As the war unleashed by US imperialism and the Zionist state of Israel against Iran enters its third week, it is spreading across a much wider region and becoming increasingly destructive. The US-Israeli bloc has not only assassinated dozens of senior state officials and military commanders, including the Velayat-e Faqih Ali Khamenei, but has also bombarded the entire country, massacring hundreds of civilians and wreaking massive devastation. Yet they have not achieved their objectives, nor is there any indication that they will. By eliminating key figures, they aimed to plunge the state apparatus into crisis and trigger collapse by creating chaos and divisions within the regime. This would have opened the path to regime change, allowing them to reshape Iran much like Venezuela or even Syria. Indeed, when Trump launched the war, he boasted with reckless confidence and arrogance that victory would be achieved within just two or three days. Yet, not only did the mullah regime fail to collapse, but Iran began delivering heavy strikes against US military bases, oil and gas facilities, and hotels housing US military personnel in the collaborationist Gulf Arab states, while directly targeting Israel itself. Hezbollah and Shiite militias in Iraq also joined the conflict, while from the very first day Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tanker traffic.
On the first day, Trump declared victory, saying: “Let me say, we’ve won… in the first hour it was over.” He later revised the timeline from two or three days to two or three weeks, then to a hundred days, and eventually stated that “the war could go on forever.” As Iran mounts its resistance and the US-Israeli bloc fails to secure its desired outcome, both the quantitative and qualitative scale of the violence and destruction continue to escalate. Thus far, the US-Israeli bloc has bombarded numerous nuclear facilities alongside oil and natural gas fields, inflicting incalculable damage upon Iran’s infrastructure. Yet, not content with this, Trump announced that they could strike Iran’s power plants as well. The objective is to utterly paralyze the country! Furthermore, as Trump boasted that they had struck Kharg Island –Iran’s primary oil gathering and export hub– and could strike it again “just for fun,” the prospect of a ground invasion aimed at occupying the country, starting with this very island, has begun to be openly debated in the public sphere. Meanwhile, the Zionist state of Israel, even as it bombards Iran, is simultaneously and boundlessly scorching Lebanon once again, blowing civilian neighborhoods to pieces and attempting to turn this country into a new Gaza.
Knowing no bounds in their imperialist banditry and arrogance, the US-Israeli bloc finds itself in a state of bewilderment in the face of Iran’s unanticipated resistance and war capacity, realizing that its current military and political blueprint is no longer viable. This assessment does not imply favoring the reactionary Iranian bourgeois state, which is itself struggling to become a decisive power in the Middle East; it merely points to the objective trajectory of the war launched by the US-Israeli imperialist bloc. Up to this point, Iran has relentlessly struck every target it declared it would hit, inflicting massive devastation. The new generation of hypersonic ballistic missiles are striking their targets with a far higher success rate, unleashing much heavier destruction. The striking of a US aircraft carrier and, more significantly, of the famed F-35 fighter jets –designed with stealth capabilities to evade radar– is particularly noteworthy. By closing the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has secured a strategic advantage capable of determining the course of the war due to its geopolitical position. The Strait of Hormuz stands as the sole passageway facilitating the transit of oil and natural gas extracted in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, and Kuwait from the Persian Gulf to the open seas. Approximately 25 percent of the global oil trade and 20 percent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) flow through this narrow chokepoint.
The cessation of the oil and natural gas flows leads to both an energy supply crisis and a drastic surge in global energy prices. Natural gas is also utilized in fertilizer production; the Strait of Hormuz constitutes the most critical transit point for the global shipment of ammonia, urea, and nitrogen used in agriculture. According to Bank of America, following the outbreak of the war, fertilizer prices have seen increases reaching 30-40%. The continued closure of Hormuz also triggers a “shortage” in petroleum products utilized across all sectors of industry. This colossal bottleneck in the raw material supply chain lays bare, once again, how the world capitalist economy forms a global and inextricably intertwined structure. Once upon a time, bourgeois liberals used to argue that a major rupture in supply chains would affect all countries, that no one could risk such a fallout, and therefore, this integrated structure of the world economy could prevent wars. Yet, this was entirely a bourgeois deception. For what breeds war are the deep and irreconcilable contradictions within the very heart of the imperialist-capitalist system; the global and intricate structure of the world economy cannot prevent the eruption of these contradictions– and indeed, it is failing to do so and cannot prevent it! On the other hand, while war signifies utter devastation for the masses, the American arms and technology monopolies, in particular, are shattering profit records; weapons factories are operating day and night to produce munitions, especially missiles. As Lenin so aptly put it: War means monstrous profits!
