Sunday, March 1. As we write, the unprovoked war of aggression the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran yesterday is continuing and threatening to spread further across the region, and possibly beyond.

This is yet another screaming outrage and war crime by U.S. capitalism-imperialism, now headed by the fascist Trump, and that system’s Middle East enforcer, Israel’s genocidal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (aka Netan-Nazi). 

It is also by far the most dangerous. It is urgent that people in this country take to the streets and demand: 

STOP THE U.S.-ISRAELI WAR ON IRAN!

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Saturday, February 28. It was shortly after 9:30 a.m. in Iran’s capital, Tehran. It was the beginning of the workweek. Many Iranians had dropped their children at school and gone to work. Suddenly the city was rocked by massive explosions. People, stunned and terrified, rushed to take shelter, find their loved ones, gather their children from schools, or flee from the city.

The U.S. and Israel had just launched their surprise attack. During the next hours, hundreds of U.S. and Israeli war planes and missiles would hit over 500 targets in dozens of cities across Iran.¹

At least two schools were hit by U.S. and Israeli strikes. At one, a girl’s elementary school in the southern Iranian town of Minab, some 85 children were slaughtered and another 93 injured. “God knows how many more children will be pulled out of the rubble,” a government official posted on social media. In another video, a man shouts, “Under this rubble, students are buried,” as he holds fistfuls of school papers and notebooks: “The blood of our loved ones, our students, which you can see on their schoolbooks.”

On Saturday, Iranian state media reported that 201 people were killed and 747 wounded in attacks that hit 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces—a number that will no doubt climb in coming days.

The Illegal Assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei

U.S. and Israeli strikes were aimed at intelligence and security facilities, homes of Iranian officials, and ballistic missile launchers and stockpiles in order to limit Iran’s ability to respond to the U.S. and Israeli attacks.

In line with their stated goal of degrading Iran’s military capabilities and overthrowing Iran’s regime, the U.S. and Israel’s main targets in this surprise attack were the leaders of the Islamic Republic. The CIA had been tracking the moves of Iran’s head of state, Khamenei, for months and on Saturday tipped off Israel where he would be. An Israeli airstrike, which leveled his whole compound, assassinated him, several other officials as well as some of Khamenei’s relatives.

Israel’s military spokesman later said its forces had also killed Iran’s defense minister, Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh; the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, Gen. Mohammad Pakpour; a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Shamkhani, and others. The Jerusalem Post reports that dozens of other top Iranian officials may also have been killed by Israeli airstrikes.

Let’s be clear: Khamenei and these other officials were the head of a brutal, thoroughly reactionary Islamic fundamentalist theocracy. They had the blood of many thousands of Iranians on their hands (including revolutionary communists and many other freedom fighters). And they had promoted reaction and oppression across the Middle East.

But that does NOT justify this U.S.-Israeli assassination. Attacking a sovereign state which poses no immediate threat is a war crime, and so is the assassination of the leader of a sovereign state. 

For decades, the U.S. imperialists and their Israeli “henchmen” have, in many instances, made a mockery of these principles. Yet now the fascists Trump and Netanyahu are taking things to a whole other level, tearing up any semblance of international law. The U.S. is on a rampage to forge a Middle East (and world) in which it has total military supremacy and freedom of action, to maim and murder as it sees fit, while no one else even has the right or ability to defend themselves.

Just look at what they’re doing in Gaza, where Israel, with full U.S. backing, has slaughtered over 70,000 Palestinians, and starved the remaining two million. And now, using the war on Iran as an excuse, Israel has closed the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza—blocking a key route for humanitarian aid, putting the lives of many Gazans at immediate risk.

Or the West Bank, where fanatical Zionist settlers along with Israel’s military are terrorizing Palestinian farmers and villagers who’ve lived on the land for centuries, as Israel moves toward unofficial but actual annexation of the entire Palestinian West Bank. 

