Trump, the Iran Memorandum, and the “World’s Greatest Authority”

This was article originally published by Z.

Image by Diane Krauthamer/Wikimediacommons, licensed via CC BY 4.0

The announcement of the US/Iran Memorandum of Understanding allegedly ending the war between Iran and the USA/Israeli axis has brought forth more confusion than I can remember in the aftermath of any crisis. And, how can we even use the word “aftermath” when, shortly after the “signing” of the Memorandum, Israel continued its relentless war against Lebanon, and Iran—as a result—announced another blockade of the Straits of Hormuz! And then, on June 21st, Trump, once again, threatened Iran and specifically threatened to kill the Iranian negotiating team! We will get back to this in a moment. First some background.

Though the mainstream media and liberal commentators have consistently referred to the USA/Israeli assault as Trump’s supposed “war of choice,” such a designation entirely misses the mark. Would one call Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939 a war of choice? Perhaps in a very technical sense since it was not a defensive war, but the reality was that it was a war of naked aggression. History has identified it as such and there has been no ambiguity, except among a certain ring of fascists.

Additionally, consider that Trump twice engaged in what were supposed to be good-faith negotiations with the Iranian government, only to launch military actions against them during the negotiations. The Japanese did exactly the same thing in the leadup to Pearl Harbor and, in fact, Japanese negotiators were in Washington, DC at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack. History has been very unkind to the Japanese for such duplicity. Why should it be anything different with Trump?

Let us be clear that this has been a war of aggression on the part of the USA and Israel, countries which had similar and different reasons to attack Iran. They carried out the attack with a high level of hubris, poor intelligence, an irrational view of air power replacing soldiers on the ground, and an overall lack of preparation. In fact, they could not even define the objectives of the war.

During the course of the war there have been liberal commentators who have criticized Trump for failing to enter the war with a set of clear objectives, including but not limited to the failure to overthrow the Iranian theocracy or definitively crippling their military. This point of view is astounding since it suggests that had Trump been clearer about destroying the Iranian military and overthrowing the Iranian regime the war might have been justified! As any student of international law can attest, an unprovoked military assault against a country that offers no evidence of an imminent attack is in violation of international law and such actions have, since World War II, been condemned, with the exception of the “pass” regularly provided to Israel.

The contempt for international law demonstrated by Trump, et al., went hand in hand with a dismissal of human rights. On the first day of the war of aggression, US aircraft killed 175 Iranian civilians, mainly children, in a missile attack on a school. The attack at first appeared inexplicable except when it was later revealed that the US intelligence assessment of that area was completely out of date. Trump’s response? According to the New York Times, Trump replied most recently, “Mistakes are made. War is nasty.”

Trump’s contempt for the victims of US atrocities matches his contempt for people from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean unless, of course, they are Afrikaners from South Africa. It is in Trump’s contemptuous view of the global majority that we see the parallels between the Trump administration on foreign and domestic policy. The ethnic cleansing and atrocious treatment of immigrants in the USA—documented and undocumented—who have been warehoused and denied humane treatment displays the same attitude the Administration has taken towards the Iranians, including attacking civilian targets and attacking non-military Iranian targets on the high seas. The basic principle that applies is that no principle applies! This is what so many people failed to understand when they classified Trump as a supposed isolationist. He and his administration are not isolationists! Instead they are a regime that believes that no law, foreign or domestic, should constrain a US administration from undertaking policies driven by perceived self-interest, however avaricious.

The Memorandum signed by Trump is as odd as a four legged duck. Despite the denunciations of the Obama administration’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action— the Iran nuclear deal of 2015—by Trump and MAGA and their insistence that it be obliterated, Trump has won nothing of substance for the US ruling elite. As has been acknowledged in both Left and Right circles, the Strait of Hormuz was open before the war; the price of oil was down; the global economy was not teetering on the brink of recession; billions of dollars per day were not being thrown into war; and Iranian civilians, neighboring Arabian/Persian Gulf nation-states, along with US personnel in western Asia, were not facing war and terror. Trump has won nothing for the US elite or his MAGgot millions. And, as should be obvious, the people of the United States have won nothing through the pirate assault on Iran.

How should we understand this situation? First, these are the steps of a 15 year old encased in the body of an 80 year old who displays serious cognitive issues. Second, these are the actions of a segment of the US political elite that wishes to reshape the world in the interest of transnational capital, particularly the fossil fuel and tech sectors. Third, these are the actions of an Administration that exists in both unity and tension with Israel wherein it, for ideological and strategic reasons, wishes to reinforce Israel, while at the same time Trump does not particularly value chaos in western Asia (the latter appearing to be a major objective of the Israeli government).

This war and settlement are an abomination. The entire process of engaging in this war of aggression must be denounced, if not ridiculed. The stand of people of good will must be that there was never any justification for this war and, indeed, the USA and Israel need to supply Iran with reconstruction assistance. They cannot afford to walk away and shrug.

There is one more critical lesson. Our fight against rightwing authoritarianism and neofascism at home is not now and has never been separate from our duty to oppose wars of aggression and acts of tyranny on the global stage (the latter including standing with the Iranian people not only against the USA/Israeli aggression but, separately, against the repressive Iranian theocracy). Trump and MAGA have a global vision which includes domination of the Western Hemisphere; transactional relationships with other countries insofar as it benefits transnational capital and US political elites; and strong relationships with other tyrannical powers under a 21st century version of spheres of influence. The global majority has no interest in such a vision. And such a vision will not succeed to the extent to which we succeed in taking down rightwing authoritarianism and neofascism in our respective countries.

We moved far too slowly in responding to the Iran war. We sit awaiting a possible US strike against Cuba, not to mention other possible Trump targets. Those of us standing against rightwing authoritarianism and neofascism simply cannot sit out the global struggle.

Bill Fletcher, Jr. is coordinator and cofounder of standing4democracy.org. He is a longtime trade unionist, international solidarity activist, and writer of fiction and nonfiction.