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CounterPunch's
Scorching New History of a Decade of War
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Today's
Stories
April
24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
April
23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
April 20, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Bush and Kerry Share a Problem
Stan
Cox
Wal-Mart's Magic Numbers
Bruce
Anderson
On Listening to Air America
Joseph
Kalvoda
Czech Mate for Condi
Greg
Moses
Yesterday's Intelligence
Stan
Goff
The Democrats and Iraq
Website
of the Day
Santorum Happens
April 19, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
The "Central Hand" of the
Resistance
Mike
Whitney
Bob Woodward's Imperial Trifles
Douglas
Valentine
52 Pick-Up and the 100-to-1
Rule
John
Chuckman
The Sharon Annex: Evil Does Often
Triumph
Doug
Giebel
Welcome to the Club
Rahul
Mahajan
Hospital Closings and War Crimes
April
16 / 18, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Bush Legitimizes Terror
Saul
Landau
Subverting Brazil and Cuba
Dave
Lindorff
Paying for War: $2,150 per Family
and Counting
Brandy
Baker
Fallujah's Collateral Damage
Mickey
Z.
The Left Attacks from the Right
Bruce
Jackson
The Bush Press Conference: Gott Mit
Uns
Norman
Solomon
How the "NewsHour" Changed
History
Alexander
Cockburn
Bush, Kerry and Empire
April
15, 2004
Greg
Moses
Follow the Families, Not the Script
Virginia
Tilley
The Carnage According to Gen. Kimmitt:
Just Change the Channel
Ron
Jacobs
They Coulda Been Champions of the
World: Hurricane Carter and Ron Kovic
Michael
Neumann
A Happy Compromise: Hate Crimes
Reporting in the Toronto Globe and Mail
April
14, 2004
Tom
Reeves
Return to Haiti: an American Learning
Zone
Reza
Fiyouzat
Japan and Iraq
Ron
Jacobs
What Bush Really Said
Diane
Christian
The Real Passion
April 10 /
12, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Greatest Radical Journalist of His Age
Patrick Cockburn
Ambush, Kidnap, Murder: Another Day in "Post War" Iraq
Ellen Cantarow
Health Under Siege on the West Bank
Tariq Ali
Iraqi
Resistance: a New Phase
Werther
Pseudoconservatism Revisited: When God is Pro War & Other
Delicacies
Robert Fisk
Bush's War Lords to Their Critics: "Just Shut Up"
Gary Leupp
Indian Wars, Vietnam and Orientalist Fantasy
Ron Jacobs
The Iranian Revolution, Cont.
Jorge Mariscal
Perils of the Bootstrap
Phil Gasper
Defying Stereotypes About Death Row
Dave Zirin
Bringing the Black Freedom Struggle Into Sports: an Interview
with Lee Evans
Brandy Baker
The Revolution is Playing at a Theater Near You
Mickey Z.
Underground Music is Free Media: an Interview with Twiin
Ali Tonak
Get Ready for the Million Worker March
Harry Browne
Asking the Wrong Question About Richard Clarke & 9/11
Gideon Samet
The Sharonizing of America
Conn Hallinan
Remote Control Warriors
Website of
the Weekend
Taboo
Tunes
April 9, 2004
Robert Fisk
This
War's Simple Truth: Iraqis Do Not Want Us
John L. Hess
The
Non-Confessions of a Warrior Princess: Condi on the Stand
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Condoleezza's Condescensions
Christopher Brauchli
Holes in the Sky: Bush's Crazed Missile Defense Plan
Don Santina
Forget the Alamo!: Glorifying the Fight for Slavery in Texas
William S. Lind
The 4G Warfare Seminar, Cont.
Bill Christison
9/11
Commission is Bush's New Lapdog
Website of the Day
What We've Done to Fallujah
April 8,
2004
Wayne Madsen
Rice
(and the Record) Proves It: Bush Knew, But Failed to Act
Kurt Nimmo
Will
Bush Flatten Fallajuh?
