------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 26, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
Anti-war forces on alert BUSH SEEKS PRETEXT FOR UNPOPULAR WAR By Deirdre Griswold Signs of disarray in the U.S. capitalist system and its political leadership are piling up, even as the Bush administration continues with its adventurous course toward a new onslaught against Iraq. Another huge company--Conseco--filed for bankruptcy on Dec. 17. This insurance and financial giant is the third-largest corporation ever to seek Chapter 11 reorganization. A good part of the debt it handles is mobile-home mortgages. The company's failure is a sure sign that many poorer workers are unable to pay their bills. The forcing out of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Bush's chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, has not restored the "confidence" of Wall Street in the economy or the stock market. Unemployment has jumped to 6 percent. States are cutting social programs to the bone as declining tax revenues- -the rich are virtually exempt now--tip their budgets into the red. This means many more layoffs to come. The racist roots of the political system in the U.S. are showing once again in the Trent Lott scandal. Around the world, the U.S. is seen as a rogue state on everything from the environment to threats of endless war. And what is the Bush administration doing about all this? The cabal in the White House has a single focus: It is moving inexorably toward launching its long-planned war against Iraq. Everything is being subordinated to that. CREATING A PRETEXT FOR WAR As this is written, the National Security Council has just met. The media expect Bush to announce that Iraq has not adequately answered questions about its weapons--despite the 12,000 pages of documentation it submitted to the UN and its agreement to allow UN inspectors access to all its facilities. This is the strategy that Washington has been honing for months now. Agree to having the UN send inspectors to Iraq, but then preempt them with a unilateral judgment that the Iraqis have "fooled" the inspectors and concealed "weapons of mass destruction" and/or the capacity to produce them. Bush's real goal is a war to conquer and occupy Iraq as a key step in gaining unchallenged domination over the oil-rich Middle East. He has found it difficult, however, to line up support in the world or among the people of the U.S. for "regime change." So the excuse has turned to "disarming" Iraq--a country whose capacity for self-defense has been flattened ever since the Gulf War. It should not be ruled out that the hawks in Washington may engineer something even more dramatic in the way of a pretext to justify their buildup to war. When it will start cannot be predicted, but tens of thousands of military personnel, a huge amount of planes, ships, weapons and other war materiel continue to be rushed to the Gulf area. It is known that the military consider the weather in January the most favorable for an attack. The U.S. and Britain, which once held colonial sway over much of the Middle East, including Iraq, have just organized a conference of Iraqi puppets in London. This motley bunch is to form the core of a "free" Iraqi government--in other words, a fig leaf for U.S. military occupation once the Pentagon has blasted its way into Baghdad. MASS OPPOSITION KEEPS GROWING Meanwhile, the opposition to this war among the people in the United States and around the world continues to grow. A huge national demonstration will rally and march in Washington on Jan. 18, called by the ANSWER coalition, which organized the largest U.S. protests to date on Oct. 26. Local actions are taking place almost every day. Tens of millions of people are questioning why this government is hell- bent on a war that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars when it claims there is no money to stem the rising tide of suffering at home. >From the point of view of weaponry, the war hawks are Goliath. No one in the world has anything like their awesome firepower. But they are a small band of outlaws in the eyes of 95 percent of the world's people. The strategy of the Bush cabal is to keep the mass opposition off balance by seeming to cooperate with the United Nations in a multilateral approach to the "problem" of Iraq, while at the same time feverishly preparing for a war of aggression. They hope that as the inspections drag out, the perception that this process will avoid war will restrain the mass anti-war movement. Addressing this, the ANSWER coalition put out a statement on Dec. 17 that concluded, "It is urgent that the anti-war movement not be lulled into a false sense of optimism because Iraq and the UN are cooperating. Various governments are reporting that they are hopeful that the inspections process can help avoid war. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan went out of his way to say that war is not inevitable. "However, the extent to which the world is voicing cautious optimism about a peaceful solution is also the extent to which the Bush foreign policy team is racing to dash all hope for such an outcome. There is now an almost perfect inverted ratio between the worldwide clamor for restraint and peace and the Bush administration's eagerness to publicly announce that war is certain. "There is really only one restraint that can block the war. It lies within the people themselves. Neither Congress nor the Security Council will stop Bush's dangerous war drive. The optimism of the anti-war forces must be premised on reality. If we can mobilize the millions--in the U.S. and around the world--and ignite a firestorm of activism, then the political climate can be changed, and changed dynamically." In the stodgy halls of Congress, the political climate seems frozen in a bourgeois time warp. But on the streets, momentum is gathering for bigger and better struggles. n - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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