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New Edition of CounterPunch

Baghdad Diary: Going from Bad to Worse by Patrick Cockburn; Kerry in Vietnam: Part two; Silver Star or Simply Murder? by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair; Is Your Child's Teacher Working for the Pentagon? by Jorge Mariscal. In March, CounterPunch Online was read by 15.4 million viewers--by far our biggest month ever. But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a (tax deductible) donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now!

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Today's Stories

April 19, 2004

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

 

 

March 30, 2004

William S. Lind
An Occurrence in Pakistan: the Battle That Wasn't

Ron Jacobs
Assassinations, Hate Mail & Justice

Mickey Z.
Tommy Boy Friedman Does "Imagine"

Neve Gordon
Strategic Motives of the Yassin Assassination

Mark Scaramella
The Founding Scam: Insider Trading is the American Way

John Chuckman
The Countessa of Empire: Condi Rice's Idea of Democracy

Greg Moses
Live from Pasadena: Silhouettes of New Order

Rai O'Brien
What Kind of Democracy to Expect if the Opposition Takes Power in Venezuela

Bill Christison
The 9/11 Commission: Dangerous Harbinger for the Future

Website of the Day
Ghost Town: Riding Through Chernobyl

 


March 29, 2004

John Maxwell
Crisis in the Caribbean: a Miasma Foretold

J. Michael Springmann
Email Spying & Attorney Client Privilege

Robert Fisk / Severin Carrell
Coalition of the Mercenaries

The Black Commentator
Haiti's Troika of Terror

Doug Giebel
Candide in the Wilderness:
How Bush Policy Was Made

David Krieger
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Bargain

Mike Whitney
Rejecting the Language of Terrorism

Richard Oxman
The Pitts: a 9/11 Burrow of an American Family

Kim Scipes
The AFL-CIO in Venezuela: Deja Vu All Over Again

Michael Donnelly
End Game for Northwest Forests

Norman Solomon
The Media Politics of 9/11

Kathy Kelly
Last Lines Before Vanishing

Website of the Day
Swans: Can Money Buy Everything?

 

 

March 27 / 28, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
Empire of the Locusts

Gary Leupp
The Yassin Assassination: Prelude to an Attack on Syria

William A. Cook
The Yassin Assassination: a Monstrous Insanity Blessed by the US

Faheem Hussain
Some Thoughts on Waziristan: Once and Always a Colonial Army

Elaine Cassel
Is Playing Paintball Terrorism?

Larry Birns / Jessica Leight
Disturbing Signals: Kerry and Latin America

John Ross
Bush Tells the World: "Drop Dead"

John Eskow
A Memo to Karl Rove from the Hollywood Caucus

Alan Maass
Who Are the Real Terrorists?

Dave Lindorff
Spineless of US Journalists

Joe Bageant
Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy

Dave Zirin
Reasonable Doubt: Why Barry Bonds is Not on Steroids

Craig Waggoner
Who Would Mel's Jesus Nuke?

The Kerry Quandry

Joel Wendland
Marxists for Kerry

Josh Frank
Scary, Scary John Kerry

Matt Vidal
Spoilers, Electability and the Poverty of American Democracy

Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Hamod, Guthrie, Davies and Albert

Website of the Weekend
Say a Little Prayer

 

 

March 26, 2004

Christopher Brauchli
There's a Chill Over the Country

Robert Fisk
The Man Who Knew Too Much: the Ordeal of Mordechai Vanunu

Joe DeRaymond
Democracy in El Salvador? Think Again

Mike Whitney
Lessons on Apartheid from Ariel Sharon

Mickey Z.
Somalia and Iraq: Looking Back and Ahead

Chris Floyd
The Pentagon Archipelago

CounterPunch Photo Wire
Cheney's Close Shave?

John Breneman
Bush's Comic Bomb

Website of the Day
Dick is a Killer

 

March 25, 2004

Lee Sustar
Who is to Blame for Lost Jobs?

Standard Schaefer
An Interview with Michael Hudson on Offshore Banking Centers

Roger Burbach
Lula vs. the IMF: Brazil Begins to Throw Off the Austerity Planners

Jimmer Endres
Elections Without Politics: The Military Budget Is Not an "Issue"

Larry Tuttle
Acting in Your Name: Identity Theft and Public Interest Groups

Toni Solo
Misreporting Venezuela

Dan Bacher
A Memorial Wall for Iraq War's Dead and Wounded

Saul Landau
Is Venezuela Next?

