This below is an essay i submitted to my english class on Iraq.
Be interested to know what people think. Enjoy.
The Deadly Truth of Imperialism
Vigils and Petitions Couldn?t Stop This War?.
Iraq is a dangerous place for anyone unfortunate enough to be living there right now. There always is the danger of being shot at by the military, or robbed by the gangsters that roam the streets, taking whatever they can find, by force if necessary; but the real robbers here, are the imperialists that have just taken over this oil rich country.
It has been about seven months since the imperialist invasion of Iraq, followed by an ongoing and deadly military occupation. The situation in Iraq has been devastated by a decade of UN starvation sanctions, and an ongoing war which have risen the rate of disease, and eliminated electricity and clean water in parts of the country. Children are often seen playing with water contaminated with raw sewage. And though the US imperialists claim to have the situation in Baghdad under control, morale in the military has dropped significantly, while suicide rates are increasing. Everyday there is word of military casualties within the occupying forces as resistance and anger grows towards the invaders; the soldiers at first expecting to be greeted by grateful Iraqis, find out how just much they are despised there. Just recently when a few American GI?s were allowed to return home for a break, before having to return to duty, several of them disobeyed orders and refused to go back.
The war, cynically named ?Operation: Iraqi Freedom?, was not meant to bring democracy to Iraq from the ?evil? dictator Saddam Hussein (who by the way, was a creation of US/UK imperialism). The lies perpetuated by the imperialists about the threat of weapons of mass destruction are beyond ludicrous. It was discovered that Tony Blair?s so called ?dossier? on the existence of WMDs was actually a report plagiarized off a university student written some years ago! Any WMDs that Iraq possesses was sold to them by the US during the Iran-Iraq war, and so far, none of them have turned up. In fact, it was because Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction that it was attacked. The imperialists would not have dared an invasion on Iraq had it really been true, according to Tony Blair?s own words, that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons at the UK in ?45 seconds,. The possibility of the existence of even one nuclear bomb was enough to keep the United States at bay in their approach with North Korea. These days it seems, having a nuclear weapon is the only true guarantee of sovereignty. It was the Soviet Union with their large nuclear arsenal that prevented the United States from dropping nuclear weapons during the Korean war, as General McArthur they had planned. Whatever weapons North Korea is able to develop in order to militarily counter the United States is certainly a supportable measure for anyone claiming to be anti-imperialist.
Far from being a supposed war waged in ?good intentions? the war on Iraq, was a reactionary war for conquest which has literally turned Iraq into a colony of the United States. This is where imperialism displays its true face, dripping with blood. Shortly after the American and British forces took control of the seaport of Umm Qasr, Stevedoring Services of America was immediately rewarded a contract to own and run the port. Stevedoring Services runs other ports worldwide, and is just one of the many companies rushing into Iraq to grab a piece of the pie. This was only the beginning, now billions of dollars in contracts will be given to companies to ?reconstruct? what the imperialists blew up, to privatize water and public services, as well as the huge oil reserves. As John Disharoon from the construction company Caterpillar puts it: ?The timing is almost perfect, things are starting to move forward.?. The capitalists clearly have their interests in mind. Even Canada, which lied about its non-participation in the war, will be in Iraq to pick up the pieces. The NDP and the Canadian government, that both claimed to not support the war, now supports sending in cops to assist in the occupation. This is business as usual under the capitalist economy, that systemically breeds war and destruction.
All of this may sound very demoralizing, and cynics will claim that it wasn?t even possible to alter the course of war. After all, wasn?t there a large anti-war movement worldwide before the start of the war? The movement has all but dissipated now. There are still a few protests here and there, but they have gotten a lot smaller as thousands have gotten demoralized that their efforts did not produce real world results. War is a necessary product of the capitalist system. It is through war that the imperialists gain new resources, new markets, as well as labour to exploit. Eventually the imperialists at some point get into conflict with each other, and an inter-imperialist war breaks out, of ruling powers fighting to re-divide up the world, as was horrifically demonstrated in World War I and World War II. The problem with the anti-war movement was that it did not deal with this fact, that war is a product of capitalism. Because of this, the protests were not a threat to the capitalist system, and hence, not an obstacle to the war effort.
It is ridiculous to think that it is possible to appeal to the conscience of those instigating the war, with undead pop-hippie icons trying to get the imperialist murderers to ?Imagine? a peaceful world. Maybe an angel will visit Bush in his sleep and convince him not to start war. That?s essentially what the protests were all about: appealing to the conscience of the ruling class that have their interests in mind. The war would have taken a very different direction, had for example, dock workers gone on strike to oppose the war. A strike at a dock, which ships and receives cargo (including military cargo) is an impediment to the war effort. The well respected Marxist Isaac Deutscher once remarked, during the Vietnam war, that a dock strike would have been worth more than a thousand peace demonstrations against the war. This was exactly why the police came down so violently (more so than other cities) when a protest occurred in front of a dock in Oakland, CA. Interference with such facilities is a threat to the ability of the imperialists to carry out war. And the ruling class knows that.
Not only were the anti-war demonstrations not a threat to capitalism. They breed false illusions in anti-war activists. Liberals cried for support to the NDP and the United Nations. Even though the NDP were the ones that demanded the UN starvation sanctions on Iraq a decade ago. And the UN is really a den of imperialist thieves that sent weapons inspectors (spies) to ensure Iraq would be disarmed and defenseless for the subsequent invasion. Grotesquely enough, the protests in Canada were filled with virulent Canadian nationalism to a government which supported the war, while publicly claiming it did not. Even Paul Celluci, US ambassador to Canada pointed out this fraudulent two-face irony while protesting Canada?s decision to not publicly support the war. Canada had navy ships in the Gulf region, with approximately a thousand soldiers, escorting US naval units. On the one hand, it fully supports the war, while on the other it claims not to in order to trick anti-war activists. A fight against the war, cannot happen unless it is a fight against capitalism, and a fight against capitalism cannot happen if the masses are as misled as they were by pro-capitalist liberals.
The only successful anti-war movement that ever happened, was the Russian Revolution in 1917. Angry at the devastation of the losing war effort in Germany and the effect that this had on the lives of the working class, the Bolsheviks (communists) lead a workers revolution, overthrowing the ruling class in Russia, and effectively ended the war. It also brought gains, such as full employment for all, free housing, education, healthcare, rights for women, and brought the once poor 80% peasant country, to the worlds second industrialized superpower with a space program. These gains were slowly deformed by the Stalinists, and later completely reversed, which has meant poverty and disease for Russians. Internationally it has also meant the United States declaring itself the only superpower can run roughshod over third world nations, unchallenged by any military counterweight.
Times are getting worse. There is a lesson to be learned in all historical struggles, and the Iraq anti-war movement played out similarly to the protests during Vietnam. That is they had little effect on the course of history. Capitalism cannot exist without war. It needs war to survive. A socialist revolution is necessary to end the barbarism which exists, and to build an egalitarian socialist economy, on the ruins of the capitalist system.
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] Whatever weapons North Korea is able to develop in order to militarily counter the United States is certainly a supportable measure for anyone claiming to be anti-imperialist. this whole paragraph is entirely lacking in direction and focus.
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