San Francisco Bay Area conference dissects latest imperialist wars
San Francisco Bay Area
The Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center presented a forum on April 25 on the “Middle East Crisis — U.S.-Israeli wars on Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, international law and the United Nations.”
Co-sponsors included the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), U.S. Peace Council and Veterans For Peace. A wide variety of dedicated panelists came to the Orinda Community Church to dissect the latest imperialist wars and their murderous consequences. We summarize their presentations below.
Jack Rasmus, economics professor, said, “The U.S. can no longer afford its empire.” Although in the past the U.S. was able to finance expansion of the military through economic growth, in recent years economic growth has dropped a lot. Since 2021 the government has financed the military through debt, which is spiraling out of control. “We are spending 2.28 trillion dollars a year on defense according to government statistics,: He declared, “We don’t have the revenue to pay for this. Empires don’t decline because they’re defeated, but because they are overextended.”
In recent years the U.S. spent huge amounts to get out of a recession, ending up with a paltry 2% annual growth rate. The economy is broken, even as we enter this new war. Right now consumer spending is flat, inflation is increasing, and gas prices are at $6 to $7 per gallon.
As the demand for the U.S. dollar declines — and the dollar is the crux of the U.S. empire — then the Federal Reserve will have to raise interest rates in order to be able to sell Treasury securities [to finance all that spending]. This in turn will slow the economy even more. In short, the Empire is in deep trouble, Rasmus said.
Marjorie Cohn, legal scholar and former National Lawyers Guild president, said that in 2025 President Donald Trump moved aggressively into South America, illegally attacking vessels at sea and kidnapping Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his spouse [political leader Cilia Flores]. They are also tightening sanctions against Cuba and threatening that “Cuba may be next.” She said Israel, with U.S. support, is attempting to forcibly “redraw the map of the Middle East” and wantonly killing civilians in Palestine and Lebanon.
Helena Cobban, author and founder of Just World Books, called attention to the existence of what she called a “white supremacist international” dating back at least 500 years, seizing territory as well as trading rights. These seizures included those from the sea voyages of Portuguese mariners to the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Hormuz; voyages of the Spanish treasure fleet to the Americas; the depredations into Africa by Belgians and other Europeans and across the globe by the Dutch monarchy and the British-based East India Company with its 200,000 proprietary troops.
And finally, from 1507, there was the transatlantic slave trade from Africa to North America and the Caribbean. And all the while, white supremacist ideology permeated this wave of organized plunder, Cobban said.
Julie Tang, community leader and retired San Francisco superior court judge, said: “China never started any of these wars the newspapers speak of. Instead, China is the most important country in the world today, because it has no stomach for war.”
Then why, wondered Tang, is the U.S. so threatened by China? She recalled that back in 1972, President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger visited China and signed the Shanghai Communique, normalizing relations between the two countries. At that time China was viewed in the West as “impoverished and backward” and not a threat. But today, when China’s GDP at 30% of the world total now surpasses that of the U.S. (at 18%), China is now seen as a threat by the political leadership in the U.S.
Gerry Condon, a Vietnam war resister and longtime leading activist in Veterans for Peace, said people ask him, “Where is the antiwar movement now?” contrasting it to the activity during the war against Vietnam. Well, they may not realize that today already two-thirds of Americans are against this war against Iran. So we have to fan the flames of this resistance.
Condon cited Senator Mark Kelly’s admonition warning people in the military “not to follow illegal orders.” Of course, he said, just because it’s illegal doesn’t mean everyone will agree with you. But you will have the moral high ground. Condon talked about “fragging” in Vietnam, where occasionally soldiers would kill their officers with fragmentation grenades, “because of the illegal and insane orders they were being given.”
Bahman Azad, Iranian-American author and president of the U.S. Peace Council, said higher prices and inflation in the West have led to a loss of industrial jobs and greater poverty. Since 2001, the U.S. has asserted a policy of “full spectrum dominance.” This meant threatening to crush any resistance to U.S. domination.
This dominance included attempting to engineer a “regime change” in any recalcitrant country, such as Venezuela. Now, when two nuclear powers (the U.S. and Israel) have attacked Iran, they have been surprised by Iran’s resilience. “The U.S. is making a last-ditch effort to hang on to the power it once had,” Azad said.
