The U.S. is carrying out another massive attack on the people of the Middle East. Trump has declared that he is going to change the ruling regime of Iran. The U.S. military, along with Israel, has carried out massive bombing and missile attacks across Iran. Israel is also carrying out a massive bombing in Lebanon and is preparing to send troops to occupy part of the country. In the first week of what could be another endless war, more than 2000 people have been killed. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, many leaving nothing but rubble behind. This latest war follows the genocidal war on Gaza and the ongoing war on the people in other parts of Palestine.
The wars, carried out in our name, are not in defense of our interests. They have one goal – the domination of this oil-rich Middle East by U.S. imperialism and its allies.
The U.S. has a long history of attacks on Iran. In 1953, the U.S. and Britain organized a coup that overthrew a popularly elected government headed by Mohammed Mossadeq, that had nationalized the oilfields instead of allowing the U.S. and Britain to control them. The coup installed a brutal regime headed by the Shah, which crushed all political opposition. In 1979, a widespread revolutionary upheaval overthrew the Shah’s regime. An Islamic regime took power and control of the resources of the country. The U.S. responded by imposing increasingly harsh sanctions since 1987, which limited the economic development of the country and had horrific impacts on the population that was living under a dictatorial regime.
This destruction of the Middle East and slaughter of its people is not new. The impact of the U.S. attempts to control Iraq, an area with vast deposits of oil, has been devastating. In the 1980s, Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, was an ally of the U.S. and given support by the U.S. in the war against Iran that lasted from 1980 to 1988. It devastated the economies of both countries, exhausted their militaries, and an estimated one million people were killed. Then, from 1990 to 2003, the U.S. waged wars on Iraq, with the goal of overthrowing Saddam. Following his death in 2003, the country has been torn apart by civil war. Today, after 23 years of warfare, Iraq remains a war-torn country divided by warring factions.
This latest attack on Iran serves as a warning to rulers of countries around the world that the U.S. will not tolerate any opposition to its policies of domination.
This has been true in the Western Hemisphere. Hugo Chávez became president of Venezuela in 1999 on a strong nationalist program, one that took control of the largest offshore oil deposits in South America. Since then, Venezuela has been a target of every U.S. regime. Sanctions have been imposed on the country, crippling trade. Recently, Trump ordered Nicolás Maduro, who replaced Chávez as president, to resign and hand over power to the U.S. Maduro refused, and despite his attempts at compromise, U.S. troops attacked the military base in Caracas, kidnaped Maduro and his wife, and flew them to the US. They are imprisoned in Brooklyn, N.Y. The U.S. is working with members of Maduro’s government to impose U.S. control over Venezuela and its resources.
Trump has been threatening Cuba with regime change, increasing sanctions, and cutting off oil supplies. This is not new for the people of Cuba. Ever since the Cuban revolution of 1959, that toppled a U.S.-backed dictatorship and refused to let the U.S. have a free hand in running the island, the U.S. has tried to depose the Cuban government by force or by imposing harsh sanctions. But instead of covert operations, the threat to overthrow the Cuban government is not hidden.
The U.S. wars are not just abroad. They are here at home. The poverty, lack of housing and medical care, cuts to social programs and education are attacks on our lives. Parts of many cities are like war zones. Of the so-called democracies, the U.S. already has the greatest number of police killings and homicides and has the highest rate of incarceration with nearly 1.9 people imprisoned.
Now there is an invasion of the expanded federal ICE forces. These paramilitary units have imposed a reign of terror in cities and towns across the country. Like the U.S. military occupying other countries, there are few restrictions on these heavily armed, unidentifiable agents of the state. They can brutalize, kidnap, and even kill without any legal consequence.
We don’t have to accept or tolerate the wars carried out at home or abroad. And people are standing up to them, like we have seen in Minneapolis and cities and towns across the country. There are demonstrations, like the No Kings, No Billionaires that is being organized for March 28. Getting into the streets with millions of people across the country will show us that we aren’t alone. That can be a first step toward organizing for the changes we need.