Fractures within the imperialist camp
The Middle East, which has constituted the epicenter of the Third World War for nearly a quarter of a century, is now completely engulfed by the war. By blockading the Persian Gulf –the most critical supply chain of the capitalist economy– on the one hand, and retaliating against similar facilities in Israel and the Gulf states in response to strikes on its own oil, natural gas, and power plants on the other, Iran has ensured that the imperialist war transcends its own geography and assumes a global dimension. The failure to cripple Iran’s war capacity and force open the Strait of Hormuz, despite the colossal military might of the US-Israeli bloc, is not only infuriating the Trump administration but also cornering it both domestically and internationally. Trump has appealed for assistance from NATO Powers –namely Britain, France, and Germany– and even from China to reopen Hormuz. However, although the European imperialist powers also target Iran, they are currently unwilling to become an active party to the direct conflict, declaring, “this is not our war.” Furthermore, they are criticizing Trump for failing to notify them of the decision to go to war in advance.
Having utterly disregarded the European imperialist powers, and even dreaming of achieving his objectives in the first days of the war to wield this anticipated victory as leverage against them, Trump is now seething with rage over being rebuffed. Indeed, he did not shy away from posting the following lines on his social media account: “Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer «need» or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance-we never did! we do not need the help of anyone!” Later, he targeted NATO countries once again, declaring, “Cowards, we will not forget this.” Trump claims “we don’t need it,” yet NATO is already at the absolute disposal of the US-Israeli bloc in numerous areas, including satellite systems, military intelligence, and the use of military bases.
Failing to achieve his objectives, Trump, floundering in bewilderment, constantly issues contradictory and inconsistent statements. He simultaneously wields these contradictory and ambiguous statements –through which he relentlessly escalates the level of threat– as a tactical maneuver to exert pressure on the opposing side. Likewise, the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio subsequently retracted his statement –originally uttered to justify the war– that “we had to strike first to protect American soldiers in the region from a potential retaliation before Israel launched its attack,” coupled with the inability of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth –a figure bearing racist tattoos and with a documented history of rape and violence against women– to articulate anything of strategic value beyond declaring “we are scorching and destroying, and we will scorch and destroy even more,” has drastically deepened the contradictions and crises both within the ruling class and among the Western imperialist powers. While certain prominent figures within the fascist MAGA movement are voicing opposition to the war, it is highly noteworthy that Joe Kent, Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, resigned, declaring that Iran poses no imminent threat and that Israel wields a decisive influence over Trump’s decision-making processes.
The friction among the Western imperialist powers can also be grasped from the following fact: The British magazine The Economist, an organ of monopoly capital with a 120-year history, featured Trump on its cover under the headline Operation Blind Fury. Criticizing the sheer incompetence of the US administration, the publication asserts that the war has devolved into an impasse, that Trump is utterly clueless about his next move, and that there is absolutely no underlying plan. Likewise, allegations are circulating that Netanyahu blackmailed Trump using the Epstein files, thereby coercing him into the war against Iran. Moreover, this claim is being voiced not only from within the US ruling class, the European imperialist powers, and the Iranian front, but also by certain left and socialist forces. In essence, it is being suggested that the pedophile Trump has recklessly plunged the US into an unplanned war solely to prevent the exposure of footage depicting his sexual encounters with minors.
