 For the past week, the Middle East and the world have seen a lot of turmoil following the assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by US forces, and a lot have been said about Soleimani, that he was a terrorist, that he deserved to die, that he was an evil person, but the fact is that his killing was a continuation of the imperialist policy that the US and the West has carried out in the Middle East for decades, if not more. And especially coming on top of the US intervention in Iraq, the invasion of Iraq, which killed up until now, by some sources, up to an even more than one and a half million people. The same things has been done to Afghanistan, Syria has been dragged down into a state of barbarism, the same you can say about Libya, and so on, and so on. The killing of Soleimani was a continuation of this policy, of US imperialism, thinking that it's okay to meddle and attack, intervene, however it wishes, in the region, in order to satisfy the narrow needs of the US capitalist class. Now the main reason behind this particular attack had nothing to do with Qassem Soleimani or whether he was a good or bad person. We just have to look at Trump's very good friends, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, and the Al Saud family in Saudi Arabia, who are certainly not civilized people or are known for treating people in a democratic and mild-mannered fashion, but yet they are still best friends with the Trump family. This attack was, the main reason behind this attack was that Donald Trump is in a very, very bad situation, a very tough situation in the US. He's under pressure from the US establishment, who is trying to impeach him, and he's trying to detract attention away from this, basically to whip up a mood of hysteria and patriotic hysteria, nationalist hysteria, in order to galvanize support behind him, rally the nation behind him, and detract focus from this impeachment case. Furthermore, he has been humiliated over the past few months in the sense that Iran has been carrying out several attacks for one in September in Saudi Arabia, where it attacked a very important oil refinery, which basically knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production out of the world market. And also in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups have been attacking and putting pressure on US bases and the US embassy. And Trump was kind of trying to save face in the world, trying to appear as a man of deeds, and in this sense, from his point of view, improve his own negotiation position, which is only negotiations for his personal benefit, and that's all what Trump does, is things that is in his own and his immediate family's personal benefit. Furthermore, he's been goaded and supported by a layer of hawks, extreme right-wingers in the US establishment, especially in the defense establishment, who see the past years of very humiliating setbacks for US imperialism, for the US army and military and so on, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Syria where the US basically has been completely defeated and beyond, and especially in relation to Iran. And they see the struggle against Iran as the main way to re-establish the position and the honor of US imperialism, so to say. And that's why they are dead set determined on provoking a military clash with Iran. Of course, there's also been some people, especially some of the Democrats and also some European bourgeois who've been opposed to this attack, who've come out against Trump and attacking him. I see now that in the US Congress, the Democrats are trying to, how do you say, curtail Trump's ability to wage war. And they are trying to appear as anti-war people who are concerned about the state of the Middle East and so on. But the fact is that these people are just as imperialist as Trump, they're not opposed to Trump's imperialist behavior, but they fear that Trump's behavior is actually destabilizing and threatening their own imperialist interests. The killing of Soleimani was not the best way to pursue the US interests in the region, an interest which are to dominate the region and to gain as much as possible economically and politically from their intervention. They were the same people who enthusiastically participated in the Iraq War, either from the beginning or later on when they took it over, they were the same people during the Obama administration who ramped up US interventions in many places, among others in Syria, who not only did not withdraw from Afghanistan, but actually increased US presence in Afghanistan and actually saw an increase of US drone missions and bombings in relation to the former Bush administration. So those people do not represent anything, but another wing of US imperialism who don't feel that Trump's action is actually in the interests of the US ruling class. And in that I think they might be right in the sense that this blow, although the killing of Soleimani is a blow to the Iranian regime, Soleimani was a very senior person in the Iranian regime. He had very close personal relationships with especially with Assad, with Putin and with a lot of the key people in the region, militarily and politically. But nevertheless, the regime has actually been strengthened on the back of this attack. The fact is that the Iranian regime has been under a lot of pressure in the past couple of years. First of all, Iranian allied groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Shia militias that the Iranians support and the political organization that they support in Iraq have de facto been in power in