March 17, 2026
March 16 – It’s hard to believe that there are still U.S. analysts and journalists who have the arrogance to blame the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran for spreading the regional war that the U.S. and Israel launched. Perhaps they’re just afraid the MAGA regime will take away their access to the Pentagon, if it hasn’t already.
Since this debate about blame will likely be repeated every day, it’s good for The International Action Center to establish a framework for our readers. As Marxist-Leninists when evaluating who is the guilty party starting violence, we consider who is the exploiter, who is the exploited, who is the oppressor, and who is the oppressed.
Thus when Haiti’s enslaved population in the late 1700s rose up and committed violent acts against the French nobility which had been enslaving them, we know it was the enslavers who were the aggressors, the enslaved people who were defending and liberating themselves — no matter who struck first. And with the victory for the enslaved people in 1804, we call it a victory for humanity.
In West Asia, U.S. imperialism, the main oppressor force in the world, has dozens of terrorist military bases and CIA cells controlling its monarchical client states. The U.S. ally Israel is a settler state, a colonizer that not only exploits labor but seizes land and resources from the Palestinian population, killing and expelling them. The U.S.-Israeli venture in the region is based on joint pillage, occupation and plunder.
Iran has 5,000 years of civilization behind it. From the 1800s until 1979, Iran was part of the colonial world, despite nominal independence. Sovereign since 1979, Iran has been supporting others in the Global South fighting for liberation in Palestine, Yemen and Lebanon.
As a representative of the oppressed, Iran has the right to defend itself, including the right to strike first.
But Iran didn’t strike first. Iran was negotiating. The war’s opening moments left no doubt worldwide who launched it and who were the war criminals.
While allegedly holding negotiations with Iran, the Pentagon ordered two aircraft carrier war battle fleets to the seas off Iran to supplement the dozens of U.S. air bases in the region. On the morning of Feb. 28, the U.S.-Israeli terrorists hit Iran with a sneak attack.
Vigil for the children murdered by U.S. rockets in a girls school in Minab, Iran, in New York City, March 8, 2026. The U.S. and Israel are the criminals.
Israeli warplanes or rockets hit a gathering of Iranian officials, murdering Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, members of his family and 40 political and military leaders. At the same time, U.S. rockets hit an elementary girls’ school in the city of Minab on the Persian Gulf, killing 18 teachers and 168 girls between the ages of 6 and 11.
So within hours of the sneak attack, Iranians knew the U.S.-Israeli war criminals aimed to decapitate their government and murder their children. The whole world quickly learned this.
The Iranian government refused to surrender, as the MAGA White House apparently hoped they would. Instead, the Iranians quickly rebuilt their government structure, mobilized the population against the air invasion and opened a stunning resistance to both Israel and all U.S. assets in West Asia.
By international law, the Iranian government had every right to defend itself.
If U.S. troops and sailors’ lives are at risk, it’s the U.S.-Israeli attack that puts them at risk.
If oil prices and gas prices skyrocket, it’s the U.S.-Israeli rockets and bombs that forced Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.
If the imperialist world economy plunges into depression, blame the war criminals in Washington and Tel Aviv. And anyone who supports their “war of choice.”
The imperialists are the guilty ones. They are the enemies of the Global South and of all working people. The MAGA criminals running the U.S. state at this moment have made this obvious.
