ALERT:
Trump Considers Options for Military Attack on Iran
No U.S. War on Iran! Trump/Pence OUT NOW!

November 16, 2020 | revcom.us

 

The New York Times reported today¹ that in an Oval Office meeting last Thursday, Trump “asked senior advisers…whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site in the coming weeks.” According to the Times, “A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike.” But clearly, this does not mean that the danger of Trump’s launching a war has gone away. The Times cited “administration officials” revealing that Trump “might still be looking at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies…” 

Any such attack on Iran, under whatever pretext, would be extremely dangerous, and thoroughly illegitimate—all the more so because Trump has been decisively defeated in the election, yet refuses to concede and continues to whip up his fascist supporters to back him up.

To be clear, Iran’s fundamentalist Islamic regime has committed real crimes against its people and backs other reactionary forces in the region. But the massive butchery and crimes carried out by America in the Middle East, not to speak of around the world, is thousands of times greater than anything the Iranian rulers could even dream of. Just to name a few of these American crimes in the Middle East, carried out under both Republican and Democratic presidencies: the 1953 CIA coup that overthrew the elected leader of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh, and brought to power the Shah (king), who carried out decades of torture and brutal repression; the U.S.-UN sanctions on Iraq from 1990 to 2003 that caused immense hardship for the people and death of hundreds of thousands, including children; the 2011 U.S.-NATO bombing of Libya that killed tens of thousands of civilians and left the country in shambles; the massive 1991 invasion of Iraq based on lies and the years-long occupation that followed and resulted in deaths of hundreds of thousands; the backing of Israel’s bloody attack on and massacre of the people of Gaza in 2008-9.²

When they came into office, the Trump/Pence regime sharply changed the previous U.S. imperialist policy versus Iran, marked by Obama’s signing of a multinational deal with Iran to limit its nuclear weapons program. Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal—and then imposed draconian sanctions on Iran as a form of economic warfare. This has strangled Iran’s economy and caused extreme hardships for the masses of people of Iran.³ 

In January of this year, Trump ordered the assassination by drone of top Iranian general Qassim Soleimani while he was in Iraq. This American assassination of a high government official of a sovereign state, on the soil of another sovereign state, was objectively an act of war.⁴ In June, the U.S. and the International Atomic Agency accused Iran of blocking international inspection of its nuclear sites—setting up possible justification for further American military action against Iran. 

And now Trump, as he scrambles to stay in power, may be looking to launch a war on Iran. This is an ominous development in a situation already fraught with great danger for the whole world. 

In the name of humanity, we—the people—must stop Trump from launching a war or any other acts of aggression against Iran. We need to do this as part of staying in the streets to demand: Trump, Pence and the whole regime, OUT NOW!

 

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1. Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program, NY Times, Nov. 16.  [back]

2. See these article in the revcom.us American Crime series:

• 1953 CIA Coup in Iran: Torture and Repression – Made in the U.S.A.
• U.S.-UN Sanctions on Iraq—“A Legitimized Act of Mass Slaughter”
• The 2011 U.S.-NATO War on Libya
• The 1991 Persian Gulf War – “Operation Desert Storm”
• Israel’s U.S.-Armed and -Backed Massacre in Gaza (2008-2009)

Go to the series page for exposures of many more American crimes around the world.  [back]

3. See Explosion Destroys Nuclear Fuel Site in Iran as Trump/Pence Regime Steps Up Attacks at revcom.us.  [back]

4. See On the U.S. Assassination of Soleimani and the Heightened Danger of War: Oppose U.S. Imperialist Aggression—Trump/Pence Out Now! at revcom.us.  [back]

U.S. weapons of war – F-35 jets – line up for a launch exercise, January 2020. (Photo: USAF twitter)