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There is a wing of the U.S. foreign policy establishment that believes Russia can be brought back into the U.S. sphere of influence, and since the election, it's become apparent that this wing is the dominant one. This is a goal that’s shared by both wings of our ruling class, because though the neocons overwhelmingly endorsed Harris, they’ve easily been able to get their ranks into Trump’s cabinet. And this week, the Trump team’s predominant neocon Marco Rubio confirmed that he and his circle intend to try to assimilate Russia. A revealing remark was when Rubio said that sanctions relief can give Washington “leverage” over Russia, and that “sanctions and the release of sanctions” will “have to be part of this conversation in terms of bringing about a…resolution.”
This is one aspect of how the bipartisan cold war clique hopes to make Russia capitulate: by trying to tempt the country’s leadership through promises of ending the economic pressures. But that alone is not enough, because Russia’s economy has continued to grow since the start of the Ukraine operation; this is Russia has pivoted even more towards the Eurasian economy, and become even closer with China. The only way this process may be reversed is if Russia’s leaders were to get a credible promise that Washington will cease its economic warfare, and sufficiently reward Russia’s bourgeoisie.
That’s what the Trump team, and the deep state forces that largely control it, are prepared to offer Russia’s capitalist class. This isn’t a guarantee that Russia will stray from the anti-imperialist path; the proletarian forces within Russia still hold much leverage, and they’re prepared to bring wrath upon the government should it betray their interests. But everything we’re seeing from the United States indicates that the plan is to attempt a bribery of Russia’s ruling class, and we in the U.S. must act to disrupt this scheme.
A crucial part of this task is to combat the Zionist entity’s crimes, not just in Gaza but in the many other places it’s assailing. Washington’s desire for a deal with the Russian leadership is the essence of why this ceasefire (or supposed ceasefire) has happened; the cold warriors know that to pressure Russia, they’ll need to commit to waging war against Syria, and to do that they’ll need to redirect their resources. The Zionist entity can’t afford to fully dedicate its resources to both Syria and Gaza; it needs to focus on one or the other in order to delay full collapse. So the Biden administration has gotten Netanyahu to redirect his military efforts away from Gaza, and towards Syria. There will absolutely still be a blockade that prevents Gaza’s recovery, and it’s inevitable that the Israeli Offense Force will assault Gaza’s people again; but because of how weakened the entity has become, for the time being it can be expected to prioritize the Syrian front.
As Gaza’s people continue being subjected to disease and starvation, Washington will have the entity expand its aggressions against Syria, with the goal being to add an extra stressor for Russia. The neocons figure that if they can wage an effective war within Syria, then Russia will come to feel limited in its options, and accept Trump’s “frozen conflict” Ukraine deal.
For as much destruction and horror that this is going to involve, the nature of the plan shows how weakened the hegemon has become. It’s a bargaining effort, where the empire is searching for its best chances at success after suffering great defeats. Notice how the neocons don’t hope to subdue Russia in Ukraine through any actual military victory; instead, their strategy is to make Russia willingly give up the fight by applying pressure against it on other geopolitical fronts.
The imperialists know that they’ve lost in Ukraine, and that this proxy war has represented a defeat for them not just militarily but economically. They also know that so-called “Israel” has come closer to full collapse than ever, experiencing an energy, security, economic, and demographic crisis which threatens its entire existence. Zionism’s unraveling is why Washington has been supporting Turkey so much: it needs a backup proxy for when “Israel” goes away. The empire is also trying to use Turkey as a tool of leverage against Russia, working to make Russia dependent on Turkey amid its Syria retreat.
To an extent, such a Russian pivot towards Turkey has already happened, and that’s a setback for the anti-imperialist cause. All of these events, though, are part of a larger transition process, where the old unipolar order gets replaced with something else; with a new global paradigm, one where the revolutionary forces get the opportunity to prevail. What more anti-imperialists are coming to understand about multipolarity is that it’s not in itself the thing which brings revolution; it only creates conditions where new revolutionary developments can happen. This entails the expansion and intensification of conflicts, which the revolutionary forces have the responsibility to win. They’re not guaranteed to win, that depends on how well they navigate their task.
Within this series of conflicts, the anti-imperialist side has prevailed in eastern Europe, and is ready to defeat the hegemon in East Asia; China and the DPRK are prepared to use whatever means necessary for thwarting the enemy’s next aggressions. On the West Asian front, the anti-imperialists are on the retreat, but not to the consequence that multipolarity has been defeated, and not so much that the hegemon can now be comfortable within the region. West Asia is a tactical front, while eastern Europe and East Asia are strategic fronts; and the resistance forces throughout West Asia continue to bring Zionism closer to death. Hamas and the Houthis have driven the entity towards terminal decline, and Hezbollah is fully within its rights to start attacking the entity again after all the latest Zionist attacks on Lebanon.
Khamenei has reminded us that this fight is absolutely not over: “various events – either our own events or regional events like those in Syria – should not diminish the Palestinian issue in our minds. The fundamental essence of Resistance, is resistance against the Zionist regime's evil actions. That is what Resistance is. The Resistance is alive and must be kept alive. It must become stronger every day. We support the Resistance. We support the Resistance in Gaza, the Resistance in the West Bank, the Resistance in Lebanon, the Resistance in Yemen, and wherever they stand firmly and resist in confronting the malicious actions of the Zionist regime.” This isn’t bravado; Khamenei has real reasons to expect that the resistance will keep wearing down the entity, and the empire by extension. He believes that Syria’s youth will succeed in taking back their country, as part of a wider counter-offensive by the region’s liberation forces.
For we in the heart of the beast, the crucial thing is to not abandon any aspect of the anti-imperialist struggle; which means continuing to center Palestine, and building a pro-Palestine movement that can organizationally withstand repression. Our ruling class wants us to stop paying attention to Palestine, or at least become complacent in our current practices and assume that we don’t need to do more. From both a moral and a strategic standpoint, we must keep making Palestine a core part of what we do; we must press this issue harder than ever, and fortify our orgs for the next crackdowns on Palestine activism.
It’s important to remember that West Asia is a tactical front, and certain recent imperialist victories in this front are actually hurting it within the strategic fronts. There are many reasons for optimism about this situation. But if we abandon the people in West Asia who are being subjected to genocide, those people will be left in an even worse place, and our domestic class struggle will be crushed. Which would weaken the struggle on all fronts, as well as prolong our capitalist dictatorship. The only path forward is to commit to every part of our revolutionary task, and to combat the imperialist maneuvers from every U.S. leader who facilitates them.
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