The U.S. military has reignited its totally unnecessary, brutal war on Iran. In just the past several days, U.S. forces have struck more than 300 targets across the country, deliberately hitting bridges, power plants, and civilian infrastructure — clear war crimes — and killing dozens more people in this latest round of strikes.
Trump has taken to social media with escalating threats, boasting that the U.S. has thousands of missiles ready to fire and is prepared to decimate the country.
Iran has fired back. It has launched drones at U.S. military bases and oil infrastructure across the Gulf — in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. It has also begun firing on ships attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway in the Middle East through which a major share of the world’s oil and gas flows every single day.
Back in June, a supposed 60-day ceasefire was agreed to, supposedly giving the U.S. and Iran time to negotiate how shipping would resume in the Strait of Hormuz and who would control it. They also planned negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program. But in reality, it was never a real ceasefire. The violence never stopped. One of the conditions of the ceasefire was that the U.S. would force Israel to halt its attacks on Lebanon, but instead, Israel has continued bombing and has now declared that it is permanently occupying new areas of southern Lebanon.
The reason for this renewed fighting is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran knows it is badly outgunned by the U.S., the largest military power in world history. But its one real source of leverage is its ability to disrupt traffic through the Strait through drone and missile attacks, and to disrupt the global economy. And this is leverage it does not want to give up given the repeated U.S. attacks and sanctions on Iran. Iran wants the war to end, but on terms more favorable to them. For example, they want to control which vessels can travel through the Strait, and they want the ability to charge ships a toll to pass through the waterway. Iran does not want to surrender this leverage and accept the U.S. dictating who controls the Strait.
U.S. imperialism on the other hand is unwilling to accept this. The U.S. does not want to give Iran official control over the Strait and has resumed bombings to once again try to force Iran to surrender or possibly take over the Strait militarily. The U.S. wants better control over the flow of oil and resources through the region and is willing to continue this war to try and get it. So the U.S. has made the entire region a powder keg, with the threat of an even greater escalation hanging over everything.
And while this situation carries on, who actually pays? It is the ordinary people of Iran — with over three thousand dead, millions displaced from their homes, living without electricity, having their schools and universities bombed. The Iranian regime has imposed a crackdown on activists who speak out against the regime. Over 2 million people have lost their jobs, many have not been paid since the war began, and inflation is at 88%. Daily life continues to become increasingly difficult.
At the same time, the people of Lebanon and Palestine wake each day not knowing whether they will be killed in a strike or starve to death in Gaza — murdered by U.S.-Israeli wars they never chose to be a part of.
And in this country and around the world, it is ordinary people that pay the price as well. In the U.S. the resources poured into this war are being taken away from our own needs and redirected toward violence and repression. Estimates now put the cost of the war in Iran at some $130 billion — money taken from the population that could fund hospitals, schools, housing, transportation, and more.
The longer this horrific war drags on, the greater the danger that it triggers a full international economic crisis, as the flow of oil and other essential goods is further choked off from people around the world.
And while the U.S. government funds these wars abroad, it is building up its machinery of repression at home. In Texas, activists have recently been handed prison sentences as long as 30 to 100 years for protesting ICE. In Minneapolis, organizers who stood up against the ICE occupation of their city have been indicted on conspiracy charges and may face prison time if convicted. This is what our government plans for those who dare to oppose them.
Those who rule our society are a threat to all of us. Their system of profit and exploitation requires wars of domination and destruction. We can’t accept their system and the future they have in store for us. We have to oppose their system with everything we have. We must refuse to allow our lives and the lives of future generations to be destroyed. Our future depends on us gathering our forces to oppose their system.
