The war of the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic, now in its fourth week, is no longer merely a military confrontation. The scope of attacks has gone beyond military centers and targets and has extended to the economic, service, and vital infrastructure of society. Energy, transportation, communications, public facilities, and everything directly tied to people’s daily lives are no longer safe. At the same time, the war is not only unfolding in the skies and on the ground in Iran; it is also taking place in trading rooms, oil markets, stock exchanges, arms companies, and global financial centers. If for the people of Iran war means death, displacement, and destruction, for sections of global capital and some governments it has become a profitable opportunity.
One of the most important dimensions of this war is its direct connection to financial markets. Modern war does not proceed only with missiles, drones, and bombs; it also advances through news, rumors, threats, delays, ultimatums, and the manipulation of market expectations. The sudden announcement of an attack “or its postponement” especially when stated by a figure like Trump, can in a matter of minutes shift oil markets, move stock indices, and generate enormous profits for those close to centers of power or those able to exploit such fluctuations. Even when some of these positions are political bluffs, they still have real effects on the market. There is hardly a day that Trump, the President of the United States, does not test such a dynamic. This is where war becomes a tool for managing investors’ interests and transferring wealth.
Meanwhile, major oil companies, military industries, financial institutions, and security contractors are among the primary beneficiaries of the continuation of crisis. The greater the tension, the more unstable energy prices become, increasing opportunities for speculation. The longer the war continues, the hotter the arms market becomes, new orders are issued, future reconstruction contracts are secured, and large corporations gain greater bargaining power vis-à-vis governments. In this logic, human beings are invisible; what matters are oil prices, stock values, energy corridors, and the strategic positions of states.
On the other side of this profitability stands the real face of war: the people of Iran. The cost of this dirty game is not paid by global capitalists, military think tanks, or politicians who issue commands from afar. It is paid by workers, nurses, teachers, drivers, children, the elderly, women heading households, the sick, and the unemployed. War means lives lost; homes destroyed; people forced to flee; hospitals collapsing under pressure and damage; water, electricity, and service networks disrupted; more polluted air; and children who wake each day not to safety, but to the sounds of explosions, fear, and death.
Only after this anti-people war will a new horizon open for society. After the end of this war, Iranian society will enter a new phase, one in which economic crisis, social divisions, widespread dissatisfaction, and the direct experience of collective suffering create new conditions for social mobilization. In such circumstances, progressive social movements will re-emerge with greater force. The labor movement, the women’s movement, the teachers’ movement, the revolutionary movement of the people of Kurdistan, retirees, unemployed youth, and all oppressed and marginalized groups “who have borne both internal despotism and external aggression” will gain renewed momentum.
It is precisely from these conditions that the possibility for expanding progressive and leftist horizons emerges. When the majority of people experience firsthand that war brings profit for capitalists and governments but hunger and death for them, the social ground for the growth of radical critiques of war capitalism, militarism, financial profiteering, and internal repression expands. This environment can strengthen discourses of equality, justice, and socialism, discourses centered on rebuilding society based on human needs, not market profit.
The future of Iran will be determined by the people who rise from beneath the rubble of war, poverty, and despotism. If this bitter experience transforms into organized social awareness, if shared suffering leads to class and social solidarity, then after the war a new phase of struggle for freedom, equality, and a better life can emerge. This is the only humane and progressive response to a war that is profit for the powerful and death and destruction for the people of Iran.
