America’s Iran War

Out of its 250 years of existence, the United States has been at war for about 230 years.  There has not been an American president in the recent history who has not waged a war against some country or the other.  Trump is no exception to this tradition.  It may appear befuddling as to how someone who ran his presidential campaign on being a peace president is now so war-hungry.  How is it that the US presidents completely reverse their positions after getting into office?  Is that all of them are pathological liars?  Or, is it all by design?  To clear this fog, we need to remember what Lenin said about imperialism – Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism in which the finance capital has completely overtaken the industrial capital, and to expand finance capital further, there is no other way but to wage wars against other countries and seek total global dominance.  The policies are already there; the US president simply becomes a figure head who has no choice but to implement those policies.  The continuity of policy can be seen through Bush, Obama, Biden and Trump.  US General Wesley Clark in an interview to Al Jazeera in 2007 had said that Pentagon informed him that the plan was to take out seven countries in five years.  The countries included were Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.  If one sees the trajectory of US intervention in last few years, the continuity of agenda becomes clear.  After Syria fell, which stood as a bulwark against US imperialism in the region, the next target was Iran.

The policies of world domination are made through think tanks like Brookings Institute, funded by bourgeois oligarchy who plan decades ahead how to shape the world in their image.  Only those people, politicians are allowed to rise to the level of US President and secretaries, who are ideologically aligned and are willing to implement the policies of world domination.  Relevant to the topic at hand is the policy paper, “Path to Persia” from Brookings Institute that came out in 2009.  It clearly lays out how to reach to Iran after capturing Syria and using Israel as cannon fodder, using it as front to absorb all damages, to take blame for war, to finally weaken Iran.  Weakening of Iran directly couples with weakening of China, whose major energy imports come from Iran and Gulf states.  US is already trying to weaken Russia through Ukraine war.  US is involved in multi-pronged, multi-front war to eliminate the competition emerging from Russia, China and Iran.  Iran is a stepping stone to take out China – that has emerged as a great power in the 21^st century.  How far they will succeed is yet to be seen.  Will the American empire stretch thin in this multi-front engagement or will it emerge successful in re-establishing a unipolar world is for now an open question.

After escalating the war in Ukraine against Russia, threatening to annexing Canada, threatening to take over Greenland, capturing President Maduro of sovereign Venezuela, Trump finally attacked Iran.  Canada, Greenland, Venezuela are all energy-rich and mineral-rich locations.  Trump attacked Iran when the nuclear deal was almost reached in Geneva early this year.  Iran had agreed to stop enriching Uranium to a high level when the attack was carried out.  The attack was carried out by first killing the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and then bombing a kindergarten school for girls that left more than 170 young girls dead.  And then after, there has been a bombing exchange between Iran and US-Israel axis.  While US-Israel death-cult bombed civilian targets, including residential buildings, schools, hospitals, heritage sites, science centers in their usual display of barbarity, Iran in return mostly targeted military sites spread over in Israel and the client Gulf states, who all host US military bases.  The Gulf states paid the price of hosting American bases on their soil, realizing the hard way that the bases were not to protect them but to protect Israel and eventually attack Iran.

Historically, Zionists, who rule Israel have always offered their services to being attack dogs of the reigning power in the world, to British, to Nazi Germany to now the US.  Israel is a depraved society with nearly 80% of the population gleefully supporting genocide of Palestinians and Arabs, and have elected Netanyahu for six consecutive terms.  They danced and celebrated when Gaza was flattened into a rubble, with nearly 680,000 killed, in which half of them were children.  Fantasy of Netanyahu to establish Greater Israel, combined with religious Torah nonsense of being the “chosen people” and commit religiously sanctioned genocide of Arabs who don’t kneel to them greatly serves the bourgeois capitalist class of the US.  Taking advantage of this genocidal state, exploiting religious beliefs both inside the US and in Israel, the bourgeoisie in the US has been able to maintain iron-clad control in the gulf region through Israel.

However, with retaliation of Iran, that iron-grip seems to be loosening.  Neither Trump and his security state, nor Netanyahu and his killer agency Mossad expected that Iran would be able to inflict such heavy blows and go for an eye for an eye.  But the genie has escaped the bottle, it is an all-out war now, a war of survival for Iran, which can end only in complete and humiliating defeat of the United States.  Its navy, air-force, bases, embassies, military installations have all been hit by Iran with its shocking multitude of drone and missile attack.  Iran becomes the first country to down the invincible F-35s and push Abraham Lincoln and Gerlad Ford aircraft carriers to more than 1000 kilometers away from Persian Gulf.  The scale of destruction that Iranian missiles have caused in Israel was unthinkable for the war-planners, their hubris suffered a big setback.  The myth of iron dome is completely shattered and cities like Tel Aviv, Haifa, Dimon, Arad have been pummeled by Iranian hypersonic missiles.  For Iran and also the rest of the world, the state of Israel needs to cease to exist – it will serve a massive blow to US imperialism.  It’s a cancer on the planet, gravest threat to international peace and security, and an outpost of American empire in West Asia to keep the region destabilized.

