No War but Class War
No War but Class War
This will be an op-ed style article. Maybe just a stream of consciousness.
I woke up this morning just as the sun was creeping up. My 4 month old was starting to stir and my fiance was beginning to get ready for work. Our oldest came into the room, upset over something kids get upset about. We coerced him to go back to sleep, even if it was only fifteen minutes. I kissed my partner, snuggled my baby, then opened my phone.
The first thing I saw was a post from Marxist Dialectic Forum saying that we bombed Iran overnight. I closed my phone for a minute, told my partner, “They finally did it. They bombed Iran.” We both sighed. We knew what it meant. This would be the war our children knew. Ours was Iraq and Afghanistan. My dad’s was Korea. My mom’s, Vietnam. It's all the Forever War.
As the day went on, I watched the news roll in. I was watching my two eldest build with Magna-Tiles while their baby brother took a nap when I read about an elementary school getting blown up, the death toll at that point was already 30+. Around lunch, Uncrustables and apple sauce, I read that Iran had struck back with a massive barrage of missiles and hit numerous targets. I don’t support the military, but I understand why a lot of young people join.
I stayed off my phone during the birthday party for my oldest's best friend but when I got home I saw that the Ayatollah was possibly killed in the strikes. I stayed off social media for the most part while I cooked dinner. Just a few hours before writing this, I learned that he was in fact killed in the strikes and that a new, temporary government was installed until they found a new Ayatollah. My partner and I were playing Pokemon.
My entire life I have seen my country at war but not once have we truly been threatened. We invaded Iraq under the guise of revenge, then WMDs, then regime change. We invaded Afghanistan under nearly the same pretext. When Obama came around, I was old enough to understand what was happening. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians. Drone strikes. More terror. America demands war and it will get it at any cost.
I do not support the theocratic regime of Iran, and no leftist should. They repress women’s rights, the Ayatollah executed countless communists, queer people are exiled or worse. But so has America. Kansas just stripped transpeople who’ve changed their legal names of their IDs. Immigrants are still being ripped off of the streets. And pedophiles are still holding seats of power within government and commerce.
America made itself the world police. Declaring that it’ll use its power to protect the world, usually for oil and rare minerals. Something thugs and gangsters do in movies. The military industrial complex is so intertwined with the government that peace can never be an option. There will always be lobbyists with enough money to get more wars. Capitalism requires war to survive. If the people start resisting too much, a good ‘ol war will get their patriotic blood flowing again. Already I’m seeing the posts and videos of people cheering on our “brave soldiers” and praying the God watches over them.
Now more than ever we need class unity. We need to wrest power from the hands of the fascists in control. Class war is not voting. Vote, but don't expect any change. Not anymore. Its all or nothing after today. America either falls or the Fourth Reich begins. Trump is going to use this war to retain power indefinitely. He is already talking about a third term and you should take him seriously.
It is time the American proletariat rises and faces this monster at home. The workers must build strong, decentralized networks with friends and comrades across the entire nation because the fascists will seek to isolate you. The workers must educate themselves, not just revolutionary ideals but on all aspects of how to run a society because if we beat the fascists, we may have to rebuild in the rubble. The workers must arm themselves because the goal of the fascists is to kill every dissenting person. Fight the capitalist class by any means necessary. No war but class war.