The June 1-3 meeting involved the major imperialist powers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the government of Russia. They unanimously adopted a U.S.-sponsored resolution condemning Iran and north Korea for allegedly developing nuclear weapons. Bush also built support for a range of aggressive measures against the two countries, including the right to seize alleged nuclear and military material on the high seas or in the air exported by these governments.

Behind Bush’s “command performance”—in the words of Business Week columnist John Rossant—was the military and economic superiority of Washington over its imperialist rivals, demonstrated anew in the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Rossant’s column appeared in the June 16 issue of the U.S. weekly magazine. He noted that the French left-liberal daily Libération had written before the event that this was “the summit where French President Jacques Chirac expected to be crowned ‘king of the non-George Bush world.’” In an unprecedented maneuver, designed to present the French government as a friend to the countries brutally exploited by the imperialist powers, Chirac invited a number of observers from semicolonial governments. “This would be a chance to show that France and Europe really did care about poverty, disease, and inequality in the world,” wrote Rossant.

“Guess what?” he continued. “George Bush stole the show.” The U.S. president also stole Chirac’s disguise as an ally of the Third World. He had used a prior visit to Poland as a platform to trumpet Washington’s $15 billion AIDS fund that the White House is using as a carrot to coax semicolonial regimes to ally with Uncle Sam. This amount dwarfed “the French government’s own $57 million outlay last year on AIDS projects,” wrote Rossalt.

Bush followed this up in Évian by telling the other heads of government, “U.S. contributions to the U.N.’s Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria are now seven times the size of pledges from the next-largest donor, Germany,” said Rossant. Bush also announced that the Millennium Challenge Account, the White House’s “poverty-fighting initiative aimed at Africa, would reach $5 billion annually by 2006.

“There was more to come,” wrote Rossalt. “Bush got fellow G-8 leaders to sign on to new initiatives fighting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, even getting them to single out North Korea and Iran.”

Taking the most optimistic projections of U.S. economists, Bush also “reported that U.S. growth was set to clock in at close to 3 percent in this year’s second half—vs. barely 1 percent in recessionary Europe.”

With an air of contempt for his imperialist allies, Bush left the summit a day early. From France, U.S. government officials flew to Egypt and Jordan to get backing for the administration’s push to conclude a Mideast settlement that can bring the Palestinian resistance to an end. While Rossant advised “the Europeans to do a sight better if they want to set up a convincing counterbalance to the U.S.,” he also stated, “When you think about it, any gestures Chirac made at the G-8 were bound to be hollow. Continental economies are performing too poorly to give him much clout in setting world policy. The French and Germans cannot afford a decent army, let alone a global AIDS initiative. The U.S. can afford both. Easily.”

His analysis was largely correct.

“Two months after the fall of Baghdad,” observed the columnist, “Bush still occupies center stage.” Having expressed opposition to Washington and London’s invasion of Iraq—an assault that was the inevitable outcome of more than a decade of sanctions and “inspections” that they cosponsored—Berlin and Paris have voted for the occupation.

The Business Week columnist exhorted Bush and his rivals to “remember the advantages of the old alliance.” Rossant’s own description of the summit, however, confirmed that competition and conflicts between these imperialist powers will continue to sharpen, not abate—the G-8 unanimous agreements notwithstanding.  
 
 
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