Patrick Cockburn
Guided
Missile; Misguided War
Laura Flanders
Steamed
Rice
Larry Everest
What Condi Rice is Hiding
Adam Federman
Sacred Capitalism Hits Russia
M. Junaid Alam
The Iraqi Intifada Begins
Norman Solomon
The Quest for a Monopoly on Violence
Douglas Valentine
Echoes
of Vietnam: Phoenix, Assassination and Blowback in Iraq
Website of the Day
Xispas: Chicano Art, Culture and Politics
April 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Those
Pulitzers!
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Deeper
into the Mouth of Hell: We Must Find the Exit from Iraq
Ron Jacobs
Tet
in Iraq: Closer to the Cosmic Disaster?
Patrick Cockburn
Battles
Across Iraq: US Death Toll Mounts
Kathy Kelly
Pacification: Worth the Price?
Sonali Kolhatkar
What Are You Doing About Afghanistan?
Rahul Mahajan
Report from Baghdad: Opening the Gates of Hell
Robert Fisk
US Airlifts Saddam to Qatar
Mike Whitney
America Out of Iraq, Now!
Sam Hamod
Bush, Pandora's Box and the Tiger
April 6,
2004
C.G. Estabrook
Mercenaries
and Occupiers
William Blum
The
Anti-Empire Report: the Israel Lobby
Col. Dan Smith
The
Language of Disbelief: 1.3 Billion Still Live in War Zones
Dr. Bulent Gokay
The Coming Islamic Republic of Iraq?
Lynn Landes
Faking Democracy: Americans Don't Vote; Machines Do
Sheila Samples
What Would Royko Write?
Jason Leopold
Condi's Blind Spot: Rice Never Mentioned al-Qaeda
Mickey Z.
A Reality Show with No End in Sight
Robert Fisk
Iraq on the Brink of Anarchy
April 5, 2004
John Farrell
Lessons
from El Salvador and Iraq
Robert Fisk
Bloodbath
a Bad Omen for Bush
Gary Leupp
Shiites Say No: Another "Nightmare
Scenario"
April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
April 2, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Barbaric
Relativism: the Press and Fallujah
Kurt Nimmo
Wherever
Bush Goes, Osama is Bound to Follow
Emma Miller
The
Role of the West in the Rwandan Genocide
Dr. Susan Block
Same
Sex Marriages: Just Say "No" to Prohibition
Norman Solomon
Media Strategy Memo for George & Dick
Sacha Guney
The Meaning of the Elections in Turkey
Christopher
Brauchli
The
Disturbing Case of Cpt. Yee
Website of the Day
Mercenaries, Inc.
April 1, 2004
Ron Jacobs
Dying in Vain in Iraq
Harry Browne
No Smoke, Plenty of Fire: Ireland's Pubs Go Smokefree
Chris Floyd
Towel Boy: Bush Hits Workers with Chemical Weapons
Nicole Colson
Inside America's Concentration Camp: Tortured at Guantanamo
Charles Arthur
Haiti's Army Cracks Down on Workers
Laura Flanders
Elaine
Chao: a First Daughter for the First Son
March 31, 2004
M. Junaid Alam
Israel:
Suicide Nation?
John L. Hess
Condi
Under Oath: But What About the NYTs Reporters?
Fernando Suarez
del Solar
A
Year Since My Son's Death in Iraq
Sofia Perez
Spain's
U-Turn on Iraq is Real Democracy in Action
David Vest
Stick 'Em Up: Put Cheney and Bush Under Oath
Tanya Reinhart
As in Tiannamen Square: Justice and the Yassin Assassination
Mike Whitney
Time to Dump the Pledge
Donald Kaul
Martha Stewart's Lesson: Never Talk to the FBI
Milt Bearden
Mired in the Tracks of Alexander the Great
Marjorie Cohn
The
Illegal Coup in Haiti: How the Kidnapping of Aristide Violated
US and International Law
Website of the Day
New Pentagon Papers Dropped at DC Starbucks
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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Weekend
Edition
April 24 / 25, 2004
Welcome to La
Paz
A Vacation in
Tear Gas
By GARY ENGLER
LA PAZ, Bolivia.
