Vol. 71/No. 9      March 5, 2007

For weeks, the People’s Weekly World (PWW), the newspaper reflecting the views of the Communist Party USA, presented the efforts in Congress to pass such resolutions—which have no impact on Washington's imperialist war—as a watershed moment in ending the U.S.-led bloodbath in Iraq.

“[W]hile a nonbinding expression of the Senate’s opinion,” the paper said in an editorial in its February 3-9 issue, the resolution “represents a historic first step on the road to ending the Iraq war, bringing the troops home and shifting resources to human needs.”

If the PWW was the only newspaper you read you might get the impression that the Democratic Party's victory in the November congressional elections registered a great advance for working people.

The paper's first postelection issue featured a center spread with a triumphal photo display of California Democrat Nancy Pelosi, then incoming House Speaker, and called the election result “a tidal wave against the Republican right” that “swept every region of the country.”

Ever since, a string of gushing PWW articles have presented Democratic politicians as great friends of the working class and those opposed to war. Even a few Republicans, like Sen. Charles Hagel, who cosponsored the Senate resolution criticizing the White House on Iraq, earned a comradely tone in the World.

The Communist Party is not the only group feeding the illusion that the Democratic victory three months ago ushered in an “antiwar” Congress. A wide assortment of middle-class radicals, liberals, and pacifists champion this false view.

But the Democrats' actions speak louder than their words.

On January 26 the Senate swiftly and unanimously confirmed Gen. George Petraeus—one of the key advocates of the escalation of the war—as the new top U.S. commander in Iraq. And neither the House nor the Senate has taken any action to cut funding for the war. In fact, the Senate only had to postpone confirming Petraeus to slow down the deployment of more troops to Iraq. The senators did the opposite.

The Democratic Party today remains just as much a defender of Washington's multi-theater "war on terrorism"—from Afghanistan, to Iraq, the Philippines, and Somalia—as the Republicans. There is no peace party in Congress.

In fact, the bloodiest wars of the 20th century involving the United States—the two world wars and the wars on Korea and Vietnam—were largely overseen by Democratic administrations. In the 1990s, the administration of William Clinton, a Democrat, led the bombing of Yugoslavia and occupations of Bosnia and Kosova in the 1990s.

Democratic politicians have often been the strongest proponents of sending more troops to Iraq. For example, during his 2004 presidential bid Sen. John Kerry demanded 40,000 more soldiers.

“We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq,” Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said last December. “I would say 20,000 to 30,000.”

In January, Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, pressed for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The U.S.-led invasion and occupation of that country is considered a “good war” by the liberals.

“I don’t oppose all wars,” Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told the press in 2002. “What I’m opposed to is a dumb war.”

“I have always thought we did the right thing in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a debate with his opponent, Republican Alan Keyes, during the 2004 senatorial race in Illinois.

Obama said that because of the war in Iraq, "I think the Iranians at this stage are fairly confident that it’s going to be difficult for us to mount any significant military strike there, but I would reserve all options… . [W]e have to have all military options reserved in order to deal with these potential nuclear threats.”

Those who oppose imperialist war will not find any allies in either of the twin parties that rule in the United States. Instead of illusions that someone in Congress will save the day, we need to look to the working class, whose interests are diametrically opposed to the wealthy rulers and their representatives in the House and Senate, and organize actions to demand: “Not one penny or person for Washington’s wars!” and “Bring the troops home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the other theaters of the U.S. rulers' 'war on terror'—now!”
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. forces intensify attacks on Iraqi militias
Congress backs aims of war, while it postures as ‘opposing’ escalation
U.S. president claims Tehran is arming militias in Iraq
European Union tightens sanctions against Iran  
 
 
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