Website of the Day
The Spiral Railway

 

 

March 24, 2004

Gary Leupp
General Musharraf's IOU

Richard Oxman
Shakespeare for Kerry

William Lind
The Beginning of Phase Three: 4G Warfare Hits Iraq

Rep. Ron Paul
Iraq One Year Later

Michael Dempsey
Killing Rachel Corrie Again

Alan Farago
The Bad Math of Mercury: Bush's War on the Unborn

Benjamin Dangl
and April Howard
Media in Cuba

John L. Hess
No Lie Left Behind: Judy Miller Does Dick Clarke

Greg Weiher
Two Cheers for Dems: "We're Not as Bad as George"

Eva Golinger
An Open Letter to John Kerry on Venezuela

Grayson Childs
Where's Cynthia McKinney?

Steve Niva
Israel's Assassinations will Only Fuel More Suicide Bombings

Website of the Day
The Bushiad and the Idiossey

 

 

March 23, 2004

Phillip Cryan
The Drug War's Next Casualty: Colombia's National Parks

Ron Jacobs
They Shoot Men in Wheelchairs, Too?

Dave Lindorff
A Spanish Parallel: Scare Tactics and Elections

Mike Whitney
Richard Clarke and Teflon George

Brian McKinlay
Bush's Lil' Buddy in Trouble: John Howard Starts to Wobble

JG
Driving Mr. Koon: "Jim Crow Lives Next Door"

Phyllis Pollack
Gettin' Jigga with Metallica: the Battle Over the Double Black CD

Ahmed Bouzid
Sharon's One-Way Track

Sean Carter
The G-Word Goes to Court: One Nation Under [Your Logo Here]

M. Shahid Alam
World's Greatest Country: Do the Facts Lie

 

March 22, 2004

Mazin Qumsiyeh
On Extrajudicial Executions

Uri Avnery
The Assassination of Sheikh Yassin is Worse Than a Crime

Gilad Atzmon
Sharon's Rampage

Mike Whitney
Guilty Until Proven Innocent: the Story of Captain James Yee

Jason Leopold
Firm With Ties to Cheney Faces Criminal Indictment in Cal Energy Scam

Greg Moses
Stop Walling and Stalling: a Report from Houston's Peace March

Phil Gasper
San Francisco: 25,000 March for an End to the Occupation

Lenni Brenner
Report from NYC: Old and Young Parade for Peace

Julian Borger
The Clarke Revelations

Steve Perry
Karl Rove's Moment

Website of the Day
Enviros Against War

 

 

March 20 / 21, 2004

Alexander Cockburn
Gay Marriage: Sidestep on Freedom's Path

Jeffrey St. Clair
Intolerable Opinions in an Age of Shock and Awe: What Would Lilburne Do?

Ted Honderich
Tony Blair's Moral Responsibility for Atrocities

Saul Landau / Farrah Hassen
The Plot Against Syria: an Irresponsibility Act

Gary Leupp
On Viewing "The Passion of the Christ"

William A. Cook
Fence, Barrier, Wall

Phil Gasper
Bush v. Bush-lite: Chomsky's Lesser Evilism

Ron Jacobs
Fox News and the Masters of War

John Stanton
Which Way John Kerry? The Senator's Inner Nixon

Justin Felux
Kerry and Black America: Just Another Stupid White Man

Mike Whitney
Greenspan's Treason: Swindling Posterity

Augustin Velloso
Avoiding Osama's Abyss

Lawrence Magnuson
Eyes Wide Open: Is Spain Caving in to Terrorism?

Kathy Kelly
Getting Together to Defeat Terrorism

Tracy McLellan
Scalia & Cheney: Happiness is a Warm Gun

Kurt Nimmo
Emma Goldman for President!

Luis J. Rodriguez
The Redemptive Power of Art: It's Not a Frill

Mickey Z
The Michael Moore Diet

Jackie Corr
When Harry Truman Stopped in Butte

Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Great Trial of 1922: Gandhi's Vision of Responsibility

Poets' Basement
Stew Albert & JD Curtis

Website of the Weekend
Virtual World Election

 

 

March 19, 2004

Jeffrey St. Clair
Zapatero to Kerry: Back Off, Senator, Our Troops are Coming Home

Ann Harrison
So Protesters, How Well Do You Know Your Rights?

