On Friday, May 24, Trump announced the U.S. was sending 1,500 more U.S. troops to the Middle East to protect American troops there from ongoing threats from Iran. This was fewer than the 10,000 to 20,000 the Pentagon had reportedly asked for and presented as simply a “prudent defensive measure and intended to reduce the possibility of future hostilities.”
Since when is it a “defensive measure” to send 1,500 U.S. troops halfway around the world to menace another country? No, this is yet another U.S. escalation against Iran that ratchets up tensions and heightens the possibility of a U.S. attack or confrontation with Iran, which in turn could spiral into a war of massive murder and destruction.
Troops weren’t the only U.S. escalation. Just this week:
- The U.S. sent more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft; a fighter jet squadron with offensive capabilities; and it extended the deployment of a Patriot missile-defense battalion.
- Trump declared that threats from Iran constituted an “emergency,” enabling him to bypass congressional objections and send another $8.1 billion in weapons—including aircraft and guided bombs and missiles—to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These weapons threaten Iran and represent a blood-soaked declaration that the Saudi-UAE slaughter in Yemen should continue. (See accompanying box.)
- For the first time, the U.S. publicly accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards of being behind the recent sabotage of four oil tankers in UAE waters, and claimed “Iranian proxies” had fired rockets near the U.S. embassy in Iraq. Meanwhile, Trump labeled Iran “a very dangerous player” and “a nation of terror.”
Who is threatening who?
All this is taking place against a backdrop of a “maximum pressure” campaign of U.S. military and economic threats against Iran.1 The U.S. already has more than 27 military bases—in Kuwait, Turkey, Oman, Bahrain, UAE, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Djibouti, Egypt, Israel, and Afghanistan—with warships, war planes, and tens of thousands of troops surrounding Iran on three sides. (How would the U.S. react if Iran had military bases in Cuba, Mexico, and Canada?) And now the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and a nuclear-capable U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber task force are on the way to the Persian Gulf region.
The U.S. has also imposed draconian global sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran’s oil lifeline, crashing its economy, and provoking “regime change” through the collapse, capitulation, or overthrow of the Islamic Republic. U.S. sanctions have already brought enormous suffering, with costs of basic necessities soaring and critical medicines in short supply.
Just think about this one example. A February 22, 2019 article at CNN.com, “Iranians are paying for US sanctions with their health,” opens with this incident from 2015, when sanctions were not nearly as severe as they are now:
Ali only had two hours to save his baby’s life. He careened through traffic and sped along highways to an east Tehran government pharmacy. When he saw some 800 people queued outside the facility, he dropped to his knees. Like him, they were waiting to obtain state-funded medications....“I cried and screamed, begging people to let me get through.”
Eventually Ali, a wedding singer and waiter, was able to skip the line and get medication for his daughter Dory’s rare genetic disease. Now he has to obtain it from friends living abroad. But:
Her medical bill has more than doubled, forcing him to sell his car, work two jobs, and accumulate loans. He says that his entire salary from his day job as a waiter goes toward Dory’s treatment.
Oppose ALL U.S. Imperialism’s Moves, Welcome Their Failure and Defeat
U.S. sanctions and military threats are blatant gangsterism against Iran, an oppressed Third World country. Iran is ruled by a reactionary Islamic theocracy which bitterly oppresses the Iranian people, supports reactionary forces across the region, and does not represent a liberating alternative to global capitalism-imperialism. But this doesn’t change the facts that U.S. actions are totally unjust and in service of predatory imperialist interests, and that it represents a far greater danger to the peoples of the region and the world.
There are differences within the U.S. ruling class on Iran, including reportedly within the Trump/Pence regime, on whether and how aggressively to confront Iran. But in any case, U.S. actions have created a dangerous situation in which even accidents and miscalculations could further escalate the clash, including to war. For example, either the U.S. or the Islamic Republic could feel compelled to make further moves, setting off a tit-for-tat cycle leading to war, whether either side initially intended it or not. This danger grows with each U.S. escalation.
No one with a conscience or a shred of concern for humanity should hope any of these U.S. moves succeed in strengthening these predators’ grip on the Middle East and the planet! Instead people should be loudly condemning and actively opposing them.
STOP Wars of Empire, Armies of Occupation, and Crimes Against Humanity!
1. See, “Who Is Actually Threatening Who in the Iran-U.S. Conflict? Six Basic Realities the U.S. Media Downplays, Obscures, or Lies About,” revcom.us, May 13, 2019 and “Iran: America Plays Imperialist Roulette in the Gulf Putting Millions of Lives at Risk,” revcom.us, May 20, 2019. [back]
USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier moving in the Arabian Sea.
Trump/Pence Arms Shipments to Saudi Arabia and UAE:
A Big “Thumbs Up” to Slaughtering Children and Starving Millions in Yemen
Since March 2015, the U.S. has been supplying most all of the planes, the bombs, the logistical support, and the intelligence that has enabled Saudi Arabia and the UAE to wage a brutal war of murder and starvation on the people of Yemen in an attempt to crush Yemen’s Houthi movement. Already 85,000 children have been killed and over 12 million Yemenis pushed to the brink of starvation. Just this last Friday, Saudi warplanes blew up a gas station in southwest Yemen, killing as many as 12 civilians and at least four children, while wounding dozens more. This U.S.-enabled war is on track to have killed 233,000 people by year’s end.
Now Trump has OKed billions more in arms shipments—a big “thumbs up” to slaughtering more children and starving millions more Yemenis.
A child is pulled from the rubble caused by a U.S.-backed Saudi Arabia airstrike in Yemen, May 16, 2019. Photo: AP
“40 Years of Terror” by Iran? Try nearly 70…by the U.S. of A!
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the current crisis and danger of war in the Persian Gulf on “40 years of terror coming out of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Forty years of Iranian terror? What about the nearly 70 years of U.S. intervention, aggression, and terror against Iran?
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