Explosions through the night, tear gas
and protecting two young student teachers from riot police were
not exactly what we expected for our holiday in Bolivia. Still,
my partner and I will remember the first ten hours of Wednesday
long after we have forgotten every other vacation.
University students in La Paz
have been demonstrating since Monday, calling for the government
to increase education funding. About 25,000 of them, along with
professors and support workers marched through downtown and then
gathered in the rain at Plaza San Francisco. With my limited
Spanish I listened to a half dozen speakers call for the government
to use Bolivia1s massive natural gas resources to fund education
instead of allowing foreign corporations to capture most of the
benefits. The biggest difference between this demonstration and
those I have attended in Canada was the use of fireworks, which
seemed to be launched every few minutes during the march and
to punctuate agreement or disagreement with rally speakers.
On Tuesday students at a campus
of the Universidad Major San Andreas a few blocks from out hotel
sat in the normally busy street causing huge traffic jams throughout
downtown La Paz. Lines of riot police stood by watching. Then
Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning there were huge explosions
every few hours, plus a constant roar of chanting from in front
of the government building next door to our hotel.
Just before seven as we went
downstairs for breakfast heard the cracks of gun fire so rushed
onto the street to see riot cops attacking dozens of students,
including one who was being carried, naked, into a police vehicle.
Tear gas hung in the air as we watched groups of black-clad cops
arresting students one by one. As I was standing on the sidewalk
watching what was going one, my partner called me over to where
she was standing about ten feet away. Two young women were hiding
behind her, huddled against the wall in front of the hotel.
3They1ve been hit by rubber
bullets and are scared of being arrested,2 my partner said.
So, we stood in front of them
for about 15 minutes, until the cops had arrested everyone in
sight who looked remotely like a student. One came to us and
asked us to leave, but we refused. Then a couple of minutes later,
the head cop came and again asked us to leave. This time he told
my partner that they would leave the girls alone, if we left
and took them with us. So, in the front door of one of the fanciest
hotels in La Paz we went, much to the chagrin of certain officious
staff, and up to our 11th floor room with a stunning view of
Mount Illimani.
The two young women stayed
with us for about an hour. My partner talked to them and tried
to calm them down as well as get a sense of their politics. One
was 25 and the other 20 years old. They were from a small town
on the altiplano, about two hours from La Paz and were student
teachers whose education faculty had been shut down part way
through their term because of a lack of funds. We learned that
the loud noises during the night were students from mining areas
setting off small dynamite charges. Seems a Bolivian tradition,
along with fireworks at a demo. The younger one cried pretty
much the whole time she was in our room. The older one, who had
been hit in the face by a plastic bullet, was more calm and more
political. But neither had heard of the anti-globalization movement
or the World Social Forum. They had been in the streets since
Monday and were very tired but said the demonstrations would
continue until the government promises the money necessary to
restart programs in all public universities across Bolivia. We
fed them and helped them clean up. I went down to the hotel lobby
to see if the cops had left, which they had, then we walked the
young women back towards the university so that they could meet
up with their comrades. We gave them a little money for food
and said good-bye.
Funny how an experience like
this changes your vacation priorities. A few hours spent on the
Internet brought me up to speed on recent events in the poorest
South American country.
Bolivia, despite a tradition
of popular protest and strong unions since the country1s 1952
revolution, has suffered through decades of military coups, International
Monetary Fund mandated 3structural adjustments2 and since the
mid-1980s a neo-liberal economic strategy. This has resulted
in the creation of millions of 3independent businesspersons2
who wander the streets selling chewing gum, a few minutes on
cellular telephones, candy apples and almost anything else that
can be made at home or costs less than a few dollars. They can1t
make a living but at least they demonstrate the right 3entrepreneurial
spirit2 and don1t have 3wasteful2 government jobs.
