Iraq and Somalia and preparations to attack Iran

Opposition is growing both within and outside the United States to the wars being waged in Iraq and Somalia, and to the US war preparations against Iran. Among the slogans which reverberated during the anti–war protests this January in the US were those calling on the Democratic Party to respect the will of the people and act against the war, or become exposed as collaborators. Under pressure from public opinion, the House of Representatives passed a resolution on 16 th February, 2007, against the troop increases proposed by the Bush administration.

On the streets of Iraq, patriots continue to fight bravely and score gains over the heavily armed US and allied troops, determined to free their nation of foreign occupation. At the end of January 2007, US military sources and their Iraqi allies killed or injured over 500 people in the city of Najaf. The targets of the attack were the al-Hatami and al-Khazali tribes, both of which oppose the US occupation and the puppet Iraq regime under American control.

In early January, US military planes bombarded southern Somalia. This was aimed against the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia, which had succeeded in removing warlords and bringing about peace and stability in most of Somalia. While the US imperialists presented it as a “war on terror”, the peoples of Africa can see that it is a war to deny sovereignty to the people of Somalia, to bring Somalia back under US control. The peoples of Africa and of other continents have condemned the US bombardment of Somalia.

Even while the lies concocted about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction are fresh in people’s memory, the US imperialists are trumpeting a new justification for aggression and war, aimed at Iran. Recent news reports clearly point out that the claims of “ secret weapons sites” in Iran, provided by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, have proved to be false when investigated by IAEA inspectors Despite this, the imperialists continue to spread their lies and isolate Iran. They claim that the weapons and explosives used by the patriotic forces in Iraq are of Iranian origin. In order to intimidate Iran, heavily–armed US aircraft carriers have been sent into the Persian Gulf. Detailed US plans to attack Iran have been revealed recently, including the targeting of naval and military bases, the cities of Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr, and the Natanz nuclear power station. The Government of Iran has vowed that the US imperialists would have to pay a very heavy price if they dared to implement these plans.

Facts and developments show that the ‘war on terror’ being championed by US imperialism is an unjust imperialist war against nations, peoples and their sovereignty. Caught in the deep economic crisis of the monopoly capitalist system, with the supremacy of the US Dollar under threat, the ruling class in the US is relying on war, plunder and occupation of other peoples’ lands as the preferred way to retain its dominant position in the world.

Imperialism is the source of war and terror in the world. It is a system that has outlived its time, and cannot prolong its life without spreading death and destruction on the global scale. The ‘war on terror’ slogan of US imperialism and other imperialists is aimed at turning the truth upside down, so as to justify a completely unjustifiable course.

The times are calling on the people to stick to the course of uncompromising struggle against imperialism and imperialist war, in general, and the US imperialist led ‘war on terror’ in particular.