Monday, September 30, 2024

CURRENT SITUATION: NOTES ON THE WORLD CRISIS (28. MOA: The armed struggle of national resistance is invincible!


In the current war of aggression of Yankee-Zionist imperialism against the oppressed nations of the Greater Middle East (MOA), whose main axis of aggression goes from the Gaza Strip to Lebanon, given their failure to crush the national resistance struggle of the Palestinian people, they consider that the great opportunity has arrived to strike Iran for which they seek to destroy Hezbollah (Hezbollah), separate Iran from any support from Syria and strike the resistance in Yemen.

 

Meanwhile, US imperialism and the Zionist State of Israel are carrying out their genocidal military action with all their might. The Biden administration is talking about a diplomatic solution to the war and a “ceasefire” in Palestine and Lebanon, seeking to increase diplomatic pressure against the national resistance movement in order to confuse and paralyze the armed resistance and those in the region and the world who give them their passionate support. The imperialists, in collusion and struggle, are trying to promote with their diplomatic “efforts” the tendency towards capitulation in the national liberation movement of the region.

 

In fact, the imperialist-Zionist war in its current military campaign, as in the 76 years since the occupation of Palestine in 1948, is doomed to failure from the beginning, despite “some successes,” if one can call it the cruelest genocide committed against the Arab-Palestinian people. And the forces of national resistance, persevering in the hard but invincible armed struggle, will conquer victory against imperialism, Zionism and reaction. To constitute or reconstitute the Communist Party, as the case may be, as a new type of militarized Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Communist Party is necessary to complete the democratic revolution and to immediately and uninterruptedly develop the socialist revolution on the way to the common goal, the ever-golden communism.

 

The latest news confirms the firm decision to continue the struggle whatever the cost, the continuators of the armed struggle of national resistance are ready to take the place of the leaders fallen in combat throughout the region:

In light of the statements of the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, who has again suggested a possible ground operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. While addressing troops near the Lebanese border, Gallant said they were prepared to use all their resources, including “air, sea and land.”

The response, almost simultaneously, came in the first statement from a Hezbollah commander since the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli attack on Friday. The number two of the Shiite militia party, Naim Qasem, said: “We are prepared in case the Israelis decide to enter by land.” He added that they would name Nasrallah’s replacement “as soon as possible.”

During the early hours of the morning, an Israeli attack in the center of Beirut caused at least four deaths. It is the first attack by the Jewish State against the heart of the Lebanese capital since 2006. The missile killed three leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the group. In another attack, this one in the south of Lebanon, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, Fatah Sharif Abu el Amin, has been killed (The news is from the reactionary newspaper El País, today).

It is up to us to continue supporting the Arab people against Yankee imperialism and Zionism and reaction. We must instill this in the masses, thus sowing anti-imperialism.

 

Let the actions of agiprop reverberate in the minds of the deep masses to politicize them and make them consciously take their destiny into their own hands. As Chairman Gonzalo says: the Party does not make the revolution, the Party directs it, the masses are the makers of history.

 

Following the Zionist attack on Hezbollah with homicide drones, The Times of London comments that in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Hezbollah is the closest Iranian point to Israel and the question is whether a ground invasion of southern Lebanon by the IAF or a continuation of air strikes will follow. It then adds that Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has been firing rockets at Israel since October. Israel is not in a position to destroy Hezbollah, but it can paralyze it.

 

The Spanish newspaper El País, in its last Saturday edition, in Opinion, says that it is very unlikely that the US did not find out beforehand about the Israeli attack against Hamad's headquarters in Beitur where the Secretary General of Hezbollah and the deputy chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard were killed, but in any case, that attack would not have been possible without the bunker-busting bombs provided by the Biden government to the Israeli government of the genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

A commentator from the Middle East Institute, today on German TV, 24-hour news, said that Israel will not be able to destroy Hezbollah but it has caused great damage to its leadership structures by killing not only Nasrallah who was its political leader but many of its high-ranking military commanders, that Hezbollah will be able to reorganize these levels but in the medium term, but that does not mean that it cannot continue fighting because in its lower ranks it has many commanders who can continue carrying out actions at that level. He noted that the IAF is likely to invade southern Lebanon to establish a security zone against Hezbollah rocket fire.