So, does the US-Israeli bloc truly lack a plan? Of course it has one: War and subjugation! Trump and his administration, as well as Netanyahu, were exceedingly confident that the regime in Iran, reeling under heavy blows, would collapse in short order. Indeed, as reflected in the New York Times, the calculation was that an uprising would erupt in Iran –subjected to heavy bombardment and the assassination of its top-tier leaders– or, failing that, the regime would be paralyzed and dragged into a profound crisis. However, their calculations on paper collided with reality on the ground; for the battlefield possesses a far more complex and chaotic structure dictated by countless objective factors. To expect the plan of Trump and Netanyahu to achieve its objective without encountering a single obstacle means not only disregarding the deep contradictions within the very heart of the imperialist-capitalist system and approaching developments from a mechanical standpoint, but also attributing an omnipotent supremacy to US imperialism. What is genuinely at play for the Western imperialist camp –which criticizes Trump for lacking a plan– is, in fact, nothing other than imperialist hubris! According to them, Western imperialism wields absolute power, and the sole obstacle to unleashing it is the reckless miscalculation and lack of planning of the ignorant and crazed Trump!
The fundamental reason why the plans of Trump and Netanyahu failed to yield the desired outcome in short order without spiraling into a regional war, and instead spawned new crises, is the deepening crisis of imperialist hegemony and the existence of the Third World War, which is its concrete manifestation. The Iran war, alongside the Ukrainian front, constitutes the most critical link of this imperialist war. Iran is a component of the imperialist bloc spearheaded by Russia and China, and these two imperialist powers undoubtedly calculate that with the collapse of Iran in the Middle East, they too would suffer a massive blow. Furthermore, China –which purchases approximately 1.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil daily– knows better than anyone that the US, having seized this country’s energy reserves, would turn the barrel of the gun directly toward it. Indeed, Trump’s primary objective was to secure a swift victory in Iran in order to establish a strategic supremacy at the negotiating table with China.
Following the outbreak of the war, the Global Times, the English-language organ representing the state line of Beijing, wrote that the Global South –including China itself– must confront the monster of hegemony, which it identifies with the US:
“This may well be the decisive struggle between US hegemony and a genuinely multipolar world. Antonio Gramsci famously wrote that «the old world is dying and the new world struggles to be born, and that this is the time of monsters.» If the Global South fails to confront the monsters of hegemony effectively, the new world may never emerge. And the monsters, unchecked, may drag all of us down with them.”[1]
The implication of these lines is abundantly clear; it is no secret that imperialist powers like China and Russia, particularly following the 12-Day War, have aided Iran by supplying military munitions and providing military intelligence utilizing combat tactics and satellite systems. Undoubtedly, the complex and highly effective military war capacity that Iran has developed over the years cannot be ignored either, and it is precisely this capacity that generates the truly shattering impact on the ground.
The Epstein files, mad Trump’s war, or an imperialist war?
It is worth re-emphasizing and clarifying a crucial point. Trump and the figures comprising his administration sit at the apex of the US –the hegemonic power of the imperialist system– and execute immensely destructive decisions on a global scale. However, when looking specifically at bourgeois administrations and bourgeois statesmen, they possess an exceedingly ignorant, uninformed, and pathological nature; they do not shy away from blatantly lying. They are profoundly indifferent to, and display sheer arrogance regarding, the cultures of other countries and peoples. It is a glaring fact that Trump possesses not even an iota of knowledge about Iran, its deep-rooted, millennia-old Persian culture, its traditions, the Shiite religious understanding, and the role this understanding plays in social and political life. The fact that Trump is a successful merchant within the destructive relations of capitalist competition by no means implies that he possesses the political superiority he delusionally attributes to himself!
The cadres comprising the Trump administration labor under the delusion that they can do whatever they please, intoxicated by the arrogance derived from the US’s economic and military might. Indeed, it is this very same recklessness that impels Israel to act with equal abandon. While raining bombs down upon Iran, Trump speaks as if he were discussing a game rather than a war. Whichever way we look at it, we see that he is a sociopath, a pathological figure, and a murderer. So, how is it possible that such sick and ignorant men can ascend to the helm of a colossal imperialist country like the US? To grasp this phenomenon, we must recognize that capitalism, having exhausted its historical lifespan, is profoundly rotting; that the crisis of imperialist hegemony intersects precisely with this historical impasse; and that US imperialism, its hegemony eroded and suffering immense decay, has permanently lost its former position.
