The Pentagon intends to unleash a bombing offensive that will eclipse the air attacks in the first Gulf War. According to military planners, hundreds of cruise missiles will be launched at Iraq cities, while 1,500 bombers will strike in the first day alone. The ground offensive will be large-scale as well, involving 150,000 troops and more.

We should remember the impact of the U.S.-led war last time--an assault waged on a comparable scale. It is commonly estimated that as many as 150,000 human beings were killed during those six weeks of nonstop air and sea bombardment. The 100 hours of invasion culminated in a bloody massacre--dubbed a "turkey shoot" by U.S. officers--of Iraqi soldiers and others retreating from Kuwait.

Working people are also targets in this war drive. Not only will workers and farmers provide the cannon fodder of this and other wars to come--their rights and legal protections are and will be targeted in the name of protecting "national security."

The real motivations for what will be a brutal war are also becoming more widely discussed. Plans are in place for U.S. troops to take control of the oil fields as soon as the invasion begins, if not before. The U.S. "occupying power," in the words of the secretary of state, will run them. The U.S. oil giants are already licking their lips in anticipation of getting their hands on the world’s second-largest deposits.

If U.S. statements and the experience a decade ago are accurate guides, both European governments and oil corporations will be left with slim pickings from a military defeat of Iraq--if that is the outcome. Paris and Berlin rightly fear that a war waged by Washington and London will leave them at an increased disadvantage in their competition with the American giant and its British ally. That is what lies behind their opposition to Washington rolling to war without consulting them. Through the United Nations Security Council they hope to be able to assert their own interests more.

Putting it that way makes it clear that the rulers of Germany and France are not champions of peace or "negotiated settlements"--a pose they frequently strike in the Middle East. They are pushing their interests as imperialist powers and maneuvering to bring their weight more to bear.

Other imperialist powers, like Britain and Australia, take a different tack, seeking to maximize their gains by contributing to the U.S. war drive. All these powers, large and small, have taken their cue from Washington in accelerating their attacks on workers’ rights under the banner of the "war on terrorism."

The unfolding scene is confirmation that a coalition as extensive as that assembled for the 1990-91 Gulf War, with a wide range of "allies" lining up behind U.S. power, is ruled out today. Instead, the imperialist powers tend to clash more openly with each other.

This is the world that imperialism--the highest stage of capitalism--is making in the 21st century. A world in which the major imperialist powers increasingly vie with each to gain control of natural resources and armies of cheap labor power. A world marked by trade conflicts and brutal shooting wars, along with increased probes against workers’ rights at home.

The U.S. rulers have the upper hand in this unfolding contest. There is no budding imperialist superpower waiting in the wings to push them out of the driver’s seat. That happened when Washington replaced London as the premier power in the course of two world wars. But not today.

The only alternative lies in the hands of the workers and farmers of the world. It’s the road marked out by the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and carved out four decades later by the Cuban Revolution--the only other socialist revolution waged with a revolutionary leadership at the helm. In each case the capitalists were disarmed and toppled from power by the revolutionary action of working people.

Today we see the signs of resistance by working people everywhere to the fronts of the capitalist war, from picket lines, to actions for women’s rights and in defense of affirmative action, to protests against police brutality. Young people in the tens of thousands are looking to find a way to combat the drive to war. It is out of the struggles and experiences of the labor movement and social protests--including the resistance to imperialist wars as they unfold--that working people will forge a revolutionary movement capable of taking on the ruling rich and winning.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. threatens Iraq with war in ‘weeks not months’
London: 40,000 troops for Iraq war
Why antiwar protests don’t stop wars  
 
 
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