“Yemen, ISIS, and Middle East Mayhem: What Progressives Should Know

“Yemen, ISIS, and Middle East Mayhem: What Progressives Should Know” is a public forum discussing the rise of instability in the Middle East..

"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. ..
"Under U.S. occupation, Iraq’s two major bastions of secular nationalism—the armed forces and the civil service—were effectively abolished, only to be replaced by partisans of sectarian Shiite parties and factions, some of which were closely allied to Iran. Sunni extremists, believing Iraqi Shias had betrayed their country to Persians and Westerners, began targeting Shia civilian neighborhoods with terrorist attacks. The Iraqi regime and allied militia then began systematically kidnapping and murdering thousands of Sunni men. The so-called “sectarian” conflict, then, has been a direct consequence of U.S. policy."
—from "The United States Tragic Role in Iraq," by Stephen Zunes, The Progressive, June 20, 2014

Speaker:
Dr. Stephen Zunes, Middle East specialist and Professor of Politics and International Studies, University of San Francisco

Co-sponsored by Unitarian Universalists for Peace and Justice–San Francisco