Foreign Policy In Focus/IPS & International Center
for Nonviolent Action, March 31, 2005
By Stephen Zunes [source]
You probably didn’t notice, but February 20 was Nonviolent Resistance Day. One might think this would be cause for celebration by an administration committed to expanding freedom and democracy. But there weren’t any special ceremonies at the White House or resolutions in Congress. For despite all the rhetoric lauding freedom and democracy, the U.S. government has rarely supported, and has often opposed, nonviolent movements working for democratic change…
Month: March 2005
Crediting Bush for Growing Lebanese Demands for Freedom Misplaced
Foreign Policy In Focus/IPS March 22, 2005 &
Antiwar.com, March 26, 2005 By Stephen Zunes [source]
In a mirror image of those who blame everything wrong in the world on President George W. Bush, a surprising number of people are now giving him credit for the recent show of force by hundreds of thousands of Lebanese protestors demanding an end to Syria’s overbearing influence in their country. It is extremely doubtful that the U.S. invasion of Iraq has had anything to do with the inspirational “people power” demonstrations in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Many leading members of the Lebanese opposition–such as the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination prompted the recent wave of anti-Syrian protests–were outspoken opponents of U.S. policy in the region, including the invasion of Iraq…
Iraq: Two Years Later
Foreign Policy In Focus/IPS October 2, 2005,
By Erik Leaver, Stephen Zunes [source]
In a series of articles written between June 2002 and February 2003, I predicted that if the United States invaded Iraq, it was highly unlikely that we would find any of the weapons of mass destruction or WMD programs that the Bush administration and the congressional leadership of both parties claimed Iraq possessed in their effort to justify an American takeover of that oil-rich country. I also predicted that no operational links between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaida would be found and that a U.S. invasion would encourage terrorism rather than discourage it. Finally, I predicted that we could find ourselves virtually isolated in the international community facing a bloody counter-insurgency war with no end in sight….