Or Lebanon, where Israel—again with full U.S. backing—launched a full-scale assault on the pro-Iran group Hezbollah involving massive airstrikes, the seizure of territory, the deaths of some 4,000 Lebanese, and the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel is still striking Lebanon and occupying its territory

Or Syria, where after the fall of the blood-soaked tyrant Basir Assad regime in December 2024, Israel intensified its military aggression against the country. This included over 600 airstrikes and ground incursions, often to seize land or destroy Syria’s military infrastructure and rob it of the ability to defend itself.

Iran Retaliates… Trump Threatens… Escalation Looms

In the leadup to the U.S.-Israeli attack, when the U.S. was amassing forces in the region, Iran threatened it would retaliate forcefully if attacked. On Saturday, after the U.S. and Israel struck, Iran did.

It fired missiles at Israel and U.S. allies in the Gulf that hosted U.S. military bases. The targets included the U.S. naval base in Bahrain, al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. 

Iran also attacked the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, where the U.S. has based dozens of attack aircraft recently, as well as an airbase in Abu Dhabi. Iran struck at least three regional airports, including Dubai International Airport, Kuwait International Airport and possibly Irbil International Airport in Iraq, all of which are used in part for U.S. military personnel and air traffic.

Iran hit Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyad with a missile. And it largely closed down ship traffic through the Straits of Hormuz, one of the world’s key waterways through which some 20 percent of global oil shipments (from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates-UAE) flows. Fear of the war spreading has also caused one major company to halt some shipments through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, which also impacts global supply chains.

After Khamenei’s assassination was confirmed, Iran’s leaders threatened further escalation. “You have crossed our red line and must pay the price,” its parliamentary speaker said in a TV address Sunday. “We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.”

This in turn prompted further threats and warnings from Trump and Israel. Trump had already warned, “The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”

Then, in response to Iran’s new threats, he posted: “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT… IF THEY DO, WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

Trump can threaten, but he has created a situation in which at least a strong section of the Iranian armed forces may feel cornered and as if they have nothing to lose. That makes things even more volatile and liable to explode out of the control of anybody’s will.

Israel’s defense minister announced that its military operations—aimed at “degrading the regime’s capabilities” and “creat[ing] the military and operational conditions for toppling the Iranian regime”—would continue for “as long as necessary.”

At this writing, new rounds of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes are taking place across Iran. Israel is reporting that its warplanes “struck Iranian missile launchers, air defense systems, command centers and headquarters of the regime.”

It has also been reported that three U.S. soldiers were killed and five others wounded. And that too imposes new necessity—now on the U.S. to “avenge” those deaths with even greater atrocities.

The U.S.-Israeli attack and the assassination of Khamenei is a major global development, with far-reaching—and as we have emphasized—unpredictable and extremely dangerous implications. 

One objective in this U.S.-Israeli attack may be to block or roll back China’s growing influence in the region and in Iran in particular. China, the U.S.’s main global rival, purchases 80 percent of Iran’s oil and, along with Russia, another major U.S. rival, has growing military and diplomatic ties with Iran. China and Russia are also nuclear-armed imperialist powers. Trump has just illegally kidnapped an important Russian ally in Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro, and in 2024 Biden and Netanyahu helped take down another—Assad in Syria. Now Trump is targeting a third Russian ally—Cuba—and Iran would make number four. 

China and Russia have each denounced the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran. There have been a variety of reactions from countries around the world.

All this underscores the urgency of demanding this U.S.-Israeli aggression end!

A Fascist, Imperialist War Based on Lies

Fascism is a qualitatively different way that this system enforces its rule over people. Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries.

- Bob Avakian—REVOLUTION #114

Trump has attempted to justify his naked aggression with a firehose of lies. He or his people have claimed Iran is within a week of creating a nuclear bomb. Lie.

That Iran is developing ballistic missiles capable of hitting the U.S. Lie.

