Bush and Blair announce final countdown to war

World Socialist, [17 March 2003]

The final countdown has started towards Bush and Blair’s war on Iraq. Within days a murderous onslaught will be launched against the Iraqi people. Weapons like the devastating Daisy cutter bombs, depleted uranium muntion and cluster bombs will rain down on Iraq and open the door to new horrors. Bush is giving the world’s population a master class demonstration of how a ruling class or, in this case, one faction of the capitalist class, uses its power to achieve its goals, notwithstanding mass opposition. The purpose of the Azores summit, involving the US, Britain, Spain and Portugal, was no more than to start the final propaganda effort to justify this bloody imperialist attack.

However, despite the best efforts of the pro-war propagandists, hundreds of millions around the war will be enraged at the onset of war and new huge protests are certain to occur.

At the Azores summit, once again, Bush, supported by his ‘attorney’ Blair, repeated the attempts to portray this war for prestige and oil as a liberation of the Iraqi people and a blow ‘against terrorism’. At the press conference Bush began by saying that it was the 15th anniversary of Saddam’s poison gas attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja. What hypocrisy! Two years after the Halabja massacre, and only one week before the invasion of Kuwait, the US Ambassador to Iraq told Saddam Hussein that George W’s father, the first President Bush, wanted better and closer relations with his regime.

Bush again falsely linked Saddam and September 11 by repeatedly mentioning terrorism. But this has been never proved, as Paul Krugman pointed out in the New York Times last week, no evidence has ever surfaced of the supposed link (of Saddam) with Al Qaeda.

Bush’s style said it all; he was the leader of the world’s hyper power and would do what he and his clique liked. Blair’s service as Bush’s mouthpiece could not hide the fact that he had failed to convince a majority in Britain to support this war. Most pathetic was Aznar; desperately refusing to answer a direct question asking whether his government would send troops to fight. With over 90% of the Spanish population opposed to war Aznar has limited his support for Bush and Blair to words.

The open disagreements and rivalries between the major powers have led to vicious infighting. Each ruling class has been fighting to defend its own interests and many are not happy with the Bush doctrine that the US will act unilaterally to prevent any challenge to its dominant world position. Furthermore many capitalists fear that this war is not the best way to secure the Middle East and its oil for imperialism.

Bush and Blair have sought to blame French President Chirac for the failure of agreement at the UN Security Council. But the truth of the matter is that Bush has been set on war for a long time and the US and its allies have been unable to get what they called a moral majority of nine votes on the UN Security Council.

Tidal wave of opposition

The Iraq war has unleashed a tidal way of opposition. The Committee for a Workers’ International has been part of this movement since it began and our members and supporters have been striving to make it as effective as possible.

In the coming days CWI members will continue to be to the fore in the organising protests and strikes around the world, including blockades of military supplies going to support the war.

In these struggles we will emphasise that our protest is not against the working people in the US. It is highly significant that within the US itself there have been demonstrations of hundreds of thousands opposing this war. Indeed we recognise that Bush himself was not even elected President, but appointed after the US Supreme Court stopped the counting of votes in Florida after the 2000 Presidential election.

The CWI totally opposes this war and defend the Iraqi people from imperialist attack. We also, of course, condemn Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship.

Bush and Blair’s talk about freeing the Iraqi people is pure hypocrisy. Saddam was supported and armed by the US when he still served their interests, even though he has never been anything else but a dictator. Only the Iraqi people can truly free themselves from dictatorship, indeed Bush’s plans are for removing Saddam but keeping the essentials of his regime intact. Indeed the US administration has talked about installing a US military regime in Iraq for some time after they have conducted a brutal war.

The CWI provides the analysis and facts to answer Bush and Blair’s war propaganda. We show why this is an imperialist war and anything but a war for peace.

The most important way to stop this imperialist war is organising mass resistance that involves the working class. Already in Europe on 14 March millions took strike action against war. In Spain alone five million struck. In Italy, Gugliemo Epifani, secretary of the Cgil the largest trade union federation, told a demonstration of over 700,000 in Milan that Italy would come to a standstill the moment bombs started dropping. The 21 March European Trade Union Confederation day of action must be made into a mighty show of opposition and by doing so can act as an inspiring example to the rest of the world.

A one-day, all-out strike—a general strike—in all sectors, including students and school students, would bring together all the opposition to war and could open the way to bringing down those governments who support the war.

Millions have been horrified at Bush and Blair’s drive towards war and their cynical, lying propaganda campaign. The past months have shown to millions of youth and working people the world over the vicious character of imperialism and reinforced the opposition to capitalist globalisation.

Many will not only want to fight this war but also the system which gives rise to these horrors. The CWI, while opposing this war, and being fully involved in protest actions, will simultaneously argue for the need to build a socialist movement that will fight for a society that puts working people before power and profit, and ends the horrors of war, poverty and exploitation—a socialist society.

We appeal to all who want to permanently end this system of profit and war to join the CWI.

Special CWI Online war coverage

CWI Online will provide in-depth analysis of the bloody imperialist war as it unfolds. Visitors to this site will be able to find an unparalleled socialist analysis and commentary on events. CWI members from all around the world will provide reports of anti-war protests—the CWI not only comments on events but it is also an active and important part of the opposition to war. Furthermore CWI Online will also put forward its ideas on how to develop and build the anti-war movement.