Search
U.S. Foreign Policy
War in Afghanistan and Pakistan: A critical moment to voice your opposition
| Joanne Landy and Tom Harrison Co-Directors, Campaign for Peace and Democracy October 10, 2009 |
The President and Congress are reviewing U.S. policy on the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is a critical moment. This may be a turning point for the expanding U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a time when speaking out clearly and unambiguously against war can make a crucial difference.
Free Kian Tajbakhsh. Rally Sept. 23 for democracy in Iran
| Lois Weiner September 22, 2009 |
My colleague, Niloofar Mina, has been working on a campaign to free Kian Tajbakhsh, a scholar imprisoned in Iran. Kian is an American citizen of Iranian heritage, a secular intellectual, a sociologist and an independent scholar. He is not attached to any political organization or movement, inside and outside the country. Niloofar closely follows events in Iran through Persian language media sources, official and unofficial. She has learned that Kian is in a show trial with a group of defendants associated with Iran’s reformist movement.
Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis
| Stephen R. Shalom, Thomas Harrison, Joanne Landy and Jesse Lemisch |
Campaign for Peace and Democracy July 7, 2009 Right after the June 12 elections in Iran, the Campaign for Peace and Democracy issued a statement expressing our strong support for the masses of Iranians protesting electoral fraud and our horror at the ferocious response of the government.
Afghan Rules of Engagement
| Steve Shalom June 23, 2009 |
There's an AP story today that the U.S. commander in Afghanistan "will soon order U.S. and NATO forces to break away from fights with militants hiding among villagers." The order is expected to reduce "the use of air strikes, mortars and artillery in villages." There are three points to note here: 1. The order does not prohibit U.S. troops from using massive force when civilians are nearby if the troops are in "imminent danger," and indeed, the order allows massive force if necessary to avoid "undue danger" to the troops.
Requiem for a Nation
| by Reginald Wilson | Summer 2008 |
RANDALL ROBINSON HAS WRITTEN a searing, unforgiving expose of the forcible abduction, in February, 2004, of the democratically elected president of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and the consequent deepening wretchedness of its citizens. But he does more than that. In just 270 pages of text, he depicts Haiti from the triumph of the slave revolution in 1804 to the installation of Rene Garcia Preval as president in May, 2006, while thousands of the dissident black population shouted their displeasure and could be heard outside the gates of the presidential palace during the inauguration.
Obama and Empire
| by Thomas Harrison | Summer 2009 |
AS NOAM CHOMSKY OBSERVED, “Obama’s message of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ offered a blank slate on which supporters could write their wishes” (Znet, Nov. 25, 2008). Millions voted for Barack Obama in order to reverse the brutal and catastrophic foreign policy of the Bush Administration, especially the war in Iraq. But as far as fundamental change is concerned, his first months in office (this is being written in mid-April) offer no real grounds for hope.
The Change We REALLY Want?
| by Joanne Landy | Winter 2009 |
WITH THE ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA, millions in the United States and around the world are hoping for relief from the dangerous arrogance and destructiveness of George Bush’s foreign policy. President Obama is expected to take important positive initiatives — like closing Guantanamo and lifting the rule denying international organizations receiving U.S. aid the right to let women know about abortion. When the inevitable right-wing reaction to these initiatives comes, it will be crucial for us in the peace movement to defend them.
STUNNING VICTORY FOR CZECH OPPONENTS OF U.S. RADAR BASE
| Joanne Landy Thomas Harrison March 20, 2009 |
For immediate release
Contact: Joanne Landy, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, jlandy@igc.org
NEW YORK, March 18, 2009
Cast Lead
| Steve Shalom March 20, 2009 |
I just read a particularly silly piece by Shlomo Avineri, the Israeli political theorist who has written some interesting things on Marxism.
Iraq: The Democrats to the Fore
| by Barry Finger | Summer 2007 |
IN HIS BRILLIANT SATIRE of the plight of the Palestinians as a captured nation, Emile Habiby introduced Saeed, the ill fated pessoptimist. His beleaguered hero explained his inability to differentiate between optimism and pessimism in this way: "When I awake each morning I thank the Lord he did not take my soul at night. If harm befalls me during the day, I thank Him that it was no worse. So which am I, a pessimist or an optimist?" In an analogous way, the Democratic Party, choking in the grip of power politics, has in short order revealed itself the ill fated pranti-war party.