Interview: Peace Activists Kathy Kelly and Medea Benjamin Talk about Afghanistan and What Comes Next (original) (raw)
Medea Benjamin. Photo: Elvert Barnes.
John Tarleton Aug 18, 2021
Kathy Kelly.
Kabul has fallen. The 20-year U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan is over. And now many of the leading militarists who presided over a disastrous war that cost tens of thousands of lives and more than $2 trillion are bellowing away on corporate media outlets like CNN, MSNBC and N(ational) P(entagon) R(adio).
But what about the peace activists who were right all along? On this week’s edition of The Indypendent News Hour on WBAI-99.5 FM, I spoke with Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink – Women for Peace. They have both traveled extensively to Afghanistan over the years and collaborated with local peace and women’s rights activists there. During our interview, Kelly and Benjamin spoke about the latest reports they are hearing from their contacts inside Afghanistan, why the U.S.-backed regime fell so quickly, the prospects for a “new and improved” Taliban, the need to defund the Pentagon and break with the idea that war is a solution to terrorism.
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