Huffington Post March 31, 2011
The decision by the US and its Western allies to intervene militarily against the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi may have averted a massacre, but it is fraught with serious risks of eventually costing even more lives. Furthermore, it could undermine the remarkable and overwhelmingly nonviolent pro-democracy movements which have been sweeping the Arab world in recent months…
Month: March 2011
Libya, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and Double Standards
Huffington Post March 28, 2011
Reasonable people can disagree on the appropriateness of the decision by the US and its NATO allies to attack Libya in the wake of the Gadaffi regime’s offensive against rebel-held cities under the doctrine of “the responsibility to protect” [yet] Even if one can justify the war on Libya on humanitarian grounds, this is probably not why it’s actually being fought. [Source].
Interview: Pro-Democracy Struggles in the Middle East (audio)
World Streams
Interview: Worldstreams.org (audio)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
[Former link was http://worldstreams.org/past135.html]
Obama’s Veto on Israeli Settlements Demonstrates Contempt for International Humanitarian Law
Huffington Post March 21, 2011
The US veto of a mildly worded UN Security Council resolution supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and reiterating the illegality of Israeli settlements in occupied territories leaves little doubt that… Obama shares his predecessor’s contempt for international law. All fourteen of the other members of the Security Council voted for the resolution — which was cosponsored by a nearly unprecedented majority of UN members…
Interview: Egypt and Middle East: Revolutions 2.0 (audio)
Audio Podcast of Dr. Zunes at the Commonwealth Club of California
Commonwealth Club of California, March 10, 2011
http://audio.commonwealthclub.org/audio/podcast/cc_20110310_inforum_egyptpanel.mp3
Pro-Democracy Protests Spread to Oman
Foreign Policy In Focus/Insitute for Policy Studies
March 7, 2011. Also in Eurasia Review and Huffington Post
Oman’s autocratic monarchy has long been one of the closest U.S. allies in the Middle East. And, as with authoritarian U.S. allies in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, and Yemen, a largely nonviolent, pro-democracy struggle has arisen in Oman as well. Protests began in the capital of Muscat on February 19 but soon spread…
Interview: A Force More Powerful (audio)
Of the more than 100 radio interviews I’ve done on the civilian insurrections in the Middle East over the past 6-8 weeks, this one – from Wisconsin Public Radio earlier this week – is probably the most salient. The entire 55- minute interview focuses on the power of nonviolent action (and includes audio clips from Gene Sharp, Mohandas Gandhi, and others.)
Source link and recording are no longer available. Find related links.
[Original source link was http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_110302k.cfm]
America Blows It on Bahrain
Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies March 2 & Alternet March 15, 2024
The Obama administration’s continued support of the autocratic monarchy in Bahrain, in the face of massive pro-democracy demonstrators, once again puts the U.S. behind the curve of the new political realities in the Middle East. For more than two weeks, a nonviolent sit-in and encampment by tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters has occupied the Pearl Roundabout. This traffic circle in Bahrain’s capital city of Manama – like Tahrir Square in Cairo – has long been the symbolic center of the city…