Tag: not audio
Netanyahu Still Swaying U.S. Congress
The Progressive, March 4, 2015: Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress on March 3 was rare and unprecedented in many ways.
• It constituted a major breach of protocol
• It took place just two weeks prior to national elections in the foreign leader’s home country
• Most strikingly, Netanyahu is the only foreign leader to have been invited to address a joint session of Congress with the express purpose of undermining U.S. foreign policy…
US support for Saudis belies claims of supporting democracy
Santa Cruz Sentinel February 20, 2015
One of the greatest myths is that the U.S. government supports democracy. In reality, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, the U.S. remains the world’s No. 1 military, financial, and diplomatic supporter of authoritarian regimes and occupying armies.
The Latest Blow to Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Foreign Policy In Focus and Antiwar.com January 13, 2015
The Obama administration is responsible for the defeat of a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for a “just, lasting and comprehensive peaceful solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Gaza and the Bipartisan War on Human Rights
Foreign Policy In Focus, October 17, 2014
[Republished by Counterpunch, Lobe Log, Militarist-Monitor, and URUKNET.info]
During and after Israel’s war on Gaza, bipartisan congressional majorities have worked to undermine war crimes investigations by the UN and human rights groups. Yet Americans found Israel’s seven weeks of attacks to be disproportionate and unnecessary, killing up to 1,500 Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
U.S. Leadership Against Russia Crippled By Its Own Hypocrisy
Foreign Policy In Focus, September 15, 2014
[Republished by Common Dreams and Transnational.org]
The U.S. and ISIS
The Progressive August 26, 2014: Already U.S. planes and missiles have been attacking ISIS forces in northern Iraq. Given the real threat of a heightened genocidal campaign against Yazidis and other minorities and the risks of ISIS control expanding into the Kurdish region, even some of those normally averse to unilateral U.S. military intervention abroad were willing to acknowledge it may have been the least bad option. Within days, however, there were already indications of “mission creep”…
Netanyahu’s Ugly Game in Gaza
The Progressive and Transnational.org July 9, 2014
The right-wing Israeli government took advantage of the murder of three Israeli teen members of an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Back to whip up ultra-nationalist sentiments, engage in a new wave of repression in the occupied West Bank.
The United States’ Tragic Role in Iraq
The Progressive, June 20, 2014 [Republished by Common Dreams]
The dramatic rise of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—which even al-Qaeda deemed too extreme to remain part of its network—is a tragedy by any measure. It would also be tragic if we allowed the very forces that created this mess to explain it away.
U.S. Culpability in the Failure of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
Foreign Policy In Focus June 5, 2014, also by Huffington Post and Uruknet, then a revised version July 6 by the Santa Cruz Sentinel, republished by Antiwar.com, Common Dreams, FreedomsPhoenix, and Znetwork.org
A Nonviolent Alternative for Ukraine
Foreign Policy May 28, 2014
On May 15, thousands of unarmed residents and steelworkers of the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol did nonviolently what a bloody attack by Ukrainian troops six days earlier was unable to: rid the region’s second-largest city of armed pro-Russian separatists who had held key buildings and other parts of the city for weeks. Smaller protests have taken place in other cities…
Why Nonviolent Resistance Wins
The source link is no longer available [best related links on this topic]
Straight Talk on the U.S. and Ukraine
Foreign Policy In Focus, March 13, 2014
Given the limits of its power and its own compromised relationship with international law, the U.S. isn’t in a position to do much about Ukraine.
Egypt’s military government increases repression amid growing paranoia
Santa Cruz Sentinel and National Catholic Reporter Feb. 28, 2014
Since the military coup in Egypt against the unpopular but democratically elected government of Mohammed Morsi last July, more than 1,000 regime opponents have been killed, thousands more have been hauled before military courts on political charges, and a repressive anti-protest law has been enacted, severely limiting the right of peaceful assembly.
Egyptian Junta Claims U.S. Conspiracy While Accepting U.S. Support
Foreign Policy In Focus February 21, 2014 [and by Common Dreams]
Egypt’s U.S.-backed regime now claims that the progressive, anti-authoritarian activists that brought down Mubarak are simply U.S. agents. Three years ago, three Arab dictators were ousted in the largely nonviolent uprisings of what has become known as the Arab Spring. In Tunisia, with the adoption of a progressive democratic draft constitution, the future in that country is looking positive. In Yemen, the democratic evolution remains stagnant amid enormous challenges, but there are still signs of hope. In Egypt, however, autocratic rule has reasserted itself with a vengeance.
How to discredit your democratic opponents in Egypt
Open Democracy February 17, 2014
[Republished by International Center on Nonviolent Conflict]
The Egyptian military regime is pushing conspiracy theories to discredit their democratic, nonviolent opponents.
Barker’s Bizarre Attacks against Progressive Scholars and Proponents of Nonviolent Resistance
The Real News Network January 15, 2014
Michael Barker, in an article posted on this site a few days ago, takes offense at my labeling him as someone “notorious” for “conspiracy-mongering.” However, a careful reading of his article and its links actually reinforces that argument. At the outset, Barker questions my assertion that my colleagues and I are genuinely upset at the Stratfor revelations regarding Serbian nonviolent activist Srdja Popovic because he “is still included upon the advisory board of Waging Nonviolence…”
How the state Assembly tries to limit what I can teach
The Santa Cruz Sentinel & Transnational.org January 25, 2014
In preparing my syllabus for my introductory course on the Middle East this semester, it gives me pause the California Assembly is still on record declaring that discussing certain well-documented historic incidents in modern Middle Eastern history should “not be tolerated in the classroom.”
The US role in Iraq’s upsurge in violence
Santa Cruz Sentinel and Transnational.org January 25, 2014
[and by Common Dreams, Huffington Post, National Catholic Reporter]
The tragic upsurge of violence in Iraq in recent months, including the takeover of sections of two major Iraqi cities by al-Qaida affiliates, is a direct consequence of the repression of peaceful dissent by the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad and, ultimately, of the 2003 U.S. invasion and occupation…
U.S. shares responsibility for plight of Arab Christians
Santa Cruz Sentinel December 28, 2013
It was the second week in January of 1991. I was in the sanctuary of a large Catholic Church in Baghdad. Every votive candle in the place was lit, no doubt in support of prayers for loved ones in anticipation of the massive U.S. bombing campaign, which was to be known as Operation Desert Storm, which was soon to commence. A member of our group asked the priest whose side the church would be on in the forthcoming conflict. He replied that “the church can only be on one side — that of the victims.” Little did he realize that, less than 20 years later, Iraq’s Christians would become among the greatest victims.