The U.S. Just Bombed Iran

The illusion of democracy shatters in wartime

The ideological hubris, greed, and religious fundamentalism that led to the disastrous U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are back. In fact, they never left.

Today, the United States conducted a military strike against Iran.

Despite the fact that war without an official declaration from Congress is illegal under U.S. law, and despite the fact that the unilateral Israeli strike on Iran violates numerous provisions of international law, Trump — who like Biden, Obama, and George W. Bush before him, cares nothing for the rule of law or for humanitarianism — has sent B-2 bombers to bomb three nuclear sites in Iran. He is moving navy warships, fighter jets, tankers, and other forces to the region. Military bases, CIA stations, and diplomatic sites in the region are being evacuated. U.S. troops are on the ground in Israel manning radar systems and air defense batteries. Significant airborne deliveries of weapons continue to arrive in Israel daily.

And as usual, Trump is manipulating the media and public opinion. He is endlessly repeating lies about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), despite the fact that his own director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified just months ago that Iran was not developing nuclear weapons. Now the party is falling in line. Gabbard is walking back her comments. Christian fascist Pete Hegseth is practically foaming at the mouth.

The sociopathic authoritarian and wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently on trial on Israel for corruption, bribery, fraud, and breach of trust and is facing over a decade in prison, has all the ideological and personal motive in the world to continue the “state of exception” the war allows. He’s been lying about Iran’s nuclear weapons program for more than 30 years now.

It's Iraq, WMDs, and lies about yellow cake uranium all over again.

The U.S. government has long wanted to depose the Iranian government. For those who don’t know the history, the U.S. and the UK overthrew the democratically elected socialist Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 to protect BP oil interests after Mosaddegh nationalized Iran’s oil, initiating a chain of events that led directly to the Islamic Revolution and the rise of Khomeini. Now, with the shale oil revolution in the U.S. nearly tapped out, the west wants Iran’s oil — the second largest reserves on the planet —again. And with Syria’s fall, Iran represents the next domino in the U.S. imperial scheme to maintain and expand imperial power. Resources, power, dominance.

Welcome to Biocentric, a newsletter about sustainability, overshoot, greenwashing, and resistance. It’s written by me, Max Wilbert, the co-author of Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It, co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass, and organizer with the Community Legal Environmental Defense Fund.

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Meanwhile, vast clouds of carbon dioxide spew from the exhaust of carrier groups steaming across the Indian Ocean and cargo planes winging towards nearby U.S. military bases.

Meanwhile, the so-called “Israeli Defense [sic] Forces” commit daily massacres, shooting down dozens of Palestinians who have been systematically starved for months but continue to gather at food distributions sites because the alternative is literally starving to death.

Meanwhile in Tehran, Ahvaz, and Isfahan and dozens of other cities in Iran, in Ramallah and villages throughout the West Bank, in Beirut and throughout Syria, and in Hodeidah, Sanaa, Ras Isa, and many other locations in Yemen, Israeli bombs, missiles, and bullets kill hundreds daily.

In the game of great power politics, the people and the planet always lose.

To be clear, the Iranian government is a religiously fundamentalist ethno-state, just like Israel. Both are responsible for major human rights violations. Neither government deserves our admiration.

However, only one of those governments is responsible for a genocide. Only one of them is actively conducing a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Only one is responsible for killing and injuring more than 50,000 children. Only one launched a surprise attack against the other. Only one has engaged in targeted assassinations. Only one has refused to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and built a stockpile of illegal nukes. Only one maintains an internal system of apartheid. Only one has made targeted military strikes on hospitals, universities, journalists, and first responders a de-facto policy. Only one has a policy of collective punishment against civilian populations.

Much of the world is cheering as Iranian missiles strike Israel, because finally, someone besides the Houthis and the Palestinians are actually fighting back against the rogue genocidal ethno-state.

Meanwhile, in the United States, war is — as always — deeply linked to internal repression and shatters the myth of democracy. Various polls have shown that between 45% and 60% of all U.S. adults oppose American military action in Iran, with only 16-25% supporting. Dissent is being punished heavily. Academics, students, immigrants, and other groups that represent independent political blocs are, as always under authoritarianism, being targeted. Early this month, I interviewed the brilliant anti-war attorney Terry Lodge, a friend of mine, about this repression. That interview can be found here:

"First They Came for the Pro-Palestine Activists"

The bombs have dropped. The smoke is clearing. It remains uncertain how Iran will respond, but they have previously indicated that U.S. involvement will be seen as a declaration of war and met with direct strikes on military bases, intelligence sites, and naval ships throughout the Middle East. Trump issues phony calls for peace on his social media. It is the peace of the bully that says “I will punch you, and you will not punch back — or else.”

Now is the time for a resurgence and convergence of the anti-war movement, the anti-imperialist movement, the Palestinian solidarity movement, and revolutionaries everywhere. The United States is not a democracy. It never was. War shatters the illusion. The oligarchs do as they like. They pillage the public treasury. They partner with their preferred strongmen across the world. They make a mockery of the truth. They have no regard for life or dignity or justice. And the rest of us are simply expected the sit back and take it.

There is nothing rational about rebellion. To rebel against insurmountable odds is an act of faith without which the rebel is doomed. This faith is intrinsic to the rebel the way caution and prudence are intrinsic to those who seek to fit into existing power structures. I do not know whether the new revolutionary wave and the rebels produced by it will succeed, but I do know that without these rebels we are doomed.

- Chris Hedges, Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt

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