Wars in the Middle East

We cannot think of the wars in the Middle East only in religious terms. There is, indeed, a religious component in this issue, but its contribution to the chaotic situation in the region is diluted.

The Middle East is vital to the global economy because it has the largest oil reserves in the world, is one of the main trade routes for goods, and holds the largest natural gas reserves. Being positioned between Asia, Europe, and Africa, it becomes central to global trade, especially with the use of the Suez Canal, which allows direct passage between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, shortening the distance between these regions. Otherwise, it would be necessary to navigate around Africa to deliver products.

The major world powers are well aware of this, and this wisdom, in the literal sense of the word here, is transformed into actions aimed at maintaining control over this region.

Speaking of the actors in these interventions, we cannot fail to mention the USA. The greatest imperialist power has an enormous list of interventionist activities in the region that lead to armed conflagrations:

• Operation Ajax: where the CIA orchestrated a coup in Iran to overthrow a democratically elected government. This intervention cost approximately 1 million dollars at the time. We are talking about 1953. Today this would represent about 10 million dollars.
• Iran-Iraq War (1980): The USA was concerned with the Soviet advance in the region and, at the same time, wanted to contain the Iranian Islamic revolution and protect the region’s oil reserves, ensuring access to these resources. Only the support for Saddam Hussein cost American workers approximately 10 billion dollars.
• Invasion of Iraq (2003): the invasion of Iraq under the pretext of eliminating the possibility of the country accessing weapons of mass destruction. Does anyone still believe that? It cost about 2 trillion dollars. Money that, instead of being invested in healthcare, was reverted to killing.
• Support for rebel groups in Syria: the “Train and Equip” program that caused instability in Syria cost approximately 500 million dollars.
• Aid to Israel: annually, Israel receives approximately 4 billion dollars to serve as a counterbalance to regional powers.

And this is a short list and only of what has come to light so far and only from the main destabilizing force in the world. Much money must come from European powers and capitalist China today, without us having data on that.

War, in itself, is a profitable event that generates jobs. The contracts for supplying arms to the region are among the most lucrative in the world, provided by the global arms industry. Russia, China, the USA, and Europe, all of them supply weapons to Israel, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and company. The global arms trade to the region represents approximately 35% of the world’s arms imports annually. In the last 5 years, the working class in the Middle East has spent approximately US$ 150 billion, considering approximate numbers because many contracts have confidentiality clauses.

Wars, in general, are very lucrative, and, because they are so lucrative, they create a superstructure of lobbyists who operate in national congresses to maintain the status quo. Peace does not generate money for the warlords, and, what’s worse, peace can generate more and more questioning about the arms industry. For this, a myriad of justifications appear, accusing humans of being killing machines. Personally, I don’t know a single human who doesn’t prefer to have their bills paid, food on the table, and a house to live in, but maybe we live in a fantasy world.

The religious pretext is widely used as a justification for tensions in the region. There are indeed fanatical people in the world who would be capable of killing for religion, but there is not a single piece of evidence that they are the majority of the population, or even a significantly relevant part of the population of the Middle East. What does exist is that these people, in conjunction with their own economic interests and imperialist interests, are used as puppets in the theater of global interests. In exchange for a smaller share, they become heralds of global imperialism in the region.

The case of the criminal nation of Israel at this moment is exactly that. If the USA did not provide a military power umbrella, it would be very unlikely that Israel would have the power and political will to commit the atrocities it commits in the region, especially against the Palestinian people. In exchange for the possibility of being a counterbalance to regional powers like Iran and maintaining the region under a police status, the USA gives free access to Israel’s regional interests, which are the control of important territories such as the West Bank with its water resources and agricultural fields, as well as some mineral resources and, of course, the cheap Palestinian labor force living in that region.

All these interests have one thing in common: they aim at the enrichment of a specific class in their societies. In Rome, there was a saying called “Cui bono?” which, in Latin, means “To whom is it a benefit?” or “Who gains from this?”, suggesting that to discover the author of a crime, one must investigate who benefited the most from the occurrence. There is no doubt here that these profits remain in the hands of a social class, which dominates another ideologically and using repressive apparatuses.

The class struggle is the main historical driver of humanity, and wars will only end with the complete, international victory of the proletariat over the bourgeoisie. It is necessary to end the capitalist system that currently nourishes this class. The end of wars, not only in the Middle East but throughout the world, depends on this. It is a “sine qua non” condition for an era of global prosperity and freedom.