Lebanon, the government which was formed about a year ago is more or less Hezbollah government, which has been carrying out austerity and attacks against living standards. And the revolution that we saw in Lebanon only a few months ago with millions of people coming onto the streets was an attack, was a reaction to these austerity policies, these right-wing bourgeois policies basically, which was being carried out by a government which was de facto in the hands of Hezbollah. And Hezbollah came out opposed to that movement and therefore saw its position and its legitimacy decline in the eyes of the masses. Before for many years Hezbollah could hide behind the struggle against imperialism so to say, the struggle, the war against the Israelis for examples and be, how do you say, portrays of as a defender of the Lebanese people, defender of national right for self-determination and therefore appear a bit more progressive. But now where they are in power, they expose for what they really are, which is just bourgeois politicians with a different headscarf so to say, but nonetheless bourgeois politicians acting in the interest of the Shia bourgeoisie in Lebanon and their allies in the region, especially in Iran. In Iraq we saw the similar situation that Iranian back groups basically since the Iraq War have been struggling with the U.S., been in a struggle with the U.S. to take over the Iraqi state apparatus. And that's basically been carried out, the vast majority of key positions in the Iraqi state and military are now under the control or close to being under the control of Iranian aligned groups. And therefore the responsibility for all the corruption, mismanagement and all the crimes, austerity, all of this stuff that's been carried out by this extremely reactionary regime has also fallen on the shoulders of these groups and also been associated with Iran. And therefore in October when a revolutionary movement erupted inside Iraq, which was against the corruption, against the nepotism, against unemployment, against poverty, it was a very, very powerful class-based movement calling for the end of the sectarian politics, a quota system, which was introduced by the U.S. imperialism itself, but then taken over by Iranian aligned groups. They've been under heavy attack by Iran. In fact, Qasem Soleimani was traveling to Beirut and Baghdad calling for the prime ministers to stay firm, the ruling class to stay firm not to give any concessions to these movements and coordinating a violent crackdown which in Iraq has led to at least 20,000 wounded and several thousand killed and these are very, very conservative figures carried out by Shia militias who are closely linked, more or less controlled by Iran. So that has also made, how to say, that has also led the attention of the revolution against Iran and in fact the slogan of many people on the street has been Iran out and for the right of self-determination of the Iraqi peoples themselves. In Iran as well, there's been a similar movement, similar developments let's say. In November there was a huge, very, very powerful movement coming on top of the regime removing subsidies for fuel which meant that overnight fuel prices tripled which is an extremely big blow to the Iranian people who are dependent on these fuels just for the subsidies for their survival. And you saw massive protest movement coming out amongst the poor, the dispossessed, the working class especially the youth, very, very radical calling for the downfall of the regime. These were layers which were formally behind the regime in fact, supported the regime in previous years but were now coming out radically opposed to the regime and this shows that the regime in Iran is in a very, very weak position and again the only way to survive was by vicious crackdown. They introduced an internet blackout and a violent crackdown which has killed at least 1500 people, wounding 7 to 10,000 people and arresting just as many, a very, very vicious crackdown. This shows that the regime from all fronts has been in a very, very tough situation and the killing of Soleimani manages is actually a great help for it because as much as the people of Iran and Iraq and also Lebanon and beyond hate their own immediate regimes, they hate the U.S. imperialism even more because of the crimes that the U.S. has carried out in the region not just in the past 10 years but even in the past 100 years going back to at least the Second World War after which it became the major power in the region. In Iran for instance carrying out a coup and supporting a very brutal dictatorship implementing sanctions against the regime for decades which has ruined the economy of the country and ruined the livelihoods of people. In Iraq, as I said before, the invasion has killed more than one and a half million people and ruined the lives of several generations really has plunged the whole country into a state of barbarism. There's no love in this region for U.S. imperialism and therefore as much as people hate their own regime they are willing, they hate U.S. imperialism far more and the regime now the Iranian regime is using this attack in order to galvanize support for its regime. In the Iraqi government where only a few months ago some of the Shia groups had withdrawn from parliament in a demagogic manner, the group of Muqtada al-Sadr in particular demagogically withdrawn from parliament and given support to so-called support to the movement on the streets. Well last week he was back in parliament calling for the U.S. to vacate his spaces in Iraq and to leave Iraq completely and it's