Opening guns of World War III

By Amadeus Lane, 4 March 2003

Working people should not mistake the heated exchanges between U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his counterparts in France and Germany as a mere war of words. Behind the quarrels over NATO’s participation in the U.S.-led preparations for war, and over the role of the United Nations inspectors in Iraq, are the competing interests of major imperialist powers.

The positions taken by Berlin and France have everything to do with defending those interests and promoting their own position as imperialist powers, and nothing to do with holding back the drive to an invasion. The rulers of the two European powers are for an assault on Iraq; what they are against is the domination of the coming war by Washington and—in a secondary role—London.

The stakes for them are the same as for the rulers of those countries: a chance to get a bigger share of the oil reserves in the Middle East and to establish themselves on a firmer footing as regionwide exploiters.

Of the two European powers, it is Paris which wields the greater military clout. With an ocean-going navy and nuclear weapons the French government is one of three imperialist powers with an international military reach.

For their part, the German rulers are probing to develop their military potential and overcome the obstacles imposed by their position as the losing protagonist in World War II. In spite of their economic weight, however, they are handicapped also by the stagnant condition of their economy.

For the rulers of the United States, who have blood in their mouths at the present time, France and Germany represent—in Rumsfeld’s words—Old Europe, standing in contrast to New Europe—the United Kingdom, southern Europe, and the countries now knocking on the door of the European Union.

This is not the first time these exploiters have fallen out in the postwar period. But the tensions of today are evolving amidst the onset of a worldwide economic depression which spurs competition at every level, including among the imperialist giants.

These events provide confirmation of the lessons about the first Gulf war that are spelled out in Opening Guns of World War III and other articles in New International no. 7. That assault against Iraq, wrote Jack Barnes in that volume, was the first of Washington’s wars since World War II in which it sought to use its military might to deal blows, indirect but palpable, to U.S. imperialism’s rivals, especially in Bonn, Tokyo, and Paris. The Gulf War exacerbated the conflicts and divisions between Washington and its imperialist competitors, as well as between those rival powers themselves.

Studying this and other issues of this Marxist magazine helps prepare for the Iraq war and the wars that will follow. Readers will also not want to miss the 12th and latest issue of New International, advertised on the front page. Its title, Capitalism’s Long Hot Winter Has Begun, captures the essence of this period.

These titles explain concretely and in light of fast-developing events that while working people bear the brunt of the crises and wars of capitalism, they do not enter this period simply as cannon fodder in the economic and shooting wars of the capitalists. They have proven many times that they can also make history, by taking the Cuban road and the road of the Russian Revolution and overthrowing the rule of the exploiters.