Embassy Protests and Middle East Unrest in Context

Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies September 17, 2012
Republished by: Arthurs Peace Blog, Eurasia Review, Huffington Post, Middle East Spectator, Transnational.org
It seems bizarre… some media pundits are criticizing Arabs as being “ungrateful” for U.S. support of pro-democracy movements when, in reality, the U.S. initially opposed the popular movements that deposed Western-backed despots in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, and remains a preeminent backer of dictatorships in the region today…

Occupy fizzled, but made 99% a force

CNN September 17, 2012 | Updated Nov 18, 2012
Republished by Huffington Post, LittleGreenFootballs.com,
Hartford Business, Occupy Feeds, Transnational.org

Until last year, mainstream political discourse did not include nearly as much emphasis on such populist concerns as rising income inequality, tax policies that favor the rich, growing influence by large corporate interests in elections and the reckless deregulation of financial institutions that resulted in the 2008 crisis [that] still impact 99% of Americans.

The Case Against War: Ten Years Later

Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies
Republished by: Common Dreams, Transnational.org,
The American Bear and Promised Land Museum
Ten years ago, I wrote a series of articles for the Foreign Policy in Focus website in which I put forth a series of arguments against the Bush administration’s push for a U.S. invasion of Iraq prior to the fateful congressional vote authorizing the illegal, unnecessary, and ultimately disastrous war. At the request of the editors of The Nation – the oldest continually published weekly magazine in the United States – I wrote a version entitled “The Case Against War,” which appeared on their website September 12, 2002 and as the cover story of the September 30 issue. It became one of the most widely circulated articles in the magazine’s 147-year old history. Every congressional office received multiple copies. In the articles, I correctly predicted that an invasion would result in sectarian violence, terrorism, Islamist extremism, and a bloody counterinsurgency war that would be the most elaborate and expensive deployment of U.S. forces since the Second World War…”

Democratic Leaders Undermine Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Their Own Procedures

Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, Sept. 6, 2012.
Republished by Antiwar.com, Reddit and Transnational.org
In a stunning violation of its own rules, the wishes of the majority of delegates at its national convention, and positions taken by the UN and virtually every other country, Democratic Party leadership pushed through a platform amendment with barely half the delegates present and  allowing for no discussion or debate, stating Jerusalem “is and will remain the capital of Israel” and should be “undivided.”