Uprising Radio October 29, 2012: Government forces in Syria today launched their heaviest air strikes yet during the 19-month-long conflict… A tenuous ceasefire, Eid was violated from the very first day… At least 30,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict that has been now officially described as a “full-blown civil war.” A seriously fractured opposition is seen as one major stumbling block in efforts to efficiently counter the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad.
Month: October 2012
Interview: On Foreign Policy Debate; Yifat Susskind on Iraq War’s Toxic Legacy (audio)
Counterspin October 26, 2012 [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting; Zunes’s segment begins at 11 mins.]
The final presidential debate, addressing international issues, managed to promote several falsehoods about U.S. foreign policy. No, the Iranian president never said he wanted Israel “wiped off the map,” and the U.S. did not treat South Africa’s racist apartheid rulers badly…. In other words, the debate was inline with how media and the candidates have treated foreign policy throughout the campaign. Also on CounterSpin today: The toxic legacy of the Iraq War. See also Obama, Romney and the Foreign Policy Debate, Foreign Policy in Focus, 10/23/12.
Obama, Romney, and the Foreign Policy Debate
Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies October 23, 2012 [Republished by Huffington Post, Transnational.org]
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the third and final presidential debate of the 2012 campaign was the similarity between the two candidates on many basic foreign policy issues… Both candidates agree on American exceptionalism…
Remembering George McGovern
Truthout October 22, 2012. Also see Zunes’ article in Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies and 1993 interview with McGovern in The Progressive.
Getting to know George McGovern – who died Sunday morning at age 90 – as a friend, collaborator, co-author and co-teacher has been among my proudest, and most fulfilling experiences. As a 15-year-old high school sophomore, I volunteered for his 1972 presidential campaign. McGovern won my county (one of the few in the South that went Democratic that year), but lost the state and the nation in a near-record landslide, thanks in large part to attacks by the right wing of the Democratic Party during the primaries and the dirty tricks by the campaign of incumbent President Richard Nixon during the fall campaign. These illegal acts, along with the resulting cover-ups, eventually led to impeachment procedures that forced Nixon’s resignation…
The ongoing attack on democracy in the Maldives
OpenDemocracy.net, October 11, 2012: Republished by Common Dreams
Western powers which profess to support democratic and accountable governance need to act decisively to prevent this Muslim nation, whose protracted nonviolent freedom struggle was an important precursor for the Arab Spring, to continue its slide back into authoritarianism…