THE US administration of Joe Biden has deployed a record number of American troops to Jordan, a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East with borders with Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south and (crucially for the US) Israel to the west.
The ruling monarchy in Jordan have long-established ‘friendly’ relationships with both the US and Israel, and the country has played host to American forces, including a US airbase at Muwaffaq Salti from which US warplanes have carried out airstrikes throughout the region in the past.
It also houses US special operations forces that operate under the cover of being part of the American war against Islamic ‘terrorists’. Until now, the close military ties of the US and Jordan have been kept deliberately quiet. However, a new report to the US Congress on June 7th revealed that the Biden administration has deployed a record number of US troops to Jordan.
The White House’s war powers report revealed that a record 3,813 US troops are now stationed in Jordan. This is a 625 increase in numbers since December last year.
The number of US soldiers and airmen now based in Jordan exceeds the number at any time since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Last month, US Central Command conducted one of the largest joint military exercises, operation ‘Eager Lion’, in the Middle East in Jordan – with barely a mention by the Pentagon.
This quiet build-up of troops in Jordan undermines the frequent claims by Joe Biden that the Israeli drive to kill Palestinians through a genocidal campaign could be contained to Gaza.
The entire region is erupting, and the eruption is spreading as the masses throughout the Middle East rise up in support of Palestine.
In Jordan itself, the monarchy has been rocked in recent months by demonstrations opposing their government’s alliance with the US as it arms the Israeli regime.
No wonder Biden issued instructions to downplay the massive military build-up in the country over concerns for ‘host nation sensitivities’ as the White House called it.
A massive worry for Biden is the chaos and collapse taking place in Israel. The complete failure of the Israeli military to achieve any of prime minister Netanyahu’s aims of eradicating Hamas, and crushing Palestinian resistance through implementing a genocide, has created a massive crisis in Israel.
On June 9th, two members of Netanyahu’s war cabinet, Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, resigned followed by Netanyahu immediately winding up the group that was supposed to run the war.
With the extreme right-wing settler parties who dominate Netanyahu’s coalition government threatening to walk out if he doesn’t wipe out every last Palestinian from Gaza, the entire Zionist regime is in a state of collapse.
Meanwhile on the streets, thousands of Israelis staged a mass demonstration on Monday outside the Israeli parliament before moving on to Netanyahu’s personal residence demanding the government negotiate with Hamas for the return of the captives.
This situation constitutes the emergence of the worst possible nightmare for US and world imperialism.
Its tame and massively armed, and then rearmed, attack dog in the Middle East, Israel, is being torn apart politically and is facing military defeat at the hands of the revolutionary resistance of the Palestinian and Arab masses.
This is after the emergence of a mass rising up of workers and revolutionary youth in the USA, the EU and the UK against the Zionist genocide, and in support of the Palestinian revolution.
These masses are for the defeat of their own governments so that the Palestinians win their state – and the issue will not stop there.
This growing fear of revolution, and world revolution in particular, is behind the latest military preparations being made by the US in Jordan, supported by its UK allies, for a direct military intervention to try to prop up the collapsing Zionist regime by putting American troops on the ground to kill yet more Palestinians.
Hamas has repeatedly warned that the US-built pier, that was supposed to deliver aid by sea to Gaza, will be used not for aid but to deliver arms and troops for the Israeli occupation forces.
With US imperialism, backed to the hilt by its UK allies, preparing for an all-out war against the Palestinians and the peoples of the Middle East, the time has come for the working class of the world to take decisive action.
Trade unions in the US, UK and EU must be made to call general strikes to bring down their governments replacing them with workers’ governments and socialism.
The only way to put an end to imperialism’s drive to war is by carrying out the world socialist revolution!
