On June 21, US warplanes dropped “bunker buster” bombs on three Iranian nuclear sites, including one heavily fortified site, Fordo, that is critical to Iran’s nuclear program. The US military has now directly entered into war with Iran, side by side with the ever more bloodthirsty Israeli regime.

An estimated 700 people in Iran and 24 in Israel have already been killed in just the last week. This comes after more than 17 months of the Israeli military’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed over 60,000 Palestinians. Now the murderous Israeli regime is eager for more blood in Iran to further consolidate its position in the Middle East. 

Trump Was Never Anti-War

Trump has made countless promises to end every war on Earth and to never again get the US involved in a “forever war.” He is also, however, a committed opponent of the Iranian regime who, at Netanyahu’s request, ripped up the deal to curtail Iran’s nuclear program in 2018. He was leery of further “entanglement” in Israel’s current assault but was persuaded by the war hawk wing of the political establishment on the basis that this would be “quick and easy” and would give the US and Israel total dominance in the region.

But this campaign has only begun and will prove to be anything but “easy.” The Iranian regime is already promising major retaliation, with state television declaring mere hours after the US bombings that “every American citizen or military personnel in the region is now a target.” US troops will die as a result of Trump’s reckless escalation. 

Trump, like many other imperialist leaders before him, is seeking a dramatic military success abroad to distract from his mounting domestic problems. His ramped up campaign of terror against immigrants was itself an attempt to distract from declining approval ratings and an increasingly divided coalition. After this backfired in spectacular fashion, provoking the largest single day of protest in US history on June 14, strongman Trump needed yet another distraction. 

We now live in a new era of inter-imperialist conflict, which is escalating at breakneck speed. US imperialism, with erratic and unpredictable Trump at its helm, is locked in a life-or-death battle with Chinese imperialism over who will be the dominant global power. China’s close alliance with Iran, combined with the importance of the US’s alliance with Israel as a stronghold in the Middle East, means US imperialism has significant interest in undermining Iran’s nuclear capabilities and even replacing the Iranian regime.

Capitalism Means War

Working people have no interest in brutal wars being fought between billionaire-controlled imperialist governments. The combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is estimated to be between $4 and $6 trillion, with an estimated 4.7 million direct and indirect deaths in the war zones that also included Pakistan, Syria, and Yemen. It’s not lost on millions of workers and young people in the US how similar the current escalation is to how the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan began—in a recent poll, only 16% of Americans supported US military action against Iran.

The trillions of dollars spent on war should instead be spent on healthcare, education, and a massive green union jobs program to build high-quality, public, affordable housing and public transportation. But this will never happen under capitalism, which time and time again inevitably leads to the outbreak of war as power-hungry imperialist countries fight for control of land, resources, and labor to exploit for profit. We urgently need to escalate the international anti-war movement against this new military escalation. This should include mass protests, civil disobedience and workers’ action such as refusal to transport arms and strikes.

No Trust In The Democrats

Just like with Iraq and Afghanistan, the vast majority of Democratic elected officials are likely to fall in line. The Democrats overwhelmingly supported the invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the most powerful Democrats in Congress, are just as loyal to Benjamin Netanyahu’s warmongering campaign as Trump is.

Even so-called progressive Democrats are focusing their ire on Trump’s decision to enter the war without Congressional approval, but a vote in Congress would change nothing about the destructive nature of imperialist war. We must be clear that the Democrats and courts won’t save us from Trump. We need mass struggle and a new, working-class party to oppose both Trump and the Democrats.

Socialism Or Barbarism

It is clear that Israel wants “regime change” in Iran. There is no scenario in which a US and Israel-backed proxy regime would lead to stability in the region or improve the lives of workers and oppressed people in Iran. But the current regime is also no solution for the Iranian masses. The mass Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022 showed the seeds of the type of movement needed to replace the brutal, oppressive dictatorship of Ayatollah Khamenei with a genuine working-class alternative, but it needed a clear socialist program, strategy, and leadership.

There is no solution to the seemingly endless bloodbath in the Middle East on the basis of military intervention by any imperialist powers or any reactionary capitalist regime in the region. The only road forward is one of mass, international working-class struggle for a socialist world, in which all wars can finally be ended for good.

Socialist Alternative Says:

• No war with Iran! Immediately end US military intervention in Iran and all funding for Israel’s murderous regime.
• Slash the nearly $1 trillion US military budget and spend that money instead on education, healthcare, and a massive green jobs program to build high-quality affordable housing and public transit.
• Build an international anti-war movement with mass protests, nonviolent civil disobedience, and working-class action, including refusal to transport weapons and strikes.
• No trust in the pro-imperialist Democrats! Build a new working-class party that firmly opposes all imperialist war.
• You can’t have capitalism without war: build a mass, revolutionary socialist movement to topple this barbaric system and usher in a new era of humanity defined by peace, solidarity, and an end to human suffering.