“NOW IS TIME FOR PEACE,” wrote US President Donald Trump on Truth Social on Saturday. On the same day, the US carried out its biggest military attack on Iran in modern history. Trump was backed by European leaders, including his obedient servant in Downing Street, all of whom have been calling on Iran to show “restraint”, to “de-escalate” and to return to the negotiating table.
Bertolt Brecht once said, that “when the leaders speak of peace, the common folk know that war is coming.” He was referring to the carefully crafted war propaganda which is employed at the start of every war. Its purpose is to justify war in the eyes of the masses as just, defensive, and waged in the interest of the nation as a whole, when in reality it is a criminal war waged in the interest of the ruling class, for which the poorest will be asked to pay the heaviest price.
To present every aggressive act as a defensive one is a method which has been refined throughout the history of class struggle. Even so, the crass, conceited arrogance with which today’s war on Iran is being presented is astonishing. Old Brecht would have rolled his eyes in disbelief. If it is not absolutely clear for all to see, let us set the record straight.
Israel’s war on Iran was an unprovoked, monstrous military assault, and Donald Trump’s order for the US to join is a reckless gamble that threatens disastrous consequences for the people of the region and the entire world.
Iran posed no military threat to Israel or the US. Iran’s nuclear programme was, according to the CIA itself, at least three years away from being in a position to build a nuclear bomb. Furthermore, the Iranian regime never indicated that it was actually intent on building a nuclear bomb. On the contrary, it indicated that it would far rather negotiate a deal to lift western sanctions on Iran in return for limiting its nuclear programme to civilian use. Indeed, that was the whole content of the US-Iran nuclear deal that Trump scuppered in 2018.
The western appeals to negotiations thus fly in the face of the facts: Iran doesn’t need to “return” to the negotiation table because it never left it. It was Benjamin Netanyahu who decided to torpedo the negotiations, and America’s ‘peace president’ followed suit. By doing so, US and Israeli imperialism have once more escalated tensions amidst the already strained stability of the region.
In the past two years, Israel has attacked Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen, destroying the lives of millions in the process. It has threatened to unleash the full might of its military machine on anyone who dares to stand up against this. Throughout, Netanyahu has received the full material and political support of the US and the West as a whole, which has its own history of bloody intervention in the Middle East: in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen.
It has left a trail of death and destruction. Proud nations with rich cultures have been dragged into the most humiliating barbarism. No force has ever destroyed as many lives as US imperialism.
And yet, it is Iran which is being attacked for being “a destabilising factor”. The real crime that the Iranian regime has committed against the US and Israel is to have built up the capability to stand up to their capricious, self-serving machinations.
Having built a significant military and political base, Iran is now asking to be allowed to sit at the table as a recognised power in the Middle East. But America and Israel do not wish to share their cake with anyone. That is the long and short of it.
Democracy
Much has been said in the western press in recent days about the lack of democracy in Iran. Flanked by his western supporters, Netanyahu has been calling for the people of Iran to seize their “freedom” from the “evil and repressive regime.”
But before all else we must ask what mandate Netanyahu, Trump and their European lap dogs are operating with. Netanyahu is hated by much of the population in Israel. His government has staggered from crisis to crisis. Only two weeks ago, it was verging on the brink of collapse. It is a publicly known fact in Israel that Netanyahu has been hopping from war to war, essentially to blackmail the Israeli population to keep him in power. His crowning achievement is tying US imperialism down in a war on Iran, something he has been pursuing since 7 October 2023.
Trump took Netanyahu’s bait even though he was elected on a programme of ending wars, in particular those in the Middle East. 60 percent of the American people are opposed to the US attack on Iran. Only 16 percent are in favour! Now he is picking up the mantle left by Biden.
The irresponsible actions of these people, supported by the European regimes, are now threatening a devastating regional conflagration which could potentially tip the world economy into a recession – all at a terrible cost for millions of people. Where are those people’s rights?
And yet these same ladies and gentlemen are trying to teach the Iranian people about democracy – at gunpoint! The Iranian people only have to look at Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya to see where that kind of ‘Democracy’ will end up.
The real war aims
The real purpose of this war is not stability, peace, democracy or the destruction of nuclear weapons. It is about the Israeli ruling class, and its western backers, reserving for themselves the undisputed right to do as they wish in the region: to bully, bomb and invade anyone, anywhere, at any time, without meeting any resistance.
In lining up behind Israel, US imperialism has once again revealed its nature as the most brutal, murderous and destabilising force in the world. It is a fountainhead of reaction which spews its infectious rot in every corner of the planet. As such, it is the main enemy of the world’s working class. The liberation of the Iranian workers and poor is the task of the Iranian workers and poor themselves. It cannot be done by western imperialism. On the contrary, their liberation can only take place in tandem with a struggle against US imperialism.
The imperialists, who have been raping and pillaging the Middle East for decades, are the same people who exploit and oppress the workers in the West. They are now telling us that Iran poses the greatest threat to our safety and security. But they have far more blood on their hands than any other regime in the world. In other words: the main enemy is at home, and the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed nations is the same as the struggle against the capitalist class in the West.
Down with the war on Iran!
Down with US imperialism!
Workers of the world, unite!
