Image by Javad Esmaeili.
The attack that most of the world had been anticipating finally took place. Israel’s expanding role as the world’s leading aggressor nation added another brutal chapter to its growing legacy of destruction, death and disruption on June 13, 2025 when it attacked some of Iran’s cities and military bases from the air. Despite the fact that most of us knew the attack was coming, it was still alarming. Like the US attacks on Iraq in 1991 and 2003, the immediate response was one where the West defended Israel’s aggression like they did Washington’s aggression in the Iraq bombardments. Tel Aviv repeated its meaningless justification that it only operated in self-defense; a lie that was repeated by various politicians in Europe and North America. It’s a justification that is as predictable as Washington’s denials of foreknowledge or participation in the attacks. Denials that are dutifully repeated by US mainstream media from CNN to Fox News and the New York Times to the San Francisco Chronicle, albeit with varying degrees of pretense at objectivity.
However, given the fact that it has been reported that US military missile platforms are shooting down Iranian missiles, that US diplomatic personnel were removed from embassies in the region, and that Washington continues to arm and assist the Israeli military, Trump’s claims that Washington has nothing to do with the illegal attack by Israel are obviously just not true. Sifting through the news reports from various sources around the world, the only thing that becomes clear is that the fog of war has descended and the obfuscation of facts is the predominant reality. Israeli claims of defensive success against the Iranian onslaught of missiles fired in response to Israeli bombardment appear to be only slightly true as videos of the damage in Haifa, Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities leak out over the internet. In a similar vein, initial Israeli claims of tremendous success in destroying targets inside Iran (targets presumably chosen by Israeli and US intelligence agencies) are somewhat tempered by Iranian military statements detailing the destruction—statements that, while factual, are also designed to portray the damage in less sensational terms so as to diminish Israeli triumphalism.
What does seem clear is that Israel’s first attacks destroyed parts of various military and government facilities and killed dozens of Iranians, including scientists, military officers and civilians. Subsequent attacks have been less successful, in part because Iran’s defensive systems, which were knocked offline by Israeli drones and saboteurs smuggled into the country, are back online. Meanwhile, it appears that Israel’s expensive (mostly paid for by the United States) and much-touted Iron Dome defensive system has been penetrated with greater and greater success, which means Iranian missiles and drones are reaching their targets more often. One can’t help but wonder if the military with the most missiles will be the military that succeeds. Then again, one also has to wonder whether US, the UK and other nations in the so-called West will expand their involvement to include offensive military operations against Iran or will those nations “merely” continue to provide intelligence, arms and defensive support (as in shooting down Iranian drones and missiles)? Likewise, if Washington and its military alliance were to engage in offensive operations, how long would it take before Iran’s allies in Moscow and Beijing responded?
The goals of this war are unclear and seem to depend on who one listens to. Washington, Britain and the European Union are on record as wanting to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran has repeatedly stated that is has no intention of making nuclear weapons and that its nuclear sector is only focused on developing nuclear energy. According to various sources, Iran has enriched uranium to sixty percent, which is beyond what the agreement reached between Washington, the UN and other powers while Obama was president but is well below the ninety percent necessary for nuclear weapons production. For those who don’t know, Donald Trump tore up that agreement during his first term, an action which suggested to Tehran that Washington and its client Israel intended to get considerably more aggressive against Iran. The truth of their fears is now here. Some in the US and Israeli media are calling for a regime change in Iran. Their call is an amplification of statements made by various ultra-right and ultranationalist members of Israel’s government, including Netanyahu himself. Such hopes are unlikely to be fulfilled, despite the dreams of the so-called Crown Prince Pehlavi, who told Fox News from his mansion in Los Angeles that it was only a matter of time. Various other descendants of the reviled and rejected monarchy are quoted in the same FoxNews report thanking Israel and hoping that the Iranian military will stage a coup. If one looks at recent history, however, the current Iranian government seems to have majority support, despite it cultural and social repression. More importantly, the Israeli state as it currently exists is reviled and any government that came into power because of Israel’s aggression would be quite unpopular. Other than the monarchists, the only other potential Iranian replacements would be Mujahedin-el-Khalq (MEK) a one-time leftist Islamic organization that participated in the revolution against the Shah and was part of the government of national unity during its brief existence before the Islamist revolutionaries led by Ayatollah Khomeini decimated its fellow revolutionaries via, imprisonment, exile and death. After the consolidation of power by Khomeini and his legions, MEK’s leaders went into exile. Since the early 1980s, they have courted and been courted by Western politicians, media, and various grassroots organizations. At first, their outreach leaned left, but over time the organization found more allies and money amongst the Zionist right-wing, while also serving US and Israeli intelligence agencies during the Iran-Iraq war and the US wars and occupation of Iraq. These actions seem to have only diminished whatever support the MEK had inside Iran. An occupation by foreign forces would be no more popular. In fact, any regime change not coming from the Iranian people would likely provoke an ongoing resistance that would make the Iraqi resistance from 2003-2010 against the occupiers seem tame in comparison.
Of course, the very fact of combat transforms all predictions into mere speculation. The longer the armed conflict continues, the greater the toll of death and destruction will be. Likewise, the greater the chaos that will ensue. As residents of the world and, even more pointedly, as residents of the imperial force behind the war on Iran and the genocide of the Palestinians, our task is to organize and demand an immediate cessation to the war, an end to the Israeli occupation and therefore a retreat of Israeli forces from Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and wherever else they extend themselves. Equally important is for us to demand a removal of all US, British, and other Western forces from the region commonly called the Middle East or West Asia.
