The following statement was read at a rally at Victor Steinbrueck park on Saturday, January 4:
The US must withdraw from the Middle East. Not just for its crimes today but for generations of crimes committed throughout the Gulf. The US military is an agent of capitalist business, people and troops seen as little more than pawns or gangsters for the jackboots of capitalism.
There are zero positive outcomes from starting a war with Iran. It is a gambit for capitalist vampires who thrive on chaos and the realpolitik of absolute ghouls like Bolton, Kissinger, and others. Far from an unusual act, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani is a deliberate blow years in the making. It is calculated. It is cynical. It will bring more violence.
Apologists will acknowledge Syrian blood on Qasem Soleimani’s hands. However, like US troops, these arguments are deployed in bad faith and serve only as a pretext to war with millions of lives at stake. One cannot claim to be in the interest of preserving life by rationalizing an attack that will lead to justified, popular revolt against decades-long US imperial occupation and arms-sales in the Gulf.
Lost in the question of war in Iran is what gives the US sovereignty in Iraq? Nothing. Iraq is a country whose infrastructure US forces decimated, where millions of people were and continue to be displaced, and where the US operates with near impunity. Both the people of Iraq and US military forces have documented war crimes for decades and scarcely is the question brought up anymore in the imperial core. The US tortures. The US murders. The US displaces. The US extracts every last bloodied ounce of wealth regardless of the bodies on any side, friend or foe, neutral or accomplice. For those crimes, the US should withdraw from the region. These are not the only crimes of US capital.
The US has no justification for its continued occupation and exploitation of Iraq nor war in Iran. We have seen the violence seeded in Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine, Israel, and Syria. The US is cynical and opportunistic. It has no allies, only accomplices to be discarded and carcasses to pick for ill-gotten gain.
We call on US citizens in the imperial core to resist and prevent bloodlust when retaliation is made. We insist that war can best be defused through complete US withdrawal, acknowledgement of US crimes, and the long, hard road of reparations for the sins of US capitalists in colonies and on the backs of the global proletariat.
We encourage military personnel to resist and refuse to take up arms. Should there be a draft, burn the cards. Should you deploy, mutiny. Should the political elite of the US demand blood, spare it. Do not let them use you as a pawn in a rich man’s war. You have more in common with someone resisting US invasion and war-mongering than you do with capitalists and their politicians.