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What You're Missing in our subscriber-only CounterPunch newsletter How the U.S. Army Kills Its Own Soldiers A horrifying, exclusive report from JoAnn Wypijewski on the grim secrets of Fort Sill, Oklahoma. How a sadistic drill sergeant tortured basic trainees, amid brutal indifference that led to the death on March 19,2006,of 21-year-old PFC Matthew Scarano. Dead Movement Marching? Cockburn and St Clair assess the failures of the national antiwar groups, even as popular opposition to the war tops 60 per cent. Stalin or Confucius? Chris Reed on the Secrets of the Garden of Bliss, otherwise known as North Korea. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! 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 donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! Get CounterPunch By Email for Only $35 a Year

Today's Stories March 23, 2006 Joe DeRaymond El Salvador 2006: Elections in a Broken Nation Charles V. Peña Bush's Pro-Terrorism Defense Budget March 22, 2006 David MacMichael Iranian Nuclear Showdown: an Unnecessary Crisis Juan Santos Brown Skin, Yellow Star: Making Latinos Illegal Paul Craig Roberts Hollow Nation: Americans Don't Live Here Anymore Patrick Cockburn Iraq's My Lai?: Shooting Any Iraqi Who Moves Ramzy Baroud The Jericho Raid Jason Leopold The Mysterious "Official One": Woodward's Plame-Leak Deep Throat Dennis Perrin Killer Lies from Cheney's Harlot William Blum The Cuban Punching Bag Jeffrey St. Clair Contract Casino Website of the Day Bird Flu: Will It Cross Over?   March 21, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Bush's Delusional Speech Winslow Wheeler Lipstick on the Pig: the Fiasco of Congressional Earmark Reform Tom Engelhardt Cold Warrior in a Strange Land: an Interview with Chalmers Johnson Arnold Oliver To the Guy Who Called Me a Traitor: Dissent and the Iraq War Earl Ofari Hutchinson When Black Cops Go Bad: the Killing of Elio Carrion Mike Whitney Death Squad Democracy William A. Cook Israeli Human Rights: Starve the Palestinians Sophia A. McLennen Assault on Higher Education: the Conservative Push for the Right Student   March 20, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts A Collapsing Presidency Dave Lindorff Howard Dean Tells CounterPunch: DNC No Foe of Impeachment Ralph Nader The DNC's "Grassroots Agenda": Howard Dean's Plea for Advice Diane Christian License to Lie: Over to You, Dante Jeff Halper "To Hell with All of You": the Power of Saying No Harry Browne Unhappy St. Patrick's Day: Bush's Crackdown on Gerry Adams and Sinn Fein Norman Solomon Why are We Here?: Is There a Right Way to Wage a Wrong War? Patrick Cockburn Death Squads on the Prowl; Iraq Convulsed by Fear Website of the Day Abugate   March 18 / 19, 2006 Cockburn / St. Clair Three Years On: Where's the Resistance Here on the Home Front? Werther Bombs and Butchers: "Where Do We Get Such Men?" Chris Kromm Katrina Aid Package: Much Too Little; Much Too Late Patrick Cockburn Halabja: Kurds Destroy Monument to Victims of Saddam's Poison Gas Attack Elaine Cassel Abortion Politics and Animus for Women: Can Justice Kennedy be Swayed? S. Brian Willson Iraq Vets and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Fred Gardner The War on Kids Brian Cloughley General Insanity: the Prevarications of Gen. Peter Pace Laura Carlsen Challenging Disparity: Toward a New US Policy in Latin America Eamon Martin Life in the Shadows of the Empire: Mysterious Photographers of Nothing Julie Hilden Free Speech in the Classroom: Teachers Don't Enjoy Enough Legal Protection Alison Weir So Much for "Sunshine Week": AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy Jeffrey St. Clair Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week Poets' Basement LaMorticella, Krieger, Louise, and Engek Website of the Weekend Are the Elites Turning Against the Effects of the Israel Lobby?   