Medea Benjamin, "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" and Veterans For Peace member Ann Wright, retired US Army colonel and former US diplomat known for resigning from the State Department in opposition to the Iraq war, are touring Texas to speak about:
US FOREIGN POLICY IN A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
MEDEA BENJAMIN is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the human rights group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more than 40 years. Described as "one of America's most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by New York Newsday, and "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement" by the Los Angeles Times, she was one of 1,000 exemplary women from 140 countries nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the millions of women who do the essential work of peace worldwide. She is the author of nine books, including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection. Her articles appear regularly in outlets such as The Huffington Post, Common Dreams, Alternet, The Other Words, and TeleSUR.
ANN WRIGHT is a retired US Army colonel and former diplomat who publicly resigned from the US State Department in direct protest of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was a member of the team that opened the US Embassy in Afghanistan in December, 2001. In 2016, Ann was captured in international waters and imprisoned by the Israelis on her fourth attempt to reach shore with the Gaza Flotilla, this time on the Women's Boat to Gaza. She also traveled to Russia, Japan, Korea, Germany, Greece, and elsewhere this year and can speak to the human and environmental costs of war and militarism around the globe and the possible effects of a Trump administration's policies on all of us. She is the co-author of the book Dissent: Voices of Conscience, and has written frequently about sexual abuse in the military, the refugee crisis, and U.S. militarism around the globe.