[Marxism] Two gains US scored recently in Iraq wat

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The US has won two signifiicant political victory(ies)  in the past
period, and that was not in Fallujah, although it placed them in a
stronger position in Fallujah (which nonetheless did not produce a
further political victory but the contrary-- if it shifted the
relationship of forces in any direction, it was toward the resistance).

The first was a byproduct of the decision to retreat from the attack on
the Shias, in which they had counted on the solidarity or neutrality of
at least significant sections of the Sunnis. They did not get it, which
affected the situation politically, but not militarily.

With that retreat, the top Shia leadership around the authoritative
Sistani decided to use the US-sponsored elections to attempt to
establish a regime dominated by the Shia ( a clear majority of the
popultion, even including the Kurds).  For the duration, they  got out
of the way of US efforts.  The US, so far, has acted as though they do
not fear a Shia regime, although they clearly seem to favor a victory
for Allawi (a Shiite but a long-time US asset trained in Saddam's
Baathist apparatus).  We should not rule out that they will attempt
somehow to salvage the Allawi regime out of the elections, or retreat
from the elections if they cannot be salvaged.  But it is also possible
that they finally have the Shia where they want them -- committed to
establishing a regime that CAN become dependent for its survival on the
US military.

In any case, the Shia have for now withdrawn from the struggle. As a
symbol of this, even Sadr has given up a few of his arms and has been
allowed to keep the rest without interference.  And while some denounced
the attack on Fallujah, none have really lifted a finger to stop it.

This is a very serious setback, and it will have to be overcome for the
resistance to win.  The depth of the fight in Fallujah and elsewhere
have prepared the ground for a fight to unify the people, as they were
beginning to be unified up until the battle of Najaf, but this process
will be an important struggle in itself -- and without the majority of
the population (the Shias) the situation cannot be made completely
impossible for the occupiers.  I believe this decision is going to be
overcome, but the important thing right now is that it is there.

The second setback took place in the United States, and its importance
has to be understood.  It is not irrelevant to the discussions that are
taking place about the supposedly evil nature of  people in the "red
states," or fundamentalists, or union members, or white people in
general, or the white workers-- an especially criminal category
according to some -- who are responsible for the tragic defeat of Kerry
who (even if we ourselves support Nader as "pure" revolutionaries)
really should have won if the American people had any decency. It turned
out that even the Democrats were not bad enough for the bad, bad, bad
American people.

The setback, of course, was not the revelation of the wickedness of the
US population, but the decision of the antiwar movement almost as a body
to throw everything into electing a Democrat to defeat Bush.  And
deciding to practice their own variation of Clintonian triangulation by
cleverly presenting a militant supporter of the war on Iraq, Kerry, as
the road to peace.  And then, suffering a double blow to their (and in
fact our) collective morale when the payoff for arrived for presenting
this election as the  all-out final conflict between  two strongly
prowar candidates, would settle the issue of war and peace (and many
other things) for generations and maybe even centuries or millenia.

This tremendous investment of mental energy, commitment, human labor
power, and money ended up with a double blow to morale -- about half at
least of those who voted not only endorsed a prowar candidate (what
else?) but dealt us the double blow of rejecting the prowar candidate we
supported.

Of course, many of us forgot (and the more forgivable majority never had
a clue) that ruling-class elections are fundamentally led politically by
the small billionaire ruling class. The tiny rich class that
politically and economically leads the nation also runs the elections in
their interests.. They ended up tilting toward Bush partly because Kerry
had the burden of OUR SUPPORT AND WE WERE STILL ACTIVELY AGAINST THE WAR
-- as was shown clearly in the march of 500,000 in August! Perhaps Kerry
would have won if we had SUPPORTED his position on the war.  But we
couldn't bring ourselves to triangulate quite that much. (Thank God,
Allah, or whatever).

The rulers were glad to see Kerry reel us in.  I recognize myself as
part of us even though I didn't buy any part of the contract -- THE
MOVEMENT I SUPPORTED DID BUY IT), but the fact that we could not be
prevented from mobilizing against the war even during the election
tainted Kerry in their eyes.  They stuck with Bush, and the differences
among the rulers over how to conduct the war will be conducted within
that framework.  Kerry departs defeated but with their congratulations
for what he did to us.

And the effect on morale is the reason why the mobilizations against the
crime of the attack against Fallujah were so modest, although promising
as the first step on the road to recovery.

We have to get back on the streets and stay there.  We have to look to
the people (yes, including those bad, bad white workers who made the
supposedly wrong bourgeois choice -- they were both wrong choices, and
the workers who voted for either -- regardless of race, etc. -- voted
wrong, wrong, wrong, and against their interests.)  We have to look at
the people as our allies in the fight, and not the capitalists and their
parties.  It wasn 't the white workers who went off the track this year
(at least no more so than usual) but US.  The more we face that fact and
turn our faces in a decisively different direction -- toward our own
masses as marchers on the streets, toward the youth, the oppressed
nationalities, the persecuted immigrants, the women FIGHTING for their
rights, the gays UNCONDITIONALLY demanding all their rights, the workers
(organized and unorganized and, yes, including the white devils) -- the
more we will resume the march to victory.
Fred Feldman




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