Trump Shreds Iran Nuclear Deal, Threatening Millions and Another War in the Middle East

May 14, 2018 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

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“Internationalism—The Whole World Comes First.”

Bob Avakian, BAsics 5:8

Refuse Fascism Chicago protests Trump pull-out of the Iran deal.

“The essence of what exists in the U.S. is not democracy but capitalism-imperialism and political structures to enforce that capitalism-imperialism. What the U.S. spreads around the world is not democracy, but imperialism and political structures to enforce that imperialism.”

Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:3

American lives are not more important than other people's lives
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“If you can conceive of a world without America—without everything America stands for and everything it does in the world—then you’ve already taken great strides and begun to get at least a glimpse of a whole new world. If you can envision a world without any imperialism, exploitation, oppression—and the whole philosophy that rationalizes it—a world without division into classes or even different nations, and all the narrow-minded, selfish, outmoded ideas that uphold this; if you can envision all this, then you have the basis for proletarian internationalism. And once you have raised your sights to all this, how could you not feel compelled to take an active part in the world historic struggle to realize it; why would you want to lower your sights to anything less?”

Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:31

Last week, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 deal it and other world powers negotiated with Iran to greatly restrict its nuclear enrichment program. Iran has never had nuclear weapons and was abiding by the deal. But no matter. Telling one big lie after another, Trump tore the agreement up anyway. This was the world’s biggest nuclear-armed imperialist power and greatest mass murderer on the face of the earth telling a small-time reactionary regime—and the whole world: dance to America’s tune, or else face aggression, even war!

The global gangster-exploiters who run the U.S., along with their thug Israel, couldn’t wait to begin further terrorizing, threatening and rampaging through the Middle East. The very next day after Trump’s announcement, Israel launched dozens of military strikes against Iranian forces in Syria.

But you who are reading this have NO interests in this marauding, this trampling on millions, this waging war against the peoples in the Middle East. You who are reading this have no interests in the way your vampire rulers are playing with the very fate of the planet. NO! The most fundamental interest you have—and the duty we all have—is to unite with the masses there and around the world in a movement for revolution, everywhere. And right now, we must expose this drive toward war, build opposition to it, and mobilize people to drive out the fascists who are now attempting to clamp down further in the U.S., and unleash “fire and fury” around the world.

More Lies from the Biggest Shithole in the World—Trump’s Mouth

Trump claims he’s ripping up the agreement because it doesn’t stop Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons. He deceitfully implies that Iran is already a nuclear weapons threat or soon will be. But while Iran has zero nuclear weapons, the demented bully Trump—who has repeatedly asked since the U.S. has nukes, “Why can’t we use them?”—is the one with his trigger finger on 4,000 nuclear weapons! Iran has sharply scaled back its non-military nuclear development (including for nuclear power) and has been abiding by the agreement, while the U.S. is spending billions to make its weapons of mass destruction even more horrific.

Trump denounces Iran for sponsoring terror, exporting weapons, and for “sinister” activities in the Middle East. Iran’s Islamic Republic is an oppressive theocratic regime, which is backing reactionary regimes and forces that have done terrible things to people in the region.

But who’s the world’s number one sponsor of state terror and torture? The world’s biggest exporter of weapons of death and destruction? The world’s most “sinister” power, responsible for the most carnage—from the thousands being shot down right now by Israel for protesting in Gaza, to the millions, yes millions, being starved or threatened by bombs and disease by the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen? And who has been waging war across the Middle East and Central Asia for over 16 years, murdering over a million people and destroying the lives of countless more? Just like the slobbering, shouting morons who parade around with the flag say, “USA! USA! USA!”

Trump turned truth inside out, portraying the U.S. as the victim: “America will not be held hostage to nuclear blackmail. We will not allow American cities to be threatened with destruction...” Get real! It’s his regime and U.S. imperialism that has actually held the whole world nuclear hostage for decades, which are now ramping up threats against Iran’s cities and millions of its people. Why? Not to liberate anyone, but to maintain their imperialist death grip on the Middle East and world.

All this is totally sick, Hitlerian shit. And if people can’t see, and feel, the outrageousness and intolerability of this made-in-USA global thuggery, they need to get their heads out of their asses and wake up... and YOU need to help make that happen.

(See also, “Lies from the Same Lying Liars Who Sold the Invasion of Iraq,” reposted from RefuseFascism.org)

And the Democrats? Petty Complaints in Order to Better Bully the World

What do the Democrats, the so-called “alternative” to Trump, have to say about these threats of massive crimes against humanity? Petty criticisms, basically that the nuclear deal was helping the U.S. maintain its dominance. That it’s better to posse up with other imperialist gangsters—aka “allies”—against Iran. Meanwhile, the Democrats make perfectly clear that if war comes, they’ll rally around Trump and the red, white, and blue. Why? Because they’re on the “same team,” as Obama said about Trump. They’re fully with the Trump/Pence regime on the fundamental need for the U.S. to bully and dominate the world. Their only issue: how to carry out their savagery.

The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!

Trump’s announcement on the Iran nuclear deal was like throwing gasoline onto a building that was already burning. After Israel launched missile attacks on Iranian forces in Syria, Iran has reportedly fired back on Israeli positions. There are reports that Israel is attempting to bait Iran into an all-out war.

Trump has now surrounded himself with extreme, anti-Iran war hawks who make mass murderers like Defense Secretary “Mad Dog” Mattis look like moderates. As a congressman, Mike Pompeo, Trump’s new secretary of state, denounced the Iran nuclear deal and advocated 2,000 airstrikes against Iran instead. New national security adviser John Bolton, reportedly now Trump’s closest adviser, has previously called for preemptive strikes on Iran and “regime change”—in other words overthrowing the Islamic Republic of Iran. On CNN this Sunday, Bolton refused to back away from any of this.

Amid reports that the U.S. rulers are gambling they can “break” Iran’s theocratic regime, Trump has announced he’s imposing the harshest-ever sanctions on Iran—sanctions which will immediately cause great suffering for millions of Iranians. Trump has also provocatively warned Iran not to resume its nuclear enrichment program (even for non-military purposes), even though it’s the U.S. that’s broken the treaty. At a recent meeting with French President Macron, Trump promised to make Iran “pay a price like few countries have ever paid” if its rulers “threaten” the U.S. (i.e., reject its demands).

These are among the growing signs that the U.S. (and Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have been chomping at the bit to attack Iran) are heading toward a confrontation or war with Iran, either of which could spiral into a war that could escalate unpredictably across the region. This could lead to even greater death and destruction than the staggering toll America and its butcher allies have already inflicted on the Middle East for over 16 years.

All this underscores the acute danger to the lives of millions at this moment, and the great urgency of driving the Trump/Pence fascist regime from power through sustained, massive, nonviolent political protest before it can carry out its vile and extraordinarily violent plans.

Trump’s latest moves again show that war, mass slaughter, and plunder are baked into the capitalist-imperialist system, and that these horrors will go on and on and on until this system is overthrown through revolution. Right now, it’s extremely urgent to be working to: Prepare the Ground, Prepare the People, and Prepare the Vanguard—Get Ready for the Time When Millions Can Be Led to Go for Revolution, All-Out, With a Real Chance to Win.

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