Medea Benjamin Shows America What Real Resistance Looks Like
Almost immediately after hitting publish on my last article about how the so-called "Resistance" to the Trump administration doesn't actually resist Trump's most pernicious agendas in any meaningful way, I saw an awesome video clip proving that there is at least one woman out there providing real opposition to Trump where it matters.
A think tank is an organization wherein highly-paid academics pour their collective brainpower into coming up with convincing arguments that it would be good and smart to do something evil and stupid. At one such think tank, the Hudson Institute, former John Bolton advisor and current Mike Pompeo lackey Brian Hook had his neocon cuddle party interrupted by CodePink activist Medea Benjamin Wednesday morning. Benjamin excoriated the Director of Policy Planning for Pompeo's Iran Action Team, decrying the Trump administration's crippling sanctions following its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
“That is the most ridiculous thing I have seen," Benjamin exclaimed while security staff worked to muscle her off the stage. "The world community wants to keep the Iran nuclear deal. Our allies—the Germans, the French, the British—they want to keep in this deal. The world community wants to keep the deal. Let’s talk about normal countries. Let’s talk about Saudi Arabia. Is that who our allies are? They are the biggest threat to the world community. And let’s talk—you’re hurting me. You’re actually hurting me. I want to ask: Do you think these sanctions are hurting the regime, or are they hurting the Iranian people? They’re hurting the Iranian people. You are making a case for war with Iran. How did the war with Iraq turn out? You’re doing exactly the same thing we did in the case of Iraq. We don’t want another war in the Middle East. Let’s see, how did Iraq turn out? How did Libya turn out? We have the people of Syria suffering. And how dare you bring up the issue of Yemen? It’s the Saudi bombing that is killing most people in Yemen. So let’s get real. No more war! Peace with Iran!”
The think tank ghouls chuckled and mocked her, but the damage was done and the video went viral.
As a reminder, the Trump administration has not only leveled crippling sanctions upon Iran with the goal of fomenting civil unrest, but has also escalated CIA covert operations led by Trump-appointed officials and cultivated an intimate relationship with the MEK terror cult, which is spearheading a social media propaganda campaign against the Iranian government directed at western audiences. The Trump administration's approach to Iran is in these ways mirroring the Obama administration's approach to Libya and Syria, and has been called a regime change policy in all but name due to the many unrealistic demands being made of the Iranian government in order to deescalate. These escalations could easily erupt into direct hot war in the future, especially with this administration being stuffed to the gills with virulent Iran hawks at the highest levels.
The Medea Benjamin video is so tasty I've watched it several times. It feels like it's attuning my cells and reminding me what it takes to put up real time resistance in the stifling atmosphere of opposition by breaking through the somnolent hypnosis of tribal dynamics.
This is what it takes. But this is all it takes. Interrupt our regularly scheduled programming with a burst of truth and humanity will inevitably rouse a few more from their hypnosis, and a few more awake is a few more towards tipping point. While Democrats are holding demonstrations in support of longstanding neocon agendas against Russia and leftists are gathering to punch racist nobodies in the face, this feisty little sheila threw her body into the bright lights of the brainwashing machine and jammed it right up until they had to physically remove her.
Are we seeing the heart of the anti-war left kick back into life? I sure fucking hope so. Unlike the impotent busybox of Russiagate, this is the resistance to Trump that is real, and it will work. Attacking the Trump administration on their continuation of Bushbama's warmongering ecocidal, omnicidal policies and refusing to fall in line with longstanding neocon agendas runs interference on the very lifeblood of the parasitic elite that seek to suck the tax dollars of working Americans into murdering humans and fattening Raytheon profit margins.
Destroying the war machine fixes everything from climate change to living standards, terrorism, famine, homelessness, mental health, slavery, plus all the horrors that war always necessarily births into the world such as rape, black markets, human trafficking, refugee crises and so on. Not to mention the butchery of humans for profit which is what war is. Putting up resistance by breaking the hypnotic effect of war propaganda works. No one actually wants war apart from a handful of powerful elites who fund these think tanks to weave lies and manipulate truth into stories that will manufacture consent for endless military bloodbaths. Simply using the truth to run interference on these lies and spin is enough.
Medea Benjamin is my hero. People are going to tell me that she and her organization haven't been exactly 100 percent perfect on every single issue every single day, because this is the left and that's what the left does. But I don't care; anyone who's willing to throw a hammer in the gears of the machine to any extent is a hero to whatever extent that they did so. Enough of us doing what Medea Benjamin did would bring the entire machine crashing down.
Medea Benjamin, thank you. I salute you.
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She’s a little spitfire. I’ve watched her say and do these types of things for years. Glad she’s practicing what she’s preaching.
It is very sad event occurred such an high concept think tank organization.
Great read Caitlin, thanks for all of your writing, hope, and hard work.
I think Benjamin succeeded in getting the truth out to a large audience. But, the majority of the public still believe the propaganda that the US and its allies are fighting terrorism and spreading freedom and democracy in the Middle East, and that's why they forced regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq (twice), Libya, and Syria (failed). And now they are hyping up public support for a move on Iran.
Let's repeat that phrase, 'spreading freedom and democracy.' If you can't tell that's propaganda, try writing it down a hundred times. If after doing that you still can't tell, there's no hope for you.
Who are the goons that drag her out? Aren't they embarrassed? Think tanks do nothing more than spew bullshit for the elites to gobble up and regurgitate talking points. I live how flummoxed people were!
Good article