June 22. Early this morning, Donald Trump unleashed a massive, unprovoked, surprise bombing attack on Iran. Trump has now objectively joined Israel and fellow genocidal madman Benjamin Netanyahu in the latter’s illegal, criminal and unjust war against Iran and its 90 million people.

According to initial reports in the New York Times, “Six B-2 bombers dropped a dozen 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs on the Fordo nuclear site, which lies deep underground, and Navy submarines fired 30 TLAM cruise missiles at the Natanz and Isfahan sites. One B-2 also dropped two bunker busters on Natanz…” It is not known if other warplanes were involved, other sites were hit, or whether there were Iranian casualties. 

In a speech the night of the attacks, Trump threatened even greater death and destruction if Iran didn’t totally surrender: "Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier.”

This is a major escalation with unpredictable and potentially catastrophic consequences that poses very grave dangers for the peoples of Iran, the Middle East and the world.

On social media Trump bragged, "This is an HISTORIC MOMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ISRAEL, AND THE WORLD. IRAN MUST NOW AGREE TO END THIS WAR.” 

These are monstrous lies, and naked imperialist gangsterism. To begin with four basic truths: 

• This was an unprovoked, criminal act of imperialist aggression against an oppressed country which does not have nuclear weapons and did not directly threaten the U.S.—a war crime.
• While supporting Israel’s depraved genocide in Gaza, the fascist Trump regime has now directly joined in (after indirectly supporting) and seriously escalated Israel’s illegal and unjust war on Iran which it—not Iran—launched on June 13.¹
• This war has nothing to do with protecting the world from nuclear weapons. Its goals do include ensuring that U.S. attack dog Israel maintains its nuclear monopoly of these horrific weapons in the Middle East.
• With the U.S. now directly joining Israel, this war poses an even graver danger to the peoples of Iran, the Middle East, and the world. It could escalate and spread, possibly beyond this region, and possibly involve the use of nuclear weapons.
• There is a real danger that Trump will use the justification that “we’re now at war” with Iran to ratchet up repression, attempt to crush opposition, and take further leaps toward consolidating fascism.

Trump’s Big Lies and Gangster Threats

The evening of June 21, after the attacks had taken place in Iran, Trump gave a nationwide address full of big lies and gangster threats from start to finish. 

Big Lie 1: Iran Poses a Nuclear Danger

“Our objective was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror,” Trump said.² Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (aka Netan-Nazi) earlier claimed Israel had to attack Iran in order to prevent a nuclear “holocaust.”

These are big lies. The truth is:

• The U.S. has thousands of nuclear weapons and is the only country to have ever used them. Israel has at least 90 and perhaps as many as 200. Both have repeatedly threatened to use their nukes. Iran has none and never has had any.
• Recently the U.S.’s own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran was not pursuing nuclear weapons. This past week, without citing any evidence, Trump said he “didn’t care” about the report and instead he claimed with no proof that Iran was months—perhaps weeks—away from being able to build a nuclear bomb.
• In his speech, Trump said, “Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.” In fact, Iran has attempted to avoid war. In 2015, it signed an agreement with the U.S. and other world powers limiting its nuclear enrichment program to non-military uses only. It kept to that agreement. It was the U.S. and Donald Trump who refused to “make peace,” and instead tore up the agreement.
• This month, Iran was again engaged in negotiations with the U.S. to limit its nuclear enrichment and avoid war. In the midst of the negotiations, Trump changed his position from limiting Iran’s enrichment to non-military uses, to banning it entirely—a known deal breaker for Iran (which has the right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium). Then in the midst of these negotiations, Iran was attacked—first by Israel on June 13 and now the U.S. So who are the “peacemakers”?
• The reality? The U.S. and Israel don’t think Iran could develop a nuclear weapon or two and then attack them. The U.S. and Israel worry that if Iran did have a nuclear weapon, or was seen as close to having one, it would limit the military dominance and freedom of action of the U.S./Israel alliance—including to attack Iran. In other words, it’s not about preventing Iran from attacking them, it’s about enabling Israel and the U.S. to attack Iran if they felt they needed to. 

