Medea Benjamin

As Hillary Clinton emerges as the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, she is receiving increased scrutiny for her years as Secretary of State. Many are criticizing her hawkish foreign policy, which is the best indication of what President Hillary’s foreign policy would be, with many focusing on her long relationship with Saudi Arabia. … Continue reading “Saudi Arabia’s Exploding Christmas Gifts From Hillary Clinton”

At the February 11 Democratic Debate, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton had a spirited exchange about an unlikely topic: the 92-year old former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Sanders berated Clinton for saying that she appreciated the foreign policy mentoring she got from Henry Kissinger. “I happen to believe,” said Sanders, “that Henry Kissinger was … Continue reading “Should Henry Kissinger Mentor a Presidential Candidate?”

As the first Democratic presidential debate drew to a close, moderator Anderson Cooper posed a question to Hillary Clinton: How might her presidency differ from Barack Obama’s? Clinton smiled. “Well, I think it’s pretty obvious,” she replied to rapturous applause. “Being the first woman president would be quite a change from the presidents we’ve had.” … Continue reading “Hillary Clinton Hasn’t Learned a Thing from Iraq”

On June 14, UN-brokered talks will be held in Geneva, but many Yemenis know that with the increasingly hostile armed factions, a destroyed economy and the Saudi/Iran rivalry playing itself out in their country, peace will be hard to come by. With the Houthi rebels in the north and Al Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula … Continue reading “Can the UN Talks Bring Peace to Shattered Yemen?”

President Barack Obama proudly signed the law that repealed the Pentagon’s

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is still one of the most powerful lobby organizations in the country, but fortunately, it is starting to lose its iron-clad grip on our policymakers. AIPAC lost the fight to stop Chuck Hagel from being confirmed as Secretary of Defense; it lost the push for the US military … Continue reading “Israel Lobby AIPAC Down, But Not Out – Yet”

Senior Obama administration officials say our government is sharply scaling back its drone strikes in Pakistan. That’s a step in the right direction. It would be even better if the entire U.S. program of targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia were scrapped. By embracing drones as a primary foreign policy tool, President Barack Obama … Continue reading “The Dangerous Seduction of Drones”

“We will put pressure on America, and our protest will continue if drone attacks are not stopped,” said an angry Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan’s third largest political party, the PTI (the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf). He was speaking on Saturday, November 23, to a crowd of over 10,000 protesters who blocked the highway used by NATO … Continue reading “Drone Strikes in Pakistan: Reapers of Their Own Destruction”

It was September 19, 2002, and US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was scheduled to address the Senate Armed Services Committee about why it was necessary to invade a country that never attacked us: Iraq. I was so concerned about the pending war that I flew to Washington DC from my home in San Francisco. … Continue reading “John Kerry Sells a War That Americans Aren’t Buying”