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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
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life (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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May
24, 2003
Philosopher Kings
Leo Strauss
and the Neocons
By GARY LEUPP
For the neocon cabal running the country, recent
news hasn't been entirely good. The successful invasion of Iraq
has met with unexpected opposition (from a people with a dignified
capacity to resist occupation that the aggressors, in their arrogance,
didn't quite anticipate). Paul Wolfowitz, deputy Secretary of
"Defense," has
stated frankly to Congress that the situation will get "messier
as Iraqis sort out their political process" (as though the
Iraqis, milling about gun-toting and order-barking foreigners,
were free to have their own political process). Meanwhile the
reinstitution of the Northern Alliance regime in Afghanistan
also remains problematic. The reconfiguration of Southwest Asia
just isn't going as smoothly as envisioned by the New American
Century Project operators. Richard Perle, who once told the Italian
press that the U.S. had "proof" that 9-11 mastermind
Mohammed Atta met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad (and who in
making such a statement revealed himself to be a shameless liar)
has been disgraced due to some financial dealings, and has been
obliged to step down from his powerful (but unpaid and unsupervised)
position as chair of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. This
is good, although he is still on that board and remains at large
and dangerous.
It's also good that Perle's fellow Likudist
and career disinformationist Ari Fleischer is stepping down.
And that Gen. Tommy Franks, who everybody used to think would
be the MacArthur of Iraq, has decided to retire. There is disarray
at the top (manifested in the changing appointments for Iraq
occupation administration, in policies towards the Mujahadeen
Khalq and Iran, etc.) and perhaps a spreading loss of confidence
in the neocons' whole imperialist program. Most importantly,
the philosopher-kings, with academician Wolfowitz at their head,
are increasingly coming under scrutiny in the mainstream press.
This is meet, right and salutary, because they are very bad people,
with lots of blood on their hands already, and busily planning
further crimes against the world, beginning with Syria and Iran.
Their badness most notably was revealed in a vitally important
New
Yorker article (May 6) by veteran investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh. Not to sound Gandalfian, but this may be the turning
of the tide
Hersh reveals the philosophical underpinnings of the neocons'
project, and draws attention to their cynical, anti-democratic
nature. His piece has stimulated other articles, laying bare
the nature of the cabal and its ideological foundations. It will
take time for the information to sink in, but if and when the
masses come to see what's been going on, they will probably be
very angry, as good people should be, under the circumstances.
We have been lied to, relentlessly, systematically, fascistically.
The Sept. 12 lie was that Sept. 11 was planned in Baghdad. Profoundly
untrue and really, really stupid (to any informed person), but
profoundly useful to those prepared to draw upon ignorance, fear
and racism to effect their goals. This they have done, and they're
just at the beginning of their project. But it's just possible
that their project might get derailed, due in part to the efforts
of journalists like Hersh.
Hersh notes the critical influence of
the philosopher Leo Strauss (d. 1973) on Wolfowitz's thinking.
His article stimulated, among other articles, a substantial piece
on Strauss by Jeet Heer in the Boston Globe (May 11),
and another by William Pfaff in the International
Herald Tribune (May 15), the latter noting that "Strauss's
thought is a matter of public interest because his followers
are in charge of U.S. foreign policy." Strauss, of German
Jewish origins who taught for many years at the University of
Chicago, mentoring Wolfowitz among others, was a brilliant man.
No question about that. But also a man profoundly hostile to
the modern world and to the concept of rule by the people. He
believed it was the natural right of the wise and strong to lead
societies to the fulfillment of their wise aims, using subterfuge
when necessary, because speaking the naked truth won't get the
job done.
