As the strongest military power in the world with virtually no history of fighting a war on its own stolen soil, the U.S. is virtually impervious to the consequences of its brutality. The assassination of Iranian General Kasem Soleimani was a terrible act of inhumanity but even Iran’s measured and in fact muted response indicates a terrible reality–after the U.S. murdered General Soleimani, even if one “American” life would be lost in self-defense the U.S. would launch merciless air strikes and murder countless civilians and soldiers. The U.S. does not a viable anti-war movement and with all the self-righteousness of groups calling for “no war in Iran” Nancy Pelosi dresses up to mock Arabs and Muslims and Bernie Sanders opposition to the murder as “an assassination that violates international law” is followed by the most racist and hawkish slander of every other government in the world—creating a de-facto support for or at least justification of Trump’s act of murder.

Today we will examine this in great detail and again ask the supporters of Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren to engage this catastrophe with a sense of introspection and activism inside those campaigns.

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 presidential contender, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday night that the missile attack on Iran’s Gen. Qasem Soleimani was an “assassination” that violated “international law.”

No, I think it was an assassination. I think it was in violation of international law. This guy was — was a bad-news guy, but he was a ranking official of the Iranian government. And you know what, once you get into violating international law in that sense, you can say there are a lot of bad people all over the world running governments.

Kim Jong-un in North Korea, not exactly a nice guy. Responsible for the death, perhaps, of hundreds of thousands of people in his own country. To name one of many, you know? The president of China now has put a million people, Muslims, into educational camps — some would call them concentration camps.

But once you start this business of a major country saying, hey, we have the right to assassinate, then you’re unleashing international anarchy. I think all…that Trump seems to be doing now is trying to break all kinds of international protocol, denying the foreign minister of Iran to speak before the United Nations, and really basically trying to lead us into another war, which I believe will be a disaster.

Anderson Cooper asked Sanders if he’d feel the same way if Soleimani were not a high-ranking official in the Iranian government.

Sanders replied that he “might” feel differently, but “I’m not a lawyer on these things.”

But this guy is, you know, was, as bad as he was, an official of the Iranian government. And you unleash — then if China does that, you know, if Russia does that, you know, Russia has been implicated under Putin with assassinating dissidents. So once you’re in the business of assassination, you unleash some very, very terrible forces.

And what I am seeing now in this world, as a result of Trump’s actions, more and more chaos, more and more instability. And it is absolutely imperative that the United States Congress stand up

.”I have consistently opposed this dangerous path to war with Iran. But we need to do more than just stop the potential of a war. We need to firmly commit to ending the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, in an orderly manner, not through a tweet.”

His last statement is very important but Sanders needs to stop vilifying the heads of foreign governments with whom the U.S. needs to negotiate and stop calling people “bad guys” that only creates the basis for a U.S. assassination of invasion.

The U.S. is a white settler state with contempt for everyone. Its goal is to destabilize, overthrown, “regime change” every government in the world except for Europe, Israel, and any of its neo-colonies. Iran, China, North Korea, and Russia are sovereign states that the Democrats are even more at war with than Trump. How do we get out of this mess? I have no idea but at least let’s call the problem what it is–the bi-partisan U.S. assassination, invasion, and bombing state. We do not assassinate people because it is morally wrong, because the U.S. is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, because 2.5 million people are in U.S. prisons, 1 million Black, because the U.S. has repealed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, because the U.S. facilitated the murder of Muammar Gaddafi tried to murder Fidel Castro endless times by Republicans and Democrats, assassinated Osama bin laden. It is not Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders or the U.S. right to tell us who are “bad people” “bad actors” because once you say that, what is your response? Invade them instead of assassinate them? Have endless “sanctions” that murder civilians? Trade wars because the U.S. imperialist economy cannot compete fairly internationally. ? Blockades? Who will stand up for the humanity and decency of people in other social systems and call out of our government as the primary cause of climate crisis and war.

OK, I will and do.

I will also be reading some excellent research on the life of Kasem Soleimani and the U.S. history of targeted assassinations of its political opponents by Joseph Seyedan, an Iranian-in-the-US and researcher for the Labor/Community Strategy Center

If you care, tune in.

Listen to Voice from the Frontlines today at 3pm PST on KPFK 90.7fm OR use the button below to Stream the show live on KPFK.org