AS
Independent
Anti-War Fight Needed
By Deirdre
Griswold in Workers World
A world crisis is rapidly developing. The form it takes right now
is preparation for an all-out war against
The Pentagon is reportedly shipping huge amounts of military
equipment from its bases in
The Herald of Scotland reported on Aug. 16 that "The Pentagon
has moved 50,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines within striking distance
of
"The quiet buildup includes the
presence of up to five nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, each with an attack
force of between 70 and 80 jets."
There are also "several U.S. Marine expeditionary forces,
infantry battalions backed by helicopter gunships,
tanks and armored personnel carriers, embarked on
special assault ships in and around the
The Scottish newspaper adds that "it is clear that
preparations are being made for an aerial campaign which could be waged even if
neighboring states such as
The storming of the Iraqi Embassy in Berlin on Aug. 20 by a small
group calling themselves dissident Iraqis has been denounced by Baghdad as the
work of U.S. and Israeli agents. While the White House denies this, as is to be
expected, the brief hostage-taking episode is at the very least the product of
the expectations that a coming U.S. war would arouse among opportunists wanting
to be included in a puppet government.
That it took place in
TOOTHLESS CRITICISM
The capitalist media all over the world are full of speculation as
to whether the attack will begin sooner or later; whether President George W.
Bush will be able to round up support from any U.S. "allies"; whether
the meeting with most of his top aides in Crawford, Texas, on Aug. 21 was
secretly meant to finalize plans for the war; and whether the subdued words of
caution coming from a few old Republican hands will make any difference.
All the discussions within the organs and councils of the ruling
class in the U.S. take for granted that the right-wing cabal running the
government--this grouping so intimately tied to the scandal-ridden, criminal
corporate world--has the right to kill tens of thousands of Iraqi people in the
pursuit of its aims. Not said openly, but underlying all their analysis, is the
old imperial maxim, "Might makes right."
Nor should anyone think that the veterans of Bush senior's 1991
war now speaking up have any scruples when it comes to putting
As the GIs found out all too well during the Vietnam War, the
officer class and their buddies in the military-industrial complex consider the
young workers in uniform as nothing more than a category of their war machine.
They are valued for the large sums of money spent on their
training--not because they are Joe or Jane or Rasheed
or Juana, with personalities and dreams and hopes. On the contrary, military
training is meant to obliterate as much as possible the quirky and charming
individual traits of each unique person and turn sensitive human beings into
automated killing machines.
Lest anyone think these criminals' tears for their fallen troops
are anything but crocodilian, just look at the shabby treatment of veterans,
whose medical and other benefits are being cut even as young recruits are being
rushed overseas for a new war.
GANGSTERISM AGAINST A SMALL COUNTRY
Those in the capitalist establishment who worry about the outcome
of the coming war never admit that
The commentators here never seem to get around to even mentioning
that the open intention of Washington to effect "regime
change"--meaning the overthrow of the Iraqi government--is a violation of
numerous international laws, which forbid such acts of blatant aggression and
interference in the affairs of other countries.
Those laws were enacted, by the way, only after tremendous
anti-colonial upheavals throughout the
Nor do the commentators seem to remember that the U.S.
Constitution itself--which the flag-waving imperial adventurers love to invoke
as the source of their authority when they're not claiming divine
inspiration--explicitly forbids what the president and his cabal are doing in
its very first article. The Constitution specifies that only Congress can
declare war.
From
The objections of the Republican foreign policy heavies who have
weighed in recently--Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Henry Kissinger, Rep.
Dick Armey--are based on their fears that the administration is not skillful and patient enough to drag the mass of the people
along with it into this war. They are not opposing the imperialist foreign
policy of the
Like the German generals who got the jitters before carrying out
some of Hitler's most ferocious offensives, these Republicans also fear the
horror and outrage that are sure to follow a war, not only in the Arab
countries but all over the world. Kissinger, it should be remembered, recently
had to leave
CAPITALIST CRISIS DRIVES THEM TOWARD WAR
The determination of Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, and National Security
Advisor Condoleezza Rice to press ahead with the war, even risking criticism
from members of their own party and condemnation from other imperialist powers,
indicates that they see the stakes as very high.
But what is at stake here? Not
The real problem is that the administration cannot tolerate the
continued defiance by the Iraqi leadership of
In the minds of the geopolitical strategists for big business,
this should be a time when
Then, from a most unlikely place--right-wing fundamentalists who
had worked for the CIA in the war against a pro-socialist Afghan government--came an attack on two symbols of
Bush elaborated a new doctrine: No one, big or small, could sit on
the sidelines in his spurious "war on terrorism" or they would be
considered to be aiding the "enemy." Yet even these threats have
failed to line up support for the coming war.
Now, at the moment of what should be their greatest triumph, these
political wheelers and dealers on behalf of the billionaire ruling class find
themselves confronting the greatest and most destructive weakness of
capitalism: economic crisis is once again rearing its ugly head. A worldwide
struggle is growing among the imperialist powers over control of the world's
markets. Making it more ugly by the day is the general
crisis of overproduction that is causing multi-billion-dollar corporations to
fold and has sent the stock markets into a tailspin.
What will the mood of the workers be at this time next year if the
crisis continues and millions of jobs are lost just when personal debt is at an
historic high and the social "safety net" has been dismantled?
Under these circumstances, if the economic crisis deepens, another
war in
The capitalist class is pulling the masses of workers into a pit
of military conflict that has no discernible bottom. Events are unfolding that
will have the most profound effect on millions all over the globe. The motive
for the carnage is the most crass possible: the
super-profits of the lying, scheming capitalist corporations.
The only course away from disaster is an independent, anti-war fightback. It cannot rely on old warhawks
of either capitalist party. But the current situation holds a real promise that
the masses of workers--now being squeezed between a rock and a hard place--will
fight to defend their own class interests and will resist the dictates of the
exploiting crooks and criminals who have been running their lives.
- END -
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