The Progressive, January 6, 2026 and republished by Common Dreams as,
Until Democrats Confront the Lawlessness of Trump’s Venezuela Assault, Expect More War.
The U.S. attack resulted from having an incredibly corrupt and autocratic-minded President using his office to enrich himself and his supporters, deploying the country’s armed forces against his own citizens, abusing the justice system to punish political opponents, and manipulating the electoral process to try to stay in power. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has engaged in similar behavior as well…
Category: Cost of War
Interview: Monroe Doctrine Rises Again
WORT FM, Madison, January 8, 2026 (48-min):
The Monroe Doctrine Rises Again in Venezuela.
Host Allen Ruff and Professor Stephen Zunes discuss his recent article in The Progressive, “The Real Reason Trump Invaded Venezuela: It’s not drugs, democracy, or even oil. It’s power.” Zunes puts the Trump administration’s lies — calling Maduro a narco-terrorist despite that no fentanyl comes from Venezuela, that Maduro stole “our oil” despite Venezuela nationalizing its oil in the 1970s, and more — in the context of international law, the Monroe Doctrine, Venezuelan opposition to Maduro, and the US military’s recent boat-bombing campaign. He says the US will control all Venezuelan oil for the foreseeable, but “Trump plans to take control of the oil personally and stash the cash in offshore accounts.”
Interview: Hunger and war in Gaza
KTVU July 21, 2025, Bay Area network affiliate [begins at 2:00]
As fears of hunger in Gaza grow, countries are calling for an end to the war. In a joint statement on Monday. Twenty-five nations have described recent deaths in the territory as “horrifying.” Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, on how this statement could impact Israel.
Missed Opportunity on Iran
The Progressive June 19, 2025 and June 21 at
PeaceandJustice.org & SmirkingChimp.com as
Trump (and Biden) Could Have Forestalled War With Iran If They Wanted.
How the war on Iran isn’t really about containing Iran’s nuclear program, since staying in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and other diplomatic efforts would have made it physically impossible for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Please circulate, share by email or any of the icon links below!
The Lingering Effects of Iraq War Lies
The Progressive, March 27, 2023 [source]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…
The Pentagon Doesn’t Care About Civilian Casualties
The Progressive, Nov. 26, 2021, by Stephen Zunes [source]
In August 2019, thousands of refugees, prisoners, and families of ISIS fighters crowded into an encampment in the border town of Baghuz in eastern Syria, one of the last territories controlled by the so-called Islamic State. The US, supported on the ground by an allied Kurdish and Arab militia, launched a massive air assault on the enclave.
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.
Sharp Attack Unwarranted
Foreign Policy in Focus/Institute for Policy Studies, June 27, 2008 [Source] By John Feffer, Stephen Zunes
Gene Sharp, an 80-year-old scholar of strategic nonviolent action and veteran of radical pacifist causes, is under attack by a number of foreign governments that claim that he and his small research institute are key players in a Bush administration plot against them. Though there is no truth to these charges, several leftist websites and publications have been repeating such claims as fact. This raises disturbing questions regarding the ability of progressives challenging Bush foreign policy to distinguish between the very real manifestations of U.S. imperialism and conspiratorial fantasies.
PETITION supporting Dr. Gene Sharp, foremost author-expert on Strategic Nonviolent Action
Letter to My Daughter
Foreign Policy In Focus, March 14, 2008, by Stephen Zunes [source]
It has been five years since you, as a 12-year old 7th grader, joined your classmates in a walk-out at your school in protest of the impending invasion of Iraq. You are now a 17 just months from graduating, and the war is still going on… you are entering adulthood with the United States despised throughout the world and the threat of mega-terrorism from extremist groups…
Five Years Later, We Can’t Forgive or Forget
Foreign Policy In Focus, October 11, 2007
By Emily Schwartz Greco, Stephen Zunes
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the congressional vote granting President George W. Bush unprecedented war-making authority to invade Iraq at the time and circumstances of his own choosing. Had a majority of either the Republican-controlled House or the Democratic-controlled Senate voted against the resolution or had they passed an alternative resolution conditioning such authority on an authorization from the United Nations Security Council, all the tragic events that have unfolded as a consequence of the March 2003 invasion would have never occurred…