Medea Benjamin

Medea Benjamin

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace, is the author of the new book, Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Her previous books include: Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection; Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control; Don’t Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart, and (with Jodie Evans) Stop the Next War Now (Inner Ocean Action Guide). Follow her on Twitter: @medeabenjamin

Articles by this author

"The sad truth is that 30 years after the supposed end of the Cold War," write Benjamin and Davies, " the U.S. military-industrial complex has failed to reimagine itself in anything but Cold War terms, and its 'New' Cold War is just a revival of the old Cold War that it spent the last three decades telling us it already won." (Image: CodePink) Views
Monday, August 03, 2020
US Cold War China Policy Will Isolate the US, Not China
Tensions between the United States and China are rising as the U.S. election nears, with tit-for-tat consulate closures, new U.S. sanctions and no less than three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups prowling the seas around China. But it is the United States that has initiated each new escalation...
Read more
Democratic senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks with U.S. Marine generals before a development meeting between Iraqi and American government officials and Sunni sheikhs September 6, 2007 in Ramadi, Anbar Province, Iraq. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images) Views
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
King Joe and the Round Table: Biden's America in a Multipolar World
In an article in Foreign Affairs in March titled, “Why America Must Lead Again,” Joe Biden claimed that “the world doesn’t organize itself,” and promised to “put the U.S. back at the head of the table” among the nations of the world. But the premise that the world can only organize itself under the...
Read more
An all-encompassing expression of goodwill in the form of a New Good Neighbor Policy will meet resistance from vested economic and military interests, as well as those persuaded by racist arguments.(Photo: CC) Views
Monday, July 20, 2020
Long Overdue for Latin America: A New "Good Neighbor Policy"
U.S. policy towards Venezuela has been a fiasco. Try as it might, the Trump regime-change team has been unable to depose President Maduro and finds itself stuck with a self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó, who President Trump was reported to have called “a kid” who “doesn’t have what it takes.”...
Read more
U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Task Force 3-7 soldiers ride atop an armored vehicle during a training exercise near the Iraqi border March 13, 2003 in northern Kuwait. U.S and British forces within the region continue to poise for a possible strike on Iraq. (Photo: Scott Nelson/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War
Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat...
Read more
We will not rescue our country from the iron grip of the military-industrial complex by picking the lesser evil and hoping for the best. (Photo: CD/CC BY 2.0) Views
Wednesday, July 01, 2020
A New Anti-War Mobilization Must Topple Trump—and Challenge Biden
On June 13, President Donald Trump told the graduating class at West Point , “We are ending the era of endless wars.” That is what Trump has promised since 2016, but the “endless” wars have not ended. Trump has dropped more bombs and missiles than George W. Bush or Barack Obama did in their first...
Read more
Let’s hope this letter from over 100 organizations shows Biden the widespread support for him to shed his ”Israel-right-or-wrong” position and instead openly and explicitly distinguish right from wrong. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Will Biden Remain Tone Deaf to Palestinian Rights?
Joe Biden wants you to believe that he is opposed to Israel’s likely annexation of parts of the West Bank that Netanyahu plans to carry out in July. “I do not support a nnexation ,” he said during a call with American Jewish donors on June 16. But only a month ago, Biden senior foreign policy...
Read more
Views
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Trump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick Worldwide
A team of 85 Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in Peru on June 3 to help the Andean nation tackle the coronavirus pandemic. That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced another tightening of the sanctions screws. This time he targeted seven Cuban entities, including Fincimex, one of the...
Read more
Members of the National Guard join police on the fourth day of protests on May 29, 2020 in Minneapolis. (Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, June 09, 2020
Defund the Police, Defund the Military
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...
Read more
CODEPINK protesters at Congressional hearing on Iran in 2015. (Photo: CODEPINK) Views
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Who Are the Secret Puppet-Masters Behind Trump’s War on Iran?
On May 6th, President Trump vetoed a war powers bill specifying that he must ask Congress for authorization to use military force against Iran. Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign of deadly sanctions and threats of war against Iran has seen no let-up, even as the U.S., Iran and the whole world...
Read more
While the administration claims that sanctions are targeting those in power, the sanctions really impact the ordinary people, especially women, children, minorities, refugees, the disabled and the sick. (Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA via Shutterstock) Views
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Iranian Women Squeezed By US Sanctions, COVID-19 and Their Government
Two years ago, on May 8, 2018, President Trump manufactured a crisis with Iran by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal and reimposing brutal sanctions. This interview with Sussan Tahmasebi, director of FEMENA, an organization that supports women human rights defenders, reveals how the Trump...
Read more

Pages