To end the war, Iran has demanded removal of American bases from the Gulf region for good, lifting of all sanctions against its country and reparations for all damages.  These demands will not be acceptable to the US as it will cause significant erosion of US hegemony, but then it is going to be locked in an unwinnable war.  And this time it will not be poor peasants of Vietnam to grind through, but an advanced army with 21^st century weapons, who prepared for this imminent war over three decades and backed by millennia of civilization.  Iran is no Iraq either; a far bigger country, with mountainous terrain, impossible to occupy, and a far cohesive, highly-educated and resilient population.  They have come out on streets every day of the war expressing complete support for their government and IRGC.  While Iran is in for a do or die war, the US empire is in for an economic chaos and decline if it continues this war. 

It is unravelling US imperialism and its junior NATO partners who have refused to join the war directly.  After Trump called the NATO allies “cowards” and threatened them to stop helping them in Ukraine, only then a couple of them, especially UK have sent their nuclear submarine in the Arabian Sea.  As Mao in 1946 famously called US imperialism including NATO alliance a paper tiger, it is now for the whole world to see.  When faced with a formidable adversary like Iran, they are not willing to fight.  US has constantly sought ceasefire and a way out of this war.  But Iran is refusing, it wants total and permanent peace in the region.  It is a moment in history which represents as Lenin said, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen."  If US imperialism supported by its NATO allies falls in West Asia, then other regions of the world will follow the course.  The multipolar world seems to be announcing its entry on world stage. 

No other country is as genocidal as Israel in twenty-first century.  An artificial state founded by Balfour declaration for British interest, established itself over Palestinian lands after the first Nakba in 1948, when it ethnically cleansed 750,000 Palestinians.  It seems the time has come to pay for the horrific and barbaric crimes they committed in Gaza with their own blood and devastation.  Iran has not only always stood with Palestine and supported its freedom struggle but now they have openly said that Palestinians should not feel they are alone.  In the words of Iranian military spokesman, “We pledge to remain steadfast until beloved Palestine returns free and proud to its rightful owners.”   

The world now stands divided between fascists and anti-fascists.  Some say, it is now Zionism and anti-Zionism; as modern-day Zionism represents fascism, settler-colonialism and racism all together.  US and Israel lead the Zionist forces and Iran anti-Zionism.  The world needs to choose where it stands, history is doing its book-keeping.  Role of India has been utterly shameful as Modi sold and surrendered India’s interests to US and Israel along with his cronies Adani and Ambani.  The Modi government has chosen to stand with settler-colonial powers and genocidaires for Modi’s personal preferences and compulsions.  India, traditionally being non-aligned has lost all its influence, dignity and soft power in the world.  Its natural place geographically, historically and racially is with Global South and oppressed nations, and not with settler-colonial powers of North.

The war is still escalating, as the US does not lose much by escalation.  It can very well allow West Asia and Gulf region to burn, as it is nearly energy independent and far from any attack on its own soil.  It may lose dollar tribute from Gulf states and petro-dollar dominance but it seems the American ruling elite is willing to take that risk (they do not care about average Americans).  The dollar is gaining strength as a currency as the war wages on.  It is the most dangerous time after second world war as both parties in the war are in for the end-game, and in the process can wreck the global economy.  It can cause untold miseries to the global population.  But as in the second world war, the US may still come out to be as the final winner even though much declined, as its economy, its land and its people may still remain relatively unaffected from the brunt of this war.  That fact alone makes it very dangerous.

 

Gaza – A Mirror

Israel has turned Gaza into a rubble, with 680,000 massacred; out of which 380,000 are children under the age of 5.  The infants and toddlers were specifically shot in their head and chest.  The adults have been burnt alive, starved and tortured to death.  The racism, the viciousness, the sadism, the cruelty, the torture and the unfettered inhumanity inflicted on the Gazans by the Israelis is probably unsurpassed in history.  Israeli purposefully poisoned the fertile lands of Gaza, burnt the centuries old olive orchards so that no means of sustenance remained for Palestinians.  As Palestinian children freeze and starve to death, living in tents without food in cold and rain, the relief trucks, with food, medical supplies and make-shift homes wait outside the border.  Israelis do not allow any relief to enter Gaza.  The special instructions are that no life-saving drugs are allowed inside Gaza.  The brutality pierces through the conscience of collective humanity, tears the numbness that has onset with the sham ceasefire.  Israel continues to kill Gazans every single day, only Hamas has ceased, Israel continues to fire.  A thriving city with educated population and established middles-class is now no more, reduced to nothingness, with a poisoned land hosting a vast sea of impoverished and emaciated populace.  For those who have survived or continue to survive the ongoing genocide, the memory of their better lives must haunt them day in and day out with piercing pain making the tragedy even more unbearable – both physically and psychologically.  The barbarity is unprecedented.

