MAGA regime fears truth about U.S. war losses

Sept. 21 — Last week corporate media published articles explaining that the MAGA administration had underreported U.S. human and material losses from what it calls “Operation Epic Fury,” its aggressive war against Iran.

Besides exposing the administration’s undercounting in the specific cases, these reports show that Iranian missile and drone attacks have caused widespread damage to at least 15 U.S. military bases and equipment stationed in West Asia, along with the significant depletion of expensive U.S. anti-missile and anti-drone weapons. The Washington Post reported Sept. 18 that the Pentagon had redefined how it reported the deaths of troops in order to diminish the number of deaths. The actual numbers were not the kinds that normally make big headlines: the Pentagon reported 18 killed in combat. Then an additional five troops were killed after the first ceasefire in March, and it was reported under the category of “Overseas Operations.” The revelations came from six unnamed U.S. officials.

The White House’s attempt to hide the deaths shows how much #47 and his den of thieves fear the reaction of the U.S. population, which already opposes the war by 62%, with only 28% supporting the decision to attack Iran. The same article points out that “more than 820 U.S. service members have been wounded in action since the Iran conflict began, the public casualty database says. Many have suffered traumatic brain injuries as a result of Iranian counterstrikes on U.S. bases throughout the Middle East.” (Washington Post, Sept. 18)

 

Reporting that number of injuries, including serious injuries, can impact public opinion and spark a reaction within the military itself.

 

The other war fact that the MAGA regime tried to bury — and which for a long while the corporate media went along with — was even more dramatic regarding the formerly dominant military position of U.S. imperialism in West Asia. After the U.S.-Israeli aggression killed government and religious leaders, along with more than 150 pupils in a school in the city of Minab on Feb. 28, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was able to make a rapid and powerful counterattack. U.S. bases in the oil emirates of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, were all hit, with some severely damaged. Images sent by active duty service members in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait depicted destroyed aircraft, collapsed camps, hollowed out buildings and charred vehicles following Iranian airstrikes throughout the course of the war, CBS News reported. “This is major damage to our bases that hasn’t been communicated to the American public,” one service member told CBS. (New York Post, Sept. 17)

The conclusions from these developments are: (1) the White House and its entourage will lie about its war moves to the people, and there is no reason to believe anything its representatives say; (2) other ruling-class sectors, working through an important section of the corporate media, view the MAGA administration as incompetent to manage the affairs of U.S. imperialism; and (3) within the military itself, there is opposition to how the regime is conducting the war against Iran.

The question for the anti-imperialist movement is how to react to these developments to increase the already large majority of the population who are anti-war and mobilize the people to take action that can stop further U.S. aggression — in West Asia and anywhere else in the world.