On June 20, an Iranian missile knocked down a US $ 130 million unmanned U.S. spy plane that invaded its airspace.
A day later, U.S. President Donald Trump decided to bomb three Iranian bases but retreated ten minutes before the start of the operation. He claimed that he learned that up to 150 Iranians could be killed in the operation.
By Fabio Bosco
The “New York Times” itself, in a June 6, 2019 editorial, expressed surprise for the fact that Trump administration has suspended a decision to prevent deaths as everyday both Latino immigrants die on the U.S. border and American bombs are fired at Yemeni population.
This conflict was preceded by the expansion of the U.S. military presence in the region and small explosions in four oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, a sea passage through which around 30% of world oil exports flow.
The Israeli and Saudi governments are pressing the United States to initiate a military aggression against Iran under any pretext. Within the U.S. government itself, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and particularly National Security Adviser John Bolton are spokesmen for military aggression and occupation.
However, so far this is not Trump’s policy. His decision to break the nuclear agreement signed by Obama in 2015; impose harsh economic sanctions; increase the military presence in the Persian Gulf (also called the Arabian Gulf); and launch several denunciations against Iran (generally unfounded) meets his electoral interests , proving that he is tougher than former Democrat President Barack Obama and, even without any armed action, directly benefits the American arms and oil industries.
Under the threat of war, arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan widened, in addition to sales to the US government itself.
The climate of war and the reduction of Iranian exports (due to sanctions) also raise the price of oil. That favors oil companies in general, and economically makes it feasible to prospect for oil from shale within the United States.
In this way, Trump achieves its electoral and economic goals without involving the United States in a much riskier war than the invasion of Afghanistan (2003) and Iraq (2005) in which the American interests until today have not been reached.
Sanctions: The War by Other Means
The economic and political sanctions against Iran were retaken by Trump in 2018 by announcing the break with the nuclear agreement with Iran signed in 2015 by both the Obama administration and European powers.
The comprehensive nature of these sanctions has a more devastating effect on the Iranian economy and the working population than a war itself.
Since its announcement oil exports have been falling, unemployment has increased, inflation has reached 50% a year, and there is a lack of medicines and other imported products in Iran.
Since 1980, the US government alone or in conjunction with European governments and the United Nations have imposed sanctions on Iran.
The fact is, however, that the 1979 Iranian revolution changed the relationship with the United States which in 1953 had become an American satellite following a coup d’état sponsored by the British MI6 and the CIA.
Together with the State of Israel and Saudi Arabia, it formed the tripod of American support in the Middle East.
After the 1979 democratic revolution, Iran made several agreements with the United States such as the purchase of arms in the 1980s (which became the Iran-Contra scandal in the United States) or the support for the puppet governments in Afghanistan and Iraq imposed by the US Army.
At other times Iran was in dissent as in the nuclear issue and in Saudi aggression against Yemen.
Iran: A Dependent Capitalist Country
Economic sanctions were tougher between 2010 and 2015 when they led to the collapse of the Iranian currency, the Riyal, in 2012, and since 2018 under Trump.
Although economic sanctions are sold as more human or intelligent alternatives to military aggression, experience shows that sanctions hit hard the working population while dictatorial regimes, such as Iranian, are strengthened internally.
BTW, if sanctions were effective in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, there would be no such cases as North Korea.
The Issue of Nuclear Weapons
Workers around the world repudiate nuclear weapons and mass destruction.
They do not want more atrocities like the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 nor the chemical weapons used by the United States against the population in the Vietnam War.
Even the use of nuclear energy itself is subject to debate.
This powerful technology, in the hands of economic groups or capitalist governments, can lead to new disasters such as those of Three Mile Island in the United States, Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union or more recently Fukushima in Japan.
The fight against nuclear weapons must start with the disarmament of the United States’ arsenal, the largest in the world and also the only country to launch atomic bombs for military purposes.
While this does not occur, it is the right of any semi-colonial or dependent country to develop weapons, including nuclear ones, for their defense.
Iran is under threat by two nuclear powers: The United States and the State of Israel, which has a large arsenal of nuclear bombs (about 300 warheads according to some experts). It is on their right to defend themselves.
The Fight Against Dictatorship in Iran
The Iranian revolution of 1979 had as flagship the fight against the dictatorship of Shah Reza Pahlevi, for democratic liberties, for social justice, against American domination (understood by the population as the main sponsor of the dictatorial regime) and against the Iranian alliance with the State of Israel.
However, the most recognized leadership of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini, did not share these same goals.
On the contrary, he silently worked for a new authoritarian regime called “Velayat-e Faqih” (something like “Regime of the Islamic Jurist” in Farsi language) and managed to impose it aided by the support of the traditional bourgeois commercial bourgeoisie (bazaaris), and by the capitulation of the “democratic” bourgeoisie and the leading leftist organizations that were very influential.
Other factors that strengthened this authoritarian regime were the U.S.-encouraged Iraqi aggression (the Iran-Iraq War 1980-88) and the economic and political sanctions.
Military aggression and sanctions increased the control of the regime over the economy and legitimized authoritarianism and austerity policies.
The struggle against the dictatorship in Iran must necessarily be combined with the fight against any aggression or sanctions; with unconditional support for the Palestinian people in their struggle against the racist state of Israel; and the support for revolutions in the Arab world.
– Trump Out of the Middle East! American Troops Go Home!
– Stop Sanctions On Iran!
– For the End of the Racist State of Israel! Free Palestine From the River to the Sea!
– All Support to the Iranian Working People in Their Struggle to End the Dictatorship!
– All Support for the Arab Revolutions!
