![USS Abraham Lincoln reloading oil on its way to Israel, August 14, 2024.](/sites/default/files/styles/600_proportional/public/2024-08/20240728_USSLincoln.png?itok=GEiKchea)
USS Abraham Lincoln reloading oil on its way to the Middle East, August 14, 2024. Photo: U.S. Navy
Right now, the U.S. is filling the Middle East with even more weapons of death and mass destruction, seriously escalating the grave danger of a region-wide war.
Just this month, the U.S. has:
- Dispatched another squadron of fighter jets, more Navy cruisers and destroyers, and the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln to the Middle East. The U.S. may also send more troops and anti-missile systems.1
- In early August, the head of U.S. Central Command traveled to Israel to meet and coordinate with top Israeli military officials.
- On August 12, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a nuclear-powered guided-missile submarine to the region.2
All this is on top of the extensive military forces the U.S. already has in the area and all the planes, bombs, missiles, ammunition and other deadly equipment it has supplied to its regional enforcer Israel.
Preserving Peace? Or Preparing for War?
The Biden administration claims it is doing all this to prevent Iran from launching an attack on Israel and triggering a regional war. But they ignore the fact that Israel had already escalated the situation by carrying out a blatant act of war against Iran by assassinating the chief Hamas negotiator, in Iran’s capital Tehran, on the very day Iran’s new president was being sworn in!
Just imagine what the U.S. response would have been if Iran had assassinated the leader of a close U.S. ally while they were in Washington, DC, staying in a U.S.-guaranteed “safe house,” on the day the new U.S. president was being inaugurated!
The truth is this: Far from desperately trying to preserve peace, the U.S. is surging military forces to the region to try to further intimidate Iran from retaliating against Israel, and to militarily back Israel if Iran, or another party acting in the name of Iran, does strike back.
So while the U.S. hasn’t criticized Israel’s brazen escalation, it has gone on a diplomatic offensive against Iran. In a statement the U.S. issued with Britain, France, Germany and Italy, it demanded Iran “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel,” and warned of serious consequences if Iran didn’t.3
And on August 13, the U.S. approved $20 billion more in weapon sales to Israel, sending a clear signal that the U.S. is going to back Israel to the hilt in any conflict.4
“Self-Defense” and “Deterring Aggression”?
No, Ruthless Gangster Powers Putting Humanity at Risk!
U.S. and Israeli officials claim they’re acting in “self-defense” and seeking to “deter aggression.” This is the world’s biggest political gangster—America—and its close ally Israel who have unleashed massive bloodshed in Gaza and are threatening more across the region in order to maintain their imperialist dominance of the Middle East and the world.
There is a real danger that a larger war could be sparked by these actions, a war that could spread across the region and perhaps beyond, and that it could escalate uncontrollably, including possibly to nuclear war. As revcom.us recently wrote:
If any kind of larger war breaks out, the U.S.—and in particular Genocide Joe Biden and Cold-Blooded Kamala Harris—bears direct responsibility. They can talk ceasefire all they want, and Harris in particular can shed her phony crocodile tears for the Palestinian people, but they have backed Israel up throughout this whole genocidal onslaught. Their actions speak louder than words. And the Republi-fascists are right there with them, with Trump urging Israel to “get the job done” and the Congress—both Republi-fascist and Democrat—inviting the bloody-jawed Netan-Nazi to bellow a speech to the Congress.
Again, this whole thing comes from a system—the economic and political system of capitalism-imperialism, which requires these monsters to seek world domination and fight each other over who’s on top. It is this system that drives these imperialists to risk the extinction of humanity over, and over, again. ALLOWING THIS TO CONTINUE IS MADNESS!
Bob Avakian, the revolutionary leader and architect of the new communism, has said:
We, the people of the world, can no longer afford to allow these imperialists to continue to dominate the world and determine the destiny of humanity. They need to be overthrown as quickly as possible. And it is a scientific fact that we do not have to live this way.
Now is the time to get with this revolution and this revolutionary leader.
There is literally not a moment to lose.