Israel is a country where its parliament discussed whether the Israeli soldiers had the right to rape the Gazan prisoners, a man, a woman or a child did not matter.  Over 9000 prisoners, or hostages still rot in Israeli jails subjected to worst inhuman torture day after day, night after night.  A few that were returned to Gaza were weak, starved, emaciated, with broken limbs, organs removed, eyes gouged or permanently crippled.  Contrast this with Israeli hostages, who came out all healthy, being treated and fed well.  Israel is a society where more than 80% of the populace thinks that rape, torture and ethnic cleansing of Gazans is fully justified.  It is a society where kids are brainwashed from kindergarten to hate Arabs and treat them like dogs.  This is how they grow up as adults.  The IDF where these young adults join are particularly skilled in women, children and unarmed civilians.  This is a society that is morally depraved, spiritually dead and a cancer to the rest of the world.  In the words of Norman Finkelstein, a prominent Jewish academic in the US, "The genocide in Gaza is not state project. It's a national project in which all of Israeli Jewish society participates."  Israelis believe in their mythical right over Palestinian land, when in fact British found them Palestine in 1917 through Balfour Declaration.  The first major Nakba or the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians occurred in 1948, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were killed and displaced by the rising Zionist entity, with the full support of the US and UK.  Since then, it has never stopped.  Israelis just go in and occupy houses of Palestinians, evicting them from their houses, and gloating over their new real estate acquisition that came without any cost or consent.

Everybody, including the aggressors – the Israelis, and their partners in crime, like the US, UK, France, Germany and the EU bureaucrats, know very well that a genocide is taking place and the Gazans are being ethnically cleansed.  The so-called West, historically has never shied away from conducting genocide and ethnic cleansing to grab land and resources.  Americas and African continent are monuments of this colonial legacy.  So, for West it is nothing new.  The new and damning aspect of this genocide is that it has been live-streamed all over the world, the world saw it happening in real-time unlike other genocides.  This is also the most brutal genocide in which the rate at which Palestinians have been killed far exceeds the rate of killing in any other genocide.  In the small strip of Gaza, more bombs were dropped than the bombs in World War II.  And this is happening in 21^st century, a supposedly post-colonial world with international institutions in place to prevent such an event from ever happening.  Palestine is shrinking, Israel is ever expanding, and no nation, no institution is there to protect the erasure of the state of Palestine.

Why have Russia, China and Iran not tried to stop this genocide?  When a small country like Yemen single-handedly turned the US aircraft carriers away from Red Sea, was able to attack Israel with long-distance missiles, why these emerging powers could not do more?  It is simply the commercial and business interests that have prevented them to do so.  The dictates of capital have triumphed over human life.  Gaza provides no business benefits to these emerging powers, no markets to exploit and no population to subjugate.  The Gaza strip however is a prime piece of real estate, right by the sea, with excellent climate.  The vultures of humanity like the US President Trump, think of Gaza just as a piece of land to be acquired.  A faux peace plan formulated by Trump for Gaza, which just pulls wool over the world’s eyes to allow Israel to continue the genocide unchecked did not get vetoed either by Russia or China.  A refrain to defend Russia and China’s position is that they allowed whatever peace could be achieved.  But has there been any semblance of peace for Gazans?  None.  It was peace for Israel with all hostages returned.  

The biggest moral question of our times is where we stand on Gaza.  Gaza is like a mirror to our souls.  It forces us to see into that mirror, and find out if we have an ugly face complicit in the crimes against humanity or defending its perpetrator or we find out a humane face that stands with humanity of Gazans and unapologetically opposes this human carnage perpetrated by apartheid and genocidal state of Israel.  It is a question that determines our humanity, our clarity of conscience and our moral compass of life.  No one today can escape this mirror; one will be forced to confront his soul in this mirror and realize whether one is a monster inside or one has some shred of humanity left.     

 

How Trump Won?

Donald J Trump achieved a historic landslide victory in US 2024 presidential elections, which no other Republican Party candidate has been able to achieve in the last couple of decades after George Bush.  In contrast, the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris received one of the worst drubbings in modern electoral history.  Trump improved his vote share in all demographics, while Harris lost in most, including women. Only African-American women came out overwhelmingly in support of Harris.

Trump’s victory has unraveled the inner contradictions of the ruling class, there is certainly a split, and the two factions are fighting each other, i.e., a group of one set of billionaires against the other set of billionaires, each supporting their own candidate, and with different priorities.  One side, the Democrats wants to crush and balkanize Russia, and the other side, the Republicans wants to wage a war against China, and crush its economic might.  The two factions have their own ideas how to rule the world.  The imperial consensus of world domination still reigns supreme in the corridors of power in Washington DC.  Kamala Harris, represented the hawkish liberal establishment class, while Trump represented the hawkish conservative class, both sides committed to unconditionally supporting Israel, and its genocide of Gaza.  Both sides know that defeat of Israel is virtually a defeat of imperialism.  Trump did talk of peace with Russia, and not escalating the Ukraine conflict to the third world war, but Harris showed no inclination of working for peace in any theater of war. 

