Bush's warlike policies are not a departure from those of other U.S. administrations of the last decade. In fact, on a wide range of issues, from attacks on immigrant rights to proposals to privatize social security, it was the Clinton White House that laid the groundwork for the accelerated attacks of the last four months.

The workers and farmers of Central Asia, thousands of whom have been killed by U.S. bombs, continue to suffer the consequences of U.S. aggression. In recent exchanges with the imperialist-installed government in Kabul, Washington asserted its unilateral "right" to bomb where and when it pleases, and to send its troops anywhere in the country that it deems necessary.

The big-business media reports the open discussion in ruling circles about whether and when to attack Iraq, in pursuit of the aim of establishing a Kabul-like protectorate. Other countries, from Somalia to the Philippines to Colombia, are also being targeted in the so-called "war on terror." Through the "Andean Initiative," Washington is deepening its intervention in Latin America.

Another war danger centers on the India-Pakistan border. Washington, standing in opposition to the Kashmir struggle and intent on establishing closer military, political, and economic ties with the Indian government, has backed Delhi's demand on the Pakistan government to crack down on the independence forces.

On U.S. soil, the rulers have gone into overdrive to try to accustom workers to the militarization of life and other infringements on fundamental rights--attacks designed to restrict our capacity to fight for our own class interests as a unified force. They initially come down hardest on specific sections of the working class, whether they be immigrants from Latin America, Muslims, or other oppressed groups. The ultimate target, however, is the entire working class and our capacity to organize and resist.

The capitalist rulers have nothing to offer except war and the threat of war, and economic breakdowns and social catastrophes, from Afghanistan to Argentina, and from Palestine to the Philippines. As the economic situation approaches an even deeper crisis, workers and farmers in the imperialist countries will be drawn into a common fate with their class brothers and sisters in the semicolonial world.

The answer to this rotten system is to link up with the deepening resistance engendered by capitalist crisis and brutality. Only the international working class, in alliance with working farmers and all the oppressed, can through revolutionary action carve a road for humanity out of this brutal system and the bleak future it offers.
 
 
Related article:
Bush: U.S. will keep bombing Afghanistan  
 
 
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