Truthout October 10, 2019: Trump’s decision to give a green light for a Turkish invasion of Kurdish-populated regions of northern Syria has faced swift bipartisan opposition… following a conversation with authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (one of a number of autocratic leaders with whom Trump has developed a close relationship)…
Category: Trump
Trump Foreign Policy
Trump’s Threats towards Iran Aren’t Working. Here’s Why.
The Progressive, July 17, 2019: The Trump Administration has imposed sanctions against more than 1,000 Iranian entities… But recently it reversed course, backing off its threat to sanction a top Iranian diplomat in response to concerns it would foreclose any diplomatic recourse…
Also Dr. Zunes’ interview July 22, 2019 on KBOO
US Conflict with Iran: an anti-imperialist analysis
The Threat of War with Iran
The Progressive, May 15, 2019: The White House has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group off the coast of Iran and a fleet of bombers have flown to U.S. air bases near that country, while preliminary plans are apparently underway to send 120,000 U.S. troops to the region…
Trump’s Controversial Decision on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
The Progressive, April 10, 2019: There is little question that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is bad news. Some of its units have engaged in severe repression of nonviolent dissidents, supported Assad’s brutal counter-insurgency operations in Syria, backed hardline Islamist militia in several foreign countries, and more…
U.S. Recognition of Israel’s Golan Annexation a Threat to World Order
March 25, 2019 in The Progrssive, AntiWar.com and Common Dreams: Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s illegal annexation of the Golan Heights—Syrian territory seized in the June 1967 war—marks a serious violation of fundamental principles of international law…
Politicians Are Not Going to Hold Saudi Arabia Accountable
Sojourners January 2019: Despite manifold horrors inflicted by the Saudi regime over the years, it was not until the grisly murder of a well-connected exiled journalist in early October that public attention has finally been given to the monarchy’s savagery…
Despite Everything, U.S. Troops Should Leave Syria
Z Network, January 4, 2019: Donald Trump’s sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey’s autocratic president Recep Erdogan. That doesn’t mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country…
The Day Dreamers Show Topic: USA Policy Towards Israel and Palestine
Under Trump U.S. Contempt for International Law Intensifies
Truthout, June 5, 2018, by Stephen Zunes:
What is Gaza’s hope for the future after the fallout over the US embassy move and the Iran deal exit?
Pompeo’s Iran Speech a Prelude to War?
The Progressive, May 23, 2018: The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s speech targeting Iran may have created a new benchmark for hypocritical, arrogant, and entitled demands by the U.S. on foreign governments…
Trump’s Dangerous Abrogation of the Iran Deal
The Progressive, May 9, 2018: Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the U.S.—strikes a dangerous blow against arms control and international security and more firmly establishes the U.S. as a rogue nation.
Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Atrocities
The Progressive April 11, 2018: The repeated use of these horrific and illegal weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive regime deserves a strong international response. Unfortunately, given its history of politicizing the issue, the U.S. is in no position to lead…
Mike Pompeo: Trump Is Handing the State Department Over from Exxon Mobil to the Tea Party
In These Times March 14, 2024: President Trump abruptly fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo [who] will only reinforce Trump’s most dangerous, reckless and militaristic instincts…
Trump’s Middle East Policy: The Ironies of Hawkishness
Al Jazeera Report March 8, 2024: Despite broken campaign promises, Trump has pursued reckless and militaristic policies, deepening U.S. military involvement, backing the Israeli colonization and annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories, deepening ties to Arab autocrats, and threatening war with Iran.
With ISIS In Retreat Why is the Syria War Expanding?
Rising Up with Sonali, February 14, 2018: Instead of the Syrian war winding down, there seems to be an escalation involving an ever-growing number of countries: Iran, Turkey, Russia, Israel, the U.S….
Both Parties Pushed Trump Toward Reckless Action on Jerusalem
[Full Article] Published in The Progressive, Huffington Post,
Common Dreams & Transcend Media Service:
President Trump’s plan to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. embassy there risks a violent and destabilizing reaction targeting U.S. interests globally. The 1947 UN partition plan was to divide Palestine between a Jewish and Arab state, with Jerusalem and surrounding areas designated as an international territory under U.N. administration. Instead–as a result of the first Arab-Israeli War–by 1949 Israel had annexed the western part of the area and Jordan the eastern part, but the international community refused to acknowledge either claim. Following the Israeli conquests of 1967, Israel annexed Palestinian-populated East Jerusalem and surrounding lands as well…
Why Democrats Don’t Want to Talk about Flynn’s First Meeting with the Russians
The Progressive and The Huffington Post December 5, 2017
Key points are rendered in this 5-minute video.
Trump’s Support for Punishing Qatar Is Misguided
The Progressive & Huffington Post June 16, 2017: The decision by the Saudis and allied dictatorships to sever ties with Qatar and impose draconian sanctions on the tiny nation has precipitated a major regional crisis, and President Trump’s support has made matters even worse.
Trump’s Dangerous and Cynical Attack on Syria
The Progressive & Huffington Post April 7, 2017: Trump’s proposed budget would make major cuts to programs that provided relief to Syrian refugees and has tried to bar any refugees from entering the U.S.