For the second time in a year, the U.S. and Israel have launched airstrikes on Iran, starting yet another war. However, this time, President Donald Trump announced a planned prolonged war against Iran and stated that American service members would likely be killed in the process. He addressed Iranians, telling them to stay inside because bombs would be dropping all over Iran, and called on them to overthrow their government.
Iran’s state media has already reported dozens of female students dead after an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran was struck. The self-proclaimed “peace president” has launched yet another endless war – risking millions of human lives.
The entire world should be outraged.Â
This is imperialism: the U.S. and Israel have doubled down on orchestrating a regime change operation against another sovereign nation. Our political and media elites will mask the attack with familiar lies, saying the West is liberating the people of Iran, when in reality, it has been suffocating Iranians with brutal economic sanctions for years.Â
👉 Demand Congress says NO to war on Iran!
This is not the first time the U.S. has participated in regime change in Iran. In 1953, the U.S. and the U.K. overthrew Iran’s first democratically elected government to prevent the nationalization of Iran’s oil industry. Western powers then installed the dictatorship of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who relied on a secret police force to torture dissidents, surveil the population, and control the media. The Shah’s brutal repression ultimately contributed to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, during which the CIA was expelled, and a theocratic Islamic Republic was established. Since then, the U.S. has been choking the Iranian economy with sanctions, making life increasingly difficult for ordinary Iranians.Â
When Iranians erupted in protest of their financial conditions, Trump and Israel used the protests to justify further intervention. Then, when Iran engaged in diplomacy, the stalled nuclear talks became the U.S-Israeli basis to strike. We all know that the farce of Iran "almost building out its nuclear programs" has been used by Israel and the US for decades. If this were truly about limiting the scope and use of nuclear weapons, the Trump Administration would be engaging in good-faith diplomacy. Instead, this was a deliberate propaganda war against Iran in an attempt to justify bombing innocent people to benefit the U.S. proxy state of Israel.Â
But we know that peace and freedom don’t come from U.S. bombs. We learned that in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. War kills people; it doesn’t save them.Â
👉 Call for a lifting of the sanctions on Iran NOW! Say No to WAR!
Iranians are demanding better lives in the face of a severe economic crisis — a crisis that the U.S. has played a central role in creating. Our hearts go out to Iranians who have been hurt or killed in the protests. Their demands for economic dignity can and should be met. At the same time, bombing Iran will further destabilize the country, worsen conditions, and destroy more lives. The U.S. should instead lift the sanctions that have starved Iran of food and medical supplies and devalued its currency.Â
The majority of Americans don’t support another war. It’s on us to mobilize against the war on Iran and ensure our elected officials respond to grassroots pressure. We must make it clear to them why we oppose this war:Â
- War will not fix the economic situation in Iran; it will kill working-class Iranians. We demand the immediate lifting of U.S. sanctions that are strangling the Iranian economy.
- Iran has done nothing to threaten the U.S.
- It was the U.S., not Iran, that violated and withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.
👉 Call for a lifting of the sanctions on Iran NOW! Say No to WAR!
Americans can’t afford healthcare. We can’t afford groceries. Yet 2026 has opened with the U.S. military attacking and killing people abroad and ICE attacking and killing people at home. The last thing we should be spending U.S. taxpayer money on is another imperialist war in the Middle East.
Our leaders in the U.S. must know that we refuse to be pawns in their imperial game. Working people in the U.S. don’t want war. Working people in Iran don’t either. They want to be free from U.S. imperialism. Let’s fight for them — and for a world free of imperialism, from Iran to Venezuela to Cuba to Palestine and beyond.
 👉 Take more action:Â
- Check out our No War on Iran Rapid Response Toolkit!
- Counter misinformation via these FAQs about Iran!
- Grab our Peace with Iran merchÂ
- Learn more via books and movies on Iran!
- Read the following Substack articles by Medea Benjamin:Â
In peace and solidarity,Â
The entire CODEPINK team