Despite raising one billion dollars for her election campaign and using it to get celebrity endorsements from Beyonce, Eminem and the likes, Harris did poorly as compared to her predecessor Biden.  She performed badly by getting nine million fewer votes than Biden got in 2020.  Trump improved in a minor way by increasing one million popular votes.  In the end, Harris got around seventy-three million popular votes and Trump got nearly seventy-six million popular votes.  In comparison Biden had gotten eighty-one million popular votes in 2020.  That shows a huge decline in enthusiasm among voters for Democrats.  Quite clearly, voters who did not like Trump also did not choose to vote for Harris.  Harris’s brazen insistence on status quo, lack of substance and depth in her campaign drove the Democratic voters away.  The voters were clearly able to see the phony she was which disgusted the voters who were already fed up of Biden.  Harris as a result also lost the swing states that Biden had won in 2020.  Harris lost all swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.  Overall Trump won 312 electoral colleges as compared to Harris’s 226.

A few reasons can be attributed to Trump’s victory and they are briefly summarized as follows:

1.       Genocide in Gaza.  A very strong reaction in American society against genocide going on in Gaza.  People have learned the hard way and with some pain that Israel is truly an apartheid, racist and a colonial settler state.  The strong propaganda of decades to fool American public is finally wearing thin.  Across the classes of society, people are unable to take this barbarity, especially when opposition to Hitler’s holocaust against Jews is so sacred in American psyche.  They are unable to reconcile between support of Israel and their cherished opposition of Hitler.  The contradiction is far too great.  The university campuses were erupting in protests, and Democrats tried to crush them with maximum force.  It was the first time in history that genocide was live-streamed to the people.  Generation Z and first-time voters refused to condone the genocide and refused to vote for either Trump and Harris.  A whopping loss of nearly nine million votes for Democrats has roots in this rejection of Democratic party on this single issue.  The strong Muslim and Arab community in the swing state of Michigan repeatedly asked Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris to address the issue of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and pledge for arms embargo to Israel.  But she not only refused to do it, but in the process insulted and humiliated the constituency and the protesters.  Her infamous, “I am speaking” against a protester instantly spread across all US media platforms.  The arrogance and hubris were unmistakable.  Muslim Congressmen like Jamal Bowman were rudely shut down, and no member of Palestinian or Muslim community was allowed to share stage with Kamala Harris.  The message sent to the voters was quite clear – we will not listen to you, do whatever you want, because the only other option you have is Trump, and that is obviously worse than us.  This message resonated across all communities.  During last days of election campaign, she even chose to give different and conflicting messages to Muslim and Jewish populations.

 2.       War in Ukraine.  Trump’s Republican base also stood strongly against war in Ukraine.  From Trump’s first term, when Hillary Clinton tried to smear Trump as “Putin’s puppet” Trump’s base, comprising largely low-income White working class, coalesced around him as someone who could save them and make their lives better.  His base saw the conspiracy against Trump for manufactured collusion theory with Russia.  Wikileaks revelations abundantly made it clear how Russiagate was a smear campaign with no basis.  In fact, Trump in his first term took very hawkish stance against Russia and his base took note of it.  His base in this election cycle was largely angered at billions of dollars being sent to Ukraine to fight a losing war against Russia. Nobody understood why it was being waged.  An isolationist and conservative path of moving forward has gripped most of Trump’s base.  Trump happened to be the only candidate between Democrats and Republicans who even uttered the word, “peace.”  Kamala Harris stoutly refused for any peace, and resolutely towed the line taken by Joe Biden.  It was not acceptable to the average voter.  Late-stage capitalism is tottering towards its end and will probably go with a bang than a whimper.  That concerns a lot of bourgeoise academics, as they clearly see a danger of nuclear war with Russia.  Biden and his secretary of state Blinken have vowed to provide last dollar to Ukraine.  They did not even fake promises during elections, they just bluntly continued their neocon policy of attacking Russia, with a brief annoyance of presidential elections. 

 3.       Inflation.  Joe Biden’s and Democratic party’s unwillingness to rein in inflation and price gouging bore heavily on voter’s minds.  There was virtually no control over prices of essential commodities including gasoline, that rose very sharply.  Compounded with Covid, inflation made people saw some very difficult times.  While the companies made record profits, they laid off hundreds of thousands of workers.  This happened across the board from tech industry to mass employing hospitality industry.  Several small businesses closed, and debts rose.  Increasing interest rates from Federal Reserve further made borrowing unaffordable.  The tough economic situation of an average American can be contrasted with rising stock prices that invariably results from reduced work force and increased profits.  There was suffering on the ground that largely went ignored by Biden, Democrats and Harris.  No controls were placed on price gouging, which Harris herself recognized as a major issue in one of her campaign rallies.  Harris claimed that she would work to bring down the prices of groceries and essential items.  However, the question remained that it was a Democratic government for past four years, and so why was it not already done?  The pain caused by struggles in job market compounded by uncontrolled inflation, could not be alleviated with mild legislative successes like bringing down prescription drug prices, when healthcare for most Americans is largely unaffordable.  Biden or Harris did nothing significant to help average Americans.  And Harris promised to continue the same policies.  In interview after interview she claimed, “not a thing” will change.

