On this episode, Kumars interviews Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war org Code Pink, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author of 10 books including “Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control” and her new primer “Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Kumars talks to Medea about her life in the anti-war movement, beginning with protesting the Vietnam War as a high school student. We learn about the founding of Code Pink during the Bush years, and discuss the failings and successes of the mobilizations against the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions. Despite failing to stop the wars, the Bush-era anti-war movement definitely changed the way the wars were fought, saving civilian lives by placing heightened scrutiny on those authorizing and carrying out atrocities. Bush-era anti-war organizing also certainly impacted US military plans for Syria and Iran. Medea talks about her continued anti-war activism during the Obama administration, sharing stories of separate confrontations of Obama and then-CIA Director John Brennan over their role in the criminal US drone program. We discuss the difficulties in replicating, let alone surpassing, the work of Bush-era organizers in the face of a renewed threat of war with Iran, given the huge amount of organizational capacity focused on Trump's many domestic assaults. We also talk about Medea's new book outlining major events in Iranian history, and why increasing tensions between the US and Iran led her to write it.
Follow Medea on Twitter at @medeabenjamin. Also follow @codepink.
A transcript for this episode will be provided upon request. Please send an email to deleteuracct @ gmail to get a copy sent to you when it is completed.
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