 

On the ground invasion of the Zionist enemy, we consider it a good opportunity for the armed resistance struggle against the imperialist-Zionist enemy to deploy a deep and wide guerrilla war as its main strategy, taking into account the successful experience of 2006:

 

Once the Israeli ground forces faced the Hezbollah militias, a previously unknown fact proved to be very useful for the fight against Hezbollah, which applied both guerrilla warfare tactics and prolonged direct confrontations: an extensive network of bunkers and underground fortifications secretly built throughout southern Lebanon.

 

The bunkers enabled Hezbollah fighters to protect themselves from Israeli air and artillery bombardment and to subsequently surprise the advancing Israeli forces.

 

Before the development of the Hezbollah guerrilla war in southern Lebanon, the United States saw that Israel would finish off Hezbollah once and for all, affect Syria; but in particular it was considered a great opportunity to weaken Iran and its growing influence in the Levant, so it vetoed all efforts in the UN to give Israel time to destroy Hezbollah and then proceed to have a joint force of blue helmets and the Lebanese Army retake control of southern Lebanon.

 

Faced with the development of the guerrilla war and other unfavorable events for the Zionists, the United States gave way on August 11 to the Security Council Resolution No. 1701, which established a ceasefire, and the deployment of 15,000 blue helmets that would join UNIFIL to restore order in southern Lebanon respecting the "Blue Line" as a border between both countries.

 

The exit prepared by Netanyahu with the Biden government, after so much comedy about ceasefire agreement and negotiations, could be in view of the latest political, military and diplomatic events in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, etc., that is, in the MO region, the invasion of southern Lebanon by the Israeli Armed Forces (IAF) with the justification of Hezbollah's rocket attacks from that part of Lebanese territory.

 

But, it is well known to all that the Lebanese resistance guerrilla has only used its rockets against military installations of the Zionist State of Israel and, against other targets, only in response to the genocidal action against Palestinian or Lebanese civilians by the IAF and Israeli settlers. On this occasion, Hezbollah has also proposed a ceasefire in Gaza and that Israel stop killing Palestinian civilians as a condition for ceasing its rocket attacks against the territory occupied by the Zionists of Israel.

 

It is therefore to be expected that imperialists and Zionists will have to leave Lebanon once again, as in 2006, running with their tails between their legs in the face of the onslaught of the guerrilla war of the national resistance.

 

The intervention of US imperialism in the war in the MOA:

 

1. The Obama doctrine, after its continuous failures in the MOA: in Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, Palestine, etc., US imperialism adopts the so-called "Obama Military Doctrine", which in the MOA is translated as follows:

 

"(...) The United States will continue to be the dominant extra-regional military power in the Middle East, with an unmatched network of regional bases and numerous assets permanently or temporarily deployed in the region. Its advantages are reinforced by the military power of its local partners and the weakness of its adversaries.

 

The US military presence in the Middle East is unmatched by regional or extra-regional forces. Exact figures vary depending on rotational deployments and specific commitments, but the bottom line is that the United States can respond quickly to short-term contingencies and has a significant response capacity due to its pre-positioned assets and its unmatched transport and logistics capabilities. The U.S. military is able to project and sustain this presence thanks to an unmatched network of bases and facilities in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, Jordan, and Turkey.