William MacDougall
Fortress Britain's War on "Economic Migrants"

Greg Moses
Sold American: Cowboy Nation Gets Ready to Vote

Cynthia McKinney
Haiti and the Impotence of Black America: Roll Back This Coup, Mr. Bush

Norman Solomon
Spinning the Past; Threatening the Future

John L. Hess
"Missing" Evidence and the NYTs

Vicente Navarro
The End of Aznar, Bush's Best Friend

Website of the War
Naming the Dead

 


March 18, 2004

Gila Svirsky
Rachel Corrie, One Year Later: She Never Lost Faith in Decency

Christopher Brauchli
Drilling a Hole in the Sanctions: How Halliburton Made $73 Million from Saddam

William Kulin
Report from Iraq: Just Another Baghdad Car Bombing

Mike Whitney
Resistance: a Moral Imperative

Rep. Ron Paul
Broadcast Indecency Act: an Indecent Attack on the First Amendment

Josh Frank
The Nader Question

Jack Random
They Lied & They Lost: Madrid and the Lessons of Democracy

Greg Bates
What Makes a Nader Voter Tick? A Survey

Sam Hamod / Alfredo Reyes
Contempt of the World: Hastert, Bush and Cheney on Spain

Gary Leupp
The Madrid Bombings: the Chickens Come Home to Roost

Website of the Day
Privatizing Armageddon: Buy Your Own Doomsday Key

 

March 17, 2004

Marjorie Cohn
Spain, the EU and the US: War on Terror or Civil Liberties?

David MacMichael
Untruth and Consequences

Michael Donnelly
Wear the Green, But Skip the Green Beer

Tom Stephens
"Steady Leadership": Let the Buyer Beware

Wayne Madsen
Sen. Kerry, Let Me Help You Out

Karyn Strickler
Who Owns the Sierra Club? Anonymous Donors and Rigged Elections

Peter Linebaugh
Bush: Blanc Blanc

 

March 16, 2004

Lenni Brenner
James Madison: the Anti-Clerical Father of the Bill of Rights

Scott Boehm
Madrid Diary: How to Change World Order in Four Days

Alexander Lynch
From Franco to Aznar: the History Behind the Spanish Elections

Sam Hamod and Alfredo Reyes
The Truth About the Spanish Elections: Aznar Was Going Down Anyway

Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way: Executing David Clayton Hill

Mike Whitney
The Case for a Nuclear Iran

Robert Fisk
The Bloody Price of the "War on Terror"

Bill Christison
The Aftershocks from Madrid

CounterPunch Photo Wire
The Passion of St. Teresa

Website of the Day
Join the War on Art!

 

March 15, 2004

Harry Browne
Terror Nothing New to Europe

Mike Whitney
Justice Not Murder: the Tragic Symmetry of Terrorism

Lidice Valenzuela
Haiti: a Coup without Consultation

Greg Moses
Lessons from the Texas Primaries: Looking for a Coalition with Legs

Mickey Z.
Depraved Indifference: C-Sections, Patriarchy & Women's Health

Asaf Shtull-Trauring
AWOL in New York: From Refusenik to Organizer

CounterPunch Wire
Gen. Gramajo Executed by Bees!

 

March 12 / 14, 2004

Gabriel Kolko
The Coming Elections and the Future of American Global Power

Saul Landau
Oh, Jesus...It's the Movie!

William Blum
Neo-Con(tradictions)

William S. Lind
Why They Throw Rocks

Rahul Mahajan
The Meaning of Madrid: War on "Terrorism" Makes Us All Less Safe

Neve Gordon
Demographic Wars

Kurt Nimmo
Kerry and the Progressive Interventionists

Mickey Z.
The "New" UN Blames the Poor

Mike Whitney
War Games: the American Media Leads the Charge

Helen Scott and Ashley Smith
Aristide's Fall: What Led to the Coup?

Justin E.H. Smith
Loïc Wacquant: Against a Sociodicy of the American Prison

Brandy Baker
Him Again? Al Gore Needs to Move On

Robin Philpot
Nobody Can Call It a "Plane Crash" Now: the Report on the Assassination of Rwandan President Habyarimana

Mokhiber / Weissman
The Meat Monopoly Takes a Rare Pounding

Dave Zirin
She Turned Her Back on the War: an Interview with Toni Smith

Daniel Wolff
The Lord's Pier

 

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April 19, 2004

Report from Baghdad

Hospital Closings and War Crimes

By RAHUL MAHAJAN

NOTE: Doctors from four hospitals in Baghdad were interviewed in compiling this report; all asked that their names be left out.

Baghdad, Iraq.

"Why do you keep asking about the closing of the Fallujah hospital?" my Iraqi translator asks in exasperation. I explain that this is big news, and it hasn't really been reported in English. He looks at me, incredulous; all Iraqis know about it.

When the United States began the siege of Fallujah, it targeted civilians in several ways. The power station was bombed; perhaps even more important, the bridge across the Euphrates was closed. Fallujah's main hospital stands on the western bank of the river; almost the entirety of the town is on the east side. Although the hospital was not technically closed, no doctor who actually believes in the Hippocratic oath is going to sit in an empty hospital while people are dying in droves on the other bank of the river. So the doctors shut down the hospital, took the limited supplies and equipment they could carry, and started working at a small three-room outpatient clinic, doing operations on the ground and losing patients because of the inadequacy of the setup. This event was not reported in English until April 14, when the bridge was reopened.

