Re: [Marxism] Dave Lindorff on third parties

[David McDonald <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Russell:

Did the ruling class pay an
ounce of attention to the anti-war movement in the run up to the Iraq War?

David McDonald:

It certainly did. The world-wide mass mobilizations of February 15th, 
2003 were instrumental in forcing the imperialists into war before they 
were ready.

To show that this is not a mere opinion and that it had immense 
consequences that are with us today, but based on solid facts, I invite 
everyone to recall that the failure of the US government to win the 
right to passage of troops through Turkey (which had its own 
mobilizations of millions against the war and registered a +90% 
opposition to the war in general) meant that an entire armored division 
was stranded in the Mediterranean Ocean and instead of being the second 
front in a pincher attack from the north of Iraq, was forced to sail 
back through Gibraltar, around the bottom of Africa and back up the 
Persian Gulf to wait in line with all the others for its chance to go 
through the very narrow passage between Kuwait and Iraq.

The first consequence to note is that the north of Iraq was never 
occupied by the United States in the manner that the south was. Whether 
you like the idea of an independent Kurdistan or not, it is an emerging 
reality of the US failure to win passage through Turkey.

Many people do not like the conduct of the Kurds during the war, which 
in my estimate has been mainly to keep themselves out of the bombsights 
of the US and try to emerge from the occupation with their hands on some 
of the oil, but liking it or not is different from seeing it as a 
consequence of the US being forced by the antiwar movement into a 
precipitous attack.

A second consequence that I see was the very early turning against the 
occupation by the Iraqi people that resulted form the lawlessness 
attendant on the US capture of Baghdad, the looting of the Iraqi 
cultural heritage (by Iraqis), and so forth.

Now, generals know looting like Marxists know typewriters. That is why 
there is such an institution as military police, to provide immediate 
order in the wake of the fall of the existing government that the army 
has just blown to bits, precisely because it is a fact known for 
millenia that people will loot in the wake of its disappearance. When 
Constantinople fell the Sultan declared three days of looting. I hope no 
one thinks all the looting was done by the troops. It is standard for 
military police to accompany combat troops into populated areas or 
follow just behind conquering troops to provide order. The failure of 
the US to do so (I admit this is an inference) is most probably a result 
of the hurry they were in to get to Baghdad and declare it conquered. 
You can bet that the generals were not happy about it because it 
complicated their mission by, as we know, jump-starting the resistance 
that Saddam had left in place.

The US was losing the propaganda battle for having the war. There is no 
other way to describe the February 15th demo than a dagger aimed at the 
heart of the war effort. There was only one thing the imperialists could 
do to stop the movement, and that was begin the war whether they were 
ready or not.

Just because WE forced them into an early war doesn't mean all the 
consequences were good.

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