Donald Trump is an unhinged warmongering lunatic who must be stopped. While Iran is doing its part by delivering the US president a strategic defeat, Ottawa doesn’t appear to have even paused any of its extensive ties to the US war machine.
During a nationally broadcast speech on Iran Wednesday night the US president declared, “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks — we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Age, where they belong.”
As part of bombing Iran to “the Stone Ages”, the US/Israel immediately targeted a century-old medical research centre in Tehran, a major new bridge and steel plants. Before Trump boasted about committing more war crimes Wednesday night,the US/Israel had destroyed massive amounts of civil infrastructure, including ecologically sensitive oil and natural gas facilities. They attacked a desalinization plant and Israel says 70% of Iran’s steel production has been damaged. According to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, the US/Israel have damaged 100,000 civilian sites in the country while a spokesperson for Tehran’s mayor said 33,000 homes in the city have been damaged. Several hundred Iranian hospitals, universities and schools have also been fully or partly destroyed.
By their own admission the US/Israel have dropped over 20,000 bombs on Iran over the past month. They’ve assassinated top officials and Israel has said they’ll kill whomever else they want. Upwards of 3,500 Iranians have reportedly been killed and three million have been displaced by the aggression.
Canada has directly assisted the war against Iran in multiple ways. US warplanes have used Canadian airspace, Canadian soldiers monitor West Asia through NORAD and Canadian forces stationed with the US in the region likely assisted the aggression. More broadly, Canada has about 500 military accords with the US and sold more than $2 billion in arms to the US last year.
Yet there’s opposition to even minimal permitting constraints on arms sales to the US and few are seeking to abrogate military accords with an unhinged annexationist president. There doesn’t even appear to be much political or military — though there’s undoubtably lots of popular — appetite to pause joint naval deployments and military training with the US.
Instead of moving in that direction, Ottawa is bolstering Trump’s push to have NATO members weaken Iran’s control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand joined a UK instigated online forum for countries seeking to undercut Iranian control over shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Additionally, Anand traveled to Saudi Arabia earlier in the week to discuss the war and trade ties. Silent on the US and Israel, a post visit Global Affairs statement “condemned the destabilizing Iranian behavior in the region… called on Iran to immediately cease its attacks and to respect international law … and to stop supporting, financing, and arming its affiliated militias in Arab states.”
A few days before jetting off to deepen economic and security ties with the Saudi monarchy, Anand adopted a new set of illegal sanctions against Iran. Canada sanctioned five individuals and four entities in its latest bid to weaken Iran economically. By sanctioning the country, labelling Iran a terror supporter and cutting off ties, Canada has worked for many years to weaken Iran economically and diplomatically. Through a slew of measures designed to isolate Iran Ottawa paved the way for the war.
A week ago, the Iranian Canadian Congress, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, Canadian BDS Coalition, World Beyond War, Ontario Palestinian Rights Association, Palestiniens et Juifs Unis and Just Peace Advocates released a ten-point platform to oppose the war and re-found bilateral relations with Iran. It calls to:
- Condemn Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war of aggression.
- Declare it won’t formally dispatch troops to assist in the war and bring the 200+ troops in the region home.
- Direct all Canadian soldiers working with the US military to halt any assistance to the war.
- Impose an immediate arms embargo on Israel.
- Close Canada’s military base in Kuwait.
- Restart diplomatic relations with Tehran.
- Remove Iran from Canada’s state sponsors of terror list.
- Remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from Canada’s terrorist list.
- Repeal a host of sanctions on Iranian individuals and entities.
- Apologize for contributing to the overthrow of Iran’s nascent democracy and initiate a full accounting of its role in the 1953 coup against Prime Minster Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Unfortunately, most Canadian politicians still support the US empire and the imperialism, international law-breaking and might-makes-right militarism that goes along with it. Yet, millions of ordinary Canadians understand who the bad guys are in this war. And it is not Iran.
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