US rejection of UN Membership for Palestine Betrays Claimed Two-State Position admin, May 14, 2024August 8, 2024 Common Dreams April 27, 2024: Unlike most governments that support a two-state solution, the United States only recognizes Israel, not Palestine. [source] Continue Reading
There Is Zero Actual Evidence Iran Is Responsible for Killing Hundreds of Americans admin, January 7, 2020August 14, 2024 The assertions being repeated today seem based on apparently groundless claims from twelve years ago by the same people who said Iraq possessed weapons, weapons programs, and weapons systems that were such a grave threat that they ignited the U.S.-Iraq war. Continue Reading
Impeach Away! Thoughts on a Possible President Pence admin, August 22, 2018August 14, 2024 August 22, 2018 in The Progressive, and Common Dreams: While many express concern that Vice-President Mike Pence, a Christian supremacist with more consistently hard right wing views than Trump, could replace him, Zunes argues Trump will likely be forced from office and this would be a positive development… Continue Reading
My Support for Ralph Nader, Ten Years Later: Lessons Learned admin, November 1, 2010September 14, 2024 Like many people who campaigned and voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, the upcoming tenth anniversary of that disastrous election and awareness of the tragic results continues to haunt me. While it was perhaps the most serious political misjudgment I have ever made, it is important to recognize why at the time it seemed to be a quite rational course of action. It is also important to recognize what both the Democratic Party as well as progressives who are tempted to support left alternatives to the Democrats can learn from it. Continue Reading
The Iranian Uprising is Home-Grown, and Must Stay That Way admin, June 19, 2009February 2, 2025 The growing nonviolent insurrection in Iran against the efforts by the ruling clerics to return the ultra-conservative and increasingly autocratic incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinjead to power is growing. Whatever the outcome, it represents an exciting and massive outpouring of Iranian civil society for a more open and pluralistic society. Continue Reading
Echoes of Solidarity 20 Years after Tiananmen admin, June 4, 2009February 18, 2025 Twenty years ago today, I was at Camp Thoreau in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Though I had already become a full-time academic, I was still involved in the topical folk music circles in which I had hung out for much of the previous decade and had come down from Ithaca to join this annual gathering of politically-conscious folk musicians for a weekend of workshops, jam sessions and performances. Continue Reading
Hillary Clinton’s Hawkish Record admin, March 9, 2007 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has already assumed front-runner status for the Democratic Party nomination for president despite a foreign policy agenda that closely parallels that of the Bush administration. Continue Reading
The View From San Quentin Village admin, December 14, 2005February 19, 2024 It was kind of surreal: a couple of thousand people jammed onto a normally quiet residential street of pricey bungalows along San Francisco Bay. The crowd and the floodlights made it impossible to see the imposing walls of San Quentin Prison or even the entrance gates just a few yards away. The sound system on the makeshift stage was poor, but the diverse mix of Christians, leftists, community activists, urban youth and other death penalty opponents made a powerful witness late Monday night to the state-sanctioned murder of Stanley “Tookie” Williams…. Continue Reading
The Democrats and Iraqi WMDs: Bush is Right, Sort of… admin, November 27, 2005July 16, 2024 Now that some Democrats are finally speaking out against the administration’s phony claims about Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction,” conservative talk show hosts, columnists and bloggers have been dredging up scores of pre-invasion quotes by Democratic leaders citing non-existent Iraqi WMDs. These defenders of the administration keep asking the question,… Continue Reading
Iran: Threatening or Threatened? admin, July 30, 2005March 31, 2024 Given the prospects of possible U.S. military action towards Iran, it is important to take a critical look at the major concerns the Bush administration and Congressional leaders of both parties have put forward regarding the Islamic Republic. Continue Reading
The United States and the Iranian Election admin, June 28, 2005April 1, 2024 [CommonDreams.org, June 28, 2005; Download PDF] The election of the hard-line Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over former president Hashemi Rafsanjani as the new president of Iran is undeniably a setback to those hoping to advance the cause of greater social and political freedom in that country. It should not necessarily… Continue Reading
A Critique of the Most Misleading Statements in the Foreign Policy Segments of President Bush’s 2005 State of the Union Address admin, February 27, 2005 The foreign policy segments of President George W. Bush’s state of the Union address spoke to values and concerns that resonate with the majority of Americans from across the political spectrum. Unfortunately, much of what was said during his speech was quite misleading. Continue Reading
