The recently announced US-Iran deal is not about peace or preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It is all about US imperialism pivoting to Asia-Pacific to prepare for the eventual military clash with China, its main imperialist rival.
This deal is vigorously being pursued by one sector of the dominant wing of the uS ruling class, which knows they can't pivot to Asia-Pacific unless they "pivot away" from the Middle East. This can't be done unless an agreement is forged concerning Iran's "nuclear ambitions." "The interim accord between Iran and the six world powers is a significant accomplishment," wrote Richard Haass, supporting the Pivot-to- Asia gang. He is the president of the Council on Foreign Relations – the most influential think tank deciding uS national and foreign policies. In his article (Financial Times, 11/24/13), he also lashed out at the uS forces trying to derail the deal. Although also part of US imperialism's dominant wing, these forces view the Pivot-to- Asia strategy as surrendering the Middle East to the China-Russia-Iran axis.
John Bolton, Bush's former U.N. ambassador, speaking for this sector, called the accord an "abject surrender by the united States." (Weekly Standard, 11/24). Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio called for new Congressional sanctions against Iran despite the deal. Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez said they would also support new sanctions. Two former National Security Advisers, General Brent Scowcroft (retired) and Zbigniew Brzezinski, supporting the Pivot-to-Asia strategy, urged Congress on November 19 not to consider passing new sanctions which "…will risk undermining or even shutting down the negotiations." Although the Rockefeller-led sector, behind the Pivot-to-Asia, seems to be gaining the upper hand, the outcome of this rulers' dog fight is unpredictable. However, we can be certain of one thing: it is all about how best to fight China.
One sector is for the uS overthrowing al- Assad of Syria, and then invading and conquering Iran. They think that their Iraq-Afghanistan problems could then be solved and the whole oil-rich region would again be under uS control. Then China's dependence on Middle Eastern oil for its future economic growth and military power could be exploited to contain and curtail its rise as a rival power.
The Rockefeller gang thinks this is a pipedream. They know the Middle East can't be fought for piece-meal, and they have two losing wars to prove it. Furthermore, they know that bigger military adventures there, especially against Iran, could put uS imperialism at a disadvantage in a probable military clash with China and Russia.
These bosses would rather concentrate their resources to contain, and prepare to fight, China in Asia-Pacific. Here they hope to build a powerful anti-China military alliance – which can't be done in the Middle East—with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, India and other Pacific countries.
Also, in the Pacific they could fully take advantage of one of their main military assets: their navy, the world's most powerful. Some of their top military strategists believe, as US Admiral Alfred Mahan (1840-1914) wrote, that "whoever controls the Indian Ocean controls Asia. In the 21st Century, the destiny of the world will be decided on its waters." An agreement with Iran will free the US Navy's Fifth Fleet from being confined to the Persian Gulf, where, many military analysts concur, it is a sitting duck for Iran's advanced anti-ship missiles, and its submarines and speed boats armed with Russian Shkval, or Squall, torpedoes, which can travel at 225 mph. The fleet can be much less vulnerable in the vast expanses and deep waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Some of the Pivot-to-Asia bosses' pundits hope that eventually the Iran deal could lead to the US allowing Iran to openly become the dominant Middle East power. In exchange, Iran would serve the US in the same function as it did under the Shah before 1979.
Whether this will happen or even if any deal will be signed at all is anybody's guess. We, however, know two things: the imperialists' competition for world domination inevitably leads to world war, and the bosses wage war against our international working class 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, year in and year out.
The bosses' wars for profits and empire can only be ended by putting an end to their war against our class. Join ICWP in mobilizing the masses for communism, the only way to end all wars forever.