One week since President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address, the United States is already at war with another country.
On February 28, the U.S. and Israel bombed an elementary school in Iran, killing hundreds who were mostly children. In response, Iran launched attacks on U.S. military bases and Israeli military facilities in several countries, most of which have been intercepted. At the time of writing, six U.S. military service members have been killed in the midst of “Operation Epic Fury.”
Since the attacks began on Saturday, thousands of people have protested across the country to reject the war on Iran and challenge the notion that the U.S. — the only country that has dropped a nuclear bomb — is the world’s self-declared enforcer of democracy.
The human cost of war is irreconcilable. But war doesn’t just kill people. It destroys our planet — while fossil fuel corporations profit.
The world’s largest oil companies made more than $281 billion after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Companies like BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergie raked in money while abandoning previous pledges to reduce their carbon emissions.
The carbon footprint from the first 15 months of Israel’s genocide in Gaza is said to be greater than the annual planet-warming emissions of 100 individual countries. Yet energy delegates continued to make deals to supply Israel with coal, gas, oil, and fuel.
Now, the U.S. and Israel are again initiating a war that could drive even more profits for the oil companies and weapons manufacturers slowly killing us all with pollution.
“The fossil fuel companies have an army. And that army is the U.S. military,” said journalist Abby Martin in an interview with BreakThrough News. “The U.S. military is a system that imposes global capitalism against the planet at the barrel of a gun.”
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