US and Israel Middle East policy threatens us all.

by Richard Mellor, Afscme Local 444, retired

I picked up a Wall Street Journal this morning and the first headline I see is: “US Bulks Up to Combat Iran.” .  It seems the war boys at the Pentagon have spent $400 million of our money upgrading the “Massive Ordinance Penetrator”, or MOP for short or  “bunker buster” bomb in more popular jargon.

I am confused.  Has Iran threatened to invade the United States?  Are the Iranians preparing to bomb our cities and towns? 

It doesn’t appear so.  The concern is that Iran has a nuclear program and Israel, the only state in the region with nuclear weapons, hundreds of them by all accounts,  opposes any other nation achieving nuclear statehood.  The Zionists have threatened many times to bomb Iran unilaterally.

The US admits that Iran has repeatedly announced that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. “..Iran refines fuel it maintains is intended for civilian use but the U.S. and its allies believe is destined for a nuclear weapons program.”, says the Wall Street Journal. “Its allies” primarily means Israel, but no matter what Iran says, both Washington and Tel Aviv will not accept it; being the only one armed in a conflict is a handy thing.  The possession of a nuclear arsenal though is the safest protection against US imperialist aggression.  Iranian bases do not surround the US. Iranian warships and submarines do not patrol the California coastline or have a major presence in Baja or the Gulf of Mexico.  Iran is not a threat to US workers and our families.  Iran is a threat to Dick Cheney and all the coupon clippers that profit from the oil business just like Unions are a threat to them. If the Mullahs were willing to share the loot and do Wall  Streets bidding, the oppression, lack of democracy, wouldn’t prevent a strong friendship between Tehran and Washington from developing. The US has stood idly by as an absolute monarchy has crushed violently a movement for reform in neighboring Bahrain where the US has 30,000 troops.

It appears the warmongering and threats that emanate from Washington and the Pentagon are driven by Tel Aviv.  US officials believe the “enhanced” bunker busting device, “..decreases the chances that Israel will launch a unilateral bombing campaign against Iran this year….” the WSJ reports.

US officials have been falling over themselves in their efforts to show their pro Zionist credentials, even as the Europeans have warmed somewhat to the plight of the Palestinians cramped in to the Gaza concentration camp or spread throughout the state, often at the mercy of the fascistic settler movement that the Israeli military protects. .

“President Obama and Mr Hagel have used recent visits to Israel to stress Israel’s right to decide for itself whether to strike Iran.” the WSJ reports.  The problem with this is that the consequences of such an action affects the entire world.  The reason the Zionists could take such action is that US Imperialism is behind them.  It would be easy to prevent Israel from "unilaterally" bombing anyone, we could simply stop supplying them with heavy equipment, weapons and money

These US politicians, and some celebrities like Madonna for example, visit Israel and don’t go to Gaza.  These people are complicit in the racist and brutal assault on the Palestinian people and their culture.   Why would US policy be dictated by what this tiny little enclave called Israel decides?   Israel could not possibly do what it does in the region without the financial support and weaponry it receives from the US taxpayer.  It is a murderous and racist regime that is the elephant in the room, the main destabilizing factor in the region.

As the Arab spring has shown, the Zionist regime is the only reliable ally for US imperialism in the region that allows the continued plunder of the region’s main resource, oil.  The revolutionary potential of the Arab masses is well understood by the folks at the Pentagon.  US imperialism will and has supported any regime that will allow its plunder of the region to continue unabated and even the brutal Saudi thugs are not seen as the most secure allies if and when the Saudi masses along with its imported labor force moves in to more open conflict with the regime.  The US supplies these thugs with the weaponry and technological know how to keep the masses at bay but there is a strong Arab identity encompassing million of workers and this is always a threat. 

Israel, once referred to by the British governor of Jerusalem as British Imperialism’s “Loyal little Ulster in the Middle East” after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, is the safest bet as a launching pad to defend US capitalism’s interests in the region.  Israel, the persecuted minority surrounded by a sea of hostility.  The siege mentality is useful to some, just like the Zionists benefiting from anti-semitism, peace would be an obstacle to plunder and peace can never be achieved on a permanent basis under capitalism.

After the US overthrew the democratic secular regime of Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953, Washington installed the murderous Shah, known to us as the Shah of Iran.  He slaughtered any opposition to his puppet regime and was renowned for his torture chambers and his secret police, the SAVAK.   Democratic secular forces were driven underground or in to the protective custody of the Mosques, those that weren’t tortured and murdered by the Shah and his US partners.

The anti-democratic misogynistic theocracy that governs Iran is a direct result of British and US Imperialist meddling in the region. The Iranians have good reason to be suspicious of western intentions.  No worker or trade Unionist can support such a regime, but this writer for one is not afraid of Iran.  The US and its Zionist allies in the region are the most destabilizing factor in the region. Even in the Syrian conflict, it appears the US is following the same disastrous road but they are driven by the internal forces of capitalism to pursue this road.

For workers while offering no support to the Mullahs it is in our interests to build links with and strengthen the Iranian workers movement which has a militant and rich history, particularly the oil workers of Abadan. But for this writer, it is not the Mullahs I fear but the strategists at the Pentagon and the few thousand unelected leaders that govern the US and direct foreign and domestic policy.

Workers are under assault in the US, people have been evicted from their homes, denied health care, lost jobs.  The future is one of further austerity as US capitalism puts its own workers on rations to pay for its imperialist ventures. There is real danger if we do not step to the plate.  Bombing Iran would be a global disaster.  It would strengthen Islamic fundamentalism and weaken international worker solidarity. It is in our interests to actively intervene to stop the war plans of the folks in Washington and the Pentagon. The Iranian workers have a long history of struggle for economic and political freedom; they are our allies, or potential allies depending on our relationship to those who will likely decide to wage war against a another country killing many workers in the process, there and here.  We cannot allow capitalists and bankers to negotiate on our behalf, be the global face of America.  Iranians can’t eat oil; they have to sell it.  Our goal must be to negotiate with them as workers, equally and with the goal of improving the lives of everyone.

Present US foreign policy is simply an extension of domestic policy. The policy of austerity for workers and the middle class in the quest for profits for a few. It is not our policy and will lead to disaster if workers do not enter the stage with force.

Down with Wall Street, down with the Mullahs.  Build international working class solidarity