Ralph Nader, Medea Benjamin and David Swanson: Ukraine: Senseless Conflict

Image by Felton Davis via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Ralph Nader, Medea Benjamin and David Swanson

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Nov 26, 2022

On this week of Thanksgiving, Ralph welcomes two distinguished anti-war activists and Nobel Peace Prize nominees, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODE Pink to discuss her book War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict and David Swanson of World Beyond War to not only put the conflict in Ukraine in context but also to reveal the financial incentives that drive endless war.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. Her most recent book, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, is War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.

“I remember everybody was talking about the peace dividend: “Hey, the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, we can shrink the military budget. We can disarm more. We can put the money back into communities. We can rebuild and restore America’s public works— our so-called infrastructure.” We didn’t count on the profit motive of the determined, deliberate, limitless greed and power of the military industrial complex.” — Ralph Nader

“We have a history of the US making coups in countries around the world. And it’s oftentimes decades after those coups that we find out the information about the extent of US involvement. That will be the case in [Ukraine] as well.” — Medea Benjamin

“We are looking sector by sector about how to mobilize and put pressure on our Congress and directly on the White House. Because I think that it’s the only way that we, in this country, can use our influence. And we must do it.” — Medea Benjamin

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, radio host and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. His books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War.

“When you see these videos contrasting “all the money going to Ukraine” and the homelessness problem and the poverty problem in the United States, we shouldn’t imagine this money as benefiting the people of Ukraine at the expense of benefiting the people of the United States. It’s exacerbating and prolonging a war that is devastating the people of Ukraine.” — David Swanson

“They’ve made war something that involves no US lives— or very, very few, and not officially a US war—and they’ve made it all about assisting a “struggling little democracy” against a “brutal authoritarian dictatorship”. And it has been the most phenomenal propaganda success I can recall or have read about in history.” — David Swanson

Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.

“NATO expansion only happened because the Senate ratified the inclusion of all of these new countries in amending the NATO treaty. So, Congress is a partner with the President in flouting the pledges to Gorbachev (at the time) against further NATO expansion east after the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Just another example of congressional dereliction.” — Bruce Fein

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Substack

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David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include Leaving World War II Behind (2020), Curing Exceptionalism: What’s wrong with how we think about the United States? What can we do about it? (2018) and War Is A Lie (2010; 2nd Ed. 2016). He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee and U.S. Peace Prize Recipient. Support David’s work.

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See also:

USA’s Military Empire: A Visual Database

From the archives:

The U.S. Has Put Six Worse Things Than the World Cup in Qatar, by David Swanson

Scott Ritter: America’s Hubris is Stunning and a Threat to World Peace, interviewed by Finian Cunningham

John Pilger: The US is Escalating War Tensions With China in Desperate Bid to Maintain Global Power, interviewed by Finian Cunningham

“Subpoenas” Served On U.S. Weapons Manufacturers, by Brad Wolf

U.S. Escalates War Against Russia, by Gary Wilson

Ukraine Without Ukrainians, Earth Without Life, by David Swanson

Chris Hedges and Medea Benjamin: War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict

Kucinich Says Call for Diplomacy to End Ukraine-Russia War Must be Heard; Silencing of Congressional Progressive Caucus Casts Dems as the “War Party”

Crossing the Border into Ukraine, by Brad Wolf