March 17, 2006 Eduardo Galeano Abracadabra: Uruguay's Desaparecidos Begin to Appear Greg Moses Bush and Nuclear Preemption: Do You Feel Safe With This Man's Finger on the Button? Richard Falk / David Krieger The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is Dying: What Now? Cindy and Craig Corrie Three Ways to Remember Rachel Amira Hass Hamas's Haniyeh: "I Never Sent Anyone on a Suicide Mission" Mike Marqusee Reasons to March James Petas and Robin Eastman-Abaya Philippines: the Killing Fields of Asia Website of the Day Black Shamrock   March 16, 2006 Norman Solomon Hook, Line and Sinker: War-Loving Pundits Tom Philpott Neoliberalism at the Garden Gate: Community Farming in LA Heather Gray Anne Braden: the South's Rebel Without a Pause Amira Hass Is Hamas Playing into the Hands of Israeli Hardliners? Missy Comley Beattie Dangerous-to-Society Women: Locked Up in the Tombs Sen. Russell Feingold President Bush has Broken the Law; He Must be Held Accountable Lucinda Marshall President Ken Doll: Bush Insults Women on Intl. Women's Day Andrew Bosworth From the Man Who Voted Against Katrina Aid: Joe Barton's War on CITGO Clancy Sigal In Celebration of Dachau's 73rd Anniversary, Halliburton Gets Concentration Camp Contract Website of the Day Help Rebuild the New Orleans Public Library March 15, 2006 Jonathan Cook Israel's Raid on the Jericho Jail Winslow Wheeler Hiding the Cost of War: Paying for Iraq with Supplemental Funding Diane Christian Sharon's Stroke Ron Jacobs New Tenants for Abu Ghraib?: a Cell for Kissinger and Haig Missy Comley Beattie How Many Brinks to Pass? Jared Bernstein The Minority Wealth Gap Noam Chomsky The Crumbling Empire Website of the Day French Students Reclaim the Streets of Paris   March 14, 2006 Earl Ofari Hutchinson No Requiem for a Black Conservative: the Fall of Claude Allen Dave Lindorff Why the Gitmo Tribunals are a Bad Idea: Exhibit A, t he Moussaoui Case Kevin Zeese Divide and Rule in Iraq Gone Awry Todd Chretien Counting the Dead in Iraq: Why is the Left Understating the Carnage? Jason Kunin Canada in Afghanistan: "We're Here Because We're Here" Thomas Palley The Economics of Outsourcing Cockburn / St. Clair Pages from the Liberals' War Website of the Day Golf Courses and Swimming Pools   March 13, 2006 Uri Avnery The Missing Word Dave Lindorff Extra, Extra! Media Reports on Censure Motion Mike Whitney South Dakota's Taliban: the Fanatics are on the Loose David Green Questions of Solidarity: Blacks and Jews in Neo-Con America Jeremy Scahill Rest Easy, Bill Clinton: Slobo Can't Talk Any More Mike Ferner Up Against the Wall, Son: Hungering for Justice During My First Congressional Testimony Corey Harris Memories of Ali Farka Touré Paul Craig Roberts Killing Off Milosevic: Was Serbia a Practice Run for Iraq? Website of the Day Prayer Flags for Peace March 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Democrats: When the War Was Lost Ralph Nader Bush at the Tipping Point Paul Craig Roberts Why Did Bush Destroy Iraq? Ben Tripp My Night at the Oscars: the Happy People Speak Out John Strausbaugh The Cowboys and the Village Voice: Alt Press Flagship Goes Corporate Landau / Hassen Why "We" Fight "Their" Wars Robert Bryce A Thousand Pages of Rage Gary Leupp Why They Really Think They Must Defeat Iran Fred Gardner "But He's Good on Our Issue" Ron Jacobs Condi and Iran: Folly, Tragedy and Farce Jonathan Scott Science Fiction's Black Oracle: the Genius and Courage of Octavia Butler Ramzy Baroud Who Will Stop Bush's Militant Militarists? Jordan Flaherty Gitmo on the Mississippi: Life Under the Klan Wasn't This Bad John Chuckman Parable of the Hatchet: the Fallacy of Nation-Building in Afghanistan Joe Allen Smearing Ron Carey and the TDU: Bob Fitch's Hatchet Job Julia Kendlbacher Amazonia: Where All Life Matters St. Clair / Walker / Pollack / Vest Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Harley, Ford and Subiet Website of the Weekend No Hay Ser Humano Ilegal   March 10, 2006 Ben Rosenfeld The Great Green Scare and the Fed's Case Against Rod Coronado: a War on the First Amendment Lila Rajiva The Gitmo Documents: Miller, Boykin, Cambone and Feith Saree Makdisi From Rachel Corrie to Richard Rogers: the Wall, the Javits Center and the Bullying of an Architect Elena Shore FBI Grills US Professor Over Support for Venezuela Joshua Frank How the Green Party Slays Their Own Dave Zirin Lynching Barry Bonds Aura Bogado An