 

As of late 2013, these bases were home to more than 35,000 troops, including 10,000 troops deployed on the front lines. The United States deploys advanced fighter aircraft in the region, including F-22s, as well as attack helicopters, heavy armor, missile defense capabilities, and advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets. The United States also maintains a massive naval presence around the Arabian Peninsula and in the Mediterranean Sea, typically involving more than 40 ships. 4 In July 2013, the United States added the deployment through 2014 of a second carrier battle group with the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain. In addition, in the summer of 2013, the United States assembled five Arleigh-Burke-class guided missile destroyers and three nuclear-powered guided missile submarines in the Eastern Mediterranean in preparation for possible strikes against Syria.

 

The US withdrawal from Iraq in 2011 led to a significant decline in the US regional military presence, given that at its peak it deployed 165,000 troops in the country. However, a quantitative analysis must be weighed against the high costs in regional legitimacy associated with the occupation of Iraq. The United States was also bogged down in the face of a difficult insurgency, which made its forces a target for retaliation by Iran and local adversaries. This was costly militarily and politically(...)

 

The power of a state's allies contributes to its power. (...) America's power in the Middle East, according to this view, also derives from the military strength of its regional partners.

 

The Israeli military is the most technologically advanced and best fighting force in the region. The Turkish military, the second largest in NATO with some 500,000 troops, provides the United States with a strong ally, especially in the fight against terrorism, and access to strategically located bases. Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) are increasingly capable of fielding small but technologically advanced armies. They have acquired from the United States and other Western countries expensive weapons systems, ranging from defensive (missile defenses and patrol boats) to offensive (fighter aircraft and armored vehicles).

Indeed, since 2007 the United States has approved more than $75 billion in arms sales to the GCC states.

(...)

The structure of the regional balance of power, in short, is inherently favorable to the United States. Its partners are strong, which benefits American power, but they are also dependent on the United States for their security. This is optimal for Washington; its key partners are not weak and autonomous, but strong and dependent.

(...)

The United States has two major regional rivals: Iran and Syria. Iran’s asymmetric and unconventional assets enable it to thwart regional developments that oppose American interests, but much of its conventional military is obsolete. It has limited power projection capabilities, and its major weapons systems are old and suffer from poor serviceability and reliability. Training, inter-service coordination, communications, and logistics are poor. As a sign of Iran’s military inferiority, its defense budget is roughly seven times smaller than the combined defense budgets of the GCC states. The Islamic Republic has also distanced itself from almost all Middle Eastern states and lacks allies beyond Syria and Hezbollah.

(...)

Meanwhile, extra-regional powers are not gaining ground relative to the United States. Russia lost much of its military power in the region after the Cold War. Its only remaining military facility is a small naval base in Tartus, Syria; Its only regional partners are Iran and Syria, which are isolated and weak. Russia does not have the power projection capacity necessary to sustain military deployments in the region. China, for its part, does not have, and is unlikely to acquire for many years, military capacity or ambition in the Middle East. It is therefore not a factor in the regional balance of military power (Middle East Policy, Vol. XXI, No. 2, Summer 2014 US Power in the Middle East is Not Declining, Thomas Juneau)

 

That is the assessment made by political scientists of US imperialism in 2014, regarding the “new military doctrine” or “Obama doctrine”: that it is the forces of its servants that act directly while US imperialism directs, supports and carries out the highest level military actions. Now, let's see how it plays out after October 7, 2023.

 

2. The involvement of US imperialism with its “Zionist partner” in the MOA after October 7, 2023:

 

“Rising tensions between Israel and Iran have brought the region to the brink of war, and the United States has reiterated its commitment to defend Israel.

 

The United States has a significant military presence in the Middle East, with approximately 45,000 troops, numerous bases, and formidable air and naval fleets, raising fears of a potential regional conflict.

 

Last week's assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the killing of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr in Lebanon heightened tensions, prompting speculation about a possible retaliation by Iran.

 

As the world awaits Tehran's next move, questions are being raised about how the United States will support Israel, its long-standing ally.

 

Washington's military presence in the Middle East (...)

 

Despite the drawdown in Iraq and the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the United States has deployed additional troops to the region since the start of Israel's assault on Gaza on October 7.