clear that the Iranians are trying to push the whole mood of the country, galvanize it against U.S. imperialism and also use it to push U.S. out of Iraq and out of the U.S. state apparatus giving Iran a tighter hold over that. But most importantly in order to divert the attention of the masses so as to isolate the revolutionary youth in Tahrir Square and Baghdad and beyond in order to crush that movement. In Iran it's a similar thing, sorry in Iraq, this was about Iraq. In Iran it's a similar thing. As much as everyone hates the regime first of all U.S. imperialism is hated far more and Ghassem Soleimani was perhaps one of the few figures which stood outside, which was seen not as quite as the same as the rest of the Iranian regime by the people. He was sort of aloof from ordinary day-to-day politics of Iran. He was seen as the person who was fighting against ISIS against Islamic fundamentalism, against U.S. imperialism in the region and for some sort of democracy in fact a non-sectarian struggle that he was carrying out. This was what he was associated with and therefore his funeral and his death has been made into a major PR campaign by the government only two months ago after the crushing of the movement in November the state tried to organize a counter-demo, a pro-regime demonstration which ordinarily in like 10 years ago a similar protest gathered millions of people but this time the protests were in the tens of thousands which showed how weak the regime had really gotten. But when Soleimani was killed and his funeral procession was going through Iran they managed to draw hundreds of thousands if not millions of people out on the streets and people in Iran are, and they're whipping up war hysteria and people in Iran are ready to go to war with the U.S. and defend themselves against the U.S. And for now this has managed, this has allowed the regime to galvanize a reactionary layer behind itself and rally the nation behind itself so to say cutting across the class lines and strengthening itself temporarily. Of course in the future that will change again because fundamentally nothing is solved and the regime remains extremely reactionary. But for now they managed to stabilize the situation with the kind help of Mr. Trump. Now a lot of people have said that oh this can lead to war and there's a threat of war especially in the Middle East the threat of war is being whipped up I think even some of the western commentators have said oh anything can happen now. But the reality is that there is no appetite in the U.S. to go to war with Iran. First of all Iran is not like Iraq and Afghanistan. These are two countries where the U.S. has suffered very very heavy defeats very historic defeats in fact in the past 20 years. But Iran is a very different country first of all is a much rougher country to occupy in the sense it is full of mountains it has a much more developed army it has a huge layer of people who are armed and who are prepared to defend themselves and it has a military which is battle hardened in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan other places where it's intervened it's relatively modern it's got a good equipment and it's got a people who are willing to die until the end against U.S. imperialism however much they do not like their own regime they're still willing to take to die in a struggle against U.S. imperialism so a land invasion of Iran is out of the question if the U.S. would do it it would be the biggest defeat in the history of the U.S. and it would send, it would be the biggest crisis probably in the history of the U.S. It's impossible. The U.S. itself is not in a state to go into war already the state has the debt of 23 trillion dollars which is already leading it to a huge economic crisis and to attacks on living standards which is whipping up which is causing a radicalized mood on the ground the American people are extremely war weary they're sick and tired of U.S. foreign interventions which is costing lives and money that they have to pay for when the U.S. went to war against Iraq there were millions of people on the streets in the U.S. this time we're going to see tens of millions of people if not more going onto the streets and that's why in fact Trump came to power promising to end these endless wars and now that he's being dragged supposedly was being dragged into a new one there was not going to be any appetite for that any attempt for the U.S. to go to a major conflict with Iran would lead to a huge social and political crisis which it couldn't come out of and that's why in fact the Obama administration could not even pass through a bombing campaign of Syria only a few years ago let alone a land invasion and a land invasion of Iran is also completely ruled out for that particular reason the fact is that the U.S. imperialism is in an extremely weak position we saw on Tuesday evening the Iranians retaliated against the U.S. imperialism how was this retaliation first of all it was very carefully calibrated the Iranians sent a certain type of missiles which would be easily detected by U.S. radar so they could vacate the bases so they didn't want any casualties which would from a PR point of view force the Americans to retaliate again and therefore could see an escalation of the situation but at the same time they showed that they could send ballistic missiles to any base in U.S. base in the region and there are tens of thousands of U.S. troops based in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Syria, in Jordan and in the Gulf countries especially in Bahrain and Qatar in Saudi Arabia