Iraqi resistance creates dilemma for U.S. ruling class
Based on a talk given by Sara Flounders at a Jan. 31
Workers World Forum on Imperialism & Self-determination in
the Middle East.
The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq is a
frontal assault to seize all that the Iraqi revolution had
liberated from imperialist control starting in 1958. Every
Iraqi knows that the Pentagon has not brought liberation. But
every current in Iraqi society is shocked at the level of
chaos, brutality and racist arrogance of the U.S.
occupation.
This outrage has added fuel to the resis tance and cut the
ground out from the thin layer of Iraqis who wanted to
collaborate. It has also created enormous problems for the U.S.
military machine and Bush's plans for "endless war."
On Jan. 12 the Army War College publicized a scathing report
by Dr. Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War
College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. The report warns
that the U.S. Army is "near the breaking point." The report
declares that the administration is biting off more than it can
chew.
Record criticizes the Bush administration for how it is
handling the war on terrorism, accusing it of taking a detour
into an "unnecessary" war in Iraq and pursuing an "unrealistic"
quest against terrorism that may lead to new U.S. wars with
states that pose no serious threat.
The most incredible thing about this report is that it
compares the scale of U.S. ambitions in the so-called war on
terrorism to Adolf Hitler's overreach in World War II. "A
cardinal rule of strategy is to keep your enemies to a
manageable number. ... The Germans were defeated in two world
wars ... because their strategic ends outran their available
means."
You would think that this is a shocking comparison of George
W. Bush to Adolf Hitler in WWII. In the fall of 2002 German
Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin was forced to step down
for comparing Bush's tactics to Hitler's.
But the Pentagon is comfortable with Nazi war terminology.
Records may have used the analogy to Hitler because he was
answering Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's own comments
on U.S. military strategy two years earlier.
In January 2002 Rumsfeld openly compared U.S. military
strategy to Hitler's Blitzkrieg or "lightning war." He was
speaking at another war college, the National Defense
University--to the very officers and strategists who plan U.S.
wars.
Rumsfeld was riding high after launching a high-tech war
against Afghanistan, one of the poorest, least developed
countries in the world. He claimed that similar lightning
strikes could conquer any country attempting independent
development.
Along with embracing Nazi military terminology, Rumsfeld
made it clear he would also borrow the Nazi justification for
using overwhelming force and pre-emptive strikes. Like Hitler,
Rumsfeld claimed his land was under attack.
Blitzkrieg is the term the Nazis used for their
devastatingly effective war strategy. Preceded by extensive
aerial bombardment of cities, German tanks and troops rolled
across Europe, conquering markets, resources and territory for
German capital, using enormous force to overwhelm small
countries that had no defense against German military
might.
Rumsfeld's use of the same belligerent word Hitler's
generals used is no accidental slip. The Pentagon generals
really think like Nazis when they plan for war.
Preemptive war is a theme that Pre sident George W. Bush
continually reiterates. Even in this year's State of the Union
Address Bush again declared, "America will never seek a
permission slip."
Record's report isn't the only dissenting voice in ruling
circles. One day after the publicity about the War College
Report came former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill's
revelation: The Bush administration planned to conquer Iraq
from the moment it took office.
Arms researcher David Kay's revelations, and the
"investigation" to find out what the CIA knew and didn't know
about Iraq's weapons, give more evidence of questions in
ruling-class circles. But it would be a mistake to think these
dissenting opinions lead in the direction of peace and an end
to occupation.
The struggle breaking out in the very top levels of the U.S.
ruling class, among its military brass and corporate CEOs, and
flowing out into the corporate media, is over how to contain
the growing resis tance in Iraq.
The corporate rulers are in a terrible quandary. Even those
in the ruling class who oppose Bush still want the Pentagon to
succeed with the brutal colonial occupation. They want to crush
the Iraqi resis tance, stabilize Iraq and grab the biggest part
of Iraqi oil wealth.
Report recommends: a bigger army
Dr. Jeffery Record's comparison of Bush's wars to Hitler's
wars of conquest is no anti-war declaration. His report is
supported by at least a section of the U.S. military
establishment.
Retired Army Col. Douglas C. Lovelace Jr., director of the
Strategic Studies Insti tute, whose web site carries Record's
56-page report, declared that "the substance of the report
really, really needs to be considered."
The Army War College's commandant, Maj. Gen. David H.
Huntoon Jr., also approved publication of this critique.
These are dire warnings coming from the very top Pentagon
brass and their think tanks. But what are their
recommendations?
The report recommends increasing the size of the Army and
Marine Corps. The report is actually aimed at opening a
discussion in Congress on this military expansion.
The second recommendation in this War College Report is that
the United States should scale back its ambitions in Iraq, but
not by leaving Iraq. Rather, the United States should be
prepared to settle for a "friendly autocracy" in Iraq rather
than a "genuine democracy."
It didn't start with Bush
The aggression didn't start with the Bush administration and
the neoconservatives. Remember Secretary of State Madeline
Albright in the Clinton administration, interviewed on the
television news magazine "60 Minutes"?
She told reporter Leslie Stahl that the death of more than
half a million children in Iraq from the impact of U.S.
sanctions was "worth it" if it helped get rid of Sad dam
Hussein.
As a political representative of the capitalist ruling
class, Albright was only reflect ing its belief that there is
no right and wrong outside of one important question: What is
the rate of profit?
If a political tactic strengthens U.S. corporate rulers'
strategic position and profit interests in their struggle for
world domination, then the capitalists will say it's right. If
it ends up in a costly, unprofitable open-ended debacle--then
it's a mistake, a blunder.
Those who have to fight and die in their wars are of no
concern to them whatsoever. Nor is the suffering inflicted on
the invaded nation, or the destruction of the environment.
It is only when the occupation started facing protracted
resistance in Iraq that many of the very forces who urged the
war turned on the Bush administration. In Congress before the
war, both Republ icans and Democrats voted to give Bush full
authority to wage war.
Of course the Pentagon does not want to keep tens of
thousands of troops in Iraq, patrolling checkpoints. What they
want is submission, quiet, order and a compliant government in
place.
The same capitalist drive for new markets in a capitalist
recession that fueled the German military blitzkrieg across
Europe 65 years ago is fueling the Pentagon today.
But the Pentagon's vast overreach, its new bases, massive
subsidies to the military-industrial complex in the form of an
inflated military budget, and huge tax breaks to the super-rich
won't jump start an economy drowning in glut. Instead they are
dragging the economy down, while creating a volcano of
opposition abroad and growing anger here in the United
States.
Reprinted from the Feb. 12, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page