U.S. bombing of Iran sets the stage for wider war
June 22 — On Saturday, June 21, the U.S. military carried out a direct act of war on the people of Iran. According to Trump’s Truth Social, “A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, #Fordow.” Missile strikes were also launched on Natanz and Esfahan.
It’s reported that the U.S. military dropped 14 of its new GBU-57 “bunker buster bombs,” each weighing 30,000 lbs. This is the first time this bomb has been used, and it is the successor to the “Mother of All Bombs,” the GBU-43, which was used in Afghanistan in 2017.
The deployment of massive “bunker buster” bombs, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and the mobilization of U.S. naval fleets, air squadrons, and ground forces in the region is not just a war buildup — it’s a deliberate act of imperialist intimidation. Washington’s message is clear: Any people in West Asia who dare to take control of their own resources or chart an independent path will face the full wrath of the U.S. war machine. This is the iron fist of the military-industrial complex, reminding the oppressed that empire — not self-determination — rules.
Representatives of the Iranian government and its military have correctly pointed out that the U.S. has acted illegally and that the Iranian people have a right to defend themselves against both U.S. and Israeli acts of war.
As we said in earlier articles, this war has nothing to do with so-called nuclear weapons. Like the pretext for war on Iraq, there are no “weapons of mass destruction.” It is about regime change in Iran as part of a strategy of imperialist world domination aimed at thwarting the development of the Global South and containing Russia and China.
We can expect the Pentagon to continue down this road until it is stopped. It has already targeted military and political leaders, along with scientists inside Iran, and it has trumpeted the real possibility of attempts to murder Iran’s religious leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Trump & Netanyahu: Genocidal War Criminals
That this war has been launched in the midst of an active genocide of the Palestinian people cannot be ignored. Gaza health authorities report at least 202 Palestinians killed and 1,037 injured in Gaza in the last 48 hours due to ongoing Israeli actions. Since October 2023, they confirm 55,908 Palestinian fatalities and 131,138 injuries, primarily women and children. Not included in this account is the destruction of Syria, Lebanon or the catastrophic war on the people of Yemen.
Generals over the White House
The decaying, malignant racist, anti-worker, anti-poor, anti-woman, transphobic and at times buffoonish cabal at the helm of the White House is in essence a product and reflection of the U.S. capitalist system which cannot provide quality of life for its own workers.
Instead of investment into health care, education, housing and all of the other things that the population desperately needs, including addressing the climate crisis, the vast wealth built on exploitation of the working class is being funneled into the war machine.
President Trump, standing at the podium with Vice President Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at his side at last night’s announcement of the bombing of Iran, was meant to project a quasi form of legality to actions that were clearly in violation of the War Powers Act.
Trump was presenting himself as commander in chief (with full Pentagon backing), pushing aside Constitutional legalities, not even consulting with Congress — the only authority empowered to launch a war. Some have called Trump’s move a coup, putting the military in charge of war policy.
The actual power resides with the Pentagon generals, executing the will of U.S. finance capital to shape war policy. Though appearances may shift, their core strategy has stayed unchanged, regardless of who sits in the White House.
Widening war and increased repression at home
Just before launching a war in West Asia, Trump deployed approximately 700 Marines alongside thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to protests against ICE raids and kidnappings, putting the country’s second-largest city under military occupation.
The assault extends beyond protesters to prominent labor leaders. David Huerta, President of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, was assaulted and violently detained by ICE. He was exercising his right to observe a raid at the Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles. Huerta was charged with felony conspiracy to impede an officer, which carries a maximum sentence of six years in federal prison, and was hospitalized for injuries sustained during his arrest.
The Trump administration has arrested members of Congress and other public officials, including Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka and Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan. The escalation of violence against elected officials reached a new level when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-California) was physically shoved, forced to the ground, and handcuffed by FBI agents during a Department of Homeland Security news conference with Secretary Kristi Noem at the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles.
Workers and the world’s oppressed masses must stop the war
We do not assert that military supremacy, either its technology or its destructive powers, is of no consequence or importance. But perhaps the U.S. and Western capitalists have forgotten the power that the masses are capable of wielding.
It should worry them that their immediate plans through proxy Israel on June 13, 2025, when they assassinated military leaders, scientists and civilians, did not result in regime change, but instead united the Iranian people. It appears that the U.S. military and its establishment have forgotten the lessons of the Vietnam War (and the many U.S. wars since then).
It was Huey P. Newton, Defense Minister of the Black Panther Party, who coined the slogan, “The spirit of the people is greater than the man’s technology.”
Just over a week ago, six million people took to the streets all across the country for the “No Kings” marches. Now, it’s time for the working class in the U.S. to mobilize and remain in the streets until the Pentagon is stopped.
Marx revealed the truth: Workers are the engine of history. As capitalism morphed into imperialism, Lenin expanded this vision, rallying the world’s workers and oppressed peoples to unite.
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