It was entirely predictable: the war that Netanyahu and Trump launched against Iran on 28 February, has already extended further - and has had an "unprecedented" impact on the world economy.
The mindless capitalist "market", which goes up and down like a yo-yo following each of Trump's witless statements, has pushed the price of all commodities up, everywhere! But first and foremost, this is severely affecting countries dependent on the 20% of oil (and supply of fertilizer, gas, helium...) normally carried through the partially-blocked Strait of Hormuz. It especially hits China... is that intentional, on Trump's part?
On Monday, he couldn't resist proving his presidential "power", by claiming the war was about to end. So after the oil price shot sky-high, it duly fell down again! But, as usual, he was lying. To this infantile world leader, the human and economic crisis he has created is just like a monopoly board-game. If the "Iranians" don't make a deal with him in the next 5 days, said he, "well just keep bombing our little hearts out"...
Starmer stuck in a bloody muddle
But is Starmer any better? He condemned the retaliation by the Iranian military against Diego Garcia (ineffectual, anyway) as "reckless". But he has not come out against the war. He has just said he doesn't want to join in, because, he now claims, it's his role to protect "British" interests only... One has to wonder about the so-called "special relationship" with the USA. Is it "off" again, as Trump's lame jibes against Starmer suggest?
Then, after 4 Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green were set on fire on Monday morning, Starmer said this was a "horrific anti-Semitic attack", carried out by suspected Iranian-linked "operatives". But actually, no-one was hurt, nor killed...
This cannot be said of the attacks routinely carried out by Netanyahu's Israeli "operatives". And at the start of the Gaza war, fully supported by Starmer.
When Mossad blew up the pagers of Hizbollah- linked workers in Lebanon 2 years ago, they killed 12 - including 2 children - and horrifically injured hundreds, blinding some who received the blast full in the face, which was precisely the aim. After all, weren't they the "enemy"? Much like protesters shot in the face by the Iranian regime's Basij militia last Dec/Jan, or in 2022/3 during the protests over Mahsa Amini's death, after her arrest by morality police.
For the fifth time since 1978, the Israeli army is invading Lebanon, occupying the South and bombing Beirut. Already at least 1,039 have been killed (so far) and 2,876 injured. All, apparently, in the pursuit of the "terrorist" Hizbollah.
But of course, one could ask, who is the biggest terrorist? Quite obviously, it depends entirely on where you are standing, and what you stand for. As the saying goes: one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter...
Against imperialism, for international socialism!
In this context, it's an utterly mistaken idea that this war - even if it topples the Iranian regime - will result in a "progressive" outcome for the majority of the Iranian population, let alone anyone else in the region. Yet this idea is promoted by some of the media. And it's also an idea expressed by Iranians living here, and even by Iranians currently being bombed in Iran.
As if a war waged in this way and by imperialist leaders who defend a class system of exploitation, could and would change the situation for the better anywhere in the world! As if such wars ever have! Out of the few thousand dead and injured so far, the leaders who Trump claims to have "decapitated" are a mere handful. What's more, Netanyahu continues to demonstrate his "liberation methodology" by helping his own religious fanatics annihilate ever more Palestinians in the settler-occupied West Bank!
Ever since it hijacked the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Islamic regime has been severely sanctioned and embargoed by the West. But until now, western leaders allowed it to exist. For them, a repressive Islamic Republic which kept its population in strict order, was a lesser evil than rule by self-professed "Marxists" or left-wing nationalists calling for "socialism"!
If the sanctions (justified by the fiction of a nuclear bomb!) had been lifted, it's very likely that the regime would have "liberalised", despite itself - and that today, it would be no worse than any other regional dictatorship headed by a dynastic sheik...
So we need to be clear: no matter the harshness of the regime - when the population in Iran, in Lebanon, and beyond, is faced with a war launched by the forces of (an albeit increasingly senile) imperialism, we always stand on the side of those attacked. We have the same enemy, ultimately: that is, our own states, our own political leaders, who are increasingly turning the screw on workers and the poor, to try to "save" their dying system.