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I
have been trying to put myself in the head of the
section of the ruling class that controls the regime
in the Whitehouse for the past year or so. These are
the thugs that have gone to every country in the world
where there is oil and gas and slaughtered and bribed
to they got it. The military industrial thugs are
the armaments industry owners who cannot live without
war and more war and the threat of war. Comrades,
these elements cannot see any opportunity to extend
their power which they do not take. These thugs have
total military, technological and economic dominance
in the world and in my opinion it is impossible for
these elements not to move to realize this power and
to test their power to its fullest limits.
I
do not think they have backed themselves into a corner
in Iraq. I think that they have been consciously and
determinedly planning for some time to go in to get
a pliable regime there, to hopefully link this with
a new future regime in Iran which they hope will come
about on the basis of their support for an uprising
from below, to hopefully link this with a regime in
Saudi Arabia based on a different, less fundamentalist,
wing of the "royal" house of killers and
robbers there. At the same time they hope that Israel
either will totally crush the Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza or drive them east of the Jordan
and be an even more powerful bulwark for them there.
And they already have bases being built in the central
Asian countries of the former Soviet Union.
Part
of their reckoning is that these regimes in the Arab
countries are so unpopular with their own masses that
they will not have much support and the US will hold
out the "offer" of "democracy and freedom".
There might be some truth in this. They saw it happen
in Afghanistan after all, why not in Saudi Arabia.
Is the Saudi regime much more popular than the Taliban?
I would say it is but it is probably a matter only
of degree.
I
am convinced that the wing of the US ruling class
that now holds power is moving to lay down the law
in the most brutal fashion. Moving in a way to bring
the post Stalinist era to its rightful end in their
view (remember what the Wall Street Journal
said back in 1990 - "We Won"). They consider
that this should have been done years ago. They hated
Clinton because he was always trying to build coalitions
and get agreements internationally. They sneered at
him that his coalitions determined the objective and
that now with Bush, the objective will determine the
coalitions and if there is no coalition forthcoming
then they will do it on their own. In some ways this
is better because it will really show who rules. The
US can do it on its own. As I say I think that in
a way some of them would prefer this. It would make
the lesson more clear.
The
US military are very wary it is true. But they put
Rumsfeld in there to do what? Exactly to kick the
ass of the military and bring it into their modern
world. Remember when under Clinton with his much tamer
ventures abroad the military were urging caution on
every issue and Albright rounded on them and asked
them what good was it to have all these wonderful
weapons if they were never going to use them. There
is a battle between the regime and the military precisely
over turning the military into a force that will go
where it is told and when it is told and take risks
and get killed. The military in a way have been still
living in the post Vietnam era while the bourgeois
had decided that this era was long over and after
September 11th last year they were able to convince
the US masses also that the post Vietnam era was over.
US troops fighting abroad again in large numbers was
back on the agenda but the military were not up to
speed on this. They are now being whipped into line.
There are lots of interesting issues here including
splits in the ruling class and splits between the
bourgeois and the military. What is being shown here
is that in the US the military including the top officer
caste that is part of the bourgeois are subordinate
to the civilian bourgeois.
Powell
and his policy of only going in to battle if it was
clear that they could win and then only with overwhelming
force was pathetic when US capitalism was now going
out to stamp its power on every inch of the globe.
Where would this timid policy fit with the US now
in Afghanistan and building bases in the whole region
and getting set for what ever arises. Of course this
overstates the case slightly. Russia and China are
still off limits but do not worry about that now step
it up everywhere else and we will see what happens.
In the meantime both these regimes are increasingly
trying to ingratiate themselves with the US. After
all they are of the side that lost. The "We Won"
means that the US won over the systems and regimes
in Russian and China and this reality will be forced
on them in the duture more decisively, this is what
Bush and Co. are thinking.
US
capitalism is stepping up the offensive internationally
against its rivals, against the subordinate capitalist
powers which are too weak to be its rivals, and against
the working class at home and abroad. The wing of
the ruling class that rules believes the rest of the
ruling class are missing the opportunity that exists
for them arising from their dominance. They are trying
to whip them into shape and into line. This is the
daily task of the Wall Street Journal. The regime
in power and the section of the class it represents
believe that they themselves are riding the crest
of the wave of history that will ensure US dominance
for an epoch. In the past when any other power, for
instance Rome or England, had the power what did they
do? They went out to rule the world with the sword.
They did not have a policy only when we can win and
then only when we can put in overwhelming force. Powell's
policy is such an incredibly ridiculous one from the
point of view of the now dominant section of the ruling
class. Sure all the empires in the past fell. But
what does this mean to the present rulers of the US.
This is for academics to yak about. They are going
out to rule and dominate and slaughter. After all
before they fell they ruled and dominated and plundered
and slaughtered.
I
do not think that this new stepped up offensive of
US Imperialism which has
been enormously helped to gain momentum by Bin Ladin
and his outfit will end until there is a real catastrophe.
This could take the form of getting bogged down in
a war abroad, I think this is not ruled out but not
so likely given that their enemies will not have suppliers
like the Vietcong had in the Stalinist regimes etc.
It could take the form of an economic slump at home
opening up a mass movement of the working class here
against the government, the corporations and their
wars. It could take the form of a nuclear exchange
in South Asia which I think would open up a massive
anti war mood internationally. It could take the form
of an environmental catastrophe which could put this
issue to the top of the agenda of the US masses.
I
think that the world balance of forces will not allow
the US to do what it is setting out to do. However
I believe that it can take some time and most likely
some catastrophe before these balance of forces can
express themselves. I think that this is the case
because there is no leadership of any kind, even a
mass reformist leadership of the working class as
in the past, through which the balance of forces could
express itself even if in a primitive elemental manner.
Look at who is the Bushs thug's biggest backer. Blair
the leader of the British labor party.
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