Interview with Subcomandate Marcos   March 9, 2006 John Walsh Neocon Daniel Pipes Advocates Civil War in Iraq as Strategic Policy Annie Zirin Leftwing Generals: the Dark Side of Liberal Imperialism Brian McKenna We All Live in Poletown Now: GM and the Corporate Uses of Eminent Domain Chris Floyd Scar Tissue: How the Bushes Brought Bedlam to Iraq Rachard Itani "Over There": Iraq as Soap Opera Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Action Thing Wylie Harris Immigration and Jeffersonian Democracy: Free Borders Make Good Neighbors Alexander Cockburn Ex-State Department Security Officer Charges Pre-9/11 Cover-Up Website of the Day About Pace: Expelling Anti-War Students   March 8, 2006 Patrick Bond The Loans of Mass Destruction: Wolfowitz's Anti-Corruption Hoax at the World Bank Brian Concannon, Jr. Elusive Victories in Haiti Pat Williams Buyer's Remorse: Bush, the View from the Purple States Lance Selfa The Democrats and Dubai: the Politics of Distraction Mokhiber / Weissman Have You Ever Been Convicted of a Felony? Walter Brasch Compromising Civil Liberties Vijay Prashad For Them Indian Mangoes: Anatomy of an Agreement Website of the Day Rachel Corrie: a Call to Action   March 7, 2006 Werther Half a Trillion Dollars: It's an Awful Lot of Money to Make Us Less Safe and Less Free John Blair Dr. Strangelove is Our President: Global Peace Through Nuclear Weapons Dave Lindorff The Impeachment Groundswell and Bush's Last Hope: the Democrats Mike Whitney No Immunity: Israel's Policy of Targeted Assassination Warren Guykema Who is Afraid of Rachel Corrie? Sen. Russell Feingold Misleading Testimony About NSA Domestic Spying Robert Jensen Why I am a Christian (Sort Of) Norman Solomon Digitalized Hype: a Dazzling Smokescreen? Bernie Dwyer Hopeful Signs Across Latin America: an Interview with Noam Chomsky Website of the Day Golem Song March 6, 2006 Ralph Nader Bush and Katrina: "Situational Information?" Dave Zirin Why Did Pat Tillman Die? an Investigation Reopens Vanessa Redgrave Censorship of the Worst Kind: the Second Death of Rachel Corrie Walter A. Davis Theater, Ideology and the Censorship of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" Joshua Frank Down By Law: the Mysterious Case of David Cobb Nate Mezmer A Second Look at "Crash": More Myths About Blacks and Racist Cops Paul Craig Roberts America's Bleak Jobs Future Website of the Day Crossroads: Race, Class and Art March 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn The Dubai Ports Purchase: National Insecurity, Imported or Homegrown? Jennifer Van Bergen Bush's NSA Spying Program Violates the Law Steven Higgs Dying for Their Work: Westinghouse Workers and the Highest Level of PCBs Ever Recorded Winslow T. Wheeler The Generals, the Legislators and the Gulfstream VIP Transports Ron Jacobs Stealing Back Adam's Rib Rev. William E. Alberts Remember Damadola Colin Asher Goodbye, Dubai: the Teamsters and the Ports Fred Gardner Denney's Law "Pariah" Scapegoats and Shunning: Sexual Fascism in Progressive America John Scagliotti Brokeback Mountain: Pain is Not Enough Seth Sandronsky When the White House Walks Away: Bush, Arnold and the Flood Risk in the Central Valley Joan Roelofs A Challenge to Rebuild the World Arjun Makhijani The US / India Nuclear Pact: a Bad and Dangerous Deal Ardeshr Ommani Destroying the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Diana Barahona An Open Letter to Freedom House: Release Info on Your Federal Grants Ben Tripp Bonzo, Wherefore Art Thou? St. Clair / Socialist Worker Staff Playlist: What We're Listening To Poets' Basement Engel, Davies, Buknatski Website of the Weekend The Return of Pearl Jam March 3, 2006 Laura Carlsen Mexico: the Power of Corruption and the Corruption of Power John V. Whitbeck Two States or One? Chris Floyd The Monolith Crumbles: Reality and Revisionism About Iran Mohamed Hakki Wolfowitz at the World Bank: Cronyism and Corruption Pratyush Chandra Bush in India: Dinner with George and Manmohan John Scagliotti Why are There No Real Gays in "Brokeback Mountain"? Website of the Day Support the IRC!   