The war currently spreading in the Middle East is both worrying and revolting. How could we not feel worried and revolted by what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, to the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Iranians…
And we should also be worried for our own future. The U.S. entering into war against Iran, alongside Israel and backing them, is another step towards world war. By bombing the Iranians’ nuclear sites and using unprecedented fire power, Trump has accelerated the machinery that leads to world war.
The stated aim of the war against Iran is to prevent if from acquiring the atomic bomb. According to Western leaders, this would pose an existential threat to Israel, the Middle East and the whole world. If you give someone a bad reputation, people are then happy for you to get rid of that person!
The U.S., France and Great Britain have their own nuclear arms, enough to blow up the planet. The only great power that has ever used the atomic bomb is the U.S., in August 1945 against Japan that was ready to capitulate. Israel, whose current leaders are carrying out genocide in Gaza, have nuclear arms and have never been part of a non-proliferation treaty. And we should be scared of Iran?
Who withdrew from the agreement signed by Obama in Vienna in 2015 in which Tehran committed to reducing its nuclear activity in exchange for a gradual lifting of international sanctions? Trump, in 2018!
In reality, Trump is using the situation created by Netanyahu’s warmongering policy to crush one of the last regimes that is resisting him in that region. The United States are not bothered by the theocratic dictatorship that Iran holds over its people. You just have to see how friendly the U.S. is with Saudi Arabia, a feudal regime that has just executed a journalist!
The Islamic republic is the dread of the U.S. because it imposed itself by overthrowing the Shah’s pro-American regime and the mullahs have never agreed entirely to submit to U.S. orders.
Contrary to what the media keeps going on about, this war won’t make the world safer or more just and it certainly won’t guarantee world peace. You only need to see how Irak was destroyed by the war the U.S. waged on them and the chaos there, just like the chaos in Libya.
The bombings and the latest spread of the imperialist war are criminal. Solidarity with the Iranian, Palestinian and Lebanese populations but also the Israelis, all trapped in a rain of fire and counting their dead.
It’s disgusting to present Israel and the United States as liberators of the Iranian people. As if a people could be liberated by bombs falling on their head!
The Iranian population, the women but also the workers facing living conditions that get tougher and tougher, have shown over the years an extraordinary fighting spirit. Many dream of overthrowing the regime, one of the most dictatorial in the world. But, for the last week, they have been preoccupied with their own survival, reduced to silence and repressed more than ever.
The ‘free’ and ‘democratic’ world that Trump and Netanyahu praise is a world in which peoples have no say. Trump was elected to bring peace and yet here he is throwing his country into another war! And as for the Israelis, they woke up on June 13 to discover that their government had decided to strike Iran and that they would have to pay for it.
It would be a mistake to think that someone like Trump or Netanyahu can stop the spiral of war by using military force to crush their enemy. Israelis are the victim of Iranian retaliatory fire. Perhaps Americans will be tomorrow. And who knows, we ourselves may even be collateral victims of this imperialist war that Macron supports.
Step by step, we’re coming closer to world war. Putin, Trump and Netanyahu have used weapons to assert their domination. By showing their military strength, their ultra-sophisticated bombers and submarines, the United States have issued a warning to China.
But the military superiority shown by Israel and the United States won’t put an end to rivalry between powers. Sooner or later, their competitors will try to challenge this new balance of power, and they will also use weapons.
These bloody wars are waged against all of us. We need to fight the pyromaniacs, starting with our own leaders and their system, who set these wars off.
Nathalie Arthaud