Assassination of Qassem Soleimani by the US Government and Islamic Republic's Missile Attack on US Bases in Iraq

On Wednesday morning, January 8^th, the Revolutionary Guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the launch of a missile attack at midnight on the US bases of Ein al-Assad and Erbil in Iraq. A spokesman for the Iraqi government announced that the prime minister had been informed by Tehran at midnight about the attack. It has been clear during recent days and in the wake of the revenge shouting by regime officials that the Islamic Republic will respond to Qassem Soleimani's death; so the Americans and the Coalition forces had taken security measures for rocket attacks since Tuesday, as some of these countries had already withdrawn part of their troops on Tuesday. Clearly, there was a tacit coordination between the two sides to prevent casualties, with evidence suggesting that the Islamic Republic's missile attack had no casualties.

The US and its allies have been trying to show that the assassination of Qassem Soleimani is as important as killing Bin Laden and Baghdadi, and thus exploit this to gain popularity for Trump and his cabinet inside the United States and at the same time, by overplaying this, to show its intelligence and speed of action against those opposing US policy in the region in order to intimidate them. But politically, since US interest is not in waging an all-out war with the Islamic Republic, these campaigns and propaganda are also part of the pressure that the US government has been putting on the Iranian regime to come to the negotiation table. Evidence shows that the US government will resume the initiative to begin dialogue with the Islamic Republic after this operation and pursue it more persistently.

In the past few days, by mobilizing its forces across Iran, using all its logistical capabilities and by displaying Qassem Soleimani's coffin around in several big cities, the Islamic regime tried to break the protest atmosphere that was domaining the Iranian society following the November uprisings and regime's slaughter of the protesters and to show its power to the society. All propaganda levers had to be used to make a "national hero" out of a criminal. They declared public mourning, closed down schools and offices and professional panegyrists set off in the midst of the rage to make the society forget that their "national commander" was the one who took part in the bloody repression of the people in Kurdistan in the first year the Islamic counter-revolution took power; the one who called for the suppression of most student protests in Iran in 1999 and who has played an important role in crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran in mid-November and the bloody suppression of protesters in Iraq. If in his lifetime he had been a symbol of the regime's ambitious strategy and mobilization of a reactionary force in opposition to the imperialist forces for expansionist purposes in the region, now after his death, especially two people of Iran and Iraq are going to be victims of these two reactionary forces and their state terrorism.

The fact is that this conflict, no matter what military dimension it takes, has nothing to do with the interests of the people in Iran, Iraq and the region as a whole. Without the occupation policies and the invasion of the imperialist forces and without the intervention of the Islamic Republic in the region, it would not have been possible for an ultra-reactionary group like ISIS to emerge. Also, now, their military actions and escalations against each other serve only as an attack on the protest movements in Iraq and Iran. Perhaps the corrupt and reactionary governments of Iraq and Iran can, for a short time, push back the protests of the poor and marginalized in Iran and Iraq, but there can be no doubt that this controversial atmosphere will not last more than a few days. Neither the Iraqi people can accept the death of the demonstrators in protests lasting for more than three months and the continuation of the rule of the corrupt religious government, nor can the Iranian people forget the killing and imprisonment of thousands of protestors in November 2019 and the four decades of oppression by the Islamic regime. Let's not forget that the Islamic regime, with utter shame, did not even allow people to bury their relatives without attacking them by its oppressive forces.

The reality is that the conflict between US imperialism and Islamic Republic of Iran and their adventures is just spreading further chaos in the region, and will only do harm to the poor and oppressed people of the region. Those who cheer for the state terrorism of US imperialism and those who align themselves with the regime of the Islamic Republic in killing one criminal by another criminal are part of this reactionary confrontation.

The goals and policies of both sides of this conflict are in total contradiction with the goals and demands of the Iranian revolutionary movement and the Iraqi people's protest movement. To get rid of this miserable situation, of economic sanctions, of poverty and of the consequences of these conflicts, there is no other way than to continue and expand the labor protests and strikes, to expand the link between radical social movements and to expose the class, capitalistic and reactionary nature of these conflicts and the military atmosphere imposed on the region. Only through the revolutionary overthrow of the Islamic Republic can we put an end to all these conflicts. In the meantime, it is important that protest movements in the region, which share many of the same aspirations and demands, create a widespread front in the entire Middle East against the occupation of imperialist forces, against corrupt governments and against Islamic terrorist currents. There is no doubt that the solidarity front of the people of this region is a powerful force that can put an end to the existing chaos and help people take control of their own destiny.