Iran Nuclear Program Creates a Furor Likely to Be Futile admin, February 24, 2005April 1, 2024 Having already successfully fooled most of Congress and the American public into believing that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program, the Bush administration is now claiming that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program. Continue Reading
Concern Grows over Democratic House Leader Pelosi’s Support for Iraq War admin, January 22, 2005July 16, 2024 On January 4, Congressional Democrats re-elected California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as minority leader in the House of Representatives. This comes despite that, since assuming her current leadership position two years ago, Pelosi has not only disappointed her liberal San Francisco constituency, but the majority of Democrats nationally as well, through her support for President George W. Bush’s policies toward Iraq. Back in December of 2002, as independent strategic analysts were arguing that the evidence strongly suggested that Iraq had rid itself of its chemical and biological weapons some years earlier, Pelosi categorically declared on NBC”s Meet the Press that “Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There”s no question about that. Continue Reading
Some Potentially Positive Developments from a Disastrous Election admin, January 21, 2005 No progressive should be happy with the results of the presidential election. However, it is hard to predict what the longer-term impact on American politics of a particular presidential election result might be. For example, it would have felt terrible at the time if ‘ despite Vietnam and Watergate ‘ Gerald Ford had managed to defeat Jimmy Carter in the close election of 1976. However, if Ford had stayed in office for another four years, the Republicans would have been blamed for the recession and the Iranian hostage crisis of subsequent years and the Democrats would have almost certainly won in 1980, thereby sparing the nation and the world the consequences of the eight years of the Reagan administration. Continue Reading
Despite the Lies about Iraq and the Resulting Disaster, Bush Still Maintains Strong Support admin, October 29, 2004July 16, 2024 Even putting aside the many important legal and moral questions about the Bush Administration’s decision to invade Iraq, it has been a disaster even on practical terms. Mainstream to conservative strategic analysts and retired generals ‘ along with the majority of career professionals in the State Department, Defense Department, and CIA ‘ recognize that the invasion and occupation has made America less secure rather than more secure. Still, the Bush Administration continues to defend its actions and public opinion polls still show that a majority of Americans trust George W. Bush more than John Kerry to defend America. This is in large part because, throughout this fall’s campaign, President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney have been making demonstrably false and misleading claims about what motivated administration decisions as well as the results of their actions. Continue Reading
Why We Must Prevent the Re-election of Senators Who Supported the Invasion of Iraq admin, October 15, 2004July 16, 2024 It has been just over two years since Congress took its fateful vote to authorize President George W. Bush to invade Iraq. This came despite the fact that such an invasion was a clear violation of the United Nations Charter, which, as a formal treaty signed and ratified by the United States, is — according to Article VI of the U.S. Constitution — to be treated as supreme law. Continue Reading
The Most Misleading Foreign Policy Statements Made by the Candidates in the Vice-Presidential Debate admin, October 6, 2004 Listed below is what I consider to be the sixteen most misleading statements made by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Senator John Edwards during the foreign policy segment of their debate of October 5, followed by my critiques. This is a non-partisan analysis: eleven of the misleading statements cited are from Cheney and five are from Edwards. The quotes are listed in the order in which they appear in the transcript: Continue Reading
Is Kerry Really More Open than Bush to Alternative Foreign Policy Perspectives? admin, September 15, 2004 Some progressive supporters of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry have argued that, despite his support for the invasion of Iraq and other neoconservative-driven foreign policies of the Bush Administration, at least a President Kerry – unlike the incumbent president – would be more willing to listen to the views of those with more moderate perspectives than himself. Continue Reading
How Kerry’s Foreign Policies Leave Him Vulnerable to Republican Attacks admin, September 3, 2004 The only people who could possibly be swayed by the unfair and misleading attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry put forward by speakers at the Republican National Convention (particularly Vice-President Dick Cheney and Georgia Senator Zell Miller) would be those with little understanding of contemporary strategic issues and modern diplomatic history. Continue Reading