The Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Asia/Pacific Team offers these resources to support resistance efforts against U.S. propaganda, given the recent military attacks on Iran.
Guide to U.S. Warfare on Iran:
In light of the recent U.S.-led imperialist war on Iran, which has already murdered thousands of Iranians, including more than a hundred school girls, this guide is designed to act as an anti-imperialist counterweight to decades of Western anti-Iran propaganda, as well as a resource to help people and organizations embrace the ideological clarity needed to defeat U.S.-led imperialism globally. The widespread lies, distortions, and propaganda that have been circulated in Western media against the Islamic Republic of Iran for decades are forms of narrative and psychological warfare that uphold US-led imperialist interests. We have a responsibility to counteract and correct Zionist imperialist propaganda wherever we find it. | PDF Guide can be found here
Don’t be Cannon Fodder for the U.S. Empire: Stand with Iran - Counter-Propaganda & Conscientious Objector Resource:
The Western media’s decades-long demonization campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran is a form of narrative control and psychological warfare that is intentionally designed to manufacture consent for U.S.-led imperialist aggression across West Asia. It is critical that we arm ourselves with the truth so that we can effectively resist the U.S. empire’s desperate attempts to conscript us into fighting in or cheering on its ongoing wars abroad.
To advance U.S. militarization, the U.S. military targets African/Black, colonized and oppressed people through predatory recruiters and propaganda that prey on our youth, luring them into a dangerous, white supremacist, “job” with promises of a better life, a college education, or international travel. We encourage all those who have been ensnared by the U.S. military to leave through conscientious objection and no longer engage in the U.S.’s violent and lawless attack on global humanity. | Printable Version here
PROPAGANDA
Propaganda: The Iranian people live under an oppressive “theocratic regime” that does not allow for protest or dissenting opinion and violates the human rights of women and minorities. Two things can be true: we can stand with the people of Iran and also oppose their government.
Counter-Propaganda: The Iranian Revolution of 1979, which established the Islamic Republic of Iran, was a popular revolution that ousted the decades-long reign of Reza Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran, a puppet who was installed by the West to ensure its continued access to Iran’s natural resources, specifically oil. The framing of the Islamic Republic as “theocratic regime” is rooted in a racist, Islamophobic perspective, which incorrectly frames the Iranian government as irrational and backward due to its Islamic character.
A “regime” is defined as an oppressive or undemocratic government. Thus, the use of this term to describe the Islamic Republic, but not, for example, the Saudi Arabian government, shows how such language is selectively applied to countries which pose an economic and military threat to the interests of the United States, who must then demonize them at the narrative and rhetorical level, in order to de-legitimize them in the public consciousness.
Such narratives are often framed by the perspectives of Iranian diaspora members, whose interests overwhelmingly align with the US government due to their pro-monarchist, anti-Islamic Republic stance. By continuously centering these select voices and sidelining those of millions of Iranians who support their government and oppose US regime change, the United States has been able to cultivate racist and imperialist distortions of Iranian society and culture that many living in the West continue to believe. These white supremacist views paint the Iranian state as “authoritarian” or “terroristic” and the Iranian people as "oppressed" or “helpless.”
These narrative distortions about the Islamic Republic of Iran, which in fact has widespread support from its own people on the ground, are a core part of the US’s hybrid warfare strategy–in which media disinformation campaigns, economic sanctions, and attempted coups are as much a part of the war strategy as bombs and assassinations. It is therefore imperative that we correct these misconceptions as often as possible.
The argument that we must support the Iranian people but oppose their government is incoherent, contradictory, and ultimately manufactures consent for US-led imperialism by aligning with their goal of toppling the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is the United States that overwhelmingly oppresses the Iranian people, not only through military attacks but also via economic sanctions, blockades and international isolation. Sanctions are acts of war waged by the United States to kill, destabilize, and manufacture crises around the world. Iran is under the heaviest sanctions regime in world history, imposed by the United States that aims to kill everyday Iranians and destabilize the sovereign country.
Indigenous expertise and traditions coupled with international solidarity and unity against U.S. imperialism have successfully led Iranians to fight back and continue to struggle for sovereignty and self-determination amidst U.S. hybrid warfare. Recent covert assaults admitted to by U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies, like the CIA and Mossad, have unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the political struggle in Iran to cause violence and kill thousands. U.S./Israeli attempts at subversion and interference have failed because the Iranian people are more united than ever against U.S. imperialism as they seek to independently forge their own political struggles that respect the diversity of the Iranian people and society while expelling foreign interference.
Propaganda: The current US war on Iran is an “inter-imperialist conflict” between the United States and Iran.
Counter-Propaganda: We must be clear about the nature of imperialism, which has a concrete, materialist definition. Both colonialism and imperialism are premised on a denial of sovereignty to people on the global periphery through the use of military and economic force. But while colonialism is control of land on a territorial basis, imperialism is about the control over the flow of resources and capital across multiple territories or regions. By any metric, Iran does not fit the definition of an imperialist power. While the US has over 900 overseas military bases around the world, Iran has zero. While the US imposes economic sanctions and blockades on multiple countries, Iran imposes no such sanctions or blockades on any countries. This is a one-sided, aggressive imperialist war of the Western powers, led by the United States and Israel, against Iran, a country that is defending not only its own sovereignty against such imperialist aggression, but that of the entire West Asian region.
Propaganda: Israel dragged the United States into a war with Iran.
Counter-Propaganda: The U.S. military’s Central Command was formed as a direct response to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and continues to be the primary planner and coordinator of war on Iran. Every U.S. administration has waged war on Iran through a combination of sanctions, economic coercion, covert attacks and overt military assaults.
The United States uses Israel as a military base from which to wage war against Iran. Israel did not have to “convince” or “trick” the United States into war with Iran when the destruction of Iran has always been central to U.S. foreign policy and military doctrine, as seen with the U.S. military’s Central Command.
Imperialism guides the logic and actions of the United States. It does not need Israel to convince it to go to war. However, the United States does view the continued occupation of Palestine as key to its ability to project power over the region.
CONSCIENCIOUS OBJECTOR STATUS
We must stand up to the U.S. military in our communities! The U.S. military deploys predatory recruiting tactics in predominantly African/Black, poor and working class communities through recruitment centers, high school JROTC programs and college ROTC programs. We must not let our children become cannon fodder for the U.S. empire!
Anyone can leave the U.S. military by becoming a conscientious objector.
GI Rights Hotline–Free, confidential support for military members, veterans and families with conscientious objection.
Phone: 877-447-4487
Email: girightshotline.orgCenter on Conscience and War–Legal support for conscientious objectors and opposing conscription.
Email: centeronconscience.org