The United States has positioned its naval and air forces for a massive assault on Iran, in the largest military buildup in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which took part in the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, was approaching the Strait of Gibraltar on Thursday and will be in position to attack Iran within days. The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is already on station in the Arabian Sea.
“Trump appears ready to attack Iran as U.S. strike force takes shape,” the Washington Post declared Thursday. “Trump will be ready to strike Iran by Saturday,” the Telegraph reported.
Reuters reported Friday that the Pentagon is preparing for “sustained, weeks-long operations”—an extended air war targeting state and security facilities, not just nuclear infrastructure. Senior national security advisers met in the Situation Room on Wednesday and were told all forces would be in place by mid-March.
On Thursday, Trump set a deadline of “10 to 15 days” for Iran to accept American demands or face “really bad things.” He told the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace—a body overseeing the US-Israeli carve-up of the Middle East after the genocide in Gaza and promoted as a rival to the United Nations—“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or the other.”
More than 120 aircraft have crossed the Atlantic in recent days: four dozen F-16s, three squadrons of F-35A stealth fighters, 12 F-22 Raptors, F-15E Strike Eagles and A-10 ground attack jets. Six E-3 Sentry AWACS have deployed to Saudi Arabia. Patriot and THAAD air defense batteries have been placed across the region. Guided-missile destroyers carrying Tomahawk cruise missiles are stationed in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The two carrier strike groups can generate several hundred strike sorties a day for weeks.
The talk of a “deal” is a cynical fraud. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Trump is weighing an “initial limited military strike” to force concessions, after which, if Iran refuses to comply, “the U.S. would respond with a broad campaign against regime facilities—potentially aimed at toppling the Tehran regime.” The message to Iran is not diplomacy but an ultimatum backed by the threat of annihilation: accept our terms or be destroyed.
Iran has every reason to regard the offer as a trap. Last year, the White House gave Iran a 60-day ultimatum. Five rounds of talks were held. On June 8, while talks were ongoing, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff sat in a war-planning session at Camp David alongside the CIA director and defense secretary. Five days later, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, bombing more than 100 Iranian targets. A sixth round of talks, scheduled for June 15, was obliterated by bombs. On June 19, Trump announced “two more weeks” to negotiate. On June 22—three days later—seven B-2 bombers carried out Operation Midnight Hammer, dropping bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. Iran’s foreign minister told the UN: “We were attacked in the midst of an ongoing diplomatic process. They just needed negotiations to cover it up.”
The same fraud is being repeated. Two rounds of talks have been held, in Oman on February 6 and in Geneva on Tuesday. The White House says the two sides are “very far apart.” A European diplomat told the Post: “Trump does not have the patience.”
The war preparations take place in the context of an eruption of American militarism all over the world. The carrier that spearheaded the strike force that kidnapped Venezuela’s president is being redeployed to wage war against a country of 88 million people.
The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy declares a “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” asserting the right to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” and “deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.”
The seizure of Venezuela, the threatened seizure of Greenland and the Panama Canal, and the war against Iran are components of a single strategy: the use of military power to control the world’s critical resources and chokepoints for conflict with Russia and China.
There is overwhelming opposition to war with Iran. A Quinnipiac poll in January found 70 percent of voters oppose military action. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found 69 percent say the US should not get involved in Middle East military action unless directly threatened.
The Democratic Party has done nothing to oppose the war. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has demanded Congress “debate” the issue—without saying the war should not happen. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries complained that Trump has been “slow to provide information to the Gang of Eight.”
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, was asked about strikes on Iran and replied: “There’s still so much runway.” She then repeated the administration’s regime-change talking points: “What the Iranian regime is doing, particularly with respect to protesters, is a horrific slaughter.” She said nothing to oppose the war.
The Democrats have voted to fund every weapon now being assembled for this attack. The $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act passed the House 312-112 in December, with 115 Democrats voting yes. In the Senate, it passed 77-20 with the majority of Democrats in favor. In January, 149 House Democrats voted for $839 billion in defense appropriations. Trump has called for a $1.5 trillion military budget—the largest in American history.