APRIL 18TH, 2017
By International Secretariat – IWL-FI.
A few days after the airstrike to a base of the Syrian Regime in Homs, Donald Trump gave the order to drop the GBU-43, a giant 10 tons bomb, in a mountain region in East Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan. It is not by chance that the GBU-43 is known as “the mother of all bombs”: with a manufacturing cost of 300 million dollars, it is the biggest bomb of the non-nuclear arsenal of the U.S. Its lethal power is based on the immense air pressure it liberates, capable of destroying structures up to 60 m deep.
The excuse was to destroy tunnels and other installations of the so called Islamic State (IS). Washington said it killed about one hundred soldiers, without “collateral damages” among the population. If we consider the destructive force of the bomb and the long history of genocides carried by imperialism, it is impossible to believe that there were no civilians deaths. The Afghan government, which had previously announced that the Islamic State force was of less than 400 and was present in only two provinces, supported the U.S. operation. To this picture we need to add the death of a U.S. Special Forces soldier fighting the terrorist group on the ground this past April 8th.
The IS was the excuse for the bombing, but the real motive is that Trump, with a very low popularity and an agenda of reactionary measures massively rejected by the U.S. people, saw in the military operations “against terrorism” a way to gain political strength. The previous attack of Syria was “well received” by Republicans and Democrats. So now the White House wants to send a message to the world on its incomparable military and destructive power. It pretends to remind us all “who is in charge”.
In fact Trump immediately celebrated the launching of “the mother of all bombs” as another “success” of the U.S. army, of which he stated he is “very, very proud”: “We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done a job as usual,” said the president in his usual vain, arrogant tone.
The Threats to North Korea
Besides “showing strength” in the agitated region of Middle East, Trump used the launch of the GBU-43 to intimidate and strengthen his position on the tense relationship with North Korea, which recently made a fail launch of a ballistic missile.
The U.S. considered the North Korean nuclear ambition as an “provocation”, and immediately sent a fleet led by a carrier to the region. The “super-bomb” in Afghanistan is also related to this context.
As with Iran, the U.S. demands that North Korea dismantles its nuclear arsenal, considered as “destabilizing and provoking”. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s Assessor of National Security, when consulted if the military option was on the table, said: “all our options are on the table, undergoing refinement and further development,” as “the President has made clear that he will not accept the United States and its allies and partners in the region being under threat from this hostile regime with nuclear weapons.”
Trump, allied to China and South Korea when it comes to North Korea, twitted: “I have great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea.”, and he added: “If they are unable to do so, the U.S., with its allies, will!”. Which is also, by the way, a warning and pressure on the Chinese government.
We are facing a more openly aggressive and threatening position of U.S. imperialism which is in all senses unacceptable, and demands a categorical rejection.
Just as we rejected the U.S. airstrikes in Syria, IWL-FI is against the imperialist aggression implied in the dropping of “the mother of all bombs”. We also fully reject the explicit threats by Trump to North Korea. We reject and fight the hateful and dictatorial regime of North Korea, which attacks its own people in all possible ways; but in front of a concrete threat by imperialist powers, we stand with the weaker and more oppressed country of the two. Also, we defend without fear or hesitation the right and sovereignty of North Korea as a country to develop its own nuclear plan, a domain where U.S. imperialism aims to continue it exclusive monopoly.
We call on the working class of all countries, especially on the U.S. people, to mobilize against Trump’s aggressions and threats to other nations. This new developments urge us to debate and resume a plan of action and foster anti-imperialist struggles everywhere. The working class and oppressed sectors across the world must respond to these imperialist attacks and threats.