To Counter Trump's Hawks, CodePink's Medea Benjamin Says It's Time to "Build Up an Anti-War Movement Again"

Peace activist Medea Benjamin said Wednesday that the current political moment "is a time where we have to build up an anti-war movement again."

Benjamin, a co-founder of the women-led advocacy organization CODEPINK, said her call is a response to the Trump administration manufacturing a crisis to push the U.S. into war with Iran.

The current situation, she told Democracy Now! Wednesday, has echoes of the lead-up to the war in Iraq because "lies" and "misinterpretations" are put out by the White House and echoed by corporate media.

In the interview, Benjamin expressed concerns about "many measures just in the last year or two to move towards a war with Iran."

They include the U.S. "pulling out of the nuclear deal, designating the Iran Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, trying to get the Iranian oil exports down to zero, [and] creating chaos in the Iranian economy."

Also driving her fear is John Bolton, President Donald Trump's national security advisor, whom she said "has been calling for an attack on Iran since before he ever got into the administration."

An engaged citizenry is necessary to push lawmakers to act as a counter-force to the push for war, Benjamin said.

"We have to be pushing our members of Congress to speak out forcefully against what the Trump administration is now doing," she said, "and to say this is a totally manufactured crisis and the U.S. people will not stand for another war in the Middle East."

Benjamin added that activists must also demand that lawmakers stop any efforts to attack Venezuela.

Watch the interview below: