U.S. assault troops ordered to Iran war – Will military resistance grow?

March 25 — The Pentagon announced this week it has ordered 5,000 more mobile combat troops, including a combat brigade from the Army’s 82nd Airborne, to participate in the war against Iran. Such orders create tension and questioning among any troops who might become part of the “boots on the ground.” 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy said that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford has moved away from combat near Iran and docked at a port in Crete, a Greek island, for repairs. The Navy said a serious fire in the ship’s laundry burned 600 bunks. The Pentagon has ordered the USS George H.W. Bush carrier fleet to replace the Ford. The carrier had also been plagued by malfunctioning toilets, and there were stories that the crew had stuffed T-shirts and other clothing down the toilets in protest.

These events raise the possibility of antiwar resistance developing within the ranks of the professional U.S. military.

Most of the 4,500-person crew of the damaged aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford are workers in uniform. They had been at sea for nearly 10 months (usually six months is the limit), working 80-hour weeks without rest. The Ford’s toilets stopped functioning some months ago.

Since so much of the population mistrusts the present U.S. government, it means many people question the Navy’s description of the fire on the Ford as accidental. It’s also possible that an Iranian drone or rocket hit the ship. Or even that some sailors, exhausted after nine months at sea under combat working conditions, set the sleeping area on fire in the hope of finally getting ashore. 

No clean quick victory for U.S.

With the war almost a month along, any fantasies the White House had of a clean, quick victory have gone up in drone smoke. U.S. imperialism started a battle with a country strong enough to hit back, a problem for even a world-class bully. 

That no one in the administration even tried to justify starting the war, and each official gives a different appraisal, has already turned more than half the population against the war.

The Pentagon officially reported that as of the fourth week of the war, 13 U.S. troops were killed, including six when a refueling plane crashed. The Pentagon’s Pete Hegseth claimed that relatives of these soldiers asked him to pursue the war to justify the sacrifices they made. 

The relatives objected to Hegseth’s attempt to manipulate them. And some protested that the Pentagon issued tacky pro-war propaganda presenting the war as a video game. 

Three relatives of one of the deceased U.S. troops, Tyler Simmons, spoke out against the war. Simmons, who is African American, was killed in the crash of a refueling plane. Simmons’ cousin, Stephan Douglas, told Columbus, Ohio, news station WCMH: “We didn’t need to be in this war. This is uncalled for, and this is what we get.”

Bernice Smith, Simmons’ grandmother, said, “Just to create a war because you want to create a war is not right.” 

It’s unprecedented that so early in a U.S. war, relatives of soldiers take a public position opposing the war. It’s a sign of deep popular disgust that must extend to the soldiers themselves.

Many factors can build up the troops’ courage to resist the illegal orders that — should they obey them — can turn them into war criminals. The factors include how long the war lasts, how fast U.S. military casualties are revealed, how many U.S. ground troops are sent to the war zone and — this is vital — if protest among civilians, including friends and relatives of the service people, expands and deepens. 

Organizations aid resisters

For those in the movement against imperialist war and anyone with friends or relatives in the U.S. military, now is the time to let these troops know that if they resist in any way, there are people and organizations who will support them.

Veterans For Peace (VFP) chapters, for example, have been putting up billboards and posters publicizing that active duty troops, reservists and National Guard members have the duty to disobey illegal or unconstitutional orders. The VFP have a hotline available for legal appeals by soldiers to get out of the military or to resist being sent to fight in an illegal war.

The Center on Conscience and War, whose focus is on aiding troops file for Conscientious Objector status, has stepped up its outreach in the past few months. Its new executive director, Mike Prysner, a veteran of the U.S. war against Iraq, says they have had a 1,000% increase in phone calls asking for that kind of aid since the sneak attack on Iran.

Resistance among active-duty troops to the U.S. war against Vietnam developed over the course of years, with a leap between 1967 and 1969 that never slowed. Much has changed since then in how news is exchanged. The troops are never unreachable, even if they are 7,000 miles away. 

There is already revulsion against orders to murder civilians, including children. Any attempt to wage a ground war against 93 million Iranian people could spark a sharp change in political consciousness among U.S. troops. It’s this change that the antiwar movement must be ready to support and help develop.