[Marxism] RE: US Elections This Month!

["Tony Abdo" <gojack10@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The split in the ruling classs involves much more than just Iraq.  It
involves a whole framework of whether to go with a broad capitalist coaltion
to confront the energy crisis of the immediate future, or to jettison it in
favor of US military unilateralism.  The first method has the drawback of
the US having to share what is rapidly becoming a limited resource, oil,
with others on a more equal basis.  The second method, has the drawback of
uniting the world into one constant semi-cowered opponent to the US, since
essentially it is a plan to try to use US military dominance to corner the
control totally for the US, of the remaining major world reserves of oil.

But something unexpected has come up!  The US government is having to
immediately face the long delayed arrival of international public revulsion
to its open embracement of torture announced several years back.  Right
after 9/11, it became very "IN" to 'debate' the pros and cons of using
torture amongst the US elites.  This was followed quickly by the deliberate
murder by asphyxiation of thousands of US captured POWs in Afghanistan.  And
that was followed by the open behavior of installing an entire fortress of
torture at Guantanamo.   The public appeared to passively accept all this,
but in reality began to slowly process the new change in government attitude
of heads of state no longer feeling the need to hide this stuff of torturing
people away in the dark shadows.

Now, the NEW picture of the baby faced female US soldier gloating as she
tortured Iraqi prisoners has stuck a profound nerve of disgust around the
world.  Torture is ok if hid quietly away.  But when it is enjoyed by 'us'
to this public extent, then it becomes shameful.  The US public thrives on
excessive pride, not shame.  And now it has learned that tolerating
Rumsfield's obvious glee of the US openly embracing torture, is going to
spiral downward into the US population of ordinary people called neighbors.
Those are the neighbors with kids going into the reserves and learning how
to fly airplanes and getting GI benefits, etc. Those are relatives and
friends being turned into little Rumsfieldian strangeloves by the Iraqi
occupation. And now the public is revoting against what is being asked of
them... to accept that.

The Bush camp wanted to immediately charge ahead into Korea to divert public
attention from its being stalled against the newly arising Iraqi Resistance.
 But this whole torture thing exploding around them puts them more on the
defensive than they had imagined they would be.  I think the US ruling class
is unified on the policy of keeping Iraq for the US.  But the whole idea of
trying to reunify Korea under US control through a direct military invasion
of North Korea, is something that divides them down the middle.  Cheney is
in command of charging ahead with this attack, and the talks next week in
Asia should determine whether the final go ahead will be put into march.
But much of the ruling elite is starting to balk at passively sitting by as
this new Bush offensive gets primed to go.

The Bush wing of the ruling class has openly been considering this attack on
North Korea for some time.  There are major geopolitical gains for the US if
it could be done sucessfully.  And there are immediate possible political
gains for the Bush crowd, if a quick strike was to overrun resistance
cleanly.  Will the Kerry camp just sit back and follow along behind Bush
when he presents us with the 'emergency' unfolding?   With the torture
revelations exploding with new input daily, the Bush crowd will have to
launch this new Asain front against 'terrorism' under a pressure it did not
foresee, and now is getting nervous about.  They are beginning to show the
strains of possibly seeing themselves go down politically, before and even
as they try to get the new US military offensive underway against North
Korea.

Rumsfield's defense today in the Hearings, was that having the military
censor material about atrocities was not unAmerican or new or noteworthy.
This is a very weak position to be launching what was to be a premeptive act
to defend America from 'future nuclear danger'.  But they still might
try...?   After all, hearings on 'minor' torture, no, call it rogue 'abuse'
cannot premept a struggle with an evil villian of the axis of evil, Kim
Jong-Il.  He cannot be allowed to sprout new nuclear arms for sale world
wide!   This is the new script for US politics opening this month.  Or can
they shout that the sky is falling, when it really is for them?

And can the US manage so many military wars all at one time?  They have
trained just for that for many years now.  But the reality is turning out
much different than the exercises were.  All sunk by a few initial photos?
May is turning out to be a most interesting month.   Will the US ruling
class finally decide to halt the direction that Bush is moving in?  Is North
Korea too risky to go for?

Tony

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<<Tony Abdo writes, "And right now, the US ruling class is deeply split
between charging violently ahead behind Bush, or growing that backbone
for the Democratic Party to once again declare to the est of the
world... The Old Ways Were Better!"

Tony I think you are mistaken on this. I do not perceive any serious
division anywhere in ruling class circles on Iraq. The decision to "stay
the course" is unanimous: the consequences of pulling out from Iraq --
admitting defeat -- are too catastrophic to contemplate.

The divisions on occupation tactics seem to be narrowing by the day.
Bush has adopted Kerry's program. The U.N. will run the "government"
transition and provide "political" cover; the number of U.S. troops is
up to around 160,000, including mercenaries. And on personnel, Bremer
has already been turned into a lame duck, and given what Rumsfeld said
about there being even worse pictures and videos that haven't come out
yet, I think he will resign just as soon as they're sure that everything
that needs to be out is out, so that the media can declare "this dark
chapter in our nation's history is over." My guess is the pics will be
out by mid-week, and the resignation within two days, probably on
Friday.

What Bush doesn't have is Kerry's smarts. The real decision the ruling
class faces is whether to torpedo Bush along with Rummy, which I think
sincerely they'd rather NOT do but may have to, whether to torpedo
Kerry, or do it the old fashioned way and let the U.S. voters decide
which one of them fools them better.

José>>

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