March 2, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts How the Economic News is Spun Dave Lindorff Troops to Bush: Get Us Out of Here! Ramzy Baroud Middle East Democracy: the Hamas Factor Saul Landau Halfway Down the Road to Hell Joe Allen The Murder of George Jackson: an Interview with His Lawyer, Stephen Bingham Steve Shore Berlusconi on Capitol Hill: "I Am Italy!" Denise Boggs Roadless and Clueless: Wilderness Logging Greenwashed by Enviro Groups Norman Finkelstein The Attacks on Beyond Chutzpah Website of the Day ScreenHead   March 1, 2006 Mairead Corrigan Maguire The Human Right to a Nuclear Free World Niranjan Ramakrishnan The India That Can No Longer Say No Faheem Hussain Bush in Pakistan Antony Loewenstein Spinning Us to War with Iran: an Aussie Perspective Elizabeth Schulte The Charge to Overturn Roe Has Begun Mike Whitney Sudan: Beware Bolton's Sudden Humanitarianism John Ryan Canada and the American Empire Michael Donnelly Brokeback Mountain: a No Love Story Tom Reeves Haitian Election Aftermath Website of the Day Mardi Gras Index: Reuilding of New Orleans Stalled   February 28, 2006 Sen. Russ Feingold Renewing the Patriot Act: a Sham Process and a Rotten Deal Ralph Nader The Dark Age of the Auto Industry Joshua Frank The Palazzo Feinstein: the Mansion the War Bought? Aziz Haniffa Why India Should Choose Iran, Not the US: an Interview with Dr. Ajun Makhijani Benjamin Dangl Bolivian Human Rights Leader Barred from Entering the US Norman Solomon Mahatma Bush Mike Ferner Seven Arrested at White House Antiwar Protest Sharon Smith Racism Thrives Website of the Day Creek Running North   February 27, 2006 Buncombe / Cockburn And Now Come the Death Squads Paul Craig Roberts Twilight of the Hegemony Ingmar Lee Bush Mired in India's Nuclear Fallout: the Smiling Buddha Blast Ron Jacobs Death Squads, Shrine Bombs, Civil War: Iraq Going According to the Plan? Dave Lindorff Bush's Bunker Days Pat Wolff Sleeper Cells in South Dakota? The State of Mandatory Motherhood Lila Rajiva Double Standards on Foreign Owners: Amdocs vs. DP World Website of the Day Get Ya Hustle On!   February 25 / 26, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Quail in War and Peace Lila Rajiva Chertoff Strikes Again Lee Sustar Target: Iran Jennifer Van Bergen / Madis Senner The Case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Justin E.H. Smith David Horowitz's Odd Gripe Paul Craig Roberts Bush Hides Behind Supply-Side Economics to Reward His Cronies Jason Leopold Cheney Exposed?: New Emails in Plame Case Point to Veep's Role Gilad Atzmon In Support of My Mayor Zahid Shariff What's Going On in Pakistan? Fred Gardner Investigating Dr. Denney Dick J. Reavis What the UAE / Seaports Deal Teaches Us David Stocker Snow Job: the Privatization of US Ports John Bomar Losing on Every Front Mike Marqusee The Marchers Were Right Pratyush Chandra Bush's Passage to India Ben Tripp Rewriting History Dr. Susan Block Life, Death and Cartoons Poets' Basement Landau, Guthrie, LaMorticella, Engel and Mazza Website of the Weekend Toward Freedom   February 24, 2006 Alan Maass War Crimes and Hunting Misdemeanors William S. Lind The Coming Fall of Pakistan Dave Lindorff Useless Democrats: a Whig's Worth of Difference? Pierre Tristam Iraq's Cambodian Jungle Meg Bannerji Bush's Port Deal: Who's the Dummy? Robert Jensen The Failures of Our First Amendment Successes Mark Engler How Costly is Too Costly?: Finding the Budgetary Tipping Point for Iraq Jennifer Loewenstein Watching the Dissolution of Palestine Website of the Day Katrina and the Failure of Black Leadership   February 23, 2006 Chet Richards Rumsfeld's New Model Military: Creating Stability or Insurgency? Jonathan Feldman Dubaigate Deconstructed Joshua Frank The Democrats' Pull Out Method: Another Election Year Stunt? Ron Jacobs Volunteers of America: the Politics of the Weather Underground Amira Hass Separate and Unequal: Forbidden to Go Home Together Samah Sabawi Hamas and the Missing Video: Editorial Delusions at the Globe and Mail Norman Solomon The Unreal Death of Journalism Christopher Reed Japan's Neo-Militarists Website of the Day Is the Pentagon Making an Anthrax Bomb in Utah?   