Re: [Marxism] Re: Tariq Ali on the US election

["Paul Flewers" <trusscott.foundation@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I suspected some time back that a growing number of people within the US
ruling class were getting increasingly worried about Bush's incendiary
foreign policy, and I also suspected that any Presidential candidate would
deploy a 'patriotic opposition' line against Bush -- that whilst the USA
must have a presence in the Middle East [a polite way of saying extend its
hegemony there] to defend its economic and diplomatic interests there, Bush
and his neo-con team have made a right mess of it, and have damaged US
interests in the region.

Looking from afar, this is what Kerry seems to be saying. From his point of
view (as a contender for the figurehead of US imperialism), this makes
perfect sense. Comrades have pointed out Clinton's role in sanctions against
Iraq, bombing Sudan and Yugoslavia, etc; Kerry will play an imperialist role
in Iraq and the Middle East as a whole, but he will try and be a little less
stupid than Bush. How he'll do it begs the question.

Whoever wins the Presidential election is handing himself a poisoned
chalice. Iraq is central to US plans for the Eurasian land-mass. You hold
Iraq, you're in a key position to start to dominate the whole area. That's
why, incidentally, there has been this obsession with Iraq for some 15 years
or more, and why, I think, the USA will not withdraw. The USA can't
withdraw, as this will mean abandoning the recolonisation of the Middle
East, falling in the quest for the new US imperium at the first hurdle (as
if Hitler had failed at the Anschluss in 1938 rather than at Stalingrad and
Kursk).

I imagine that the US ruling class is hoping that the unrest in Iraq will
die down sufficiently to permit an orderly occupation under a credible
puppet government, one that will hopefully win next year's election, and
will have sufficient repressive powers. This occupation will permit a US
military build-up, and also allow US corporations to sink their claws
completely into the Iraqi economy. I think that this is unlikely, even if
the unrest dies down a bit, the USA will still be seen as an occupier, any
government formed under its aegis will be seen as a puppet, and therefore an
anti-US bloc could win the forthcoming elections. I think that the puppet
Interim Government will probably postpone or even cancel the elections, and
in the meantime build up (or try to) the mechanisms of a strong state -- in
short, return Iraq to a dictatorship. We've seen the start of this with the
introduction of martial law and the introduction of the death penalty. But
this will be a dictatorship that will face opposition from the start.

How will any new US administration deal with this? If it goes in harder and
institutes a real terror regime, it will probably be stoking up more trouble
for itself. I think that US policy towards Iraq is in a bind -- it can't
withdraw, but the occupation is running deeper into trouble, without any
realistic solutions at hand.

Paul F





_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism