Tag: news

On June 22, 2025, President Trump ordered the military to attack the sovereign country of Iran. In particular, three nuclear sites were attacked, those of Fordow, Natanz and Estefan. 

The ‘’key’’ site of Fordow, which is deep underground, was hit with ‘’bunker busting bombs’’, which is to say bombs which weigh fifteen tons, and are capable of striking deep below the ground. For that reason, American B2 Stealth bombers were used, as each can carry two such bombs. The Israeli military has no bomber capable of carrying such a payload.

As well, the two other nuclear sites, that of Natanz and Isfahan, were reportedly hit with thirty tomahawk cruise missiles, fired from an American submarine. 

Trump is now gloating, that the nuclear ability of Iran has been ‘’completely and totally obliterated’’. He even issued a statement to that effect, which included the words, in capital letters, ‘’NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE’’. 

Either Trump has completely lost touch with reality, or he is on drugs! To even suggest that peace can be secured, by going to war with another country, makes absolutely no sense! And rest assured, dropping bombs and firing missiles on a country, is an act of war! It is not, as the mainstream press is reporting, a mere ‘’conflict’’.

It is also a fact, that the Iranian government officials are saying something far different. They are reporting that, in the case of the Fordow nuclear site, those massive ‘’bunker busting bombs’’ inflicted only minor damage, in that the entrance and exit tunnels were damaged.

This is not at all surprising. It is common practice, for the spokespeople of two countries which are at war, to give conflicting versions, of the same event. In popular terms, we say that there are ‘’two sides to every story’’. 

In this particular case, that of the war against Iran, involving Israel and America, it is safe to say that the spokespeople for all sides, will ‘’slant the story’’, in favour of their country, to put it politely. More accurately, they will not hesitate to ‘’lie through their teeth’’, if they consider that to be in the best interests of their country.

Yet, it is very likely that the Iranian spokesperson was indeed telling the truth. The reason I say this, is because of a remarkably candid statement, issued by an Iranian official, immediately before the bombing, of those nuclear facilities. 

On June 20, two days before the attack, he stated that, ‘’We have already relocated all materials before hand. We have no materials there. All the materials are still in our hands. Secondly, the scientists are still in our hands. Years of experience in those factories where we produced nuclear materials. We still have those factories.’’

All too often, countries which are at war, consider their enemies to be supremely stupid. Wishful thinking! The Iranians are anything but stupid! They clearly anticipated the bombing of their nuclear facilities, and ‘’relocated’’ the important materials. Along with the scientists and factories! Very likely, in preparation for creating a nuclear bomb!

Years ago, Iran signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, the NPT. As best can be gathered, they have since honoured the terms of that Treaty. But now that the Americans have attacked, they will likely ‘’exit’’ the NPT, as Article 10 of that Treaty, allows exit if ‘’supreme national interests are jeopardized’’.

The American attack, on their nuclear facilities, qualifies as placing their ‘’supreme national interests’’ in ‘’jeopardy’’. 

Even more disturbing, is the opinion of scientific experts, that Iran is a mere fifteen days away from producing a nuclear bomb! 

It is to the credit of the Iranians, that they hold Trump, and Trump alone, responsible for provoking this war. They clearly have no quarrel with the American people. That being said, now that the two countries are at war, they are fully prepared to hit all American bases in the Middle East. There are possibly a total of fifty thousand American troops stationed in the area. Well within the range of Iranian missiles!

There can be no doubt that Trump and his administration, are grossly under estimating the Iranians. In fact, there is a ‘’method to their madness’’.

At the start of the war with Israel, a mere few days ago, the Iranians faced the fact that Israel possessed one of the finest air defence systems in the world. It is referred to as the ‘’Iron Dome’’, and includes a series of computer controlled, missile defence systems. The trajectory of the incoming missiles, detected on radar, are determined by the computer, which then fires off a missile, to intercept and destroy it. Extremely high tech, and equally expensive!

For that reason, if no other, it is simply not possible for the Israelis to have a huge stockpile of missiles on hand. They simply cost too much. 

On the other hand, drones are ‘’dirt cheap’’, at least by comparison. As well, missiles which are not computer controlled, are also reasonably inexpensive. And rest assured, Iran has a great abundance of both!

For the first few days of the war, Iran bombarded Israel with swarms of drones and missiles. This forced Israel, in turn, to fire off countless high priced missiles. Most of the ‘’incoming projectiles’’ were shot down, but a few managed to get through. As a result, various military targets, within Israel, were destroyed. This includes radar and missile launching sites. Their air defence system is now somewhat compromised. 

As a result, military experts are convinced that the Israelis will run out of missiles, within perhaps ten days, possibly sooner. 

Now that the Israeli missile defence system has been damaged, the Iranians have ‘’followed up’’ with new, faster, more powerful, truly accurate missiles. Some of these missiles can even maneuver, or ‘’dance in the sky’’, so that it is impossible for the computers to track their trajectory. These missiles are almost impossible to shoot down.

As can be well imagined, many of these missiles are penetrating the Iron Dome, or the ‘’Iron Sieve’’, as the wits phrase it. This has resulted in some serious damage, especially to the industrial centre of Tel Aviv, and the port city of Haifa. Yet the Iranians have plans for much worse. 

As they stated, before the American bombing:

‘’First, we have used less than 30% of our operational capacity, and under 5% of our latent potential. We have new missile capabilities that will be employed in the coming days. Secondly, we have not used our ground or naval capabilities at all. We have kept hold of the ‘’oil card’’, and the ‘’Strait of Hormuz card’’.

This is their way of saying that they have a great many drones and missiles, in reserve. As well, some of those ‘’new’’ missiles have just been unleashed. They are most impressive. Powerful, accurate, fast, maneuverable and supremely effective.  

The Iranians have yet to deploy their army or navy, or to close the Strait of Hormuz. This can be accomplished, quite simply, by mining that narrow strip of water. As a high percentage of the worlds supply of oil passes through that Strait, to close it would be a serious economic matter. Among other things, the price of oil would rise, quite dramatically.

The Iranian narrator went on to say:

‘’Our friends in many countries surrounding the occupied territories have announced their readiness to act. We asked our friends not to act. We said, for now, we will act ourselves. We controlled our friends, because we are managing the situation.’’

That is the reason other enemies of Israel, including the Houthis and Hezbollah, have not joined in the attack on Israel. Or at least, not yet! This was requested by the Iranians. 

The narrator then went on to refer to the Americans:

‘’The US cannot interfere meaningfully, Their only discussion is that to destroy our Ferdow nuclear facilities, they need specific bombs. Even if the Americans  wanted to intervene, they can only do some of this, but they cannot get Israel out of this corner. No way. Because they have already given Israel every opportunity they had. They have already provided Israel with everything, THAAD missile defences, reconnaissance aircraft, and even F35’s. The US cannot help Netanyahu and the Israeli army any further, it is now in a corner. They have already given them everything they have.’’

It is clear that the Iranians have a rather low opinion of American intervention, in the war with Israel. The bombing of the Ferdow nuclear facilities has just taken place, as the Iranians anticipated, and now it remains to be seen if the Americans can get Israel ‘’out of a corner’’.

The narrator then turned his attention to Israel:

‘’Israel has only three options. First, via a ceasefire and dictated peace. Second, drag America into the war. Third, capitulate and confess its wrongdoing, promising not to repeat the insecurity in Iran.’’

Clearly, Israel has chosen option two, that of ‘’dragging America into the war’’. We will see if that saves them.

He then went on to express his concern for civilian casualties:

‘’We have repeatedly announced that civilians should evacuate the areas surrounding military sites, intelligence facilities, and command centres of the Israeli army and government. Their people need to run. We truly do not want any civilians to be killed. The gradual escalation, the slow rising of the missile wave, is partly to allow Israeli civilians to flee, to evacuate. So leave now, flee.’’

That helps to explain the ‘’gradual escalation’’, as opposed to lightning warfare. Thoughtful of them. He then proceeded to summarize:

‘’Dozens of our missiles have managed to penetrate all the layers of their defence systems and inflict damage on the enemy. The enemy’s first day shock only ignited a storm ten times stronger than Al Aqsa flood. Israel is currently in a major crisis. The nations of West Asia, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, and others, totalling 25 countries with Pakistan among them, can establish a grand coalition to assume responsibility for peace and security in our region. If Iran is victorious, this union will be formed, and we will play an important role in it. All other countries will consider the creation of this alliance and the expulsion of Israel and the US as a triumph for the Iranian people.’’

The plan, of the Iranians, is to conquer Israel and then ‘’establish a grand coalition’’, a union of twenty five countries, responsible for ‘’peace and security’’, in the region. The country of Israel is to cease to exist, and American interference is also to disappear.

By contrast, Trump plans to secure peace by going to war with Iran. As that may involve also going to war with twenty five other countries, this is what we refer to as a ‘’tall order’’. More accurately, it is pure madness, complete insanity, or perhaps simple stupidity. Not about to happen!

Now to return to the response of Iran, immediately after the attack by the Americans.

On June 21, within hours of the bombing of their nuclear facilities, Iran responded with a massive missile barrage.

Quite reasonably, they focused on Tel Aviv, the industrial centre of the country, as well as Haifa, the primary port city. It is a naval base, as well as a centre of trade and logistics. It is also crucial for energy, imports and exports. In fact, it handles the majority of food that comes into the country.

Iran took ‘’revenge’’ for the American assault, with some of their ‘’latest and greatest’’ missiles. As these have a 1500kg warhead, they did some serious damage. As the wits phrase it, Iran has turned Haifa into Gaza!

The international response, to the American bombing of Iran, should be a cause of deep concern, to the Americans. Their closest ally, the United Kingdom, UK, has just ‘’broken ranks’’. They now say that they were not involved with the bombing, of the Iranian nuclear facilities. 

The Russian Foreign Minister says that we are now ‘’close to World War 3’’. As well, an aide to Putin mentioned the possibility of giving nuclear weapons to Iran.

The Iranian Foreign Minister says that this attack, by the Americans, is a ‘’breach of the United Nations Charter’’. He is appealing to the UN, to take sanctions against the United States. As the US is a permanent member of the Security Council, with veto power, that is not about to happen.

This brings us to the ‘’home front’’, so to speak.

The New York Times, one of the most highly respected, bourgeois newspapers in the country, is reporting that some of the closest allies of the US, in the Middle East, are now supporting Iran. These include such countries as Iraq, Egypt and Jordan. It is anticipated that military bases in the region are to be attacked, perhaps by militia, armed with weapons from Iran.

Incidentally, the militia is defined as ‘’a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement the regular army’’. In this way, the government of the country can deny any involvement with the militia.

There are also early reports of an ‘’uproar’’ in Congress. Even certain Republican Members of Congress are concerned. One such Member, Thomas Massey, has reportedly said that this attack on Iran, is ‘’not Constitutional’’. The president has no right to go to war, without the approval of Congress! Further, Article 2 of the Constitution allows the president to take military action, but ‘’only against an imminent threat’’, which Iran was not! Iran has no nuclear bomb!

The Democratic Members of Congress most emphatically agree! They maintain that Trump is dragging America into another war, one which could ‘’last for generations’’. A war which they could not possibly win! 

This is true! It is also true that their suggestion, that of impeaching Trump, would do absolutely no good! It has not worked before, it will not work again!

The astute reader may consider the current political situation, as complete and total mass confusion! Chaos! A pure muddle! And so it is. Precisely that which Marx and Engels predicted, in the Communist Manifesto.

As they stated: ‘’Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the process of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole.

‘’Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.’’

The current ruling class, the multi billionaires, the bourgeoisie, are deeply divided, or in the ‘’process of dissolution’’, as the Communist Manifesto describes it. 

As well, the ruling classes of other countries, or the ‘’whole range of old society’’, are also deeply divided. As predicted by the Communist Manifesto!

That same Manifesto tells us what to expect. Certain of the ‘’bourgeois ideologists’’, those who are capable of honesty, are about to ‘’cut themselves adrift’’, and join the revolutionary proletariat.

All other classes are being wiped out by the bourgeoisie. The family farmers are now reduced to burning their crops, as they cannot afford to harvest those crops. Bankruptcy is ‘’right around the corner’’.

As for the middle class, all businesses but five are ‘’Too Small To Succeed’’. That class too, is ‘’going the way of the dodo bird!’’ They have every reason to join the revolutionary class of proletarians.

These class conscious intellectuals are a most welcome addition to the working class. In the process of ‘’raising themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole’’, they cannot help but embrace the Scientific Socialist, revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin.

Now it is their duty to bring this awareness to the working class, the proletariat. After all, the working class is not aware of itself as a class, with its own class interests. 

Nor is it aware of the revolutionary theories of Marx and Lenin. Not too surprising, as these theories are taught only in University, and then only with a view to distorting them. Very few working class people are able to attend University.

At the same time, a clear distinction must be drawn, between the utopian socialists, and the Scientific Socialists, true Marxists, Communists. Only those who call for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat are true Communists. Lenin refers to this as the ‘’touchstone of a true Marxist’’. 

As I write this, it is now June 23. It is encouraging that protests have broken out, mainly in New York City and Washington, DC, but are spreading across the country. 

An indication of the heightened level of awareness, of the working class, is the fact that they are now openly accusing the mainstream press of lying, in an attempt to support Trump, in his war with Iran. They are so right!

From the signs and posters, it is clear that much of these protests are being organized by the Party For Socialism and Liberation. From their website, it is clear that they are utopian socialists, as they do not call for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

This is merely one example of a political Party which claims to be socialist. As long as they do not claim to be Marxist, Communist, merely utopian socialist, that is not a problem. We can certainly work with them, as long as we are free to put forward our own political demands, which include overthrowing the ruling class of multi billionaires, smashing the existing state apparatus, and setting up a new state apparatus, in the form of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 

On the other hand, we cannot work with those who claim to be Marxists, while denying the necessity for revolution and the subsequent Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 

It is absolutely necessary to draw a clear distinction between ourselves, true Communists, and those who are revisionists, denying the necessity of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. 

After all, those who are just now becoming politically active, are bound to become confused. We must explain to them that there is a principle involved. The social chauvinists are merely determined to take over the existing state apparatus, at the time of the revolution, and set themselves up, as the new rulers. Completely unacceptable!

At the same time, the task of raising the level of awareness, of the working class, has never been simpler or easier. There is no longer any need for leaflets. The internet has made it possible to communicate with countless people, instantly. Bear in mind that the working class is now highly cultured. The vast majority are literate, with access to digital devices.

It helps that the essential works of Marx and Lenin are now available on the internet, and can be easily down loaded. Workers should be encouraged to read State and Revolution, by Lenin, as that is most relevant.

The opposition to the war with Iran can be expected to increase dramatically. Yet as long as the working class remains unaware of themselves, as a class, with their own class interests, it is bound to remain an anti war movement. It is necessary to raise the level of awareness of the working class, to the point that it becomes a movement for Scientific Socialism. 

With that in mind, may I suggest flooding social media with calls for Scientific Socialism, for revolution, for overthrowing the class of multi billionaires, the bourgeoisie, for smashing the existing state apparatus, and replacing it with a new state apparatus, in the form of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.

We will know that we are successfully raising the level of awareness of the working class, when the posters and signs call for revolution, class warfare, overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. May I suggest the following slogans:

Workers of the World, Unite!

Dictatorship of the Proletariat!

Peace! Democracy! Socialism!

Scientific Socialism!