February 22, 2006 Robert Pollin Reaganomics Revisited: Beyond the Glow of Nostalgia Phil Doe How to Pay for War and Cut Taxes for the Rich: Sell Off the Public Lands Pirouz Azadi Looking Middle Eastern? You are a Prime Suspect Saul Landau Memo to the Dems: Doesn Anyone Give a Damn? Brian McKinlay Howard's End?: Trouble Down Under Sam Smith Real Holocaust Denial Niranjan Ramakrishnan Could You Please Pass the Port? Diane Farsetta The Pentagon's Media Contracts: the Wages of Spin Website of the Day Port of No Return: Bin Laden, the Taliban and the UAE   February 21, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Would Someone Please Interfere in Our Elections? Franklin Spinney Arab Democracy American-Style: Or How to Lose a 4th Generation War Dave Lindorff Chasing Cheney in the Ambulance Alevtina Rea Ethics, Morals and Empire Bruce K. Gagnon The Dems' Latest Stall Strategy: "Strategic Redeployment" Dave Zirin Whiteblindness: the Winter Olympics, Bryant Gumbel and Racism at ESPN Bill Quigley Six Months After Katrina: Who Was Left Behind Then? Who is Being Left Behind Now? Website of the Day Soldiers and Students   February 20, 2006 Jennifer Van Bergen The Perversions of the Bush Administration: Sexual Humiliation and Mother Murder in the War on Terror Rachard Itani The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard Does Abu Ghraib Gideon Levy A Chilling Heartlessness Joshua Frank Cindy Sheehan's Message to the Democrats Newton Garver The Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Evo Morales Pratyush Chandra What the US Ambassador Taught Nepalis Seth Sandronsky Bubblicious: the US Real Estate Market Cockburn / St. Clair The FBI and the Myth of Fingerprints Website of the Day Chickenhawks Hall of Shame   February 18 / 19, 2006 Werther A Half-Dozen Questions About 9/11 They Don't Want You to Ask Uzma Aslam Khan Live from Lahore: Watching with Glee Joe DeRaymond A Case of Injustice in Pennsylvania: the Prosecution of Dennis Counterman Edward F. Mooney Is Liberalism a Failing Religion? The Case of the Danish Cartoons Paul Craig Roberts From Conservatives to Brownshirts Elaine Cassel The Sentencing of Zacarias Moussaoui: an Issue of Competency P. Sainath Soaring Suicides in Vidharbha Thomas P. Healy An Interview with Ann Wright Brian Concannon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Right Result; Wrong Procedure Fred Gardner Health Savings Accounts: a Boon for the Bosses Rep. Cynthia McKinney Katrina's New Underclass Brian Tokar WTO vs. Europe: Less (and More) Than It Seems Chan Chee Khoon Privatizing the World Bank? Andrew Freedman Chicago's Panopticon St. Clair / Walker Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Poets' Basement Hassen, Anderson, Engel and Guthrie Website of the Weekend Depictionary   February 17, 2006 Floyd Rudmin Secret War Plans and the Malady of American Militarism Gervasio Rodríguez FBI Home Invasions in Puerto Rico Gary Leupp The Mad is No Longer Out of the Question: Stopping the War on Iran Before It Starts Ramzy Baroud Weathering the Globalization Storm Amira Hass Apartheid Gates: IDF Establishes "Israeli Only" Crossings Matthew Koehler Forest Abuse on the Kootenai: an Intervention in Montana Niranjan Ramakrishnan Deadeye Dick: Who Dares Call Him Chickenhawk Now? Debbie Nathan ABC's Primetime "Teen Sex Slaves" Scam Website of the Day Black Mesa Defense   Febrauary 16, 2006 Lila Rajiva Torture Pictures That Didn't Make the Exhibition Norman Solomon Dick Cheney's Fox Trot Ron Jacobs An Interview with Antiwar Faster Mike Ferner Paul Craig Roberts Their Own Economic Reality Website of the Day This Ain't No Video Game February 15, 2006 Brian Conacnnon, Jr. Haiti's Elections: Chaos, Supression and Fraud Dave Lindorff Democrats Shoot Their Own, Too Saree Makdisi Israeli Ultimatums Joshua Frank The Rhetorical Gore Amira Hass Down the Expulsion Highway CounterPunch Wire Winter of Discontent: a 34-Day Fast Against the War Robert Bryce The United States of Enron Website of the Day Osama's Game: an Interview with Michael Scheuer February 14, 2006 John Sugg Those Cartoons and the Neo Con: Daniel Pipes and the Danish Editor Don Santina DiFi and the Royal Democrats: the Curious Withdrawal of Cindy Sheehan William