, a renewed French
campaign would require 500,000 men and that, even then, France
could not win.
Civilian Whiz Kids
vs. Military Professionals
In 1965, similar warnings were blissfully
ignored by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and the civilian
whiz kids with whom he had surrounded himself. Then as now, the
advice of our professional military was dismissed.
While today's civilian leaders at the
Defense Department hobbled through what passed for post-war planning
for Iraq early this year, Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki warned
the Senate Armed Services Committee that post-war Iraq would
require "something on the order of several hundred thousand
soldiers." He was immediately ridiculed by Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, for having exaggerated
the requirement. This evokes vivid memories of how McNamara and
his civilian whiz kids dissed our professional military--and
at such a high eventual price.
The poet George Santayana warned, "Those
who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
What is increasingly clear is that neither the present-day Pentagon
whiz kids nor their patron, Vice President Dick Cheney, have
learned much from history. They encourage President Bush to insist,
"We are not leaving;" and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld
to keep on insisting that this war is "winnable." But
most of those with a modicum of experience in guerrilla warfare
and the Middle East are persuaded that the war is not winnable
and that the only thing in doubt is the timing of the US departure.
After many weeks of refusing to admit
the word "guerrilla" into evidence, Rumsfeld has reluctantly
made his peace with it. Yet, when asked Sunday on TV who the
guerrillas are, he foundered, admitting in so many words that
he hasn't a clue. I was actually embarrassed for him. A terrific
debater and otherwise reasonably clever man, Rumsfeld was reduced
to telling us once again that Iraq is the size of California
and bemoaning the deficiencies in "situational awareness"
and lack of "perfect visibility" into who it is that
are killing our troops.
At least yesterday we were spared the
usual claims that we are "moving forward" and will
prevail "at the end of the day." Apparently even Rumsfeld
could see how incongruous such banalities would have sounded
after such a disastrous week.
Recent sloganeering is eerily reminiscent
of a comparable stage in our involvement in Vietnam. We have
to "stay the course." We cannot "cut and run"--though
that is precisely what we ended up doing in 1975 after 58,000
US troops and 3 million Vietnamese had been killed. Why did we
leave? Only because, despite continued lying by the administration
then in power, Congress belatedly woke up to the fact that the
war was unwinnable, admitted that for the previous ten years
Congress had been wrong, and finally cut off funding for the
war. Even then, Congress was not leading; rather it was reacting
to a storm of protest across the land.
"But we can still win, and we must
support our troops!" We heard that then as well. But, after
being lied to and tricked into passing the 1964 Tonkin Gulf resolution
authorizing the president to wage war, our elected representatives
finally rose to the occasion and said ENOUGH!
Just one year ago our current Congress
was similarly lied to and tricked into ceding to the president
its constitutional authority to wage war. And yet, sadly, its
recent vote to authorize an additional $87 billion for "post-war"
Iraq shows that it continues to grovel. What may be required
are widespread grass-roots demonstrations, led perhaps by the
families of those troops dying every day in an illegal war, to
force our elected representatives to see the light and act with
some courage. One can only hope that this time it doesn't take
ten years!
Is This Guerrilla
War Winnable?
When Rumsfeld was asked on TV Sunday
when he thought it might be possible to draw down US troop strength
in Iraq, he employed one of his favorite predicate adjectives,
saying that this was "unknowable"--that it all depends
on the security situation. It is a no-brainer that US troop reductions
are unlikely anytime soon, but apparently we shall have to wait
for Rumsfeld to acquire better "situational awareness"
before he and his whiz kids are willing to admit this.
Instead of draw downs, pressure to send
more troops will inexorably grow from neo-conservatives and those
they have co-opted--like the pompous but vacuous Joseph Biden,
ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
(It is a cruel twist of fate that, at a time when we need a Fulbright,
we get Biden!)
Having learned nothing from history,
from the US intelligence community, or from the professional
military, Rumsfeld's whiz kids and those in Congress still under
their spell may persuade President Bush that the best course
is to send more troops to "get the job done"--(ironically
sealing his political fate). One small problem, of course, is
the unwelcome fact that all too few troops are available for
reinforcement. But this kind of military "detail" would
not likely affect the urgings of second-string but influential
advisers like Douglas Feith, William Kristol, and Kenneth Adelman,
each of whom knows less about war than a freshman ROTC cadet.
A Bush administration decision to escalate
(to exhume that familiar word from Vietnam) in that way would
only provoke more widespread guerrilla attacks in Iraq and terrorist
acts against US personnel and facilities elsewhere as well. The
US troop presence in Iraq is the problem, not the solution.
And someone needs to dispel Rumsfeld's
confusion regarding who is the enemy. It is every Iraqi with
weapon or explosive who means to make the occupier suffer. The
tools are readily available, and the guerrillas, whether homebred
or from neighboring states, will not be quelled--even if 500,000
troops are sent.