 

According to US media reports, the US military operates from numerous bases across the region, maintaining a rotating force of around 45,000 troops.

The largest base is the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, established in 1996, which serves as the regional headquarters of the US Central Command (CENTCOM).

 

Around 8,000 troops are stationed there, underlining its strategic importance. In Bahrain, the US Fifth Fleet headquarters is home to around 9,000 troops as of 2022, while Kuwait, a key logistics hub during the 2003 Iraq war, is home to 13,500 troops.

The United Arab Emirates hosts about 3,500 US military personnel, along with critical ports for the US Navy.

 

Jordan, a crucial ally, hosts about 3,000 US troops, despite a deadly attack on its Tower 22 base by Iranian-backed Iraqi militias in January. Jordan’s geographic proximity to Israel and its strong ties to the US and UK make it a critical conduit for intelligence operations in Syria and Iraq.

 

As of December 2022, more than 2,700 US troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia to train and advise its military and protect US interests in the region from Iran and its proxies. Oman, which hosts a few hundred air force personnel, and other smaller deployments across the region contribute to the broader US military strategy. In Israel, the US presence includes the secret Site 512 base, crucial for radar surveillance against ballistic missile threats. US troops also support the Iron Dome missile defense system at Nevatim Air Base in the Negev Desert.- Iraq and Syria

 

The United States maintains around 3,500 troops in Iraq and Syria. In Iraq, the United States reduced its military presence to 2,500 troops in 2021, moving entirely into non-combat advisory roles.

 

These troops, stationed at bases such as Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq's western Anbar province, focus on training Iraqi forces, providing advice, and supporting intelligence efforts against Daesh/ISIS.

 

The United States currently has around 900 special forces soldiers in Syria to support the (...) YPG/PKK group, which uses the name SDF.

 

The United States has smaller bases, such as the al-Omar oil field and Al-Shaddadi, mostly in the northeast of the country, and a small outpost known as the Al-Tanf garrison near Syria's border with Iraq and Jordan.

 

- Naval power

 

The Pentagon announced additional deployments of warships and aircraft to the Middle East following Haniyeh's assassination, reinforcing its presence in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

 

There are 18 US ships in the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and three guided-missile destroyers – the USS Lassen, the USS Farragut and the USS Forrest Sherman – as well as the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy.

 

The United States announced it will deploy two aircraft carriers, the USS Gerald Ford and the USS Eisenhower, support ships and about 2,000 Marines after October 7.

 

The Pentagon also ordered the deployment of additional fighter jets to support the existing fleets of A-10s, F-15s and F-16s in the Middle East (Source: US military steps up deployments in Middle East to defend Israel The United States has a significant military presence in the Middle East, with some 45,000 troops, numerous bases and formidable air and naval fleets, Mehmet Alaca, Ankara, 07-08.08.2024).

 

3. The US imperialists, after the Zionist State of Israel's attack on Hezbollah with the explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies, preparing the next step in the extension of the war:

 

“- The United States maintains a force of additional planes, ships and troops in the Middle East prepared for the expansion of the conflict

 

The United States has maintained an increased military presence in the Middle East for much of the last year and has some 40,000 American troops spread across the region, including at least a dozen warships, according to several American officials. (September 19) AP

 

- So far, the United States has not indicated an increase or change of troops as a result of the latest attacks, and there is already a reinforced force in the region.

 

“We are confident in the capacity that we have there right now to protect our forces and in case we need to go to the defense of Israel as well,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh on Thursday.

 

-A military official said the additional resources have helped U.S. patrols in various conflict areas, including operations targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, defending Israel and countering threats from Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea and launched ballistic missiles at Israel.

 

-Normally, about 34,000 U.S. forces are deployed to U.S. Central Command, which covers the entire Middle East. That troop level increased in the early months of the war between Israel and Hamas to about 40,000 as additional ships and aircraft were sent in.