 4.       Immigration.  Illegal immigration has spiked in the US, with one of the largest illegal immigrant groups coming from India.  Trump managed to whip up frenzy against immigrants, coming up with racist and crazy stories like immigrants eating pets, and branding them as criminals.  In harsh economic conditions, without a strong communist/socialist party base among society, where the real reasons of economic misery can be explained to people, rise of a demagogue almost becomes inevitable.  And Trump precisely represents that phenomenon.  His vile speeches and false assertions against immigrants, promise to start a massive deportation program sat well with his White conservative base.  Targeting minorities and immigrants as a group stealing jobs is easiest to pin as a reason for people’s economic hardships, and Trump managed to do that.  Never mind that most of the menial jobs are done by illegal Mexican immigrants, which most Americans would not do.  It is a crucial component of economy that exploits cheap labor to contribute to profits of the corporations that employ American citizens.  It is the exploitative system of capitalism that makes them jobless, is always hidden with such false narratives.  The more complex reasons of the inherent nature of capitalism as a boom-bust system, and a fundamentally destructive system is harder to comprehend and explain.  That too, when it is shrouded with thick cloud of capitalist propaganda that smears socialism in a systematic and institutional way.

5.       Social media support.  Elon Musk went all in with his social media platform X to support Trump.  Musk promoted lies and disinformation on X in support of Trump, and influenced millions by increasing the reach of this disinformation through platform algorithms.  Musk campaigned for Trump and spent millions of dollars to support Trump.  He is looking for complete narrative control with which he can create support for his future ventures like colonization of Mars.  He eyes future government funding for his Mars projects, and continued government funding for his rocket company SpaceX.  In addition, with Starlink technology he can virtually control entire online media traffic.  It is important to note that the concept of low orbit satellites that can act as communication channel was first conceptualized by NASA, a public funded government agency.  Musk took that idea and made it his own.  He needs a favorable US government who can force other governments of the world to promote Starlink technology.  This is all hidden under the garb of “free speech” which appealed to many Americans, an idea that average American cherishes and holds it very close to the heart.  The crackdown of Democrats on Palestinian protesters made the discussion of free speech a central piece in the US politics.  Musk and other right-wingers have taken advantage of this to promote their version of free-speech.  This version allows for hatred, xenophobia, racism, religious extremism and outright lies.  This is being sold to masses as free-speech, and protection of second amendment to the constitution.  Two-pronged attack was launched against Democrats – on one hand the crackdown on students on campuses was condemned, and on the other hand Trump promised to double down on protests on campus blaming Democrats weak to deal far more harshly with it.  A confused mirage of narrative was created that attracted people from both right and left.   

 6.       The candidate Harris herself.  Harris was not the best choice from Democratic party.  Senile Biden was abruptly replaced as a candidate by Harris after Biden’s debacle in the only presidential debate with Trump.  Biden’s senility and declining faculties were on full display in front of the whole country.  Harris was a soulless, vapid, hollow, a complete philistine candidate with a checkered past.  Forced by Democratic party without primaries, she is widely known as a corrupt attorney general of the state of California, who put parents of truant children in jail, that widely affected people from poorer background.  She withheld proof of innocence for a man on death row, and released it only in the last hours.  Born to educated, left-leaning immigrant parents, she took a diametrically opposite view in life and prided herself being a “top cop.”  Her infamous dalliances with California politician Willie Brown were all too well known among the electorate.  Even though California is traditionally a Democratic bastion, Harris lost a lot of popular votes in California.  The state nearly turned red (Republican), a reaction against her candidacy.  Above all, she displays no principled stance on any matter, no knowledge of any subject of importance, she was vacuous, philistine, and cackled her way through interviews.  A country hooked on personalities did not find anything attractive in her.   

None of these major factions of one war party represent the people.  They both are true representatives of American bourgeoisie and act as a front for the true ruling American bourgeoisie.  When the anger and discontent among masses about living conditions reaches a boiling point, they just release the steam by providing some token reforms and changes.  In his first term Trump cut corporate taxes drastically, which Biden continued and Trump can now make it permanent.  Trillions of dollars for Pentagon remain unaudited and unaccounted for, but there is always a shortage of funds for social programs.  From the time of Ronald Regan, the conditions of average Americans have kept on worsening, as minimal social safety net kept continuously being eroded no matter which party was in power.  As loyal servants of capital these bourgeois parties kept the façade of democracy on, while suppressing other smaller parties from coming up, who had better people-oriented agenda. 

So, Trump’s victory should be seen as continuation of the same policies, and he should be judged with his class position.  Trump’s cabinet picks are all billionaires and war hawks.  The hawks chosen this time like Marco Rubio for secretary of state are special China hawks, Rubio in particular has openly called for war against China and supporting Taiwan.  It is in clear violation of the official One-China policy that the US administration has had from the time of Henry Kissinger.  Belief of Trump supporters that Trump can do something is sadly misplaced.  At the same time Trump himself and his cabinet picks to run the government are no less hawkish on Russia as in his first term.  It just appears that Russia may not be their first priority, and instead of direct military confrontation with Russia, they might choose to do it with China. 

