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Recent
Stories
May
24, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
May
22, 2003
Mark
Gaffney
Christian in Name Only
Carl
Estabrook
Republic of Fear
Carl
Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope
Ben
Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle
East?
Vanessa
Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia
Mickey
Z.
Instant Understanding
Don
Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy
Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush
Steve
Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?
May
21, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
Chris
Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology
Patrick
Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown
are Everywhere
Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz
Saul
Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush
Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003
Steve
Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq
May
20, 2003
Tariq
Ali
The Empire Advances
Ahmad
Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?
Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama
Linda
Heard
The Cage of Occupation
Cynthia
McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World
Edward
Said
The Arab Condition
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago
Stew
Albert
Yale Men
Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
May
19, 2003
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
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
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for More Stories.
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Memorial
Day Edition
May 26, 2003
When Trained Killers
Come Home
Why Bush Isn't
Bringing the Majority of Our Troops Home
By SAM HAMOD
Yes, it's true, some of the naval force and some
pilots have returned home to America and a few of the wounded.
But have you noticed, the bulk of our marines and soldiers have
not returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. It may be that America
has trained a new group of killers that it is afraid to bring
home for fear of the havoc they might raise on American soil.
Of course, as of today, it is apparent
that Bush wants to attack Iran, and having the troops nearby
would make that easier; but, aside from that possibility, which
I will cover in another article, there are other more important
reasons the troops aren't being brought home. The first has to
do with what happened after some of our troops returned from
Afghanistan to Fort Bragg--the killing of several wives of the
troops, and the beatings of several others when the men came
home. There is a fear of a repeat of this scenario. Up to this
point, the government isn't sure it has solved the problem. As
a friend of mine, Dr. Simon Lesser, a retired Psychiatrist, told
me, and I paraphrase, it appears to him that our men are being
taught to be killers more than disciplined soldiers and that
killer instinct has been so ingrained in our men that they can't
turn it off once they've begun killing in combat. This was reinforced
recently by Mr. Ambrose Lane, a commentator on WPFW-FM of Pacifica
Radio in Washington, DC when he spoke of a soldier who told him
that he and his buddies didn't belong in police work in Afghanistan
or Iraq because they "were taught to kill, not to handle
peace missions."
Another reason has to do with the brutality
that some of our men are dishing out to the Afghans and the Iraqis,
soldiers and civilians. Just last week we read of four Afghan
soldiers being killed by an American compound just because they
were getting their weapons out to go on patrol. We have heard
in San Diego, from Afghans who hear the news in Dari, by short
wave radio, of constant killings by American troops of people
they "suspect" of being the enemy--at times they may
be the enemy, but often they are men loyal to President Karzai
who are armed, or men who do not immediately obey an order to
stop or lay down their weapons--who are then shot. The problem
was that the men did not speak English and the American troops
did not speak Peshtu or Dari!
The brutality of our troops in Iraq is
now infamous--the making Iraqis run naked, the beating of civilians
(documented by independent reporters and Al Jazeera) and the
killing of people who do not respond immediately to English orders
to "stop" or "lay down your arms"; once again,
it may be a language barrier or it may be a new policy of brutality
our men are using.
In all these cases, and in the case of
Private Jessica Lynch, none of these soldiers returning are allowed
to talk with the media. After Senator Byrd returned from having
talked with Ms. Lynch, he seemed even more firm in his resolve
to condemn the attack in Iraq and condemned Bush even further.
I'm sure, from what I heard in scuttlebutt on the hill that he
may have heard the truth from Ms. Lynch, not the dispelled myths
that the Bush team keeps trying to spin out for the public about
her "heroic" fight and her "valiant" rescue!
As a veteran of two wars, I believe there
is a fear that our troops, just as with those who returned from
Viet Nam, that the truth will come out and it will cause an uproar
in America.
The public will see that our men have
become killers, not longer the respecters of human life, of democracy
or the humanity of others. I feel echoes of My Lai, and other
countless incidents in Viet Nam, Korea, Cambodia and Laos; our
men did not act according to our American humane standards (not
that they did with the Native Americans, etc.)--at least as our
public perceives them to be.
Of course, the military leaders want
this covered up as well. It is time for our congress to begin
asking questions about how our men are trained and what their
killing orders are. Unfortunately, Rumsfeld and company have
so buffaloed the congress that they can't get a straight answer
from him, so they finally put their tails between their legs
and thank him as he saunters off into another plan for another
war, wars without end, troops, as was the case with the Roman
legions and Napoleon's troops, most of whom were never meant
to return to their homeland for fear of the stories they would
tell and the hell they would wreak on the "peace" in
their homelands.
Thus, I believe that Bush must keep our
troops out of the country and away from independent newsmen for
fear that they will spill the beans on what we're actually doing
in these foreign climes. So, yes, they may invade Iran and then
on to Syria and Lebanon, just to keep them busy, out of the country
and to keep them from creating further scandals by returning
home to kill, maim or wound their wives, other family members
or friends.
And yes, there is that other possibility,
that some when discharged, might decide to get together and once
again "go out on patrol" and start taking down dissidents,
"unpatriotic people," corrupt politicians, and even,
if they are upset about not having jobs or whatever, the president
himself.
Yes, these men that have trained to be
killers, special operatives, a law unto themselves, upon returning
to America, might just start taking the law into their own hands--and
then all hell would break loose and not even the king's horses,
or the king's men could stop them.
Sam Hamod
is an expert on world affairs, especially the Arab and Muslim
worlds, former editor of THIRD WORLD NEWS (in Wash, DC), a former
professor at Princeton University, former Director of The National
Islamic Center of Washington, DC, an advisor to the US State
Department and author of ISLAM IN THE WORLD TODAY. He is the
editor of www.todaysalternativenews.com,
and may be reached at shamod@cox.net
Yesterday's
Features
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
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