On Sunday morning local time, a US submarine launched more than two dozen missiles at a site near Isfahan, the third-largest city in Iran. About two hours later, a group of B-2 stealth bombers dropped twelve bunker-buster bombs on sites in Fordow and Natanz, south of Tehran. US political and military leadership claimed that the strikes were necessary to prevent Iran, a sovereign nation, from developing nuclear weapons.
This unfounded aggression followed widespread Israeli attacks across Iran starting on June 13. Using hundreds of aircraft and missiles to bomb sites across the country, Israel’s assault killed the head of Iran’s armed forces, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, several prominent nuclear scientists, and hundreds of civilians. After days of continued attacks on Iran, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that all residents of Tehran, a city of nearly ten million, should immediately evacuate the city.
The outrageous acts perpetrated by our government this past weekend, which constitute an unequivocal declaration of war, should strike us as being as familiar as they are disgusting. They should remind us of a similar series of events in 2003, when a propaganda campaign was undertaken to convince this country that we needed to invade and occupy Iraq to get rid of purported “weapons of mass destruction” being developed there. Many Americans cheered as the US military launched an invasion which killed over 500,000 Iraqis, and proceeded to install a weak puppet government which has in practice shared rule of the country with ISIS and similar groups over the past twenty years.
This is the same imperialist strategy our government is pursuing again. The US military-industrial machine has no interest in building democracy across the world. Its goal is to neutralize independent governments of all stripes and to leave countries which previously had (despite any number of problems) decent standards of living in abject economic dependence and often civil war. It aims to eliminate so-called “threats” and leave chaos in their place.
Are you, reader, going to stand idly by as the government that claims to represent you launches an assault on a country of over ninety million people? A war with a country that is over a quarter the size of the US would be disastrous not only for the Iranian people, but for people at home as well. If a draft comes, young people in this country — predominantly working-class people, possibly including some of your friends and family members — will be forced by their government to die for the interests of oligarchs. Thousands of Americans would die so Iran could be taken over by a US puppet regime, or worse, balkanized into impoverished client states, destroying each other over ethnic tensions stoked by our own government. Don’t fall for it like so many — maybe even yourself — did in 2003.
Luckily, it seems as though tensions are dying down, with a purported ceasefire between Iran and Israel taking effect. However, we must be vigilant. It would be a strategic blunder for the US government to escalate its war on Iran at this moment. The Trump administration knows that a full-scale war would be extremely unpopular. But make no mistake — regime change in Iran is this administration’s ultimate goal. When the tide of public opinion turns even slightly, the war drums will start beating again, and if we’re not careful, you may find those close to you “explaining” to you why we need “boots on the ground” in the Middle East once again. Again, we must be vigilant.
The only thing stopping our government from spending trillions of dollars on destroying one of the largest countries in West Asia is the power of ordinary people — like you — organizing against war. No one in the two-party duopoly is coming to stop Trump. On Tuesday, the overwhelming majority of Democrats in the House joined with Republicans to strike down a proposed motion to impeach Trump for attacking Iran without Congressional approval. Perhaps some Democratic presidential hopefuls aim to be the one to successfully “bring democracy” to Iran. Only we can stop them.
Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) condemns the US government’s bombing of Iran, and upholds Iran’s right to self-defense against all outside aggression. DAWA condemns the hypocritical war hawks in the Trump administration, including Trump himself, who despite having voiced their desire to “end endless wars” have proven no different from the warmongering neocons they aim to distinguish themselves from. DAWA condemns the criminal Israeli government’s assault on Iran, which represents an outright declaration of war of on a sovereign nation. And as always, DAWA condemns the horrific genocide being perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the genocide’s enablers in the US government.
As we have emphasized before, the U.S. war machine is vast, and its arms are everywhere. We must strike blows against it wherever we are, especially against the military-industrial contractors who profit from this aggression against Iran, from the genocide in Gaza, and from other conflicts across the world. We encourage all readers to join or work to form local anti-war groups, and by growing and practicing as activists to carry on this struggle.
US and Israel Out of Iran!
Fight the US War Machine on All Fronts!
End the Genocide in Gaza!
Free Palestine From the River to the Sea!