Category: Iraq

Iraq

Harry Reid’s Hawkish Foreign Policy

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The Progressive Jan. 3, 2022, by Stephen Zunes [source]
The death of former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada has evoked praise for his parliamentary skills passing some critically important legislation and preventing passage of some seriously problematic bills. However, Reid not only failed to challenge dangerous Republican foreign policy initiatives that violated fundamental principles of international law and human rights, he was often among their most prominent supporters.

Biden and Other Democrats Helped Colin Powell Spread George W. Bush’s Iraq Lies

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Truthout, Oct. 19, 2021, by Stephen Zunes [source]
While the death of former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell has elicited praise-filled eulogies in the mainstream media and officials in Washington, many Americans still carry bitter feelings over Powell’s support for the illegal, unnecessary and predictably disastrous war in Iraq. In particular, critics cite his February 2003 speech before the UN Security Council in which he put forward a litany of demonstrably false statements in making the case that Iraq had compiled a dangerous arsenal of “weapons of mass destruction” and was actively supporting the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

If Biden Wants to Protect Troops, He Should Bring Them Home — Not Bomb Syria

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Truthout, March 2, 2021, by Stephen Zunes [source]
The US has bombed Syria more than 20,000 times over the past eight years, so last week’s attack on a border post in northeastern Syria, which killed 22 militiamen and apparently no civilians, may not seem surprising to some… it is nevertheless disappointing that President Biden appears determined to continue the failed policies of his predecessors… Some members of Congress challenged Biden’s authority to order such an attack, which contravenes both international law and the US Constitution.

INTERVIEW: Biden’s Sponsorship of the Invasion of Iraq

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The Scott Horton Show, Mar 12, 2020
[Skip ahead to 29:30 for Zunes’ segment]
Stephen Zunes talks about Joe Biden’s shameful history helping to advocate for the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003. These days he claims he was caught up in the aftermath of 9/11 and was simply mistaken about the intelligence, like everyone else who voted for the war. But Zunes reminds us that Biden was chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at that time, with a Democratic-majority congress. With his influence, he probably could have stopped the war singlehandedly. If that weren’t enough, Zunes says that Biden was actually advocating “boots on the ground” to depose Saddam Hussein before 9/11. On this issue alone, Biden should be disqualified from the presidency…

We Know They Lied about Iraq’s WMDs, but It Gets Worse

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The Progressive July 13, 2016: The thousands of American casualties, trillions of dollars of expenditures, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties, and the rise of sectarianism, terrorism, Islamist extremism, and the other negative consequences have been disastrous. But even worse, even if Iraq really did have the proscribed “WMDs”, delivery systems, and weapons programs, the war would have still been illegal and unnecessary. Here’s why…