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ann wright
'Up in Arms': Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Launches New Campaign Against Bloated Pentagon Budget
"If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want," said Ben Cohen, "the American Dream can become a reality again."
Jun 14, 2025
Joined by retired military officers and national security experts, Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen on Thursday launched a campaign targeting the nearly $900 billion Pentagon budget and the $100 billion spent on nuclear weapons and "to get our country to start funding the American Dream instead of the death of millions of people."
Standing near Union Station in Washington, D.C. beside a towering sculpture showing what $100 billion looks like, supporters of the Up in Arms campaign—a planned four-year public education and advocacy project "to bring common sense to the Department of Defense and the country's budgetary bottom line"—chanted, "Money for the poor, not nuclear war!"
"There will be no peace, there will be no security, until we start using our resources to provide for the needs of our people at home and around the world," Cohen said at the event. "And we have the money to do it, at no additional taxpayer expense. If we take half the money budgeted for the Pentagon and invested in the things people need and want, the American Dream can become a reality again."
The peace group Ploughshares, which moderated a press conference for the launch of Up in Arms, said that the faux-$100 billion installation could be the tallest protest structure ever erected in Washington, D.C.
"This is a structure that represents the $100 billion that our country spends each year on nuclear weapons," Cohen said while standing in front of the tower and embracing Medea Benjamin, the co-founder of the peace group CodePink. "Fifty percent of that is for a whole new generation of nuclear weapons."
"Ice cream not bombs!" Benjamin said next. "Ice cream not nuclear weapons!"
The $100 billion figure includes spending on modernizing the nuclear arsenal, supporting its infrastructure, and addressing legacy issues like nuclear waste.
"Congress could make it easier for Americans to buy homes and save on gas or they could tackle the opioid epidemic–but those are clearly NOT their priorities," Up in Arms says on its website. "We have all the money we need to create a good life for all Americans. For half the money we spend on nuclear bombs, we could stop poisoning kids with lead, provide funding for public schools, and make childcare affordable."
Former U.S. military officers-turned-peace defenders Dennis Laich, Lawrence Wilkerson, Ann Wright, Karen Kwiatkowski, William Astore, and Dennis Fritz, as well as FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and former CIA officer Ray McGovern, are taking part in the Up in Arms campaign.
"We're here today to say we don't want our money spent this way, we want our money spent… on things that keep people alive, not on things that kill people," said Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and current member of the Eisenhower Media Network and Veterans Against Genocide.
"We're up in arms and down on these damn nuclear weapons," she added, "and We the People have to be able to go to each one of these congresspeople and say, 'We don't care how much money you're getting from all of these companies that make a killing out if killing with these nuclear weapons.'"
Laich, a former U.S. Army general also with the Eisenhower Media Network, noted that the U.S. military budget "is larger than the next 10 countries combined, and what do we get for it?"
"Since World War II, we tied in Korea, we lost in Vietnam, we won the first Gulf War, we lost in Iraq, and we lost in Afghanistan," he said. "They always say we have the greatest military on earth; I don't buy it."
President Donald Trump is proposing a record $1 trillion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2026 while backing legislation that would dramatically slash spending on vital social programs in order to fund a massive tax break that would overwhelmingly benefit the rich and corporations.
On Friday, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons—which earned the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for spearheading the landmark Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—published an analysis showing the world's nine nuclear powers spent a combined baseline $100 billion on their arsenals last year, an 11% increase from 2023. The United States alone accounted for well over half of that amount.
Cohen is a longtime anti-war activist. Last month, he was arrested after disrupting a Senate hearing, shouting, "Congress kills poor kids in Gaza by buying bombs and pays for it by kicking kids off Medicaid in the U.S." as he was hauled off by police.
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Underhanded Israeli Tactic Delays Flotilla Departure
This is not the first time that Israel has used these kinds of tactics to stop our ships from sailing. We have overcome them before and are diligently working to overcome this latest attempt.
Apr 26, 2024
The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the trip to Gaza.
However, today we received word of an administrative roadblock initiated by Israel in an attempt to prevent our departure. Israel is pressuring the Republic of Guinea Bissau to withdraw its flag from our lead ship—Akdeniz (“Mediterranean”).
