23 June 2025
A sense of outrage, horror and dread is how the majority of people will feel at the news of Trump’s bombing of Iran. He has directly joined the Israeli State’s war, which has already cost the lives of over 400 Iranians—this action joins a roll call of crimes by US imperialism. It has armed, funded and backed the genocidal destruction over 20 months, and the Zionist State’s invasion and destruction of Lebanon and Syria.
With their imperial hubris, Trump and his criminal gang think they and the Israeli State can become the masters of the Middle East. It was this absurd logic that led to the “forever wars” of the last two and a half decades in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, which he built his electoral base in denouncing. These wars for oil, power and profit destroyed these societies, with trillions spent on bringing death, destruction and trauma to their people. Many have been forced to make treacherous journeys to flee this hellscape, only to be met with walls and barriers of “Fortress Europe”.
Growing opposition
However, this war is already being met with opposition—before the US even entered the fray, a pitiful minority, 16% of Americans, were willing to support it. Protests have already erupted in numerous cities across the United States. There is enormous war weariness in society generally, and the horror of the genocide of Gaza, which continues unabated, has only added to anti-imperialist sentiment globally.
The MAGA movement is already split on this, and sections of the US ruling class will have a real sense of “Iraq syndrome”, that the US will be drawn into and bogged down in another war in the Middle East. This is when they are faced with imperial overstretch, and the power and influence of the empire has been undermined in this region. On top of this, they face growing inter-imperialist tension with China, something they did not face 20 years ago when they waged their colonial war and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
Irish government hypocrisy
Shamefully and pathetically, the British and Irish governments have effectively endorsed this decision to bomb Iran or have given succour to the arguments used to justify it. Micheál Martin has come out and called on Iran “to disavow the use of nuclear weapons”. Predictably, there was no call on the Israeli State and the US to do the same. Unlike Iran, the former is the only nuclear power in the Middle East, and the United States is the largest in the world. Eighty years ago, it was the first state in the world to drop an atomic bomb, with a catastrophic impact on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Irish State will be complicit in this war on Iran—as it will allow Shannon to remain as a war port at the service of US imperialism. Likewise, they will allow it, and Irish airspace generally, to be used to transport weaponry that will continue to be used with lethal effect in Palestine.
Mass movement against genocide and war
Mass protests in the days and weeks ahead are crucial—we must continue to build momentum in opposition to war and genocide in the Middle East by US imperialism and the Zionist state. We need to bring that rage and opposition into our workplaces—there must be a total refusal to handle all weaponry used for both. We need action to stop the selling of state bonds being used to fund the Israeli State. The action of dockworkers in Italy and France, who refused to handle arms destined for Israel, is exemplary.
Watching the death and destruction in the Middle East, and the imperial propaganda that is being echoed in the capitalist media, is truly nauseating. The system that is burning our planet is creating a further hellscape for the people of Palestine and Iran, and the working class and poor of the wider region. We cannot accept the existence of this colonial capitalist system—our struggle in solidarity against this death and destruction must be linked to its destruction. We desperately need a revolutionary, international and socialist alternative to its rule. Join the Socialist Party today.