There is a direct and inextricable link between the madness US imperialism resorts to in order to halt its historical decline and the madness of Trump. What catapulted the likes of Trump onto the political stage and paved the way for their ascent to the very apex is precisely the fact that the US is losing its hegemony over the imperialist system. This is the decay of US imperialism; it is the delusion that it can do whatever it pleases by relying on absolute force of arms. Consequently, the madness of these sick men is simultaneously the madness of US imperialism; it is the madness of the energy, arms, and tech monopolies. The boundless greed, sociopathic nature, pathological psyche, cultural barrenness, and arrogant demeanor of capital are personified in these men during the periods of profound rot and crisis we are traversing. Once, the madness of German imperialism, which sought world domination, similarly fleshed itself out in the madness of Hitler.
Transitioning from here to the Epstein files, let us pose the question: In the political realm, do the personal calculations of bourgeois politicians, their moral frailties, or blackmails have absolutely no impact on historical events such as war? Of course they do. Yet, it is not individuals who determine history, but the class struggle; and the conflicts among the ruling classes constitute a crucial component of this. It must not be forgotten that in war, countless factors come into play, including the vulnerabilities of leaders and the deception of the enemy. However, to explain an imperialist war through, so to speak, matters of sordid sexual scandals and blackmail is to remain blind to the truly decisive causes behind the war and to fail to comprehend how the capitalist system structurally breeds war. Had US imperialism retained its former position and had bourgeois politics not rotted so profoundly, neither could a fascist like Trump have burst onto the political stage, nor could Israel have wielded the Epstein files as an instrument of blackmail.
It should be recalled that when the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, bourgeois liberals, deliberately ignoring the reality of the imperialist war, posited that Bush’s sheer stupidity lay behind the invasion. As if the crux of the matter were a question of intellect or the lack thereof, these liberals juxtaposed the “smart” Democrats against the “stupid” Bush and the “adventurist” Republicans. Likewise, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the politicians and ideologues of the Western imperialist powers decried Putin as a madman, a paranoiac, and a sociopath, likening him to Hitler. In an effort to obscure the genuine dynamics of the conflict, they branded it “Putin’s war.” In reality, however, Russian imperialism, increasingly encircled by NATO amidst imperialist rivalry, had responded to this containment by invading Ukraine. Consequently, what lies behind the war is not the madness of individuals, but directly the imperialist rivalry and the crisis of hegemony.
Revolutionary Marxists comprehend political developments not by merely looking at individuals, but by evaluating the social developments in which those individuals are embedded. Undoubtedly, once those individuals step onto the stage of history, they influence its trajectory by bringing all their subjective and pathological traits into the process; precisely as it is unfolding today. This lays bare, in its starkest form, the inextricable dialectical relationship between the objective and the subjective, the base and the superstructure, and how they mutually determine one another.
Nuclear threat and the revolutionary way out!
Failing to achieve its objectives, the US-Israeli bloc is experiencing a profound bottleneck, and it remains unclear how this impasse will be overcome. Having set out on the path for regime change, it is an utter irony that the US has lifted sanctions on the maritime oil tankers of Iran, a country with which it is currently at war! At present, Trump is seeking to secure the opening of the Strait of Hormuz in order to spin this into a victory. Indeed, he is threatening to annihilate Iran should Hormuz remain closed. Simultaneously, influential senators such as the fascist and Christian Zionist Lindsey Graham are aggressively pushing for the occupation of Kharg Island and the launching of a ground offensive. Another faction of the US ruling class, however, warns that this will only escalate the war further. For the occupation of this island implies neither the defeat of Iran, nor the capitulation of the mullah regime, nor the reopening of Hormuz. It is glaringly obvious that such an occupation would generate a severe objective pressure to expand into the Iranian mainland; which, in turn, would exponentially intensify the ferocity of the war, mobilize new dynamics, and drag other countries more directly into the fray.
