------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 13, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
DRAGGING WORLD TO WAR: U.S. LINES UP GOV'TS, BUT NOT THE PEOPLE By Fred Goldstein Feb. 4-- Government after government has stated that if U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell makes a compelling case for war on Iraq in his Feb. 5 presentation to the UN Security Council, then they can sign on for the war. But if not, then more time is needed to prepare a convincing case for the war. Translation: U.S. imperialism is trying to drag us into its unprovoked war of aggression against a small nation with huge petroleum reserves coveted by Big Oil. But if we raise our hands to support the war without being given sufficient "evidence" to hide behind, our own people could rebel and throw us out. In the case of the French and Russian regimes, their added problem is that they are basically being told to help the Pentagon make a war that is not just against the Iraqi people, but is also against themselves. They have made agreements with the present government of Iraq for huge oil concessions. Should a U.S.-British invasion be successful, it will all fall into the hands of a victorious U.S. military government and any puppet regime it installs. Paris and Moscow are in the position of having to choose between losing all or accepting Washington's terms. In addition, the vast majority of their populations are opposed to the war. It is important to monitor the arm-twisting diplomacy of the Bush administration and the agonizing vacillation of the weaker governments subjected to Washington's threats and bribes. The less success the U.S. government has in pressing its case for war, the more isolated it becomes, the better for the world. But the obstructionist diplomacy of regimes afraid of the war will never outweigh the hundreds of aircraft, thousands of tanks and huge naval armada being assembled and positioned for all-out war. This military mobilization i s the fundamental factor in Washington's drive to war. The ruling class in the U.S. has either passively or actively given its consent to the war, even if some would prefer a UN cover and others want more damning testimony from the inspectors. HOPE IN POWELL WAS AN ILLUSION Many of the more cautious elements in the ruling class here, as well as sections of the European ruling classes and all the regimes in the Middle East, were originally hoping that the forces behind Colin Powell would reroute the war drive into long-term inspections and diplomatic negotiation, ultimately avoiding the disastrous, destabilizing invasion that is now looming. This proved to be a hopeless illusion. The truth is that the only thing that stands between peace and war is the growing worldwide anti-war movement, and particularly the mushrooming movement in the United States. The charade of UN diplomacy, of hypocritical, soft-spoken, peaceful-sounding weapons inspectors, must be completely discounted in the calculations of the movement. Only mobilization and resistance will stop the war. If the UN Security Council were really looking for "smoking guns" leading to weapons of mass destruction, they would open up the arsenals of the Pentagon, with its 7,000 nuclear warheads and many weapons of chemical and biological warfare. If the Security Council were opposed to aggression and crimes against humanity, it would immediately investigate reports that Washington is planning to rain down 3,000 or more missiles onto the Iraq people in the first 48 hours of the war in "an effort intended to stagger and isolate the Iraqi military and quickly pave the way for a ground attack to topple a government in shock." (New York Times, Feb. 2) This tactic is part of the "Rapid Dominance" strategy developed by Harlan Ullman and James Wade in 1996 for the Pentagon's National Defense University. Their book was entitled "Shock and Awe." These plans are in the spirit of the bombing of Guernica in Spain by Hitler in 1937, when the Luftwaffe dropped 100,000 pounds of bombs overnight on the small village, killing a third of the population. It is also in the spirit of the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both Guernica and the atom-bombing of Japan were meant to sow terror into all adversaries by demonstrating an utter disregard for civilian lives on a monstrous scale. U.S. THREAT TO USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS If the Security Council wants to rein in nuclear weapons, it should issue a "cease and desist" order to the Pentagon after reading what the Los Angeles Times of Feb. 3 revealed about a $1.26-billion U.S. program to develop tactical nuclear weapons called busters." "The Pentagon has launched a fast-track program to develop computers that would help decide when nuclear weapons might be used to destroy deep underground bunkers," the newspaper wrote. While scaring the population here with talk of Iraq's fictitious nuclear program, the U.S. is rushing the planning to use its nuclear arsenal, if necessary, against Iraq's underground shelters. The Security Council and the client regimes around the world are repeatedly referred to as the "international community." Washington should refrain from the invasion, it is said, unless they approve a second resolution for war. But this so-called "international community" is permitting Powell, now the chief salesman of a war of undisguised aggression, to come and monopolize 90 minutes of the Council's time before a world audience to put forward a mass of concocted "evidence." If this group were really representative of the international community, it would instead have invited Nelson Mandela, one of the legendary liberation fighters of the 20th century. He truly represented the knowledge and sentiment of the people around the world last week when he gave a stinging indictment of Washington, its "atrocities all over the world" and its drive to "push the world into a holocaust." The notion that the UN Security Council represents the "international community" is as fraudulent as the claim made by the Bush administration that it has "Europe" behind it because it got seven so-called "leaders" to sign a declaration of unity with the U.S. This "unity" statement, published in the capitalist press all over Europe and in the U.S., was probably familiar to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld when he denounced France and Germany as the "old Europe" and touted the "new Europe" in the east. Among the signers was, of course, Tony Blair, Washington's junior partner in crime who represents the dreams of regaining a fragment of Britain's old empire by holding on to the coattails of the new emperors in Wall Street and Washington. Then there were the governments of Spain and Portugal, of faded colonial grandeur, bankrupt and dependent imperialists who are the weakest in Europe and most subject to manipulation. There was also Silvio Berlusconi, president of Italy, another faded imperialist power, who is a despised right-wing media billionaire. There was Denmark, whose planes are now bombing Afghanistan. Finally, there were the governments of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, the "new Europe," meaning the new colonies of U.S., German and French imperialism who were taken over lock, stock and barrel by imperialism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By getting these clients to sign up, Washington showed the French and the Germans that even countries supposedly within their sphere of influence are under the political domination of the U.S. That was the meaning of Rumsfeld's outburst about the "new Europe." GOVERNMENTS DON'T REPRESENT THE PEOPLE But in truth, even if Bush had gotten all the governments of Europe to sign on, they represent the Europe of a tiny minority of bosses and bankers. The real Europe, the Europe of the people, has been in the streets demonstrating against the war and is scheduled to do it again on Feb. 15 in a massive show of anti-war opposition. The real representatives of the international community, the community of workers and oppressed peoples and progressives everywhere, in every walk of life, is the mightily growing worldwide anti-war movement. The Security Council is dominated by imperialists and capitalists who represent the exploiters and oppressors of the world. To leave the question of peace or war against an oppressed nation to the Security Council or any other group of imperialists and their subordinates is to hand the decision over to the war makers. Only the masses of people--those who will have to kill and be killed, who will be forced to pay for the war, and whose rights will be denied in the interest of the war--can consistently oppose the war and have the strategic social position to put up the kind of resistance necessary to stop the war makers. - 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 [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. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
