[Pen-l] Re: Long-term Capitalist Interest [was: Obama intends to stay in Iraq]

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect wrote:
> ... Speaking for myself, I did think that he [Obama] would try to pull out of Iraq now that the Shiites seem to be in control. The US is badly in need of investment funds right now and the occupation of Iraq is an unneeded expense.  However, the heavily militarized political culture of the US tends to militate against actions that are actually in the interests of the ruling class.<

What do you think would be best for the long-term interests of the US
ruling class? partition into three sub-nations (à la Biden)? Does the
ruling class really care about the US economy (and its people) or
simply about their own finances?

BTW, it's more than a militarized culture. There are also strong
interest groups within the capitalist class (the famous
military-industrial complex).

I don't think the capitalist class of any country acts in a unified
way to serve their long-term collective self-interests except when
they're afraid of a unified working class or some other kind of
system-disrupting force.

>I had a houseguest this week from Uganda who is very shrewd about American politics. When I discussed the seeming failure of the American ruling class to act in its own long-term interests, he had this apt one-word response: Brezhnev.<

great line!
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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