Strauss's point of departure is Socrates,
who in Plato's Republic denounces Athenian democracy (the
rule of the untutored masses) and instead promotes government
by "philosopher-kings." Strauss had experienced the
Weimar Republic (one of the more democratic experiments in modern
history) and seen Germany fall into the hands of the Nazis. He
understandably opposed the latter, but he derived some lessons
from their methodology. The failure of the Weimar regime to prevent
the rise of fascism, in his view, resided in its failure to put
power into the hands of the strong and good, who inevitably,
unable to acquire popular support through honest methods, should
(like their Nazi adversaries) have cleverly used Big Lies (towards
good ends) to nudge the people towards those ends. Only
wise men, acting in secrecy, can do that.
As Hersh points out, the neocons (just
about a dozen officials---including Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith,
Bolton, Abrams---operating in concert with the oil-baron contingent
in the administration-Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, Bush---and providing
them with intellectual guidance) refer to themselves (with smug
amusement) as a "cabal" (a word with an interesting
etymology). They have contempt for the masses, and feel utterly
justified in wisely misleading those masses into a roadmap for
global peace on their terms. That meant, initially, using 9-11
to produce support for the seizure of Iraq. That seizure is still
in progress, messily, untidily, brutally and illegally, and with
results no cabal, however wise, can really predict. Among the
results might be a growing revulsion among the American people
themselves at the neocons' misanthropic arrogance, and perhaps
(much though it should be regretted and fought) anti-Semitism.
The latter might be provoked by the fact that persons inclined
to embrace the most extreme factions in the Israeli political
apparatus are disproportionately represented in the neocons'
cabal, and while the general movement of U.S. foreign policy
is driven by broad geopolitical concerns, rather than the alliance
with Israel, the neocons' allegiance to what they perceive to
be the interests of Sharon's Israel is highly conspicuous.
Maybe the tide will turn. Or, maybe the
cabal will triumph, and the world will for some time pay for
their wisdom, throughout a whole American Century, 2001-2099,
such as they envision and wish their children to celebrate in
appreciative psalms and sagas.
In the Buddhist religion, there are esoteric
trends. In Japanese, such esoterism is called hiden ("hidden
tradition"). The idea is that wise men pass on directly
to their disciples their insights that aren't appropriate to
communicate to the masses, those who don't have the capacity
to understand and attain enlightenment. I respect that viewpoint,
best represented in the Shingon (Chen-yuan) tradition rooted
in the Tantrism currently fashionable (if for all the wrong reasons)
in Hollywood. There is also in Buddhism a concept (called upaya
in Sanskrit and hôben in Japanese) that might
be translated as "expedient means." You use truth and
falsehood flexibly to produce human happiness. The Buddha, carefully
considering the audience, said different things to different
people, to help alleviate their suffering. Maybe Strauss was
well-motivated in urging the use of cryptic language and lies.
As a basically collegial, fellow academic I'll happily give him
the benefit of a doubt. I understand he was a good professor.
Maybe he was thinking like the Buddha.
But the cabal in Washington is thinking
more like Joseph Goebbels, in its eminently wise use of lies.
(The "Defense" Department is, by the way, deeply annoyed
at the CIA's disinclination to produce more lies; hence Rumsfeld's
new "Office of Special Plans" which can generate disinformation
on demand.) It is using simplistic language of "good"
and "evil," preparing the American people, whom it
regards with utilitarian contempt and condescension, to support
"regime change" in Syria and Iran and elsewhere. This
(in my opinion anyway) is unwise for the world, a world
falling victim to the philosopher-kings, who do not know what
they're doing, who are totally out of control, who
are standing daily in front of the mirror like crazed simians
beating their chests and feeling apishly proud and giddy,
who should be brought before an objective international tribunal
for judgment as soon as possible. We need to (as any good Zen
priest will put it) "See things as they REALLY are,"
and specifically to see what these Straussian neocons are up
to, and mount a democratic and moral challenge to their Socratic
contempt for ourselves. And we must question their plans for
this, our planet, that they want to refashion, in their special
dishonest wisdom, in their own image.
Gary Leupp
is an an associate professor, Department of History, Tufts University
and coordinator, Asian Studies Program.
He can be reached at: gleupp@tufts.edu
Today'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
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
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