The "lunatic" in power today in the USA apparently considers that the general public is as ignorant as he is. So he spouts outright lies in order to justify the (indiscriminate) "targeted" killing which he and Netanyahu launched last Saturday against Iran. Yes, at a regime which Ae calls "lunatic". And of course, the bombs are falling on everybody.

    It's beyond hypocrisy for Trump to pretend he is helping ordinary Iranians free themselves from oppression, given what we've seen so far of Trump's nepotistic Washington regime - not to mention his thousands of ICE recruits (a la Iranian Revolutionary Guard?), who also "shot their own people". Or his pretence to be fighting religious "fanatics" when he is surrounded by born-again Christian fanatics, like vice president JD Vance...

    Apparently being soaked in the blood of the Palestinians was not enough. Now it's "Operation Epic Fury" (USA) alongside "Roaring Lion" (Israel), no matter the consequences. When asked, Rubio didn't rule out American boots on the ground - no doubt in case this sparks a civil war which gets out of hand.

    Meanwhile, we hear the worst example of gas- lighting yet - the projection conto "the enemy" of Trump's own barbarism - which, to borrow Trump's exaggerated superlatives, "you've never seen in the whole of history".

    Quite obviously, the economically-strangled Iran is and was no threat to US "security", nor to the region, for that matter, even before its nuclear facilities were destroyed last June. It had no nuclear bomb. [t was not a terrorist state, nor a sponsor of terrorism. But it was under permanent threat itself, from the best- equipped, nuclear power in the region - backed by the world's super-power. What chance did it ever have of surviving their aggression? If slogans like "death to Israel" and "death to America" were chanted in the streets, this was always pure, hopeless, rhetoric.

What do they want from this war?

So, regime change, then? Starmer says he doesn't believe in it being imposed "from the skies". Of course, he would immediately be reminded of the disastrous Bush-Blair (Bliar) war on Iraq - and the terrible debacle in Libya. But nevertheless, he doesn't dare condemn this war.

    So, after Trump's taunts that he's "not Churchill", he says, absurdly, that US war planes can use Britain's regional bases provided that they only attack missile stockpiles and rocket- launchers! Oh yes, that caution from "Sir" Keir, will undoubtedly stop the US air force from bombing Iranians in the streets, school girls in their schools and patients and staff in hospitals, etc...

    In the meantime, Germany's Merz has taken over Britain's poodle cushion on Trump's lap... Behind their obsequious toady-ism, all of these lap-dogs who lick Trump's feet, are just serving the interests of their "economies" - AKA big capitalism, both national and international.

    But drawing Iran into imperialism's economic net, which they would like to do, can only help postpone their system's doomsday. They have been trying this same approach in Ukraine, in order to capture Russia's resources, without much success so far. It seems history is not on entirely their side...

Our side is with those under attack

However, Trump hasn't hesitated to spell out Washington's real motives. Referring to his mini- invasion of Venezuela, he explained how he now has an "excellent relationship" with "Delcy" (Rodriguez, the jailed Maduro''s former vice president) "and we have already taken out 100 million barrels of oil - a big part goes to them and a bigfer) part goes to us... it's great". Which says it all.

    The sharp rise in the price of oil due to this new Gulf war has been immediate. And all the usual suspects benefit, while ordinary people pay the price. In the Middle East they pay with their lives. Here we pay out of our pockets. Not that there's any equivalence.

    While Starmer proclaims his only concern to be the 300,000 "Brits" unable to "get home", we hear obscenely how the only worry of the "US public" is the loss of US life in this war... Forget all those dark (and "evil"?) Iranians, Arabs, Palestinians who are dead and dying...

    So today, when Trump lies and when Starmer pretends a "difference" over this war, we can be sure that the imperialist West is united against the Iranian regime and any others which dare to oppose its attempts to "recolonise" the region. Because yes, this is a signal to non-imperialists and former colonies - including Putin's Russia and Xi's China - that they'd better watch out, or they may suffer a similar fate.

    The working class cannot support this attempted rehash of past plunder and slaughter. We've seen history repeat as tragedy too often. We have to stand with those under attack. Our side is with them and never with Trump, nor with Starmer, Macron, or Merz, who are just the latest protagonists of today's degenerate, mendacious and merciless rule of imperialist capital.