Attack on US base: Gaza genocide, US occupation of Iraq must end

By Xavier Villar

The attack by the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU), an umbrella group of the Iraqi resistance that is part of the Axis of Resistance, against a US military base on the Syria-Jordan border on Sunday left three US soldiers dead and at least 40 others injured.

From the perspective of the Axis of Resistance, the drone attack on the ‘Tower 22’ base served to again highlight that the American presence in the region is not immune to the devastating consequences of the ongoing Israeli genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In fact, believing otherwise is a politically naive and analytically shallow proposition.

Further, this attack is part of the announced campaign by the leaders of the Axis of Resistance, from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon to Yemen, including Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, who has repeatedly emphasized the determination of the resistance forces to expel foreign forces from the region.

The PMU, as proponents of the political discourse of this Axis of Resistance, have aimed to convey the message that the current moderately intense regional war could potentially extend to all American military bases in the Persian Gulf, becoming much more costly for the United States.

It is quite naive to expect that troops from countries supporting the ongoing Zionist genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip and deployed in the region will not suffer any kind of harm.

On the other hand, it is important to recall that the Iraqi parliament, in an exercise of its political sovereignty, passed a resolution in January 2020, unequivocally urging the government in Baghdad to “expel foreign troops from the country.”

Iraqi officials have in recent months intensified these calls amid a surge in attacks on the US bases in response to the events unfolding in Gaza, where Americans are seen hand-in-glove with Israel.

Let’s not forget these same troops were responsible for the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) of Iran, and the deputy leader of the PMU, Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, outside the Baghdad airport in January 2020.

The attack on the US military base in Jordan should also be considered as part of the response to the assassination of those two leaders of the resistance front, the lynchpins of the fight against terrorism.

In this context, it is important to note that it was in the aftermath of these extrajudicial killings that Sayed Nasrallah pledged to “punish” the United States and expel its troops from the region.

From an organizational standpoint, but simultaneously confirming the discursive unity of the Axis of Resistance, it’s interesting to note that the collaboration between Iraqi PMU and Hezbollah in Syria to combat Daesh helped create a new category of collective defense that challenges traditional understanding anchored in the Eurocentric version.

This collective defense that characterizes the Axis of Resistance explains how the transnational alliance has formed a military coalition against the Zionist entity and its allies.

Notably involved in this coalition are groups such as Hezbollah, Ansarullah, and the Iraqi PMU. All these groups have in recent months practically demonstrated their support for the Palestinian resistance.

This coalition of regional forces is based on solidarities and horizontal affinities that clearly cannot be understood within the hierarchical parameters of Western-centric power dynamics. In other words, the Axis of Resistance can be characterized as a non-hierarchical and horizontal collaboration.

 It represents a new model of shared sovereignty between resistance groups scattered across the region. This model of regional sovereignty is, therefore, based on a discursive affinity that cannot be reduced, as most Western media do, to the category of “pro-Iranian militias” or “Iranian proxies.”

For example, after the attack on the Syria-Jordan border, US President Joe Biden accused the PMU of being a “militia backed by Iran.” The same hollow rhetoric has been repeated by other US officials, while openly and brazenly calling for a “war” against the Islamic Republic.

As Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani categorically stated on Monday, regional resistance groups, which include the PMU, do not take orders or instructions from the Islamic Republic.

These movements are self-reliant and fully capable of making their own decisions in support of the people and resistance in Palestine, who have reeling under the Zionist killing machine since Oct. 7.

Clearly, the intention is not to deny the connection between Iran and the Iraqi resistance, or for that matter other resistance groups, but to emphasize their own strategic and political autonomy.

Placing these groups in the category of “militia backed by Iran” is a political exercise aimed at delegitimizing their actions, stripping them of agency to act according to their own agendas, and falsely portraying them as “pawns in the hands of Tehran.”

From the perspective of horizontal and non-hierarchical collaboration, the PMU is executing what the Iraqi parliament has repeatedly called for – the expulsion of US and coalition forces from the Arab country.

The expulsion of US troops from Iraq must be carried out in collaboration with the rest of the members of the Axis of Resistance to achieve the goal of an autonomous region in political terms.

The pressure exerted by resistance groups in Iraq on illegal US bases and oil platforms has demonstrated the determination of the resistance front against the US occupation.

At the same time, these groups have sent a political message with anti-colonial content to both their fellow citizens and to the United States and its regional allies, particularly the regime in Tel Aviv.

Hence, it can be stated that there is a direct relationship between US support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza, the 2020 assassination of top anti-terror commanders, General Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and the PMU’s attack on the ‘Tower 22’ base.

The writing is on the wall: Both the American occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine must end for the Axis of Resistance to halt its operations against both occupying entities.

Xavier Villar is a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies and researcher based in Spain.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)