We at The Lever strongly condemn the US imperialist intervention in Iraq which lead to the extra judicial killings off commander of the Iranian Al Quds force Qasem Soleimani and leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis amongst others.
ISIS - born from the fall out of the 2003 US invasion - is now 'contained' to a degree where it no longer proves to be an imminent threat to US interests (but is still to wreak havoc on the peoples of the Middle East). The US now free of the temporary alliances necessary to defeat ISIS and is now trying to claw back its influence that it lost during its disastrous Syrian interventions. The targeting of Soleimani is important in this regard as he has been the architect of Iran's strategy which benefited from the US's failed policy in the region. This strategy has seen the Islamic Republic's influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen grow enormously.
It is important that this airstrike comes after months of activity by the peoples of Iraq against the political system built after the illegal 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US and its allies. Calls for basic rights by the protesters - access to clean water, education, employment quickly developed into demands to completely overhaul the decaying and corrupt political system which only serves to benefit those who profit from the instability of Iraqi society. Soleimani was not a hero to these people, but the progenitor of the militias who played a part in suppressing the uprising of the oppressed masses in Iraq. The US must leave the Middle East as the fundamental precondition for the Middle East to be free. But power must fall into the hands of the masses who rise up and demand for it to be free.
This moment not only signals a great threat to the people of Iran, but also to the people of Iraq - which will undoubtedly become the theatre for a proxy war over the political future of the Middle East.
It is our first duty as internationalists living under the old imperialist states to oppose any and all interventions by the US and its British ally in the Middle East. All they seek is profit and all they create is blood.
No to war with Iran.
No to the continued destruction of Iraq and the suffering of its people.
We stand with many others in calling for the US to exit from not only Iraq but the entire Middle East, and to end the crippling sanctions regime which only harms the Iranian people.
We stand in solidarity with the struggling masses in Iraq, Iran, and all of the Middle East who yearn to be free.