 

-Several weeks ago, the total soared to nearly 50,000 when Austin ordered two aircraft carriers and their accompanying Navy warships to stay in the region as tensions grew between Israel and Lebanon. Since then, a carrier strike group has left and moved to the Asia-Pacific region.

 

-The enhanced presence is designed both to help defend Israel and to protect U.S. and allied personnel and assets.

 

-Navy warships are dispersed throughout the region, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Oman, and both Air Force and Navy fighter jets are strategically based in several locations to be better prepared to respond to any attack.

 

-The U.S. is back to having just one aircraft carrier in the region. Austin has expanded the carrier deployment several times over the past year, so that on a few occasions there has been the rare presence of two at once.

 

-American military commanders have long maintained that the presence of a formidable aircraft carrier — with its array of fighter and surveillance aircraft and sophisticated missiles — is a strong deterrent against Iran.

 

-The USS Abraham Lincoln and its three destroyers are in the Gulf of Oman, while two U.S. Navy destroyers are in the Red Sea. The guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, which Austin ordered to the region last month, had been in the Red Sea and remains with U.S. Central Command, but officials declined to say where.

There are six U.S. warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, including the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit on board. And three Navy destroyers are in that area.

About a half-dozen of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s F/A-18 fighter jets have been moved to a land base in the region. Officials declined to say where.

Aircraft

The Air Force sent an additional squadron of advanced F-22 fighter jets last month, bringing the total number of ground-based fighter squadrons in the Middle East to four.

That force also includes a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft, F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 fighter jets. The Air Force has not identified which countries the aircraft operate from.

The addition of the F-22 fighter jets provides U.S. forces with a hard-to-detect aircraft that has a sophisticated suite of sensors to suppress enemy air defenses and carry out electronic attacks. The F-22 can also act as a “quarterback,” marshaling other warplanes into an operation.

But the U.S. also demonstrated in February that it doesn’t need to have aircraft based in the Middle East to strike targets. In February, a pair of B-1 bombers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and flew more than 30 hours on a round-trip mission that struck 85 targets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force in Iraq and Syria in response to an attack by IRGC-backed militias that killed three American service members (source. Sept. 19, AP).

 

4. News about “diplomacy” as a war ploy

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking a more passive approach than usual during a week of dramatic escalation between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, with senior U.S. officials holding back from full-blown crisis diplomacy for fear of making matters worse.

 

The public restraint comes after explosions of the militant group’s pagers and walkie-talkies and an Israeli airstrike on a senior Hezbollah operative in Beirut threatened to spark an all-out war between Israel and its Middle East foes and derail already faltering negotiations for a ceasefire in the Hamas conflict in Gaza.

 

There has been no acknowledged public U.S. contact with Netanyahu since senior White House official Amos Hochstein visited Israel on Monday to warn against escalation. The first wave of device explosions — widely attributed to Israel, which did not acknowledge responsibility — came the next day.

And Gaza ceasefire negotiations were at such a delicate point that Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited only Egypt on a trip to the region this week because traveling to Israel in support of a deal could prompt Netanyahu to say something that undermines the U.S.-led mediation, U.S. officials said.

 

Asked whether the U.S. still held out hope for a deal in Gaza, which the administration sees as crucial to calming the regional conflict, President Joe Biden said Friday that he did and that his team is pushing for it.

 

“If I ever said it was unrealistic, we might as well go,” Biden told reporters. “A lot of things don’t seem realistic until we do them. We have to keep trying.”

 

Meanwhile, the White House and State Department have declined to comment publicly on the Hezbollah devices that exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday, killing at least 37 people and wounding thousands more, including civilians, in what analysts believe was a highly sophisticated Israeli intelligence operation.

 

They also offered no assessment of an airstrike on Friday in a densely populated area of ​​Beirut — the deadliest such attack in Lebanon’s capital in years — that killed a Hezbollah commander. The Israeli military said 10 other operatives were also killed. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 14 people were killed.