A. Cook Shaming Sharon Ray McGovern Who Will Blow the Whistle About Iran? John Ross Bush's Mexican Poodle Website of the Day Willie Nelson Records CPer Ned Sublette's "Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly" February 13, 2006 Lila Rajiva Axis of Child Abusers: UK Troops Beat Up Barefoot Iraqi Teens Christopher Brauchli Whistleblowers and Witch Hunters: the Bush Inquisition Dave Lindorff Deadeye Dick: If Stupidity Were Impeachable, Cheney Would Be History Ron Jacobs Black Liberation Mike Whitney Riding High with Hugo Chavez Michael Neumann Respectful Cultures and Disrespectful Cartoons Website of the Day Virtual Resistance   February 11 / 12, 2006 Alexander Cockburn How Not to Spot a Terrorist Ralph Nader Bringing Democracy to the Federal Reserve Paul Craig Roberts Nuking the Economy Pat Williams John Boehner's Dirty Little Secret: Flying Lobbyist Air at $4,000 a Junket Fred Gardner Dr. Mikuriya's Appeal: a Last Minute Twist Saul Landau From Munich to Hamas John Chuckman Cartoons and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once? Roger Burbach Evo Morales: the Early Days Seth Sandronsky Economy on Ice Website of the Weekend Just Say Know   February 10, 2006 Carl G. Estabrook A US War Plan for Khuzestan? Sen. Russell Feingold A Raw Deal on the Patriot Act Roxanne Dunbar----Ortiz How Did Evo Morales Come to Power? Saree Makdisi The Tempest Over the Hamas Charter Website of the Day The New York Art Scene: 1974----1984     February 9, 2006 Dave Lindorff Bush and Yamashita: War Crimes and Commanders-in-Chief Mike Marqusee The Human Majority was Right About Iraq Paul Craig Roberts How Conservatives Went Crazy: the Rightwing Press Peter Phillips Inside the Global Dominance Group: 200 Insiders Against the World William S. Lind Rumsfeld the Maximalist: the Long War Christine Tomlinson Innocent Targets in the "Long War": False Positives and Bush's Eavesdropping Program Will Youmans Church of England Votes to Divest from Israel Robert Robideau An American Indian's View of the Cartoons Richard Neville The Cartoons That Shook the World: All This from the Danes, the Least Funny People on Earth Peter Rost The New Robber Barons Website of the Day Eyes Wide Open   February 8, 2006 Ron Jacobs The Once and Future Sly Stone: Soundtrack to a Riot Stan Cox Making and Unmaking History with General Myers Sen. Russ Feingold Why Bush's Wiretapping Program is Illegal and Unconstitutional Robert Jensen Horowitz's Academic Hit List: Take a Class from One of the CounterPunch 16 Rep. Cynthia McKinney Bush Should Have Wiretapped FEMA and Chertoff Niranjan Ramakrishnan Alberto Gonzales Channels Mark Twain Don Monkerud Covenant Marriage on the Rocks David Swanson Inequality and War C.L. Cook Nuking Ontario Christopher Fons Chill Out Jihadis: They're Just Cartoons! Jeffrey Ballinger The Other Side of Nike and Social Responsibility Website of the Day Encyclopedia of Terrorism in the Americas   February 7, 2006 Edward Lucie-Smith An Urgent Plea to Save a Small Estonian Museum from Neo-Nazis Robert Fisk The Fury: Now Lebanon is Burning Paul Craig Roberts Colin Powell's Career as a "Yes Man" Neve Gordon Why Hamas Won Joshua Frank The Hillary and George Show: Partners in War Peter Montague The Problem with Mercury: a History of Regulatory Capitulation Jackie Corr The Last Best Choice: Public Power and Montana Jeffrey St. Clair Rumsfeld's Enforcer: the Secret World of Stephen Cambone Website of the Day Negroes with Guns   February 6, 2006 Christopher Brauchli Spilling Blood: Two Sentences Robert Fisk Don't Be Fooled: This Isn't About Islam vs. Secularism John Chuckman What Did Stephen Harper Actually Win? Jenna Orkin Judge Slams EPA for Lying About 9/11's Toxic Air Paul Craig Roberts Who Will Save America: My Epiphany   February 4 / 5, 2006 Alexander Cockburn "Lights Out in Tehran": McCain Starts Bombing Run Mike Ferner Pentagon Database Leaves No Kid Alone James Petras Evo Morales's Cabinet: a Bizarre Beginning in Bolivia Alan Maass Scare of the Union: Dems Collaborate with Bush on Surveillance Fred Gardner Annals of Law Enforcement: a Look Inside the San Francisco DA's Office Ralph Nader Bush's Energy Escapades