What’s really going on there?
By Mario Galvan
The US media says that the US and Israel were justified in attacking Iran a few days ago for two reasons. First, because they couldn’t get Iran to agree on a deal to guarantee that Iran wouldn’t produce an atomic bomb, and second, that the Iranians were planning to attack Israel, so they had to strike first to preempt the Iranian attack. Both of these claims are blatant lies.
For decades, people (especially the Israelis!) have been claiming that Iran is on the verge of building a nuclear weapon. This is ironic, since Israel itself, helped by the US, has built an arsenal of 200 atomic bombs in secret. There has never been any evidence that Iran is trying to do the same. Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence, recently stated publicly that there is no evidence of any Iranian attempt to develop a nuclear bomb. So the fact is that right now two nuclear-armed powers, the US and Israel, are attacking Iran, a non nuclear-armed state, under the pretext of preventing it from developing nuclear weapons.
The second claim is equally ridiculous. Just last June, in what is now known as the 12-Day War, these same two nuclear powers attacked Iran by surprise, killing government leaders, and bombing Iranian nuclear sites where non-military work, such as for medical uses of radioactive materials, was going on. When Iran recovered from the surprise, they counterattacked Israel with such force that Israel had to ask the US to arrange a ceasefire. Iran agreed to the ceasefire, and has honored it until now, when the US and Israel have attacked it yet again. Iran is clearly not the aggressor here; they are acting in self-defense.
The Wider War
But Iran isn’t acting only in its own self-defense; this attack isn’t only on them. They’re being attacked because they’re a member of BRICS, a group of nations that are organizing themselves to escape domination by the US and its European allies. For centuries, since Europeans started sailing around the world and realized that with their superior technology, they could dominate and control other poor and ignorant (and non-white) peoples, “the West” has controlled the world. First militarily, with “guns, germs, and steel,” then later economically, through colonization and control of their colonies’ natural resources. But since the end of WW II, as their colonies became independent and started to grow and develop, the West is losing control over the rest of the world. These last decades of “endless wars,” are their desperate attempt to hold on to power with brute force.
The economic rise of China has broken their financial control, and losing the war in Ukraine has shown that they can’t even match Russia’s industrial strength, much less its superior military technology. Trying to maintain its image as a global power, the US is bullying small countries like Venezuela and Cuba. But now with Iran, the stakes are much higher. This isn’t just a show of force, it’s a desperate effort to stop the growth of BRICS. And it’s not just a war on BRICS; indirectly, it’s a war on all of the Global South, the poor nations that were former colonies of Europe.
The BRICS nations (not a military alliance like NATO), are building a new global network of trade and transportation linking many countries. They already have railroad lines running from China to Iran, and are planning on continuing them all the way into Europe. This is why the US and its allies are desperate to topple the government of Iran, which is the crossroad of BRICS east-west and north-south transportation corridors. If they succeed, they can halt the BRICS project in its tracks.
Their War Plans Are Already Breaking Down
Their attack on Iran is blowing up in their faces. What they thought would be a quick, like spanking of a misbehaving child, is becoming a regional war. Iran is attacking all of the US military bases in the region, driving the US military out.. Local Arab monarchs, who thought the US bases were there to protect them, are trembling in fear as the US abandons them. Iran has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the Persian Gulf, blocking a large part of the flow of oil on which the world economy depends. If this continues for long, the price of a barrel of oil could reach $200 a barrel, pushing the price of a gallon of gas in the US up to $10. The US, and the world, are on the brink of a global economic disaster.
The majority of Americans, already drained by years of endless war and ever-increasing military budgets, are opposed to this illegal and unconstitutional war. These wars aren’t being fought to defend or protect us, but because war is good for business; a lot of money is being made off them. One of our new jet fighters costs $300 million, a B-2 bomber costs $2.1 billion, and an aircraft carrier cost $15 billion. To the US government, making money is more important than protecting people.
Sadly, in addition to impoverishing us here at home, the end product of this massive military investment is the deaths of millions of people, the destruction of cities and entire nations, and the creation of floods of migrants escaping the violence. Our post 9-11 wars in the Middle East have already cost us $355 billion, and created around 40 million refugees. Now we’ve started a new and even wider war. Some say this may even be the beginning of WW III.
What Can We Do About It?
The most tragic part of all this is that we too, the poor and powerless are also to blame. We actually have the political power to stop this, but we don’t use it. At election time, we give our power away to the very people we criticize, condemn, and protest. Blinded by the lavish spectacles they put on at election time, we vote for the Republican or Democratic parties. In the last election, which vomited up Donald Trump, they spent $15 billion to buy our votes. These parties, that have been taken over by the rich with multi-billion dollar donations, have a death-grip on our political process. They don’t give a damn about the poor, who are the vast majority in this country, and in the world, too.
Until we wake up to the political reality of this county and realize that we’ve been voting for the very people who are grinding us into poverty and destroying the planet, nothing is going to change. If there’s ever going to be a change, it’ll have to come from us; from the bottom up. Once we wake up to the political power we already have in our votes, and stop voting against ourselves, we can change this country and the world.
Bringing this all back to the current war on Iran, it’s the US ruling class, which already controls us, desperately trying to keep their hold on the rest of the world. If we can break free from them, and take back control of our own government, we can actually begin to live in peace and harmony with the rest of the world. We can shut down the war machine and spend all that money on building a better life for us all. Working in partnership with the BRICS nations, we can help create a more just and peaceful world, free of war and poverty.
In Conclusion
We’ll give the last word to a poor American Black man who became famous after being beaten up by the police. The brutal beating of Rodney King on March 3, 1991 by a group of policemen, caught on someone’s camera phone and made public, led to the 1992 Watts Riots in Los Angeles. When the policemen who beat him were acquitted and set free, the riots, an outbreak of rage against the system, broke out. They lasted six days, led to 63 deaths and 2,383 injuries, and had to be put down with help from the National Guard, the Army, and the Marines.
In the end, Rodney King, looking back at it all, simply said, “Can’t we all just get along?” We need to apply his simple proposal to the nations of the world, as well as to all the rest of us.