Interview: Ousting the Brutal Assad Regime Brings Euphoria and More Questions admin, December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 Counterpunch Interview of Stephen Zunes Dec. 11, 2024by Daniel Falcone. “There are indications it was unarmed civil resistance led by resurgent popular committees and local councils, which initially came to the fore in the early nonviolent phase of the revolution 2011, that actually wrested control of much of the local… Continue Reading
TV 4 Interviews on Syria & Ouster of Assad, December 2024 admin, December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 Fox-2/KTVU: Russia grants asylum to ousted Syrian leader And 3 more aired on Al Jazeera Media View, December 2024: US has carried out air strikes on 75 ISIL targets throughout Syria Thousands celebrate in Damascus Assad’s leaving the capital Damascus Plus a one-minute excerpt gone viral. Continue Reading
Syria Background: Zunes’ Articles, Interviews & Videos Since 2011 Arab Spring admin, December 12, 2024January 6, 2025 From Gaza to Aleppo: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes: This article notes the remarkable parallel in the language used by those defending war crimes by the Assad regime and war crimes by Israel Here’s an analysis also from 2016 regarding the state of the conflict and U.S. policy:… Continue Reading
Lectures & 11 Interviews Nov. 2024 on Trump’s Election & the Middle East admin, December 7, 2024December 12, 2024 First view Dr. Zunes’ 5-minute animated summary of his research on coup resistance; then his Lecture at the University of San Francisco on how to prepare for the aftermath of the election in the event of an attempted coup or legitimate victory by Trump. Lecture before the Unitarian Universalists of… Continue Reading
Video: Oxford Union Debate Against Military Intervention to Promote Democracy admin, October 9, 2024January 13, 2025 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.] Continue Reading
Behind the Headlines: the CIA and Post 9/11 National Security with NY Times Reporter Eric Schmitt (audio) admin, November 22, 2012August 15, 2024 NPR/The Commonwealth Club Continue Reading
CrossTalk on Yemen: Rise of Al-Qaeda? (video) admin, February 25, 2012August 16, 2024 RT News Continue Reading
Iran Threat Reduction Act Actually Enhances Threat of War admin, November 14, 2011July 16, 2024 Congress is taking up dangerous legislation which appears to be designed to pave the way for war by taking the unprecedented step of effectively preventing any kind of U.S. diplomatic contact with Iran. Continue Reading
The Legacy of 9/11 and the War on Intellectuals admin, September 10, 2011August 17, 2024 Ten years after 9/11, for the first time, a plurality of Americans recognizes that US policy in the Middle East played a major role in the attacks. It was not, as George W. Bush famously put it, simply because, “They hate our freedom.” Continue Reading
Netanyahu’s Speech and Congressional Democrats’ Embrace of Extremism admin, June 3, 2011August 17, 2024 As Israeli opposition parties, peace and human rights activists, and editorialists denounced their prime minister’s intransigence in the face of President Barack Obama’s peace initiative, Congressional Democrats here in the United States have instead joined their Republican counterparts in lining up to support the right-wing Israeli leader’s defiance. As Benyamin Netanyahu arrogantly rejected Obama’s modest parameters for a peace settlement in a May 20 speech before a joint session of Congress – a rare honor for a foreign leader – Democrats joined Republicans in giving him no less than 29 standing ovations, more than were given to Obama during his State of the Union Speech earlier this year. Continue Reading
The Killing of Bin Laden and the Threat of Al Qaeda admin, May 5, 2011September 1, 2024 The killing of Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is not likely to have a profound impact one way or the other in the struggle against the terrorist organization and its allied groupings. On the one hand, Al-Qaeda may face a potential leadership void and internal divisions. On the other hand, the organization has decentralized in the ten years since the United States and allied forces drove them from their sanctuaries in Afghanistan and terrorist cells operate independently from bin Laden’s leadership and a whole new generation of terrorists subscribing to the apocalyptic and genocidal ideology has sprung up as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Continue Reading
60 Second Expert: The U.S. in Yemen admin, January 15, 2010July 16, 2024 Much attention has recently been focused on the poverty-stricken country of Yemen. The planning of the Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight by al-Qaeda members in Yemen and other incidents have revealed that al-Qaeda cells in Yemen represents a genuine threat. However, if the U.S. yet seeks a military solution to a complex political, social and economic situation, however, it could prove disastrous to both Yemen and U.S. security interest Continue Reading
