[Marxism] Moderator's Note

[Jscotlive@xxxxxxx]

Ruthless:
 
2) To accomplish that, the US may do "humanitarian" things (such  as
setting up schools, hospitals, etc) -- not out of  "humanitarian"
reasons, but out of "cynical" reasons.

In this  scenario, (2) still ends up benefiting Afghans -- does it not?

I believe  this (or something like it) was Mr. Hartal's argument. I'm
not sure if this  argument is necessarily incorrect.

Reply:
 
This is so lacking in analysis that it is hard to know where to begin. In  
terms of Afghanistan, and Iraq, the setting up of schools, rebuilding of  
infrastructure, etc., are all embarked upon with the primary purpose of 
ensuring  US 
hegemony in the region - i.e., control of the region's oil reserves and oil  
transportation/pipeline routes. This has to be understood as the reason for US 
 military and 'humanitarian' presence anywhere. The use of terms such as  
'humanitarian intervention' are designed to manufacture consent and  public 
support for such interventions at home, as well as an attempt at doing  the 
same 
within the Arab and Muslim world, appealing to what they describe as  'moderate 
Islam' in order to divide the subject peoples.
 
Such infrastructure or reconstruction efforts benefit US and western  
corporations in the short term. The profits being creamed in Iraq and  
Afghanistan 
are obscene, involving over bidding, pricing, and corruption.  The funds for 
such projects will ultimately be paid by the subject peoples  themselves - in 
the 
case of Iraq, from their oil, which, with the connivance of  the incumbent 
puppet Iraqi government, has been expropriated by US and global  oil 
corporations. The same with Afghanistan and the passage of a gas and oil  
pipeline from 
the Caspian Sea all the way to Karachi  in Pakistan.
 
A prime example of the kind of banditry I'm talking about involves a  
contract for a new road in the north of Afghanistan. The Afghan government  put 
out a 
tender to a number of companies for the contract. The lowest bid came  in 
from an Indian company. The contract was then given to a US company charging  
something like three times the price as the Indian one per km of road. The US  
company got the contract and sub contracted the Indian company to do the work,  
while they pocketed the difference without lifting a finger.
 
Finally, we are Marxists. We are interested in replacing Capitalism as  an 
economic system with Socialism. It is therefore in the interests of the  
international working class that US efforts to pacify the world in  the 
interests of 
global capital are resisted and defeated on every  front - this in the hope 
that such a defeat would refract back to the US  and our respective societies 
as 
social and economic convulsion and thereby  provide us with the opportunity 
to challenge our domestic ruling  classes at home. 
 
 



   
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