The times are stark, and it remains to be seen what Genocide Joe, Butcher Blinken and Holocaust Harris do before Trump takes office.  A lot of American working class has begun to see it but for now they don’t have a way out of this ritual of phony election circus, which is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

 

Game Over

Latin American, African, West Asia and leaders of other parts of the world have expressed anti-imperial sentiments against the US more vocally in the recent past.  The foreign spokespersons of Russia and China have lambasted hypocrisy of US foreign policy, and have laid bare its neoliberal, ugly, cruel and murderous face.  It has nothing to do with human rights or human life anywhere in the world, including within its own borders.  Imperialism is the core of US foreign policy, fueled by extreme austerity for common people domestically.  While there are tents of homeless people under every bridge in America, its leader Joe Biden has sent billions to Ukraine in a bitter, deadly, losing proxy war against Russia.  The proxy war in Ukraine has revealed the hollowness of NATO’s military strength.  Like a true bully, NATO led by the US was able to attack militarily only the weak countries, who were unable to defend themselves.  With Russian help, they could not achieve in Syria what they were able to achieve in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, i.e., complete destruction of these countries.  With that hubris, they prepared for war with Russia since 2014, when they orchestrated a coup in Ukraine, leading to thousands of Russians killed in Donbas region of Ukraine.  The Nazi regime in Ukraine, a pawn in geopolitical game did not honor peace agreements of Minsk agreements and provoked an inevitable war against themselves hoping to join NATO, which was never to be.

NATO and the US miscalculated about Russia not only militarily but also economically in the Ukraine conflict.  Not only the Russian army was far more resilient and prepared for a long-term conflict with its advanced weaponry, the Russian economy too, emerged stronger with negligible contraction as predicted by Western pundits before the start of this conflict.  Now, with over a year of conflict and Russia’s special military operations, Bakhmut has fallen, and Kiev is not too far.  The end is obvious to serious military analysts like the ex-Colonel of US army Douglas McGregor, who repeatedly called for dialog and peace with Russia, but those pleas fell on deaf ears of Biden administration.  Presiding over nearly complete destruction of Ukraine, their puppet Zelensky is losing face and credibility around the world, and this truth is slowly dawning upon neocons and hawks in Biden administration.  Zelensky’s usefulness is over for US hawks, and can be dropped like hot potato at any time. 

It is game over for US hegemony.  Their misconceived Ukraine conflict will become the grave of US imperialist project.  The sole hegemon of the world increasingly finds itself isolated in large parts of the world.  Countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are resisting US influence like never before.  A new multi-polar world has emerged that wants peace.  China has clearly emerged as the leader of the new world brokering peace in West Asia, much to the chagrin of US foreign policy makers.  The course of this new world is irreversible, and the US will have to contend with much smaller role in world affairs.

 

Abbu and Ammi

In early April in 2023, in Deharadun, India, a father lodged a complaint with the district magistrate of the city.  The complaint intended to seek a ban on a second-grade school book Gulmohar 2.  The complainant’s seven-year-old son, interested in reading books, had picked the Urdu words Abbu and Ammi from Gulmohar 2, and had used them at home.  The book had explained that the words Abbu and Ammi were used for father and mother.  The complainant emphasized that it was a deliberate and severe attack on their religious beliefs and customs, and hence such books should be banned.  The complainant was a Hindu parent.  Ten years ago, use of Abbu and Ammi by a child in a Hindu household might have evoked just a surprised curiosity, followed by a gentle conversation with the child.  But not anymore; this is New India, where Hindu sentiments are at the same time paramount and fragile, they can get hurt at the drop of a hat, and must be violently protected, whether in words or deeds.

Zooming out of this microcosm in Dehradun to the national level, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) that prescribes syllabi in Indian school books decided to remove the chapters on Mughal history from school history books.  Erasure of Muslim identity from all aspects of Indian life is being carried out at an accelerated and aggressive pace.  This is right out from fascist playbook.  Distortion and falsification of the past, and a permanent present, is an injection of amnesia that is being administered in the society, to make them forget everything, and raise a generation of ignoramuses.  Anybody familiar with fascist history in the world can immediately draw the parallels.  This is a precursor to genocide.

In another narrative, Gandhi, the father of nation, is under brutal, vicious and most unceremonious attack from Modi’s gang of fascists and thugs.  These include people from all sections of society, from academia, to lumpen foot soldiers of this fascist regime.  Gandhi is being portrayed as traitor, whose work for Hindu-Muslim unity was most abhorrent, and who was solely responsible for the partition of India.  The history of the Hindu Mahasabha, and the Muslim League, the two religion-based pre-independence organizations, who propounded the two-nation theory, and were ultimately responsible for partition of India, is completely submerged under the tsunami of lies, falsehoods and propaganda.  These Indian fascists, who originate from the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are dutifully following the teachings of their fascist master propagandist Goebbels, repeating lies a hundred times to make them sound like truth.  A country mind-numbed by WhatsApp messages and criminally partisan mainstream media is lapping it up with no critical inquiry.

During recent Ramnavmi Hindu festival, mosques and madrasas were burnt and vandalized across India, the epicenters being the states of Bihar, Bengal and Maharashtra.  The ultra right-wing Hindu storm-troopers attacked the Muslim institutions with a daring impunity, being well aware that law-enforcement will not take its due course.  The pressures of electoral politics, and communalization of the Indian state machinery is so complete that there is no one to contain these rabid saffron dogs.  It’s a complete breakdown of law and order.  Modi chooses to remain silent in such incidents, by which he signals his tacit approval to his swathe of supporters.  They well understand the meaning of his silence.

