Stephen Zunes : Syria
This Isn’t the First Time the US Has Abandoned the Kurds
10 October 2019
President Trump’s decision to give a green light for a Turkish invasion of Kurdish-populated regions of northern Syria has been faced with swift bipartisan opposition
Despite Everything, U.S. Troops Should Leave Syria
3 January 2019
Donald Trump’s sudden decision to remove U.S. forces from Syria appears to have been impetuous and ill-considered — apparently a result of a conversation with Turkey’s autocratic president Recep Erdo?an. That doesn’t mean, however, that the United States should remain in that country.
History Shows Hypocrisy of US Outrage Over Chemical Weapons in Syria
24 April 2018
There are serious legal and strategic concerns regarding the decision by the United States, along with France and Great Britain, to bomb Syria in response to its alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma. Even if one considers the April 13 airstrikes on a series of targets in two Syrian cities to be legitimate, it […]
Why the United States Can’t Lead on Syria’s Chemical Weapons Atrocities
11 April 2018
Reasonable people can disagree about how the international community should respond to the latest apparent atrocity by the Syrian government involving chemical weapons. The repeated use of these horrific and illegal weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s repressive regime deserves a strong international response. Unfortunately, given its history of politicizing the issue, the United States is in […]
Why These Missile Strikes Won’t Make Things Better for the Syrian People
7 April 2017
The U.S. bombing of Syria’s Al Shayrat air base has brought more death and destruction to that country and is unlikely to deter additional war crimes by the Syrian regime. It will not ease the suffering of the Syrian people.
Trump’s Dangerous and Cynical Attack on Syria
7 April 2017
Let’s not pretend that Thursday night’s U.S. missile strike on Syria’s Al Shayrat air base has anything to do with concern for the civilian victims of the regime’s apparent April 3 chemical weapons attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun.
Trump Alludes To Force In Responding To Syria Chemical Attack
6 April 2017
More than a hundred people were killed in a chemical attack in Khan Shaikhoun, Syria this week. Among the dead are a dozen or so children. Turkish doctors have conducted autopsies confirming that chemical weapons were used in the worst such attack in years.
Anti-war movement must listen to voices within Syria’s civil war
10 October 2016
With the prospects of increased U.S. military involvement in Syria, peace activists have been mobilizing across the country. Recognizing the disastrous results of recent U.S. military interventions, the suspicions throughout the region regarding Washington’s motivations, and the lack of any major cohesive democratic armed force to support, there is a widespread understanding within the anti-war […]
From Gaza to Aleppo: A Handy Guide for Defending War Crimes
7 October 2016
Given the United States’ disastrous record in the Middle East—most critically the invasion and occupation of Iraq—and the manifold lies coming out of Washington to justify its policies, many Americans are understandably skeptical about U.S. interventions and the rationalizations used to defend them. This leads many Americans to oppose both direct intervention in Syria and […]
Syria after the Ceasefire
2 March 2016
The partial ceasefire in Syria announced by the United States and Russia on February 23 has been met with less than overwhelming optimism, and, after so much bloodshed and the entrenchment of hardline positions, it is not hard to see why. The accord stipulates that the Syrian government and allied groups, including Russia, end attacks against opposition forces that are party to the agreement and these opposition forces suspend military operations. Both sides must refrain from seizing additional territory and allow “rapid, unhindered and sustained access” to humanitarian agencies.
