Re: [Marxism] Dave Lindorff on third parties

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

David McD: "The world-wide mass mobilizations of February 15th, 2003 were 
instrumental in forcing the imperialists into war before they were ready."

I have argued, though without the luxury of hard and fast proof, that a major 
consequence of the antiwar movement before the war was to force the 
imperialists into the war with far fewer forces than they "needed". The "cover 
story" is that this was the "Rumsfeld doctrine," moving quickly with a small, 
technologically advanced force. I think that's all hooey. The real story is 
that they had to convince the American people (and the weaker-kneed section of 
the ruling class) that the war could be "won" quickly, on the cheap, with 
minimal forces. Admitting that the war they were about to embark on really 
required many hundreds of thousands of troops, and might take years and 
hundreds of billons of dollars, could have easily stopped the war before it 
started by increasing the pressure to allow "diplomacy" (in the form of 
intrusive invasions, economic blockades, etc.) to have more time to "work."

The consequences of that decision were many.





Eli Stephens
 Left I on the News
 http://lefti.blogspot.com


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