With less than three weeks to go before the US presidential election, coverage in the media and the statements from Harris and Trump are dominated by trivialities, personal attacks and demagogic lies. The most fundamental issues confronting the population in the United States, and, indeed, the world, are not being discussed, and in fact are being actively covered up.

Most significant is the fact that the United States is on the verge of a massive escalation of war.

Later this week, Biden will be visiting Germany for high-level discussions on the next phase of the US-NATO war against Russia. Joining Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will be UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron for what will amount to a war summit between the major imperialist powers.

The meeting comes after the previously scheduled Ramstein Conference was canceled, ostensibly because Biden chose to remain in the US as Hurricane Milton approached Florida. The more likely reason is that the US wanted to put in place the plans for the escalation of war.

In Gaza and Lebanon, Israel is engaged in a massive escalation of the year-long genocide, including the firebombing of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and the sealing off and extermination of Palestinians living in Northern Gaza. The genocide is now connected to the escalation of war against Iran, a country of 80 million people.

Over the weekend, the Biden administration announced the deployment of US troops to Israel, just as Israeli forces are preparing for an attack on Iran. The THAAD missile defense system is being stationed in Israel alongside Patriot missile batteries and 100 US soldiers. The deployment is in advance of imminent action by Israel to carry out strikes against Iran.

No credibility can be given to the reports in the media that Israel is planning on exercising “restraint” by targeting Iranian military targets, rather than nuclear or oil facilities. Any attack by Israel on Iran is a massive military escalation and a criminal act of aggression. In response to suggestions that Israel would aim to avoid a broader war, Netanyahu declared Tuesday, “We will make our final decisions based on our national interest.” 

Haaretz reported on Tuesday that “Israel’s attack would be carried out before the November 5 elections,” that is, within three weeks, and that, according to a source familiar with discussions between Biden and Netanyahu, “This will be just the first in a series of reactions.”

Only two weeks ago, following Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, itself an act of war, Netanyahu issued a statement declaring that moves by Israel to overthrow the Iranian government “will come a lot sooner than people think.” This threat is now being realized.

The moves against Iran are directly connected to the US-NATO war against Russia.

Among the key topics of discussion at the meeting in Germany will be the provision of long-range missiles to Ukraine, designed to strike deep within Russian territory. On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to present his “victory plan” to the Verkhovna Rada, which includes requests for an increase in ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, and approval for strikes deep into Russia.

In the journals and think tanks connected to the military and intelligence agencies, there are countless articles about the new “axis of evil” or “quartet of chaos” comprised of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. 

Moscow has repeatedly stated that attacks on its territory using Western weapons could lead to retaliation. That is, the Biden-Harris administration and its NATO allies, on the eve of the elections, are pushing the world toward the brink of nuclear war.

None of this is a subject of discussion in the elections. On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Detroit and said nothing about the escalating war in the Middle East or the dangerous buildup against Iran, who she has called the main enemy of the United States. Instead, Harris focused her remarks on promoting small business tax credits and her so-called “opportunity economy,” a right-wing, pro-business economic policy.

If the escalation of war is raised at all, it is in Trump’s occasional statements, issued for demagogic purposes, about the danger of World War III. To the extent that the Republicans have criticized Biden on Iran, however, it has been for not being aggressive enough in waging war.

Trump himself declared in July, responding to baseless allegations from Netanyahu that Iran was preparing an assassination attempt on Trump, that if this happened, he hoped “America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the earth.”

As the WSWS stated yesterday, the silence over the escalation of war is aimed at ensuring “that plans for military escalation are underway before the election takes place,” and cannot be affected by the outcome. “Instead of an ‘October surprise,’ it is an ‘October conspiracy.’”

This is part of a broader exclusion of any of the central issues confronting the working class. The escalation of global war by the Biden administration has been accompanied by an assault on US workers. As the election approaches, corporations are engaged in a wave of mass layoffs. Boeing is laying off 17,000 workers in a blatant attempt to bludgeon striking workers into submission. Intel is beginning to implement previously announced plans to eliminate 15,000 jobs worldwide, and Stellantis laid off more than 2,300 workers last week as part of an accelerating jobs bloodbath in the technology and auto industries.

On college campuses, a police state environment is being whipped up, targeting opponents of the genocide in Gaza, including with arrests and major attacks on democratic rights. As unlimited resources are spent on war and the rich–the stock markets are at record highs–social services are starved of resources, the healthcare system is in shambles and public education is under relentless assault.

Whatever the outcome of the election in three weeks’ time, it will not resolve any of the fundamental issues confronting the working class. The conspiracy of silence on the part of the ruling class and its media expresses a fear of the deep opposition that exists in the working class. This opposition must be transformed into a conscious political movement against capitalism and for socialism.