Category: Middle East

Middle East Overview

Don’t Blame the Iraq Debacle on the Israel Lobby

Posted on

Santa Cruz Sentinel March 29, 2013 | UPDATED: Sept. 11, 2018
[Republished by Foreign Policy In Focus/Institute for Policy Studies and Truthout] This month’s 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq raised the question  why the U.S. made such a tragic choice. As many of us argued in the lead-up to the war, claims that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” the Iraqi government had operational ties to al-Qaida were false. Similarly, the corrupt and repressive sectarian government the U.S. helped establish in Baghdad has undermined any pretense the war was about promoting democracy.

10 years after the Iraq invasion, Washington still hasn’t learned

Posted on

National Catholic Reporter, March 27, 2013
   This month marks the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which has resulted in the deaths of up to half a million Iraqis, mostly civilians, and the displacement of millions of others. Sectarian and ethnic tensions remain high and violence and terrorism — despite being less pervasive than a few years ago — are endemic. The current Iraqi government is notoriously corrupt and repressive, guilty of widespread torture and extrajudicial killings of opponents. A whole new generation of Islamist terrorists radicalized by the invasion and insurgency is now active worldwide. Almost 4,500 Americans were killed and thousands more received serious physical and emotional injuries…

Democrats Share the Blame for Tragedy of Iraq War

Posted on

Truthout.org March 17, 2013: On this tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, it is important to remember the 4,500 Americans killed, the far larger number permanently wounded, the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed and millions maimed or displaced, the trillion dollars of US taxpayers’ money squandered (and the resulting cutbacks through sequestration), the continued costs of the war through veterans’ benefits and interest on the national debt, and the anti-American extremism in reaction to the invasion and occupation which has spread. All could have been avoided if the Democratic-controlled Senate hadn’t voted to authorize this illegal and unnecessary war and occupation.

The Arab Spring, Two Years Later (video)

Posted on

March 12, 2013: DU Center for Middle East Studies Professor Stephen Zunes discusses the current state of the Arab world in the wake of the 2011 uprisings, the strength and successes of non-violent sociopolitical movements in the region, and the corresponding shifts now required of U.S. foreign policy. [YouTube link]

Supporting Nonviolence in Syria

Posted on

Foreign Policy December 20, 2012, by Stephen Zunes
[Also at Truthout.org and International Center for Nonviolent Conflict]
While a growing number of people are calling for increased military aid to armed insurgents or even direct military intervention, as the French government has said it will consider, to support the armed opposition would likely exacerbate the Syrian people’s suffering and appear to validate the tragic miscalculation by parts of the Syrian opposition to supplant their bold and impressive nonviolent civil insurrection with an armed insurgency…

The No State Solution (video)

Posted on

Alternative Focus video September 10, 2012
   The No State Solution is the latest contribution from Alternate Focus to examine the Israeli-Palestine conflict. This 28-minute video first explores political barriers to any solution, and then possible resolutions. The video features interviews with Dr. Stephen Zunes (Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco), Miko Peled (author of “The General’s Son”), and Jeff Warner (Jewish peace activist in Los Angeles and author of this review), interleaved with the filmmakers narrative are abundant modern and archival clips… [Also at YouTube]

U.S. policy at U.N. hurts prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace

Posted on

Full Article. [Source is no longer available. Related links].
Up until the mid-20th century, the time at which nonwhite, non-Western nations could be free, their specific boundaries and the conditions of their independence could only be gained through negotiations between the colonial occupiers and approved representatives of the conquered peoples. It was not the purview of the UN or any other international legal authority to adjudicate such matters, since the rights of those in the colonies were limited to what was willingly agreed to by the colonizers.

Can U.S. Citizens End Israel’s Legal Impunity?

Posted on

YES! Magazine November 21, 2012. Republished by Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Common Dreams, Transcend.org and Transnational.org: The great wish of the early Zionist leader Theodor Herzl was that Israel would be treated like “any other state.” Were that the case, there might be more rational and productive discourse regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is particularly critical in light of Israel launching yet another devastating attack against civilian-populated areas.

Interview: On Foreign Policy Debate; Yifat Susskind on Iraq War’s Toxic Legacy (audio)

Posted on

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.