The Real and Present Danger of U.S. War on Iran…and the Urgency of Resistance

“I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq. And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran…”

-Senator Joseph Lieberman, interviewed on CBS News Face the Nation, June 10

This statement by Lieberman is the latest in a string of charges, warnings, and military threats against Iran by the Bush administration, others in the U.S. ruling class, and international allies of the United States. They reflect the rapid and profound intensification of contradictions across the Middle East, rising tensions between the Bush regime and the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the grave danger of a U.S. military attack on Iran. Most people, including many deeply opposed to the Iraq war, are either unaware of or greatly underestimate this danger. This situation must change—now. Any U.S. attacks would be unjust and criminal no matter the pretext. It would represent a major escalation—with unpredictable consequences—of naked imperialist aggression by the U.S. in the Middle East.

Consider what has taken place in just the last two months. In mid-May, Vice President Dick Cheney stood in the hangar bay of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Stennis, 150 miles off the Iranian coast, and declared he wanted to “send a clear message to our friends and adversaries alike” that the U.S. would “prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.”

Two weeks later, on May 23, a heavily armed U.S. naval armada sailed through the Straits of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf to stage two weeks of maneuvers directly off Iran’s coast. The three strike groups had a total of nine warships, 2,100 Marines, 17,000 sailors and 70 attack planes.

That same day the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the organization which monitors nuclear programs around the world, reported that Iran had not suspended its uranium enrichment program (through which uranium is processed for either nuclear power or weapons) as demanded by the UN Security Council, but had instead significantly accelerated its capabilities, going from operating a few dozen enrichment centrifuges to over 1,300. The IAEA also stated it could not “provide assurances about ... the exclusively peaceful nature” of Iran's nuclear program. Bush’s Undersecretary of State, Nicholas Burns, warned, “Iran is thumbing its nose at the international community. We are not going to agree to accept limited enrichment...”

The atmosphere was so heated that IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei warned of a “brewing confrontation” between Washington and Tehran and called for “defusing” the crisis.

Meanwhile, the Bush regime has orchestrated an ongoing propaganda campaign—featuring regular statements from top officials and “briefings” by the U.S. military—claiming that Iran is arming and training anti-U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is directly responsible for killing U.S. soldiers. Philip Giraldi, a former officer of the CIA, wrote: “One thing that all the stories about Iranian involvement have in common is their lack of substantiating detail. There are no names, dates, places, or corroborating information, and most rely on anonymous government sources or bald assertions that are presented as fact. Photos of alleged captured ordnance have been unconvincing. Further, the presence of the weapons, even if true, cannot be traced back to any official Iranian government body or policy through documentary or other evidence.”

But neither lack of hard facts, nor the first direct talks between top U.S. and Iranian officials in late May over the situation in Iraq have halted the continuing calls from the right wing for decisive military action. Norman Podhoretz, a leading neo-conservative propagandist, wrote a major article in the June issue of Commentary magazine titled "The Case for Bombing Iran”--“I hope and pray that President Bush will do it." At the Republican Party debates, presidential candidates have competed over who is the most war-like towards Iran and tactical nuclear strikes have been explicitly not ruled off the table.

Meanwhile, (and after voting Bush billions of dollars to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), the supposedly “anti-war” Democratic Party has refused to stop—or even condemn--the Bush administration’s threats against Iran. In fact, all the leading Democratic presidential candidates—Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards—have joined in the confront-Iran chorus, declaring that all options should remain on the table. Former Senator Mike Gravel pointed out at the Democratic candidates April 26 debate, “that’s code for using nukes...”

These threats and counter-threats are taking place in the context of intensifying contention in the region between reactionary imperialism on the one side versus reactionary Islamic theocratic fundamentalism on the other. And there has been a growing and broad, multi-faceted U.S. full-court press against Iran including military encirclement, covert operations to provoke internal instability, and diplomatic pressure and sanctions aimed at crippling Iran economically.

All of the charges by the U.S. are both potential pretexts to justify attacking Iran, and the United States and its allies in the region are also involved in all kinds of potentially provocative actions, which could serve as a tripwire for an attack.