US demonizing Iran to prepare Americans for more wars

The rhetoric against Iran coming from hawkish US officials resembles the language used against Iraq before the 2003 military intervention, said Media Benjamin, best known for co-founding Code Pink, a grassroots anti-war and social justice movement.

“It’s very scary what the US administration is doing; I’ve seen this before prior to the invasion of Iraq where they kept making up lies and distortions to paint Iraq as a threat to the United States; to prepare us for a military intervention,” Benjamin said.

“It’s important for the American people to know what this administration is up to and to counter the attacks against Iran,” she added.

On Wednesday, Benjamin disrupted an event at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank where the US special envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, was speaking.

At the end of the first part of Hook’s speech, Benjamin stepped on the stage and protested  America’s anti-Iran policy by shouting “No more war. Peace with Iran.”

“You’re doing exactly the same thing we did in the case of Iraq. We don’t want another war in the Middle East...how did Iraq turn out? How did Libya turn out?” she yelled while being removed by security guards.

During his speech at the Hudson Institute, Hook repeated false claims that Iran is the “world's leading state sponsor of terror” and said Washington sought a treaty with Tehran over its ballistic missile program and its influence in the Middle East.

He also said that the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), lacked support among members of the Republican-held Congress, when it was clinched under former US President Barack Obama.

Trump re-imposed anti-Iran sanctions, lifted as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, in August, after withdrawing the US from the agreement, also backed by the UK, Russia, Germany, Russia, and China.