What "Iranian aggression" is US capitalism referring to?

Protesters attacked in Bahrain

I was in Australia a couple of years ago and one night in a youth hostel on the Queensland coast I met a couple of Americans.  I never saw a lot of Americans up and down that coast, perhaps it was the time of year, past the summer holidays.

Anyway, we hadn't been talking long when two subjects were  introduced briefly in to the conversation, one was Jesus and the other was Iran, it seemed the young guy was quite concerned about the dangers of Iran.  My response as that I'd left Jesus on a bumper sticker of some car on a California freeway, and I was not in the least afraid of Iran, it's little president or the religious nuts that actually run the place. We Americans have to be afraid of the rest of the world otherwise we'd travel more and might discover that everything the US capitalist class and its mass media tells us is not exactly the way things are.

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal editorial page had a piece on Bahrain.  Bahrain is the home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet whose role it is to protect the interests of primarily the US and western energy corporations in the area.  Defending the profits of the oil industry bosses are some 30,000 troops that the absolute monarchy allows on the island for a fee.

The ruling class in Bahrain is Sunni and the majority of the population is Shia.  Before the rise of US capitalism as the world's dominant imperialist power, the British dominated Bahrain and the entire gulf also using the island as the main base for its forces there to protect British capitalism's interests.  The Persian gulf was an important staging area for British capitalism en route to its main prize, India.  The discovery of petroleum also transformed the relationship of this entire area and increased its importance to the US and British in particular.

Like Syria and Yemen, the Bahraini monarchy has suppressed the uprisings in their country for democratic rights and an end to discrimination and other reforms with severe brutality, shooting unarmed protesters in the streets.   We don't hear as much about Bahrain in the mass media here as we did initially and certainly do not hear the same proclamations about brutality and violence and the right to protest as we do about Syria.  Unlike Bahrain and Yemen, the Syrian dictatorship is not a complete stooge of the folks in Washington and the Pentagon. This is the problem the US has with Iran, it is not governed by a group completely subservient to US capitalism's interests. It was the US and British let's not forget, that orchestrated the coup that overthrew the secular democratic government of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 and installed the ruthless, dictator we know as the Shah of Iran.  Those silly Iranians wanted to break the grip British capitalism had on its oil industry; they wanted more control over their national resources.

The situation in Bahrain is a tricky one. The US has 30,000 troops there.  The Saudi monarchy sent troops in to Bahrain on US capitalism's behalf to quell the unrest but the more a genuine struggle for democratic rights is suppressed, the more possibility there is of a religious alternative arising that will be exploited by the theocracy in Iran.  But US imperialism is damned if you do and damned if you don't.  A regime that allows more democratic rights in the form of a wider voice for the mass of the people will, automatically tend to want more control over its foreign policy and economy. The foreign policy of the US/Israeli/British alliance, one that aggressively confronts the Iranians, does not offer a secure and prosperous future for the workers and middle class of the gulf region or the world for that matter.  The more the US supports the Bahraini monarchy in its suppression of human rights and democratic reform, the more likelihood the Islamists of one type or another will gain influence in the movement as the only alternative.

The Wall Street Journal, the main mouthpiece of US imperialism, is concerned as the Bahraini regime is arresting people left and right. The Justice Ministry, the Journal reports, has arrested and will try 47 doctors and nurses who treated protesters the military shot or beat to a pulp.  This is a tactic to prevent people from protesting as care would be non existent, says Doctors Without Borders.  It's embarrassing the US and Britain publicly and they are considering, just considering, stopping arms sales to the kingdom. "They're not on the chopping block just yet" though, the Wall Street Journal assures it's class base.

Bush with his Bahraini puppet

Bahrain, "has been a steady US ally and counterweight to aggressive Iranian designs" the Wall Street Journal writes. (My added emphasis).  What "aggressive designs" is the Journal referring to?  Which countries is Iran invading?  Has Iran bombed anyone of late?  The country lost perhaps 300,000 youth in the 8 year war with Sadaam Hussein's Iraq, a war that Hussein started with behind the scenes US support as it wanted a weakened Iran.  US capitalism eventually made its support and supplying of Iraq more overt and those of us old enough will remember the US downing of the civilian Iranian airliner that killed some 300 people; something the US never apologized to Iran for.  This war was a brutal war involving trench warfare and the use of chemical weapons by the US's friend Sadaam Hussein

I am no scholar of ancient history but I cannot recall any country that Iran has invaded for a long time.  And think of the arrogance of it; this is a part of the world within Iran's sphere of influence. The defenders of the energy corporations want complete control of the resources in the area.  It would be like the Iranians or some other country controlling the coalfields Pennsylvania or the oil derricks of Texas.

Iran didn't invade Lebanon and cause untold misery and physical damage.  It didn't invade the Gaza concentration camp with planes and missiles.  Iran didn't invade Iraq or Grenada or Panama or Kosova. I have no time for the Mullahs and the little nut that is quoted in the press all the time but I am not afraid of Iran.  The energy bosses and US capitalism is concerned it won't be able to plunder the natural resources of the area if a hostile Iran is strengthened, this is the bottom line. US and British foreign policy is the cause for the rise of the Mullahs.  It is British and US capitalism that has been the greatest obstacle to the rise of secular democratic states in the region.  It is about resources (oil primarily) and profits, and US capitalism will wage endless war and terror in order to defend these interests abroad and at home as it is doing now.

As we have said in previous blogs. The working class has no independent voice that speak for us or defends our interests domestically or on a global scale.  It is not in our interests to support the policies of US capitalism in the region; it is not in our interests to side with the Pentagon against Iranian, Iraqi or any other workers.  We can condemn the Mullahs who too are brutal thugs, but they, like Bin Laden, are US capitalism's product; US capitalism is the force with the big stick.  Its policies cause untold humanitarian and environmental destruction. 

Regional wars and conquests of this nature are a product of capitalism and the struggle between powers for control over the globe's diminishing resources. The folks at the Pentagon, the Mullah's in Tehran and the Arab monarchy's cannot offer a way forward for workers of the world, they are a band of thieves who will make deals with each other at our expense.  An international workers movement fighting in our own interests is the only alternative to this constant warfare.  US capitalism is a declining global empire but is still the guy with the big stick that can destroy the planet.  A wounded animal is a dangerous proposition.

It is Washington and the Pentagon we need to be worried about, not Tehran.