The only booming industry was
coca cultivation, more than half of which was being ground into
paste for making cocaine. This, and unexploited petroleum resources,
got the attention of certain U.S. interests. The result has been
increased U.S. military presence, supposedly to 3advise2 on coca
eradication, an unpopular activity in a country where the plant
has been grown for millennia.
Last October the right-wing
president resigned after massive protests and blockades by workers,
campesinos and students. At the core of those protests in this
landlocked country where 70 per cent of the population of 8.5
million are indigenous, was a plan by the government to allow
natural gas exports to Chile and the United States. Protestors
were incensed that Chile, Bolivia1s historic enemy would benefit
from the exports and demanded that the entire petroleum industry
be re-nationalized so that profits could be used to build new
industries and pay for badly needed infrastructure.
Protestors announced they would
give the new president (the former vice-president) six months
to meet their demands for a nationalized petroleum industry and
for progress towards a constituent assembly to write a new constitution
that truly reflects the multi-cultural reality of Bolivia and
that gives real political and economic power for the first time
in the country1s history to the indigenous majority.
The six months are up and,
other than replacing a few ministers blamed for dozens of deaths
during last year1s protests, little has changed. This week the
government announced natural gas would be sold to Argentina (if
they promised not to resell any of it to Chile) and that a pipeline
would be built through Peru to ship gas to the USA.
As a result, last week the
largest union federation (COB) said strikes would begin May 1.
Two weeks ago coca growers and their supporters in the Yungas
region near La Paz blockaded roads to successfully stop the building
of an U.S. military base. Three weeks ago a jobless tin miner,
Eustaquio Picachuri, who spent years fruitlessly seeking a pension
blew himself up in the halls of Bolivia's congress, killing himself
and two police officers and wounding 10. Police said the 47-year-old
man was demanding early retirement benefits. (Thousands of poor
miners in Bolivia lost their jobs in recent years when the government
privatized mines.) This week student protests began and as I
write this continue just down the street.
Most ominously, rumors of planned
coups are circulating. One report had Chilean troops massed on
the border to support a coup by elements of the Bolivian military,
aided by U.S. intelligence and other interests. While that coup
attempt supposedly failed, opposition sources claim U.S. and
Chilean interests are intent on blocking or manipulating the
constituent assembly, or if that fails, supporting another coup.
Right wing papers have begun to circulate rumors of a union federation-led
coup, likely as a way of justifying military intervention.
What will happen next? Almost
certainly more strikes and protests. After that who knows. Unfortunately
we will be heading home soon, our interesting vacation over.
Gary Engler is a journalist, novelist and playwright
who currently works for Canada1s largest media union.
Weekend
Edition Features for April 3 / 4, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Anti-Depressants
a Problem? We're Shocked
Jeffrey St. Clair
How Neil Bush Succeeded in Business
Without Really Trying
Gary Leupp
On Jefferson, Diderot and the Political Uses of God
Lawrence Davidson
Orwell and Kafka in Israel / Palestine
Frederick B.
Hudson
Condi Rice: the Family Retainer
Phillip Cryan
The Magic of Coca-Cola: Colombian Workers, Civil Rights and Advertising
Dave Zirin
Lester Speaks: an Interview with Lester "Red" Rodney
Ben Tripp
Talking Dirty: Obscene But Not Heard
Bruce Anderson
Phony Liberals and Fake Concern for the Homeless
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
Justice and Legitimacy in Haiti
Mark Scaramella
Do You Have What It Takes to Be Sec. of Defense? Take the Rumsfeld
Quiz
Sharon Smith
Do Most Iraqis Really Want the US to Stay?
Rick Giombetti
Melissa Ann Rowland: a Witch for Our Time
Nader/Kerry
Quandary
Stephen Gowans
Communists
for Capitalism?
Frank Bardacke / Doug Lummis
Support Nader; Dump Bush: an Election Manifesto
Mickey Z
Turn ON
Saul Landau
Kerry: a Less Dangerous Imperialist?
Richard Oxman
Nader and/or Death?
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Davies, Albert and Tripp
Website of the Weekend
Missing
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