and there was nothing the U.S. could do about it this means that the position of U.S. troops in Iraq is completely untenable if it wasn't for the kind, you can say, acceptance of the Iranians they could also attack by way of one of the many, many groups that they support, militia groups that they have in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq where they basically control hundreds of thousands of militiamen who've been battle-hardened in Syria, in Iraq they know the terrain, they have local backing which the U.S. doesn't and they could attack any of the U.S. positions from any angle the fact is that only a few months ago in September the Iranians showed that they could even attack the heart of Saudi Arabia one of the key oil installations and get away with it there was no one that could do anything about it and with that they sent a very clear message they could also close the Hormuz Strait which is a pathway through which 20% of the world's oil trade goes through if they close that then oil prices will skyrocket and we could see a deep crisis in the world economy which is already at a very, very fragile state there will not be a war with Iran even an aerial campaign is highly unlikely because as I said, it would lead to retaliation which would cost very dearly for U.S. imperialism of course at some point you could have an accidental clash happening but that will probably be to the detriment of U.S. imperialism and the fact is that over the past years although the U.S. imperialism is by far the strongest imperialist force on the planet by far outstripping all of its nearest rivals I think the U.S. Army is as much as valuable as the next nine armies coming after it but nevertheless because of the things that I explained it has met its limitations and especially in the Middle East is being forced to achieve to accept that there's a new balance of power and in fact Iran is rising as the more powerful military power on the ground and these actions of Trump which in my opinion are knee-jerk reactions which are not thought through to the end are basically serving to reveal this situation even more bring it to the surface now for instance there's a push by the Iranians to push out the U.S. out of Iraq and there's very little the U.S. imperialism can do about it only the fact that two days ago for the first time in I don't know how many years I have no idea probably forever a U.S. military base was bombed by ballistic missiles and the only reaction you had by Donald Trump coming out on top of it was the first reaction he made was to say all is good that was how Trump's tweet started saying don't worry everything is good everything is fine as well the U.S. military base has just been attacked by ballistic missiles and they didn't have anything to say about it and now today they're calling for negotiations to sit down with Iran it shows the crisis and the limitations that the U.S. imperialism has reached in the region and in fact over the past several months there's been a push by Iran and its enemies in the region especially the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia to come together to make some sort of a deal in order to overcome this because they realized this position as well especially after Iran attacked Saudi installations in September and the U.S. did not come to the rescue of the Saudis they realized that they must make a deal a regional deal with Iran pushing out circumventing the U.S. basically and now it seems that the U.S. before Saudi Arabia and Iran who was seen as destabilizing forces of the region but now that these forces are trying to come together to provide some sort of stability it seems that the U.S. is the main source of instability and that situation will continue and we're going to see this new balance of forces revealing itself more and more in the next period now what does that mean for the people of the region it doesn't mean prosperity, it doesn't mean peace it doesn't mean democracy, none of these forces have any of the interests of the people at heart what the people have to trust is their own forces they cannot trust neither U.S. imperialism or Iran's supposed anti-imperialist stance because in reality they're not anti-imperialist they merely want to make a deal with the Americans they want to sit at the table and have a piece of the pie that's what the Iranian regime really wants and not to actually fight U.S. or Western imperialism at all they just want to be recognized the only people who have the interests of the people at heart is the people themselves, the working masses of the region in Iraq and Iran, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria they are the only people who have common interests and the only way to overcome the problems and the barbarism which has been unleashed by these barbaric, by these reactionary regimes is for these people to finish their struggles that they started in Lebanon, in Iraq and elsewhere by taking power in one country and another and overthrowing the capitalist system basically which at the end is the root cause of all the barbarism and decay that you see that you have this amazing region full of natural resources, full of human resources people with a long, proud cultural history willing to take their destinies into their own hands and build a new society where everyone can live but it's these reactionary outfits which time and time again distort this and divert these things and introduce sectarianism, barbarism of all kinds into the equation and plunge the region deeper down the path of barbarism that's the only way forward