U.S. imperialist terrorist-in-chief Obama’s current Middle East strategy prioritizes military action against ISIS. However, as Russia continues to challenge U.S. imperialist ambitions in oil-rich Syria and the Middle East as a whole, top U.S. State Department officials are calling for more aggressive military strategies to counter Russia’s increasing influence. As this rivalry intensifies the threat of even wider imperialist wars loom on the horizon.
Key U.S. Policy Planners Reject Obama’s Current Course
The State Department officials’ message, entitled “Dissent Channel: Syria Policy,” advocates making regime change in Syria the highest priority. They want to remove Russia’s imperialist-backed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power. The officials call for precision air strikes against Assad’s regime, cynically posing as concern for workers in Syria. The officials state “Assad’s systematic violations against the Syrian people are the root cause of the instability that continues to grip Syria and the broader region.”
 If these policies are implemented, they will dramatically increase the danger of a military confrontation between Russia and U.S.-led NATO forces. Russia has been providing military support against the threat ISIS and anti-Assad fighters pose to Assad, including massive air strikes by Russian warplanes. The Obama administration and the Pentagon also claim defeating ISIS their top priority. Both of these imperialist powers are really after strategic control of global oil supplies, and neither one can afford to concede any part of the Middle East to the other.
Importantly, Russia’s ally Iran, itself a regional imperialist power, is a key supporter of Assad. A more aggressive U.S. imperialist strategy in the Middle East threatens the temporary cooperation Iran’s bosses have offered to the U.S., in exchange for money.
Iranian, Russian Bosses Have Temporary Upper Hand
With such risks to U.S. imperialism, why is there such support among the U.S. policymaking establishment to explicitly provoke their Russian rivals? Part of the answer involves the fascist bosses of two key, but embattled U.S. imperialist allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Both allies are currently fighting Iran-backed militia forces, and U.S. policymakers fear that despite the Iran bosses’ appearances of cooperating with the U.S., they continue to secretly fund militias to further destabilize U.S. control.
In neighboring Lebanon, the Israeli bosses fear the Iran-backed Shiite militias of Hezbollah more than any other immediate threat. The rise of ISIS in Syria has temporarily distracted Hezbollah, which fights on the side of Assad in Syria.  In addition, Yemen, on Saudi Arabia’s southern border, is torn apart by civil war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the local pro-Saudi regime. In response, Saudi Arabia has conducted indiscriminate air strikes across Yemen, killing thousands of workers.
U.S. Policymakers Want Reality-Based Imperialism
The U.S. bosses knew that the recent agreements allowing Iran access to billions of dollars frozen in U.S. bank accounts was a calculated risk. The current disagreement is an acknowledgment that Iran has not stopped its regional imperialist aspirations. These aspirations only benefit Iran’s bosses and, ultimately Russia’s imperialism. The “Dissent Channel” faction of policymakers acknowledges the reality that the U.S. military isn’t in Syria to fight ISIS, but rather to stop Russia’s influence.
The current Obama policy is a very simple divide-and-conquer strategy. It seeks to prevent any possible contender from achieving Middle East dominance (R. Kaplan, “Warming to Iran”; Foreign Policy, Jan.-Feb. 2015.). In particular, the Iran-led Shiite forces, with support from Russia and Iraq on one side, are pitted on the other side against the extremely wealthy Saudi and Gulf Cooperation Council dictatorships more closely allied with the U.S.
The State Department officials’ dissenting strategy, influenced by the critical Israeli and Saudi interests, reorients the strategy directly against Russia. This strategy is based on the knowledge that the U.S. and NATO allies have missiles in position to strike Russia as needed. (See “U.S. activating missiles in Europe despite Russian warning”; PressTV, May 11.) These are the lengths the U.S. imperialists are willing to go to defend their declining, but lethal empire. The Russian bosses, smelling blood, have shown they are equally willing to spill workers’ blood to prevent the U.S. from reestablishing dominance over the Middle East.
PLP Fights To Smash Imperialism With Communism
Workers internationally are not served by a U.S.-ruled or Russia-ruled Middle East. We have nothing to gain by following the lead of any of the imperialists, royalists, theocrats or other reactionaries. Neither do workers in any of the imperialist countries of the U.S., Iran, or Russia. In these countries, workers are facing an onslaught of fascist cuts to living standards in order to finance the bosses’ imperialist adventures. The bosses in all countries have intensified anti-immigrant racism, especially against the millions of refugees forced from the imperialist devastation in Syria.
The bosses cannot fight wars with soldiers who would rather turn the guns around on their officers and fight for communism. The Black worker-led rebellions in Ferguson and Baltimore showed that not only are many Black workers and youth more willing to fight the U.S. bosses than enlist in the U.S. Army, but also that millions of white, Asian, Latin, Muslim and Jewish workers were inspired by Black resistance to racist police terror.
PLP is organizing a mass Party to “fight like Ferguson” against the capitalist bosses of all countries for communist revolution. We have a world to win, but it can only be won with communist leadership. Building an international communist movement led by PLP is the solution.