This triggered a request for an additional inspection, this one by the flag state, that delays our April 26 planned departure.
How many more children will die of malnutrition and dehydration because of this delay and an ongoing siege which must be broken?
This is another example of Israel obstructing the delivery of life-saving aid to the people in Gaza who face a deliberately created famine. How many more children will die of malnutrition and dehydration because of this delay and an ongoing siege which must be broken?
This is not the first time that Israel has used these kinds of tactics to stop our ships from sailing. We have overcome them before and are diligently working to overcome this latest attempt.
Our vessels have already passed all required inspections and we are confident that the Akdeniz will pass this inspection provided there is no political interference.
We expect this to be no more than a few days delay. Israel will not break our resolve to reach the Palestinians of Gaza.
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Gaza-Bound Flotilla Aims to End Inhumane Israeli Blockade
"What more can I do?" asked one peace campaigner. "I can go on this flotilla to try to break the criminal siege that Israel has imposed on Gaza."
Apr 05, 2024
As Israel continues to starve Palestinians to death in the Gaza Strip, an international coalition on Friday was preparing to set sail with humanitarian aid and human rights observers "to challenge the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade."
Israel has limited the flow of people and essential goods in and out of Gaza for nearly two decades but dramatically increased those restrictions in response to the Hamas-led October 7 attack. Six months later, Israeli bombs, bullets, and limits on necessities have killed and wounded over 108,000 people and displaced most of the Palestinian territory's 2.3 million residents.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which has "sailed since 2010 with the goal of breaking the blockade of Gaza," plans to head toward the besieged enclave with 5,500 tons of humanitarian aid and hundreds of observers in mid-April.
In a Thursday statement about the effort, Ismail Moola of South Africa's Palestine Solidarity Alliance—which is part of the FFC—highlighted the January ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that said Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza.
"While our governments fail to lead in these urgently required humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to take leadership."
While the South Africa-led case is ongoing, the United Nations court directed Israel to prevent genocidal acts and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza—an order the ICJ reiterated last week, noting the "the spread of famine and starvation."
"The International Court of Justice's preliminary measures ordered against Israel are very clear," Moola said. "The court's ruling requires the whole world to play their part to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza, including unobstructed access to vital aid."
"While our governments fail to lead in these urgently required humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to take leadership," Moola asserted. "When governments fail, we sail!"
The top international funder of the Israeli assault on Gaza is the U.S. government, which gives the country nearly $4 billion in annual military support. Since October 7, the Biden administration has sought billions more while also repeatedly bypassing Congress to send more weapons to Israeli forces.
As the death toll in Gaza has soared, U.S. President Joe Biden has urged Israel's leaders to precisely target Hamas militants while also refusing to cut off armed assistance, despite pressure from Americans and people worldwide. In a Thursday call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden reportedly threatened to condition future military support. Shortly after that, Israeli officials approved reopening the Erez crossing to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
"President Biden waited six months, waited until 33,000 had been killed, mostly women and children, before picking up the phone and demanding that Netanyahu reduce civilian harm, allow more aid in, and protect aid workers," said Ann Wright, a retired U.S. Army colonel and State Department official who is now with the women-led peace group CodePink, in a statement Friday.
"But even if Israel allows more humanitarian aid in, it is still bombing Gaza with U.S. bombs, shooting innocent people and imprisoning the... people that live in Gaza," she added. "Getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza is urgent, but it is not sufficient. We must end Israel's unlawful, deadly blockade as well as Israel's overall control of Gaza. That's why we need this flotilla, filled with unarmed civilians, human rights observers from 30 countries, to challenge Israel’s brutal grip on the Gaza Strip."
"Even if Israel allows more humanitarian aid in, it is still bombing Gaza with U.S. bombs."
Wright plans to join the flotilla later this month, along with CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin.
"I have been walking the halls of Congress every day since October, going to rallies every weekend, writing letters of outrage to President Biden every night—and nothing has worked to stop Israel from murdering thousands upon thousands of innocent people," said Benjamin. "What more can I do? I can go on this flotilla to try to break the criminal siege that Israel has imposed on Gaza."
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