In Najaf, the Spanish-language "Plus Ultra" garrison closed the al-Sadr Teaching Hospital roughly a week ago (as of yesterday, it remained closed). With 200 doctors, the hospital (formerly the Saddam Hussein Teaching Hospital) is one of the most important in Iraq. Troops entered and gave the doctors two hours to leave, allowing them to take only personal items -- no medical equipment. The reason given was that the hospital overlooks the Plus Ultra's base, and that the roof could be used by resistance snipers. Al-Arabiya has also reported that in Qaim, a small town near the Syrian border where fighting recently broke out, that the hospital had been closed, with American snipers positioned atop nearby buildings.

The United States has also impeded the operation of hospitals in other ways. Although the first Western reports of U.S. snipers shooting at ambulances caused something of a furor, two days ago at a press conference the Iraqi Minister of Health, Khudair Abbas, confirmed that U.S. forces had shot at ambulances not just in Fallujah but also in Sadr City, the sprawling slum in East Baghdad. He condemned the acts and said he had asked for an explanation from his superiors, the Governing Council and Paul Bremer.

There are also persistent claims that after an outbreak of hostilities American soldiers visit hospitals asking for information about the wounded, with the intent of removing potential resistance members and interrogating them. Nomaan Hospital in Aadhamiyah and Yarmouk Hospital in Yarmouk (both areas of Baghdad) got visits from U.S. forces in the first days after the fighting in Fallujah started -- the lion's share of evacuated wounded from Fallujah were taken to those two hospitals. Doctors generally resist being turned into informants for the occupation; one doctor actually told me that he has many times discharged people straight from the emergency room, with inadequate time to recuperate, just to keep them out of military custody. As he said, "They are my countrymen. How can I hold them for the Americans?"

While the American media talks of the great restraint and "pinpoint precision" of the American attack, over 700 people, at least half of them civilians, have been killed in Fallujah. And, according to the Ministry of Health, in the last two weeks, at least 290 were killed in other cities, over 30 of them children. Many of those who died because of the hospital closures will never be added in to the final tally of the "liberation."

By any reasonable standard, these hospital closings (and, of course, the shooting at ambulances) are war crimes. However afraid the Plus Ultra garrison may have been of attack from the rooftops, they didn't have to close the hospital; they could simply have screened entrants. In the case of Fallujah, it's clear that one of the reasons the mujahideen were willing to talk about ceasefire was to get the hospital open again; in effect, the United States was holding civilians (indirectly) hostage for military ends.

After an earlier article about attacks on ambulances, many people wrote to ask why U.S. forces would do this -- it conflicted with the image they wanted to have of the U.S. military. Were they just trying to massacre civilians? And, if so, why?

In fact, it's fairly simple: the United States has its military goals and simply does not care how many Iraqi civilians have to be killed in order to maximize the military efficiency of their operations. A senior British army commander recently criticized the Americans for viewing the Iraqis as Untermenschen -- a lower order of human being. He also said the average soldier views all Iraqis as enemies or potential enemies. That is precisely the case. I have heard the same thing from dozens of people here -- "They don't care what happens to Iraqis."

Although this relatively indiscriminate killing of civilians may serve American military ends -- keeping the ratio of enemy dead to American soldiers dead as high as possible -- in terms of political ends, it is a disaster. It is very difficult to explain to an Iraqi that a man fighting from his own town with a Kalashnikov or RPG launcher is a "coward" and a "war criminal" (because, apparently, he should go out into the desert and wait to be annihilated from the sky) but that someone dropping 2000-pound bombs on residential areas or shooting at ambulances because they may have guns in them (even though they usually don't) is a hero and is following the laws of war.

When I was here in January, there was a pervasive atmosphere of discontent, frustration, and anger with the occupation. But most people were still just trying to ride it out, stay patient, and hope that things improved. The wanton brutality of the occupation has at long last put an end to that patience.

Before, the occupation might have succeeded -- not in building real democracy, which was never the goal, but in cementing U.S. control of Iraq. It cannot succeed now. The resistance in Fallujah will be beaten down, with the commission of more war crimes; if the United States invades Najaf, it will be able to win militarily there as well. But from now on, no military victory will make Iraqis stop resisting.

Rahul Mahajan is the publisher of Empire Notes and serves on the Administrative Committee of United for Peace and Justice, the nation's largest antiwar coalition. His first book, "The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism," has been called "mandatory reading for anyone who wants to get a handle on the war on terrorism," and his most recent book, "Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond," has been described as "essential for those who wish to continue to fight against empire." He can be reached at rahul@empirenotes.org

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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