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CHINA'S GREAT LEAP BACKWARDS
Peter Kwong
gives us the "New China" without illusions: from the
"millionaires' fair" in Shanghai, with $60,000 diamond-studded dog leashes
to one
of the most savagely repressed working class and peasantry on
the planet. How China's
leaders swapped Marx and Mao for Milton Friedman. Alexander Cockburn
on What's wrong with the U.S. left.
They're sitting in darkened rooms weaving conspiracy fantasies
about 9/11; they're blogging; they're confusing a medium with
a movement; they're not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq.
John Ross
takes us along the stormy trail of the Mexican election. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers
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Americans who get their propaganda from
Fox "News" or are told what to think by right-wing
talk radio hosts are outraged at news reports that U.S. troops
planned and carried out the rape and murder of a young Iraqi
woman. They are not outraged that the troops committed the deed;
they are outraged that the media reported it. These "conservatives,"
who proudly wear their patriotism on their sleeves, dismiss the
reports of the incident as a Big Lie floated by "the anti-American
liberal media" in order to demoralize Americans and reduce
public support for the war.
Playing to this audience, Col.
Jeffrey Snow, a U.S. brigade commander in Baghdad, told AFP News
that news coverage could cause the U.S. to lose the war. In other
words, what we are doing in Iraq cannot stand the light of day,
so reporters must not report or the word will get out.
Many Bush supporters believe
that truth is not on our side and must be suppressed. Yet, they
support a war that is too shameful to report.
I have made it clear in my
columns that Bush supporters are not true conservatives. They
are brownshirts with the same low intelligence and morals as
Hitler's enthusiastic supporters. And they are just as resistant
to facts.
It was not the "liberal
media" but the investigating U.S. military officials who
told the Associated Press that the rape and murder of the young
woman and her family appeared "totally premeditated,"
that the soldiers noticed the woman on their patrols and studied
her and her family for a week before separating the woman from
her family and raping her. After having their way with her, the
soldiers murdered her and tried to burn her body with a flammable
liquid in order to cover up their foul deed. The soldiers' cover-up
attempt also involved the murder of other members of the murdered
rape victim's family, including a child.
The criminals were turned in
by other U.S. soldiers who knew of the monstrous crime. According
to the Associated Press (USA Today, June 30, 2006), one
of the soldiers has admitted his role in the rape and murder.
The soldiers cannot be said
to be guilty until they are tried and found guilty. However,
the U.S. military usually attempts a cover-up of such incidents
and only admits to the facts after the press gets hold of them.
This time, however, the investigating officials themselves gave
the story to the Associated Press.
Many Americans are so unsophisticated
that they refuse to believe anything bad about their country.
They regard acceptance of unpalatable truths as disloyalty. This
failure of American character is why Bush has been able to get
away with transgressions that scream out for his impeachment
and trial as a war criminal.
The premeditated rape and murders
are just the latest in the long line of horrific war crimes from
Abu Ghraib to Haditha. Bush supporters are still in denial about
each incident. It is amazing that Bush supporters think we have
a John Wayne military when, according to news reports, recruitment
problems have resulted in the military accepting felons, drug
users, thugs, low-IQ high school dropouts, and illegal Mexicans
promised green cards for signing up. Apparently, the same people
who make America's streets unsafe for Americans make Iraqi streets
unsafe for Iraqis. In response to the declining caliber of new
recruits, some of our best troops are refusing to reenlist. Several
have written to me that "the Army has left them."
Whoever put out that propagandistic
slogan, "support the troops," and the ribbon decals
was a master propagandist. "Support the troops" means
to deny the reality of the war and the behavior of the troops.
To this day, the Bush regime
and the neocon Nazis have not told us the reason for their invasion
of Iraq, the destruction of its towns and infrastructure, and
the slaughter of its citizens. Every reason Bush has given has
proved to be a lie.
There is no more reason for
U.S. troops to be shooting up Iraq than to be shooting up Canada,
Scotland, Holland, Spain, Taiwan, Florida, Virginia, or California.
We are killing Iraqis for no other reason than that they resist
our invasion and occupation of their country.
It is proof of the collapse
of American morals and the fallen character of the American people
that the American public and its elected representatives in Congress
refuse to rein in the Bush regime and hold it responsible for
its monstrous crimes.
America has become a land of
evil. The rest of the world hates and despises us. And we are
going to pay a terrible price for it. Bush's belief that our
superpower status makes us immune to the opinion of others goes
beyond hubris into insanity.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury
in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the
Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of
National Review. He is coauthor of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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