In September 2024, when Israel attacked Lebanon and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had not yet been assassinated, we wrote the following:
“Israel’s preparations for a ground offensive into Lebanon indicate that the imperialist war in the Middle East will expand ever further and become exponentially more destructive. The potent regional dynamics of the war are daily exerting greater pressure on global dynamics, driving the imperialist powers toward direct confrontation. A crucial point must be emphatically underscored: Regardless of its outcomes, even if the war were to come to a temporary halt for this or that reason, it will inevitably reignite, for the conditions and dynamics that engendered today’s war are growing increasingly acute.”[2]
And indeed, this is precisely what came to pass. In June 2025, Israel launched the 12-Day War against Iran, and following a brief respite, the war expanded to engulf the Gulf states as well.
Unable to bring Iran to its knees, the US-Israeli bloc is increasingly and ever more vocally articulating the potential use of nuclear weapons. Likewise, Trump’s declaration that “we have the power to wipe Iran off the map” naturally brings to mind the prospect of nuclear weapons being deployed. Absolutely no one can any longer voice optimistic notions that this is merely an empty threat and blackmail, or that these weapons would never actually be used. The use of nuclear weapons has been sanctioned within US military doctrine under the concept of “escalate to de-escalate.” It is envisioned that in scenarios where a conventional war is being lost or control has slipped away, these weapons could be employed to rein in the conflict and secure a strategic supremacy for the US.[3] In a previous article, we drew attention to this peril as follows:
“As the dynamics within the very heart of the capitalist order daily drive the imperialist powers toward direct confrontation, the risk of deploying nuclear weapons is steadily escalating. Of course, nuclear war is not a preferable option; however, the contradictions and pressures generated by the capitalist system determine the mindset of the ruling classes, and what appears most inconceivable can, when the day comes, appear profoundly rational. In this regard, to trust that the imperialist rulers will refrain from using these weapons due to their destructiveness would be infantile! Furthermore, preparations for the use of nuclear weapons –under the guise of «tactical nuclear weapons»– by narrowing their intensity and the area they encompass, have been underway for a long time.” [4]
The war unleashed by the US-Israeli imperialist bloc does not only impact the toilers of the Middle East; from South Asia to Africa, and from Europe to the Americas, the working class across the entire globe is being profoundly affected by this imperialist war. While war creates massive devastation on the one hand, it simultaneously triggers colossal upheavals that undermine the established order. As Lenin stated, wars are the mothers of revolutions. This war launched against Iran may also create a historical opportunity for a great revolutionary transformation, primarily in the Middle East and throughout the world. However, for this to become a reality, the working class must intervene in the course of events as an independent political force through its own revolutionary/communist organizations, parties, and trade unions. Undoubtedly, at this juncture, a momentous historical task falls upon the American working class: To stand against the war policies of the sociopathic Trump administration with the power derived from production and to amplify internationalist solidarity with the Iranian toilers!
In the Middle East, turned into a living hell by imperialist and capitalist powers, the only way to halt the war and devastation is to oppose the war by directly targeting the capitalist system itself, and to organize and struggle in this direction. At this very juncture, the independent class line to be forged must both withstand imperialist bombs and lend its full support to the struggle of the Iranian toilers to overthrow the reactionary mullah dictatorship presiding over them. We are compelled to confront the imperialist war, the devastation, the rotting capitalist system, and its pathological and reactionary ruling class by raising the banner of the international proletarian revolution! In this historical reckoning, the modern working classes of Iran and Turkey possess the power to serve as the locomotive of this revolutionary transformation that will liberate the entire region!
We Stand With the Working People of Iran Against US-Israeli Imperialist Banditry!
[1] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202603/1356372.shtml
[2] https://gelecekbizim.net/the-ferocity-of-israel-and-the-new-forms-of-the-expanding-war/
[3] https://warontherocks.com/2018/09/escalation-dominance-in-americas-oldest-new-nuclear-strategy/
[4] https://gelecekbizim.net/kitap-emperyalist-hegemonya-krizi-ve-ucuncu-dunya-savasi/