The Abbu and Ammi incident of Dehradun cannot be seen in isolation, and represents deeper ramifications of the pan-India Muslims-hate project.  The different scales of anti-Muslim incidents are connected and reinforce each other, rapidly eroding the secular ethos of the country.  This is the India, which Modi has created – an insecure, communal, bigoted, reactionary and obscurantist India.

 

Democracy Muted

Towards the end of ninth year of his rule in India, in March 2023, Modi has chosen to mute the proceedings of the Indian Parliament, literally.  When the leader of the largest opposition party Indian National Congress (INC), Rahul Gandhi, entered the Lower House, the Lok Sabha to respond to malicious and derogatory accusations of being anti-national levelled against him, by four ministers of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), the Lok Sabha was not only adjourned within seconds of his entering the house, but in the final denouement, the live broadcast of Lok Sabha proceedings on television was fully muted, i.e. one could see the image of the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, but could not hear any audio.  This went on for roughly fifty seconds, and then the audio was restored only for the audiences to hear that the Lok Sabha was again adjourned.  For the first six seconds, when the audio was allowed, one could clearly hear the opposition members of parliament shouting, “Let Rahul Gandhi speak.”  Modi does not want the people of India hear how he has been cornered by Rahul Gandhi revealing his relations to billionaire Gautam Adani, and how he and the three-hundred and three members of parliament of BJP have no answers for Rahul Gandhi’s questions.  The highest forum of democracy in India, the Parliament, has been muted, to protect Modi.  Such politicization of proceedings of the Parliament is the first in independent India.

Rahul Gandhi has single-handedly rattled Modi and his entire eco-system of trolls, mainstream media and puppet ministers.  Rahul Gandhi, in his recent visit to Cambridge, which is his alma mater, laid bare the state of democracy in India, revealing, how the voices of opposition leaders have been gagged, how his microphone has been turned off in the proceedings of Lok Sabha numerous times when he spoke, how the entire opposition has been hounded by state law enforcement agencies, and most vicious and vindictive witch-hunt has been carried out by Modi government against opposition leaders.  Buying of members of state legislatures to form state governments, breaking up of local political parties like Shiv Sena in the state of Maharashtra, and threats of false cases have become the defining characteristics of Modi regime.  Modi government essentially means Modi’s decisions, all ministries of Modi government are run by Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) manned by his loyal bureaucrats, mostly from his home state Gujarat.  Modi’s array of ministers, and other functionaries are plain dummies, whose job is not to work in their ministries, but act only as trolls to defend Modi.  This complete collapse of a functioning government, and centralization of all powers in the PMO has made Modi an autocrat, whose public behavior is akin to a king, and not a leader of a democratic country.  Ironically, it is cowardice of Modi that makes him hide behind his ministers, law-enforcement agencies, and fascist mainstream media.  He has not held an open press conference in his nine years of being in the office.  Even a liberal, bourgeois democracy is now threatened.

In my previous blogs, I have pointed out how Modi is an outright fascist, and there have been all signs of emergence of fascism in India under his government.  Now it is starker than ever.  Not only it is becoming clearer that the government is simply working for Modi’s billionaire friend Gautam Adani, who is mired in the most heinous accusations of financial fraud and looting of India’s taxpayers’ money through favorable bank loans, and bending of government rules to grow his empire; but there is most brutal and relentless attack on Muslim minority population in India that has been unprecedented.  Mob lynchings of Muslims, repeated humiliation of Muslims in public places, erasure of their place of worships, forcible occupation of masjids and performing of Hindu rituals in them, massive propaganda through falsehoods in WhatsApp messages, hate-filled and bigotry laden public congregations by self-avowed Hindu Godmen, open calls of genocide of Muslims, rape of Muslim women, have all come to become mainstay in large parts of Indian society.  Muslims are being systematically pushed out of the economic system, not being allowed to do even low-level businesses, let alone to allow them to live peacefully and with dignity.  Christian community too has suffered the brunt, with churches vandalized by Hindu supremacists, and false charges of conversions registered in local police stations.  The state machinery is actively complicit in the project of Hindu Rashtra (a country based on Hindu religious identity).  The decline and degradation of moral and collective conscience of the majority Hindu community is now becoming on par with erstwhile fascist states, that hinged on visceral hatred of minorities.

In the words of Italian communist, Georgi Dimitrov, “It would be a gross mistake to lay down any sort of universal scheme of the development of fascism, valid for all countries and all peoples. Such a scheme would not help but would hamper us in carrying on a real struggle.”

“In the colonial and semi-colonial countries also, as was mentioned in the discussion, certain fascist groups are developing, but of course there can be no question of the kind of fascism that we are accustomed to see in Germany Italy and other capitalist countries. Here we must study and take into account the quite special economic, political and historical conditions, in accordance with which fascism is assuming and will continue to assume peculiar forms of its own.”