Bill Glahn RIAA Watch: Speaking in Tongues Saul Landau Freedom 2006: Buying Sex on the Net or Those Older Freedoms? Laura Carlsen Bad Blood on the Border: Killing Guillermo Martinez James Brooks Our Little Shop of Diplomatic Horrors Mike Roselle Hippies and Revolutionaries in Carcacas John Holt Black Gold, Black Death: Canada's Oil Sands Frenzy Sarah Ferguson Cops Suing Cops ... for Spying on Cops William S. Lind Beware the Ides of March Niranjan Ramakrishnan The Price of Globalization: Free Trade or Free Speech? Seth Sandronsky The Color of Job Cuts in the Auto Industry Derrick O'Keefe Rumsfeld's Hitler Analogy Michael Donnelly Hop on the Bus Ron Jacobs Religion and Political Power Elisa Salasin RSVP to Bush St. Clair / Vest Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week Stew Albert God's Curse: Selected Poems Poets' Basement Guthrie, LaMorticella and Engel Website of the Weekend Killer Tells All!   February 3, 2006 Toufic Haddad A Parliament of Prisoners Heather Gray Working with Coretta Scott King Tim Wise Racism, Neo-Confederacy and the Raising of Historical Illiterates Conn Hallinan Nuclear Proliferation: the Gathering Storm Eva Golinger Rumsfeld and Negroponte Amp Up Hositility Toward Venezuela Daniel Ellsberg The World Can't Wait: Invitation to a Demonstration Dave Zirin Detroit: Super Bowl City on the Brink Robert Bryce The Problem with Cutting US Oil Imports from the Middle East Website of the Day The Chavez Code   February 2, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Pentagon Pork: How to Eliminate It Stan Cox Outsourcing the Golden Years Rachard Itani Danes (Finally) Apologize to Muslims (For the Wrong Reasons) Mike Whitney Afghanistan Five Years Later: Buildings Down, Heroin Up Amira Hass In the Footsteps of Arafat: an Interview with Hamas' Ismail Haniya Norman Solomon When Praise is Desecration: Smothering King's Legacy with Kind Words Michael Simmons Stew Lives! Christopher Reed Japan's Dirty Secret: One Million Korean Slaves Website of the Day State of Nature   February 1, 2006 Sharon Smith The Bluff and Bluster Dems: Alito and the Faux Filibuster Jason Leopold Enron and the Bush Administration Cindy Sheehan Getting Busted at the State of the Union: What Really Happened Joseph Grosso Oprah and Elie Wiesel: a Match Made in "Neutrality" Earl Ofari Hutchinson Coretta Scott King was More Than Just Dr. King's Wife Steven Higgs Life After Roe. v. Wade Robert Robideau "God Given Rights": Palestine and Native America R. Siddharth Tales of Power: When Gandhi Rejected a Faustian Bargain with Henry Ford Jim Retherford Remembering Stew Albert: the Quiet Genius Rep. Cynthia McKinney The Legacy of Coretta Scott King Paul Craig Roberts The True State of the Union Website of the Day Candide's Notebooks     Subscribe Online

March 23, 2006 More Billions, Less Secure Bush's Pro-Terrorism Budget By CHARLES V. PEÑA President Bush proposed a record $439.3 defense budget for fiscal year 2007, almost $30 billion more than current defense spending and not including funding for ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But other than funding to increase the size of Special Forces, expand language skills, and buy more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) ­ about $7 billion total and about 1.5 percent of the overall budget ­ most of the rest of defense spending is unrelated to the one real threat to America: radical Islamic terrorism represented by al Qaeda. Since the end of the Cold War the United States has been in a unique geostrategic position. We have friendly neighbors to the north and south, and vast moats to the east and west. Given that no other country in the world has significant global power projection capability, America is relatively safe from a military invasion. And the vast U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal is a powerful deterrent against any country with nuclear weapons ­ even rogue states with long-range ballistic missiles. The United States no longer faces a serious military challenger or global hegemonic threat. And the U.S. military is, by far and away, the most dominant military force on the planet. Russia comes