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.

Black Lives Matter Everywhere: Its Time to Defund the US Military

The case for Black Lives Matter should be applied globally and the push to defund police should be extended to the US military.

Medea Benjamin
Nicolas Davies
By Medea Benjamin
And Nicolas Davies
Black Lives Matter Feature photo

On June 1, President Trump threatened to deploy active-duty U.S. military forces against peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters in cities across America. Trump and state governors eventually deployed at least 17,000 National Guard troops across the country. In the nation’s capital, Trump deployed nine Blackhawk assault helicopters, thousands of

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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
By 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
By Ariel Gold
And 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
By Medea Benjamin
And 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
By Medea Benjamin
And 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
By Medea Benjamin
And 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
By 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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