US flight from RAF Fairford: let's finish the job and make it permanent

THE latest development from RAF Fairford — the news of a dozen B-1 Bombers scurrying back to the continental United States in a hurry — will be greeted by everyone fighting for peace in Britain. But this must only be the start.

Both the Pentagon and the MoD have acknowledged that this relates to the mirky and still unclear alleged security incident at RAF Fairford last month and potential new threats — the alleged involvement of Iran is also as yet unclear and unevidenced.

In any event, this withdrawal has profound implications for the US and Nato war machine and Britain’s role in supporting it.

While the Pentagon has sought to avoid portraying this as any sort of embarrassment or reversal, it clearly is just that.

Ever since WWII, Britain has served as the USA’s unsinkable aircraft carrier, a forward base for US aggression against the Soviet Union during the cold war and hub for all of the bloody aggressions in the Balkans and Middle East since the destruction of the USSR.

The fact that the US empire can no longer guarantee the safety of some of its most important weapons stationed in their main European vassal is a strategic blow and a clear humiliation.

It is also deeply embarrassing, for Andy Burnham’s government and the British military Establishment, not to be able to properly service their imperial masters.

Hapless new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting’s claims that RAF Fairford and other bases are safe seem paper thin in the face of the Americans voting with their feet. What is clear is that the British political Establishment are determined to maintain the presence of bases for the US war machine in our country in spite of this set back.

Whereas Spain closed its airspace to US aircraft involved in attacking Iran back in March, in typically craven fashion, Starmer was happy to allow US bombers to launch their attacks from Britain, making us complicit in their crimes and a target in the process.

Burnham, for all his “good vibes” at , has been just as eager as Starmer to prostate himself to Trump and has continued the policy of allowing the use of British bases for US aggression.

What is also clear, is that if we want to make this temporary retreat of the US war machine from Britain permanent, then it will take a mass movement here in Britain. The ground for it is more fertile than ever.

Working people and the youth in this country are disgusted by the genocide perpetuated by Israel, a key ally and link in the chain of US imperialism, and the complicity of our country and bases in it.

The conduct of the war on Iran, has exposed, perhaps even more than the Iraq war with its own flimsy pretext, the openly predatory and plundering nature of the US and Nato war machine.

You will struggle to find many on the average high street in Britain who would be content with Britain becoming a legitimate target as a result of US war crimes, as is alleged to have been the case with RAF Fairford.

The US war machine is bruised and has lost face with its debacle in Iran and with this retreat. But it would be foolish to think overestimate this. These same B-1 Bombers can still strike Iran from their bases.

If we want to end Britain’s complicity US imperialism crimes we can’t rely on ruling class politicians. We need to build a united and mass movement for peace that can ensure nowhere in Britains welcomes or is safe for the soldiers and weapons of the genocidal US war machine.

If we want to end the crimes of imperialism we have to break the Nato war machine entirely.

Our demands must be clear: i) US troops, weapons and nukes out of Britain, ii) Britain out of Nato, iii) end British bases abroad.

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