closest to having the capability to be a military threat to us, but instead of being a menace, now has observer status with NATO and, despite having more main battle tanks than the U.S. Army, is no longer a threat to sweep through the Fulda Gap to seize Western Europe. Certainly, Chinese military developments bear watching and although many see China as the next great threat, even if China modernizes and expands its strategic nuclear force, the United States will retain a credible nuclear deterrent with an overwhelming advantage in warheads, launchers, and variety of delivery vehicles. Moreover, China does not possess the sea- or air-lift to project its military power to threaten the U.S. homeland. If Russia and China are not serious threats to the United States, so-called rogue states ­ such as North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Cuba ­ are even less of a problem. These countries are unfriendly to us, but none have any real military capability to threaten vital American security interests or the U.S. homeland. The United States can afford to spend less on defense and still be secure. A smaller U.S. military would be highly capable relative to the other militaries of the world. Even if U.S. forces were downsized and pulled back from their current forward deployments, the United States could still project power if vital U.S. security interests were at risk. Although it is counterintuitive, forward deployment does not significantly enhance the U.S. military's ability to fight wars. Both Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom were conducted without significant forces already deployed in either theater of operations. Yet military operations against the Taliban regime commenced less than a month after the Sept. 11 2001, attacks and U.S. forces swept away the conventional Iraqi military in less than four weeks. The real threat to the United States no longer consists of nation states, but the terrorist threat represented by al Qaeda, which is relatively undeterred by the U.S. military. Indeed, an expansive defense perimeter and some 250,000 forward deployed forces around the world did not stop 19 hijackers from attacking the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.. And U.S. forces abroad ­ particularly those deployed in Muslim countries ­ do more to exacerbate the terrorist threat than diminish it. For example, the presence of 5,000 U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia after the 1991 Gulf War was one of Osama bin Laden's consistently stated reasons for engaging in terrorism against the United States, including the Sept. 11 attacks. Ultimately, larger defense budgets are both unnecessary and unwise because they do not target the al Qaeda terrorist threat. Most current defense spending is for two purposes: first, to maintain a large U.S. military presence deployed to all four corners of the globe (even before Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom), and second, to procure weapon systems for conventional warfare, such as the F-22 air to air fighter, F/A-18E/F fighter-bomber, V-22 tilt-rotor transport aircraft, Virginia class attack submarines, and DD(X) destroyers that are not needed to counter the few military threats the United States might actually have to face. In the end, having such a large and apparently overwhelming military results in the Madeleine Albright syndrome. It was she who told Republicans in the early 1990s, "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?" Our overwhelmingly dominant forces constitute a temptation for policymakers to enter into highly dubious, if not unnecessary, military interventions. Those, in turn, are a primary motivation for the terrorist threats to the United States. We may be spending more on defense, but we are actually less secure. Charles V. Peña is an adviser on the Straus Military Reform Project, senior fellow with the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy, analyst for MSNBC television, and author of the forthcoming (April 2006) Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism (Potomac Books).

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