Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
September 3, 2003
Uri Avnery
First
of All This Wall Must Fall
September 2, 2003
Robert Fisk
Bush's
Occupational Fantasies Lead Iraq Toward Civil War
Kurt Nimmo
Rouind Up the Usual Suspects: the Iman Ali Mosque Bombing
Robert Jensen / Rahul Mahajan
Iraqi Liberation, Bush Style
Elaine Cassel
Innocent But Guilty: When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong
Jason Leopold
Ghosts
in the Machines: the Business of Counting Votes
Dave Lindorff
Dems in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?
Paul de Rooij
Predictable
Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation
Website of the Day
Laughing Squid
Recent
Stories
August 30 / Sept. 1,
2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Brian Cloughley
When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
Alice Slater
Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity
David Krieger
What Victory?
Marjorie Cohn
The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International
Law
Richard Glen Boire
Saying Yes to Drugs!
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
Website of the Day
DirtyBush
August 28, 2003
Gilad Atzmon
The
Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
David Vest
Moore's
Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution
David Lindorff
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed
Chris Floyd
Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War
Wayne Madsen
Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum"
Elaine Cassel
Not Clueless in Chicago
Stan Goff
Nukes in the Dark
Tariq Ali
Occupied
Iraq Will Never Know Peace
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Behold, My Package
Website of the Day
Palestinian
Artists
August 27, 2003
Bruce Jackson
Little
Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq
John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution
Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War
Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Website of the Day
The Dean Deception
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
Hot Stories
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
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
September
3, 2003
The US: HyperPower
in a Sinkhole
The
UN System is Broken and Obsolete
By VIRGINIA TILLEY
As thousands of mourning Shia'as fill the streets
of Najaf, and as political analysts try to forecast the consequences
of Ayatollah al-Hakim's assassination for Iraq's future, a basic
question still burns for many who still cling to values of international
cooperation: can the present mess in Iraq somehow be mitigated
through greater involvement by the (damaged and discredited)
United Nations and the broader international community? The outlook
is certainly gloomy. But if genuine multilateral participation
in this case is indeed difficult or impossible, we actually face
worse implications than the political sinkhole of Iraq.
The prospects for mulilateral action
in Iraq are dismal for obvious reasons. Sinking over its hips
in the muck of occupation, the US needs help of every kind: moral,
political, military, and financial. To get this help, the US
clearly needs the UN both for its resources (experienced staff
and relevant aid agencies) and for its unique legitimacy in peacekeeping
that can usher in other powerful allies and their own resources.
Even denuded of any semblence of independence, the UN retains
enough of this legitimacy to allow the French and other major
powers, as well as NGOs, to help rebuild Iraq--but only if the
UN is formally granted authority over the occupation. Will the
US grant that authority? Doing so would compromise the three
goals which drove the US invasion: unilateral US leverage over
the world oil supply; unassailable US hegemony over western and
central Asia; and fabulously lucrative contracts to its crony
capitalists. With these glorious goals seemingly in their hands,
will the neoconservatives running US foreign policy sacrifice
them by inviting rival states to share in them, for the sake
of Iraqi welfare and reconstruction? Unimaginable.
Given that answer, a cluster of urgent
related questions arrive at the same gloomy conclusion. Without
the UN stamp to legitimize their participation, will Syria and
Iran risk looking like US pawns by joining a vitally-needed multilateral
discussion regarding Iraq's stability and reconstruction? Hardly
likely. Will the most principled democratically-minded Iraqis
be willing to look like--and perhaps turn into--US stooges in
order to participate in forming a new civil government? Less
likely every day.
Yet in worrying about all these urgent
questions, we risk missing a bigger one. Iraq is the forestage,
the drama unfolding. But backstage, the UN's functional collapse
signals that everything about the international system is under
reconstruction, in ways that underlie all our most urgent pragmatic
questions about Iraq... and Korea, and central Africa, and India,
and Colombia, and a host of other crises.
Ever since World War II, a complex framework
of international agreements has shaped the expectations shared
among states about each other's behavior: especially, the UN
consultative mechanism, shared rules about just war, the illegitimacy
of any pre-emptive military strike, collective security (unanimous
action among states to ensure peace by collectively sanctioning
any offender), and bans on nuclear weapons and testing. True,
that order was always manipulated by superpowers, and was always
frayed and fragile. Yet, for half-a-century, those rules and
norms shaped decision-making by state leaderships throughout
the world in fairly predictable ways, and a certain reliable
pattern of international manners (and cheating) prevailed.
Now, with a torrent of verbal abuse,
the US has swept that entire thick document of rules and manners
off the table and is scissoring out bits at will, throwing whole
sections in the garbage. The UN mechanism is now illegitimate
and obsolete; it's fine to attack a country pre-emptively out
of fear (real or fabricated) of possible eventual threat; collective
security is a luxury to be ignored at will; treaties on nuclear
weapons are dead letters. Week by week, the US is tearing apart,
like outmoded contracts, the international order everyone has
known. So what will we have to work with, when the day is over?
In watching the Iraq debacle, we therefore
witness not simply a hyperpower seizing the reins of the international
system but that system's redesign into entirely unpredictable
patterns, with implications far beyond Iraq. For example, in
a world with no clear rules and no legitimate coordinating authority,
what clear consequences, incentives and penalties now steer the
choices of North Korea? What leverage can this newly frazzled
international "community," which is no longer clearly
a community, bring on the brutal Burmese regime? Will Colombia's
slide into civil war extend to destabilization and remilitarization
of the entire Central American Isthmus?
All these questions return us to the
basic question of international order: without an effective UN
mechanism, can the international community effectively debate
such questions, and offer help or coordinate action on any conflict?
And is the US likely to reverse direction to help it do so? Again,
not likely. Even a hyperpower can't, selectively and cyclically,
break apart and put Humpty together again. In crafting a stable
and peaceful future, much will indeed depend on the drama unfolding
in Iraq with its far-reaching ramifications for the region and
the world. But our collective fate lies as much in the international
system itself, including the UN, as in Iraqi society and infrastructure--and
what order we can reconstruct from the recent wreckage of both.
Weekend
Edition Features for August 30 / Sept. 1, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
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