This House Would Fight for Democracy, Liberty & the Rule of Law Abroad, April 8, 2023 [11 mins., Prof. Stephen Zunes’ impassioned argument against John Bolton.]
Category: Iraq
Iraq
The Lingering Effects of Iraq War Lies
[The Progressive March 27, 2023] Twenty years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the country remains unstable, with one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional governments in the world…
Harry Reid’s Hawkish Foreign Policy
The death of former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid of Nevada has evoked praise for his parliamentary skills passing some critically important legislation and preventing passage of some seriously problematic bills. However, Reid not only failed to challenge dangerous Republican foreign policy initiatives that violated fundamental principles of international law and human rights, he was often among their most prominent supporters. [SOURCE]
Biden and Other Democrats Helped Colin Powell Spread George W. Bush’s Iraq Lies
While the death of former Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell has elicited praise-filled eulogies in the mainstream media and officials in Washington, many Americans still carry bitter feelings over Powell’s support for the illegal, unnecessary and predictably disastrous war in Iraq. In particular, critics cite his February 2003 speech before the UN Security Council in which he put forward a litany of demonstrably false statements in making the case that Iraq had compiled a dangerous arsenal of “weapons of mass destruction” and was actively supporting the al-Qaeda terrorist network. [FULL LINK]
WBAI: Colin Powell’s Legacy
18 October 2021: Item is no longer available. See
Biden and Other Democrats Helped then Secretary of State
Colin Powell Spread
George W. Bush’s Iraq Lies about WMDs.
WORT: 9/11 Anniversary
9 September 2021: Recording is no longer available.
[Find best related links.]
If Biden Wants to Protect Troops, He Should Bring Them Home — Not Bomb Syria
Truthout, March 2, 2021: The US has bombed Syria more than 20,000 times over the past eight years, so last week’s attack on a border post in northeastern Syria, which killed 22 militiamen and apparently no civilians, may not seem surprising to some… it is nevertheless disappointing that President Biden appears determined to continue the failed policies of his predecessors… Some members of Congress challenged Biden’s authority to order such an attack, which contravenes both international law and the US Constitution. [FULL LINK]
INTERVIEW: Biden’s Sponsorship of the Invasion of Iraq
The Scott Horton Show. Skip ahead to 29:30 for Zunes’ segment.
Biden advocated for the invasion of Iraq in 2002 and 2003 [as] chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with a Democratic-majority congress [and] probably could have stopped the war single-handedly.
Worth the Price? Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War
Joe Biden and the Launch of the Iraq War is a documentary short reviewing the role of then-Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) in leading the U.S. into the most devastating foreign policy blunder of the last 20 years. This 19-Minute documentary features observations by Dr. Stephen Zunes
[from minute 4:00-5:30; Posted Feb 21, 2020 by Mark Weisbrot.]
Interview: Today’s US-Iran Crisis Is Rooted in the Decision to Invade Iraq
Truthout January 20, 2020 also at ScottHorton.org
The ramifications of the illegal, unnecessary and predictably tragic U.S. decision to invade Iraq are still with us. This includes the ongoing crisis with Iran, which brought us perilously close to all-out war in early January, resulted in the tragic downing of a civilian airliner and remains in a hair-trigger situation. [FULL LINK]
Interview: Proof that Soleimani killed hundreds of Americans is “groundless”
Biden’s Support of Iraq War Shows How He Would Run the White House
Truthout & OpEd News.org: [Biden] supported Bush’s decision to invade even after inspectors found no “weapons of mass destruction”… that says much about the kind of president he’d be…
Biden Has Defended US Allies’ Use of Lethal Force Against Civilians
Truthout November 4, 2019: Abu Hijleh and Saada were just two of scores of Palestinian activists murdered by Israeli assassins in the early 2000s…
This Isn’t the First Time the US Has Abandoned the Kurds
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)…
Biden Is Doubling Down on Iraq War Lies
Truthout & AntiWar.com, August 8 & 10, 2019: Biden has a long history of inaccurate claims regarding that oil-rich country… as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he insisted Iraq somehow reconstituted a vast arsenal of chemical and biological weapons, a nuclear weapons program and sophisticated delivery systems that had long since been eliminated…
The Other Reason Biden Shouldn’t Run
The Progressive, April 22, 2019: As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002, Biden stated that Saddam Hussein had a sizable arsenal of chemical weapons as well as biological weapons, including anthrax, and that “he may have a strain” of smallpox, despite UN inspectors reporting that Iraq no longer appeared to have any weaponized chemical or biological agents…
History Shows Hypocrisy of US Outrage Over Chemical Weapons in Syria
Truthout April 24, 2018: There are serious legal and strategic concerns regarding the decision by the U.S., along with France and Great Britain, to bomb Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma…
Possible Iraqi retaliation to Trump immigration restrictions
We Know They Lied about Iraq’s WMDs, but It Gets Worse
The Progressive July 13, 2016: The thousands of American casualties, trillions of dollars of expenditures, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties, and the rise of sectarianism, terrorism, Islamist extremism, and the other negative consequences have been disastrous. But even worse, even if Iraq really did have the proscribed “WMDs”, delivery systems, and weapons programs, the war would have still been illegal and unnecessary. Here’s why…