No One Knows
The most embarrassing part of Rumsfeld's
interview with ABC's This Week Sunday came when he attempted
to answer a question about how to reduce the number of terrorists.
"How do you persuade people not to become suicide bombers;
how do you reduce the number of people attracted to terrorism?
No one knows how to reduce that," he complained.
Over a year ago, CIA analysts provided
an assessment intended to educate senior policy makers to the
fact that "the forces fueling hatred of the US and fueling
al-Qaeda recruiting are not being addressed," and that "the
underlying causes that drive terrorists will persist." The
assessment cited a recent Gallup poll of almost 10,000 Muslims
in nine countries in which respondents described the United States
as "ruthless, aggressive, conceited, arrogant, easily provoked
and biased." And that was before the war in Iraq.
How can we be so misunderstood, you might
ask. A major factor is the Bush administration's one-sided support
of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whether he is bulldozing
Palestinian homes, encouraging new Israeli settlements in the
occupied territories, building Berlin walls to make impracticable
any viable Palestinian state, or bombing Syria. Someone needs
to tell Rumsfeld and Bush that Muslims watch it all on TV--and
then crowd the recruiting stations.
Cooked Intelligence
But no one will. There is no longer any
sanity check. Sad to say, over the past year the director of
the CIA and his malleable managers have shown a penchant for
sniffing the prevailing winds and trimming the sails of their
analysis to the breezes blowing from the Pentagon and White House.
The president's father had an acute appreciation
for the essential role of unbiased intelligence. Indeed, I had
the privilege of watching--and helping--him face down strong
pressure from other administration officials to cook the intelligence
to the recipe of policy. In contrast, the son seems oblivious
to the importance of protecting the intelligence process from
prostitution. As a result, Cheney and Rumsfeld have free reign,
CIA director Tenet has kowtowed, and intelligence community analysis
has been thoroughly politicized. The president has no place to
turn for a check on Rumsfeld's/Cheney's whiz kids.
It is a Greek tragedy; with the major
character flaw of hubris planting the seeds of the ruler's own
destruction. Rumsfeld eventually will write his memoir--his own
version of McNamara's "We were wrong; terribly wrong"--and
probably use the proceeds to build still more estates in Taos.
This will to bring no consolation, though, to the one likely
to be the next one-term Bush back in Texas.
It is also tragic that the president
does not read very much, for he would have found the following
in his father's memoir:
"Trying to eliminate Saddam...would
have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending
him was probably impossible...we would have been forced to occupy
Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq...there was no viable --exit
strategy' we could see, violating another of our principles...Going
in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United
Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international
response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone
the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still
be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
Real Power to the
UN
As long as the occupation continues,
so will the killing of US troops and others. The way to stop
the violence is to end the occupation; the only way to protect
our troops is to bring them home. Whether or not US policymakers
can admit at this point that they were "terribly wrong,"
they need to transfer real authority to the United Nations without
delay and support the UN in overseeing a rapid return to Iraqi
sovereignty.
But, many protest, we can't just withdraw!
Sure we can, and better now than ten years from now, as in the
case of Vietnam. If it is true that we are not in Iraq to control
the oil or to establish military bases with which to dominate
that strategic area, we can certainly withdraw. As in Vietnam,
the war is unwinnable...hear that? UNWINNABLE!
If the US withdraws, would there be civil
war in Iraq? One cannot dismiss this possibility lightly given
the history of Iraq. But it is at least as likely that a regional-federal
model of government that would include substantial autonomy for
the Kurds in the north, the Sunnis in the center, and the Shiites
in the south (something foreshadowed by the composition of the
existing Council) could begin to function in relatively short
order with help from the UN. While some degree of inter-ethnic
violence could be expected, chances are good that this model
would still allow a representative national government to function.
We won't know if we don't try. Besides,
there is no viable alternative.
Ray McGovern,
a 27-year veteran of the CIA, regularly briefed George H. W.
Bush as vice president and, earlier, worked with him closely
when he was director of CIA. Mr. McGovern is on the Steering
Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and is
co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry
in the inner city of Washington. He can be reached at: RRMcGovern@aol.com
Weekend
Edition Features for Oct. 25 / 26, 2003
Saul Landau
Cui
Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off
Noam Chomsky
Empire of the Men of Best Quality
Bruce
Jackson
Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver
Brian Cloughley
"Mow the Whole Place Down"
John Stanton
The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines
William S. Lind
Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit
Ben Tripp
The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes
Christopher Brauchli
Divine Hatred
Dave Zirin
An Interview with John Carlos
Agustin Velloso
Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle
Josh Frank
Howard Dean and Affirmative Action
Ron Jacobs
Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon
Strickler
/ Hermach
Liar, Liar Forests on Fire
David Vest
Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him
Famous
Adam Engel
America, What It Is
Dr. Susan Block
Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn
Poets'
Basement
Greeder, Albert & Guthrie
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