Medea Benjamin

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of CODEPINK and author of Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection. Her new book is Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic.

During Coronvrius: Cuba to the Rescue, But Don’t Tell the American people

Anti-Cuba zealots in the Trump administration have been enticing Cuban doctors working overseas to defect, paying journalists to write negative stories, slapping sanctions on Cubans in charge of the program, and strong-arming countries to expel Cuban doctors.

Medea Benjamin
بواسطة Medea Benjamin

While Bernie Sanders paid a political price for uttering something positive about Cuba’s literacy program, the current pandemic has shown the whole world the heroic side of Cuba’s health care system. I saw this heroism firsthand when I worked with Cuban doctors in poor, remote villages in Africa. It was the 1970s and I was a young woman employed

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To Help Stem Spread of Coronavirus, Trump Must Lift Sanctions on Iran

US Sanctions, according to Human Rights Watch, have not only been devastating to Iranian civilians, but they have also crippled the country’s ability to effectively deal with the coronavirus.

Ariel Gold
Medea Benjamin
بواسطة Ariel Gold
و Medea Benjamin
Coronavirus Iran Feature photo

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is far from the first proof of how intertwined we are as a global community. The climate crisis and the refugee crisis have long been glaring examples that the wars or CO2 emissions on one continent risk the lives and well-being of people on another continent. What coronavirus is providing, however, is a unique

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Saudi Arabia’s Brave Women Pull Back the Curtain on Crown Prince MBS

The case of Al-Hathloul and the other women’s rights activists on trial in Saudi Arabia is a tremendous embarrassment for MBS, who has been putting an enormous effort into convincing his Western allies that he is a reformer and that the Kingdom is becoming more liberal.

Medea Benjamin
Ariel Gold
بواسطة Medea Benjamin
و Ariel Gold
Loujain al-Hathloul Feature photo

This week, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), Saudi Arabia’s 34-year-old de facto ruler, was on a tear. He arrested members of his own royal family and initiated an oil price war with Russia that has sent the price of oil—and the world’s stock markets—plummeting. Behind the headlines, however, another critical event will take place in Saudi

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Can the World’s Second Superpower Rise From the Ashes of Twenty Years of War

While our government’s war propaganda has convinced many Americans that we are powerless to stop its catastrophic wars, it has failed to convince most Americans that we are wrong to want to.

Medea Benjamin
Nicolas J.S. Davies
بواسطة Medea Benjamin
و Nicolas J.S. Davies
Anti Iran war Protest Feature photo

February 15 marks the day, 17 years ago, when global demonstrations against the pending Iraq invasion were so massive that the New York Times called world public opinion “the second superpower.” But the U.S. ignored it and invaded Iraq anyway. So what has become of the momentous hopes of that day? The U.S. military has not won a war since 1945,

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A New Year and a New Trump Foreign Policy Blunder in Iraq

Trump’s effort to blame Iran for this crisis is simply a ploy to divert attention from his own bungled policy. In reality, the blame for the present crisis should be placed squarely on the doorstep of the White House itself.

Medea Benjamin
Nicolas Davies
بواسطة Medea Benjamin
و Nicolas Davies
Iraq US Airstrikes

It’s a new year, and the U.S. has found a new enemy—an Iraqi militia called Kata’ib Hezbollah. How tragically predictable was that? So who or what is Kata’ib Hezbollah? Why are U.S. forces attacking it? And where will this lead?  Kata’ib Hezbollah is one of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that were recruited to fight the Islamic State after

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The Real Lesson of Afghanistan? Regime Change Does Not Work

The debacle in Afghanistan is only one case in a fundamentally flawed U.S. policy with worldwide consequences. New quasi-governments installed by U.S. “regime change” in country after country have proven more corrupt, less legitimate and less able to control their nation’s territory than the ones the U.S. has destroyed.

Medea Benjamin
بواسطة Medea Benjamin
Afghanistan Feature photo

The trove of U.S. “Lessons Learned” documents on Afghanistan published by the Washington Post portrays, in excruciating detail, the anatomy of a failed policy, scandalously hidden from the public for 18 years. The “Lessons Learned” papers, however, are based on the premise that the U.S. and its allies will keep intervening militarily in other

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Medea Benjamin: Donald Trump Was Right, NATO Should Be Obsolete

In an age where people around the world want to avoid war and to focus instead on the climate chaos that threatens future life on earth, NATO is an anachronism. It now accounts for about three-quarters of military spending and weapons dealing around the globe.

Medea Benjamin
بواسطة Medea Benjamin
NATO Trump Feature photo

The three smartest words that Donald Trump uttered during his presidential campaign are “NATO is obsolete.” His adversary, Hillary Clinton, retorted that NATO was “the strongest military alliance in the history of the world.” Now that Trump has been in power, the White House parrots the same worn line that NATO is “the most successful Alliance in

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