Big Lie 2: The U.S.-Israeli War Is About “Stopping the Nuclear Threat, Not Regime Change”

The U.S. (and Israel as its “junior partner”) are doing much more than wiping out Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. They’re trying to weaken, destabilize, and possibly overthrow, the whole regime so they have unfettered domination of Iran and the whole region. Some examples:

• This past week, Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and threatened to assassinate Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei, writing on Truth Social that he knows exactly where Khamenei is: “We are not going to take him out… at least not for now.”
• After bombing Iran, Trump said: “This cannot continue. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran, far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left.” These are threats against the entire regime, not just the nuclear program.
• Israel hasn’t just hit enrichment facilities. It’s bombed high-rise buildings and multistory apartment complexes, research centers, oil refineries, state TV, regime military centers, and yes, several hospitals. Israeli leaders call these “ayatollah regime targets.” Close to 700 people have been killed and over 3,000 wounded, 90 percent of them civilians.
• Israel’s Defense Minister Katz recently said Khamenei, “cannot be allowed to exist” and that he had ordered a surge in attacks to “undermine” the Iranian government.³

Big Lie 3: Who Are the Real Bullies in the Middle East Who’ve Killed—not “Hundreds of Thousands,” but Millions—and Are Now Threatening Millions More!

Trump called Iran “the bully of the Middle East.” He said it had killed over a thousand Americans, “blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs.” He said “hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result” of Iran’s actions. He called it the “No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a reactionary Islamic theocracy which has brutally oppressed the Iranian people, executing thousands of political prisoners. It has also spread reactionary Islamic fundamentalism across the Middle East and supported the former Syrian regime of Basir Assad, including in its bloody civil war with other reactionary forces, some of which were supported by the U.S. or its allies, which overall cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

None of this, however, negates Iran’s right to national sovereignty or justifies the unprovoked U.S.-Israel war against it. And none of this equals the mass murder, atrocities, genocide and oppression the U.S. and Israel have carried out in the Middle East for decades, including against Iran. To cite but three examples (with many more available at the American Crime series on revcom.us): 

• In 1953, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) along with British intelligence launched a military coup overthrowing Iran’s popular, elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, and installed the brutal U.S.-puppet, the Shah, beginning 25 years of brutal, fascistic rule and terrible suffering for the Iranian people.
• The U.S., not Iran, is the “No. 1 state sponsor of terror” in the world—by far! It has carried out mass murder, coups, military attacks and supported brutal oppressors across the Middle East for the past 70 some years, far too numerous to tabulate here. To take one example: America’s post-September 11, 2001 wars (the so-called “war on terror”) led to 4.5 million deaths! According to a 2023 study, some 1 million deaths came from direct U.S. combat in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, while the remaining 3.5 million resulted from the “destruction of economies, public services, and the environment” caused by these U.S. wars or interventions. What other country on earth can top THAT?!⁴
• Right now, Israel has murdered over 55,000 Palestinians in Gaza as part of a broader genocide, targeting all two-plus million Gazans. It has just recently bombed Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, killing thousands. Israel was founded on the genocidal expulsion of over 750,000 Palestinians from their historic homeland.

Trump Talks of “Peace”—Threatens Iran and World with War

In his June 21 address, Trump repeatedly threatened Iran with even more devastating attacks: “If peace does not come quickly, we will go after those other targets with precision, speed and skill.” He bragged it would be “easier” and most of those targets could “be taken out in a matter of minutes.”

Yes, Iran is weaker than the U.S. and Israel, and it’s possible the regime could capitulate. But it has promised to fight back and this could unleash untold death and destruction. 

There are reports that before its June 21 attacks, the U.S. had not ruled out anything, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons.⁵ And recently Itamar Ben Gvir, a fascist lunatic who is Israel’s national security minister, appeared to imply that Israel could resort to nuclear weapons: “There will be other difficult days ahead, but always remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

This may sound far-fetched. But think about who’s ruling the U.S. and who’s ruling Israel: “Trump and Netanyahu—Nazi Madmen on a Mission of Destruction,” as revolutionary leader Bob Avakian has analyzed, and that for the Trump fascist regime, 

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.

In that light, think about what Trump and/or Netanyahu may already be planning, or may be driven to resort to if, for instance, Iran’s nuclear facilities are still basically intact. Or if the Islamic Republic feels it has nothing to lose and retaliates (as it's promised) against the 40,000 U.S. troops in the region, or its numerous military bases, or its close allies, or by cutting off the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

And consider how other imperialist powers with sharp contradictions with the U.S., such as Russia and China, may react.  

Trump’s bombing attack is the largest military strike the U.S., under Democrats or Republicans, has ever carried out against Iran. The whole situation is now even more fraught, dangerous and unpredictable. It underscores why it is so urgent that THE TRUMP FASCIST REGIME MUST GO NOW!

This vicious Trump-fascist/U.S.-imperialist attack underscores the truth of what Bob Avakian has emphasized:

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 humanity does not have to live this way—a whole different way to organize society, a whole better world, is possible.

STOP THE U.S./ISRAELI UNPROVOKED, ILLEGAL WAR OF AGGRESSION AGAINST IRAN!!!

THE TRUMP FASCIST REGIME MUST GO NOW!