WORKERS WORLD PARTY CONFERENCE
'What changed U.S. policy toward Yugoslavia, Iraq?'
Excerpts from a talk by Richard Becker.
Ten years ago, neither Yugoslavia nor Iraq would have
seemed likely targets of U.S. military attack. Both were key
countries in strategic regions. Yugoslavia was a socialist
workers' state and more developed industrially. Iraq was
capitalist with a large state-owned sector, extensive social
programs and rich oil resources.
While the U.S. had been fiercely hostile to both after their
respective revolutions--1945 in Yugoslavia, 1958 in Iraq--that
had seemed to change over the years. Ten years ago, the
official U.S. policy was somewhat "friendly" toward both
countries.
In 1990-91, however, all this "friendliness" suddenly
evaporated. The benign mask dropped away, revealing the true
face of U.S. policy. The U.S. rulers and their bought media
proceeded to first demonize and then devastate both countries,
tearing one to pieces and inflicting on the other a human-made
famine and deadly epidemic.
Both the Yugoslav and Iraqi peoples have suffered immense
human, productive and cultural losses. Both have been subjected
to nearly a decade of war, sanctions and subversion. Today the
official policy of the U.S. government toward both countries is
called "regime change." The imperialists are continuing their
vicious aggression against both countries.
What happened to bring about such cataclysmic change? Was
there a dramatic change in the government in either country?
No, the leaders today are the same as in 1989. Did they change
their basic orientation? No, not at all. Did either menace the
U.S.? No, and it would be ridiculous to think so.
The real change was not inside either Iraq or Yugoslavia.
What happened was a sharp change in the balance of forces in
the world, brought about by the disintegration and collapse of
the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc in Europe in the period
of 1989 to 1991. Both Yugoslavia and Iraq were prominent in the
Non-Aligned Movement, and the leaders of both countries had for
many years steered a course between the two basic class camps
in the world.
Both governments maintained the pretension that they were
independent of and above the global class struggle, able to be
"friends" with both sides while retaining their "independence."
And the U.S. had worked to bring both into its orbit,
encouraging Iraq to attack Iran in 1980, providing military
aid, and trying to pull Iraq away from the Soviet Union, with
which it had signed a friendship and mutual defense treaty in
1972.
After the split between the USSR and Yugoslavia, the U.S.
gave massive economic aid and credits to the Yugoslav
government in the 1950s. In exchange, Yugoslavia became a de
facto member of the anti-Soviet military alliance. So important
was it to Washington to enlist Yugoslavia against the socialist
camp that it was willing to do something that seems
unthinkable: help finance that country's socialist
construction--and it was socialist construction.
But imperialism's "friendliness" lasted exactly as long as
the socialist camp's existence.
As soon as the Eastern European regimes were subverted and
overturned in the summer and fall of 1989, the knives came out
for Yugoslavia. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 sealed
the decision. First the newly reunified Germany, and
subsequently Britain, France, Italy and, above all, the United
States set out to carve up the socialist federation, fanning
the flames of chauvinism while arming the most reactionary
nationalist elements.
The destruction of Yugoslavia, with its extremely diverse
and inter-mingled population, required a bloody civil war. The
imperialists were only too glad to oblige, doing everything
they could to make the civil war as atrocious and brutal as
possible.
Many, including some in the anti-war and left movement, were
deluded into thinking that the demise of the Soviet Union and
the Warsaw Pact would usher in a new era of peace and
demilitarization. Those who held these hopes did not understand
that imperialism is imperialism, and that the imperialist
leaders saw the changed relationship of forces as a new
opportunity to secure domination over key markets, labor and
resources. Instead of more peaceful, they became even more
aggressive.
In March 1992, the CIA leaked a document to which our party
paid a great deal of attention. It has recently resurfaced
during the Yugoslavia war. It is called the Defense Planning
Guidance document.
It states forthrightly that the top U.S. aim should be to
prevent any potential rival from even considering the
possibility of trying to achieve competitive balance with the
U.S. It laid out a perspective on how the U.S. could retain its
status as imperialist top dog, primarily by virtue of
maintaining absolute military superiority over friends as well
as foes.
This explains why, despite the lack of any real threat, U.S.
imperialism has not reduced its military budget. Just the
opposite. Today, the U.S. spends more on its arsenal of mass
terror than the rest of the UN Security Council combined, and
is planning to vastly increase this spending in the coming
years.
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