It is unfortunate that Indian intelligentsia and alternative media has not taken this aspect seriously.  They harbor false hopes that this will pass, and is not fascism.  They somehow attribute the current state of affairs to purely a character trait of Modi, not realizing that the rise of Modi itself is a symptom of evolving society towards fascism.  There is somehow a complete eliding of the fact that Modi’s parent organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a fascist paramilitary organization, that has openly adored Mussolini and Hitler.  Modi carries the tradition forward, working assiduously in the traditional framework of Indian democracy, to weaken it, to capture its institutions, and make it completely subservient to his fascist agenda of Hindu Rashtra.  The entire trajectory of Modi, BJP and RSS have followed the trajectory of fascist rise, which can be said, are peculiar to Indian conditions.  Ignoring fascist character of Modi regime has already proven disastrous for Indian society, economy, national security and communal harmony; if it is not recognized now, the next general election may be the last general election with participation of opposition parties.  Modi is moving towards a totalitarian regime of fascist electoral autocracy, where only BJP will contest elections.  Something akin to Japanese system, where there is one party rule, and whose roots are in fascist Japan before World War II.

 

Some Thoughts

One basic principle of the natural world is that to annul a force, an equal and opposite force must be applied.  A corollary to this principle is that to reverse the course of action the opposing force must be greater than the original force.  The defeat of communal fascist forces that are ripping India apart requires precise application of this principle.  An equal and opposed alignment of secular and democratic forces need to boldly stop this devastating force that is now openly calling for genocide of Muslims.  This needs to be done urgently, boldly and unabashedly by launching a fierce ideological and street battle against these forces.  History has shown us that such forces are relentless, and unless crushed, can destroy countries, people and humanity.  A softer approach, pandering to religious callings and false debates will not stop the rot.  It needs to be tackled ruthlessly, proudly embracing the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious identity of India, and directly attacking and destroying the ideas that support unitary vision.  The cancer of communalism must be carved out of the body of the Indian nation to prevent its degradation and ultimate demise.  Let India not suffer the same fate as Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

The heightened communal sloganeering ramping up to calls for genocide of Muslims and Christians is neither spontaneous nor accidental.  It is a well thought out strategy of the ruling BJP and its parent organization RSS to create irreconcilable tensions in the society as they push their fascist agenda.  False and hyper-nationalism, overt glorification of military, disregard of intellectual work, brutal suppression of dissent, lawlessness, sponsored hooliganism, vigilantism, storm-troopers who are above the law, and brazen hatred of minorities have been the hallmark of BJP rule for past seven years – all characteristics of fascist rule.  Under such chaos, which has consumed public imagination, selling of national assets, public sector and infrastructure to crony capitalists have continued unabated and at a startling pace.   This is typical of the fascist playbook, where the government exists to serve the capitalist class while engaging the masses in the false dichotomy with and extreme hatred of minorities.  Privatizing or selling of national assets can only be achieved when the majority community is constantly provoked, trained to hate the minorities, and can project the root cause of their economic distress on the minorities.  The antidote to misery, poverty and hunger that the fascist policies produce is the communal opium of the mind; that provides the mass frenzy and necessary distraction to prevent the masses from revolting.  The ruling fascist regime of BJP/RSS is playing by the book.

The silver lining is that Modi is not a bright man, he is terribly incompetent and has failed in every single aspect of governance; the list of his failures is long.  India is facing the worst economic conditions, joblessness, misgovernance, inflation since independence.  The suffering of people has started to dent Modi’s image even among his most ardent followers and cracks are now apparent.  The aspirational middle class has started to realize that extreme religiosity, communalism, othering of a community comes with a package.  It is not possible to have a booming economy with a divided society, marginalized minority and utter lawlessness.  Modi is simply street-smart; he is limited, uneducated, lacks vision, lacks empathy, harbors deep bias against Muslims and knows only communalism that he learnt in the RSS.  His deep sense of inferiority is reflected in the narcissistic behavior that he has displayed in the past few years; his obsession with fancy gears and clothing do not befit a prime minister, especially in a country like India.  It is simply a façade to cover his failures, insecurities and his shallow self.  His arrogance due to thumping majority in the lower house has made him live in a bubble; has made leaders of his own party redundant.  He is bound to fail; he is simply not fit for office; the façade cannot be held for long.  Farmers’ protest significantly dimmed his sheen, and he will continue to wane.  He is already a near pariah in the international community and soon he will be at home.  He has no characteristics that define a leader of a democratic country.  He is autocratic, arrogant and a pumped-up fool, who was propped by big capital to gain control over resources of India.  A task that he has dutifully executed, and in the process has nearly destroyed all democratic institutions and norms.  His anti-people policies are not his own genesis, he is not that capable, it is policy dictation from the capitalist class, both national and international that is in action.  Modi’s sociopathic personality combined with incompetence and arrogance make him an ideal tool for the capitalist class to wield unchecked power.

It is now the test of the people of India – whether they choose to pay attention to their material life conditions, which have drastically deteriorated under Modi, or continue embracing hate at the great cost of their own personal lives.  If dialectical materialism has any truth to it, then the material conditions must dictate the state of mind and thought.