Yemen: The Latest U.S. Battleground admin, January 8, 2010February 1, 2025 The United States may be on the verge of involvement in yet another counterinsurgency war which, as is the case in Iraq and Afghanistan, may make a bad situation even worse. The attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight by a Nigerian man was apparently planned in Yemen. There were alleged ties between the perpetrator of the Ft. Hood massacre and a radical Yemeni cleric, and an ongoing U.S.-backed Yemeni military offensive against al-Qaeda have all focused U.S. attention on that country…. Continue Reading
Interview: The Afghanistan Mess (audio) admin, May 10, 2009January 21, 2025 Courage to Resist “Middle East scholar Dr. Stephen Zunes talks about how U.S. imperial hubris helped create, and continues to deepen and intensify the deadly chaos in Afghanistan. “The war not only was raised some moral and legal questions, but it has not resolved the situation, it has made matters worse. The problem is that there has been a gross oversight on the military side of the equation. The really important issues have been overlooked.” Continue Reading
The U.S. and Afghan Tragedy admin, March 18, 2009January 21, 2025 One of the first difficult foreign policy decisions of the Obama administration will be what the United States should do about Afghanistan. Escalating the war, as National Security Advisor Jim Jones has been encouraging, will likely make matters worse. At the same time, simply abandoning the country — as the United States did after the overthrow of Afghanistan’s Communist government soon after the Soviet withdrawal 20 years ago — would lead to another set of serious problems…. Continue Reading
Operation Enduring Freedom: A Retrospective admin, October 17, 2006July 16, 2024 It has become a given, even among many progressive critics of Bush administration policy, that while the U.S. war on Iraq was illegal, immoral, unnecessary, poorly executed, and contrary to America’s national security interests, the war on Afghanistan?which was launched five years ago last week?was a legal, moral, and a necessary response to protect American national security in the aftermath of 9/11. Virtually every member of Congress who has gone on record opposing the Iraq War supported the Afghanistan War. Similarly, a number of soldiers who have resisted serving in Iraq on moral grounds have expressed their willingness to serve in Afghanistan…. Continue Reading
Afghanistan: Five Years Later admin, October 13, 2006July 16, 2024 On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the offensive, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion…. Continue Reading
The Taliban is Back admin, October 13, 2006July 16, 2024 On the fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan, the Taliban is on the offensive, much of the countryside is in the hands of warlords and opium magnates, U.S. casualties are mounting, and many, if not most, Afghans are actually worse off now than they were before the U.S. invasion. Continue Reading
Somalia as a Military Target admin, January 11, 2002 The east African nation of Somalia is being mentioned with increasing frequency as a possible next target in the U.S.-led war against international terrorism. Somalia is a failed state–with what passes for the central government controlling little more than a section of the national capital of Mogadishu, a separatist government in the north, and rival warlords and clan leaders controlling most the remainder of the country. U.S. officials believe that cells of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network may have taken advantage of the absence of governmental authority to set up operation. Before the U.S. attacks that impoverished country, however, it is important to recognize how Somalia became a possible haven for the followers of Osama bin Laden and what might result if America goes to war. Continue Reading
U.S. Shouldn’t Fight Violence With Violence admin, September 12, 2001 Terrorism is not rational, but an emotive reaction by frustrated and angry people. Yet the common reaction to terrorism is often no less rational, no less a reaction by a frustrated and angry people. It would behoove this great nation not to respond to yesterday’s terrorist attack on America in ways that would restrict civil liberties, particularly if the terrorists are from an immigrant community. Already, analogies are being drawn to Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the internment of tens of thousands of loyal U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry. Continue Reading