Even that it was preparing to preemptively attack U.S. forces and therefore presented an imminent threat. "If we had waited for them to hit us first, the number of deaths and damage would have been much worse," a top White House official said, adding "the president had no choice." This too was a lie. 

But there is a country that does have nuclear weapons, that does have ballistic missiles that can attack anywhere in the world, that was planning a preemptive strike, and that isn’t only an immediate threat to Iran, it’s a threat to the entire world: the USA, now headed by the fascist Trump regime, aided by its Middle East attack dog Israel!

Reuters reports, “An Israeli defence official said the operation had been planned for months in coordination with Washington, and that the launch date was decided weeks ago,” an attack date which coincides with the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Pause on this! In other words, the whole dog-and-pony show of negotiating with Iran was a charade aimed at giving the U.S. time to amass its military forces in the Middle East and to deceive the Iranians (and the U.S. public). It seems Trump never had any interest in “peace” or intention of “making a deal”!

And there’s this: Trump lies through his teeth that Iran presents an “imminent threat” to the American people. Iran has no bases or military forces anywhere within thousands of miles of the U.S. Meanwhile, for decades the U.S. imperialists have had over 30,000 troops, some 19 military bases, and its unsinkable aircraft carrier Israel right on Iran’s doorstep. And now Trump has surged another 300 attack aircraft, two aircraft carrier strike groups, and other military hardware into the region! 

And Where Are the Democrats on Trump’s Attack on Iran and His Murderous Global Rampage?

And how has the Democratic Party responded to Trump’s attack on Iran? Have they called it a crime against humanity? A flagrant, illegal violation of international law? Renounced U.S. domination of the Middle East or its support for Israel? No. 

They’ve complained that Trump didn’t do enough to prepare the “American people” for the war. They’ve called it a “mistake.” That most of all, Trump must consult Congress first as the law calls for. Please note—not cease this utterly illegal, unjust, murderous and extremely dangerous war of choice, but merely allow us a say in it.

This is yet another example of how the Democrats are a ruling class party which is incapable of leading the fight to remove the Trump from power at the soonest possible moment, through mass, sustained, non-violent political struggle. 

A Fascist Strategy to Remake the World

Since the end of World War 2, domination of the Middle East, with its trade routes, location at the juncture of Africa, Europe and Asia, and vast fossil fuel reserves, has been a key pillar of the U.S.’s capitalist-imperialist empire. 

Today, U.S. regional domination and global predominance face new, explosive challenges. And that system has now brought forward the fascist Donald Trump to lead it.

The U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran is the latest and most threatening of Trump and Netanyahu’s bloodthirsty rampages across the Middle East and the world. 

Just this year Trump—who claims he is the rightful winner of the Nobel Peace Prize—has launched military operations in Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Iraq and Syria. He seized and removed the head of the sovereign state of Venezuela—Nicolás Maduro. He’s threatened to use force to take over Greenland, and in Mexico, supposedly against fentanyl labs. And his regime has murdered over 150 people at sea.

As of late 2025, the U.S. has significantly increased airstrikes around the world, with 622 overseas bombings recorded between January 20, 2025, and the end of the year, targeting seven countries.

And Trump has put the power of life and death, war and peace in his own hands and his hands only. All power is in his hands, it’s all up to him and he has no need to explain. As a Trump official posted: “TRUST IN TRUMP!”

This is yet another major step in the consolidation of fascism.

As revcom.us has written:

Trump and other forces in his fascist regime have been on a rampage: threatening to attack and asserting his right to dominate, control and invade any country anywhere—without any legal constraint. But while Trump sounds like a madman, this is not just madness. They are laying out their fascist strategy to remake the world in the interests of a fascist America more able to contend with who they see as their main imperialist rival, China. 

In a world of intense cutthroat competition between nuclear-armed powers, Trump's fascist military moves and attempts to bully countries and whole regions of the world hold the extreme danger of spiraling out into nuclear confrontation, which really could lead to the extinction of humanity.

Trump's Global Rampage, and the Method to the Madness