While most of humanity has, rightly, been outraged at the growing system-caused famine in Gaza and as protests in the wake of IDF killing of the World Central Kitchen humanitarians apparently forced Israel to allow more aid trucks into Gaza, there are huge and alarming moves towards wider war that mostly get left in the “….in other news” department.
Consider this an alert.
On April 1, the day the Israeli Defense Forces killed the WCK workers, Israel bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria, killing several Iranian military officials. The Iranian consulate in Syria was part of its embassy compound, and embassies are considered territory of the guest country. So, by all standards of international law, this was an attack on Iran. U.S., Israeli, and Iranian officials have all said a retaliatory attack from Iran is coming. The Middle East is on edge.
When the righteous demand a stop to giving Israel the 2000 pound bombs which have killed and injured so many, Biden and Blinken revert to their rote “we support our friends in Israel,” implying solidarity with the Jewish people who have suffered centuries of abuse. Reality check: U.S. military strategy depends on Israel as its key “European” ally and base in the region, along with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, against its main military rival, Russia, which acts through Iran and Syria.
Check the map: we can document 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, which surprises many. I’ve been following Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader, on social media, who said recently:
What the hell is the U.S. military doing thousands of miles from the U.S. in the Middle Eastern country of Jordan?! The answer is this: What it is doing in Jordan is part of what the U.S. military as a whole is doing, with its guns, bombs, missiles, and other means of mass slaughter: killing huge numbers of people in the most monstrous ways, all over the world, so that the U.S. can remain the world’s “number one” capitalist-imperialist oppressor and destroyer of people and the environment (with the U.S. military itself one of the main forces rapidly devastating the environment).
Meanwhile, Ukraine. Last summer, Biden gave the go-ahead to NATO countries to supply F-16 fighter aircraft (built by Lockheed Martin) to Ukraine. They could, likely would, be used to attack Russia. Putin has responded, including again yesterday, on Russia’s military options, raising, as he has several times since Russia invaded Ukraine, nuclear weapons.
“If they deliver F-16s, they talk about it, they train pilots, I think you understand this like no one else, better than others – this will not change the situation on the battlefield. And we will destroy their planes in the same way as we are destroying their tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, including multiple launch rocket systems. Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us, wherever they are. And the F-16s are also carriers of nuclear weapons, and we will also have to take this into account when organizing combat work.”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister, said in an interview at the end of March that in Europe,
War is no longer a concept from the past. It is real, and it started over two years ago. The most worrying thing at the moment is that literally any scenario is possible. We haven’t seen a situation like this since 1945 [when World War 2 ended]. I know it sounds devastating, especially for the younger generation, but we have to get used to the fact that a new era has begun: the pre-war era. I’m not exaggerating; it’s becoming clearer every day…
I don’t think the U.S. power structure “wants” nuclear war or does anything it does to foster “democracy,” or “peace.” I don’t believe it’s the weapons manufacturers, or the Israeli government, or particularly evil leaders which drive the world’s #1 imperialist power; rather, it’s the essential need to dominate or be dominated built into the capitalist-imperialist system.
It’s that system which has to go. We applaud the heartfelt, sincere actions of many millions taking to the streets, stages, pages and putting their lives on the line to stop the genocide of Palestinian people, the existence of nuclear weapons and all the attacks on humanity.