from MIM NOTES 123              OCTOBER 1, 1996


IRAQ: A LITTLE HISTORY OF AMERIKAN IMPERIALISM


To understand current Amerikan machinations, we 
have to remember what the U.S. military is doing 
there in the first place, and that means returning 
to the 1991 war against Iraq.

That was more than five years ago, and we can't 
count on Amerikan media or schools to teach this 
history in an honest way. To hear them tell it, 
Amerika has reluctantly accepted the difficult 
responsibility of being parent to the Persian Gulf 
region. Columnist Stephen Rosenfeld, for example, 
wrote: "this episode may soon fade into a 
background littered with past efforts by the United 
States and others to manage the oil-crucial and 
unruly Persian Gulf."(1)

In January 1991 we reported that the U.S. had begun 
an economic push into the Gulf region before the 
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, which 
supposedly triggered the war. Iraq was part of a 
network of client states the U.S. was developing in 
its expansionist push for hegemony over the region 
in the wake of the Soviet power's collapse. Saudi 
Arabia had plans to double its oil exports, and 
increase capital-intensive purchases from U.S. 
companies, and Kuwait was on the same course. But 
Iraq attempted to become a regional power, and 
threatened the U.S. plans. By invading Kuwait, 
however (which Amerikan diplomats subtly 
encouraged) Iraq also provided the U.S. with the 
opportunity to convert military power into economic 
and political power, as the war eventually did.(2)

We wrote: "From early on, the United States saw the 
crisis as an opportunity to gain more control over 
Middle East oil supplies, to tie client states into 
a system of dependency on Amerikan imperialism 
through material incentives and coercion, and in 
general to use its military might to gain advantage 
over economically growing imperial powers such as 
Germany and Japan."(2)

President Bush piously declared: "No nation will be 
permitted to brutally assault its neighbor." This 
is even more laughable than Clinton's remarks, 
given the U.S. record of brutally assaulting not 
just its neighbors, but people around the world, 
from Vietnam to Nicaragua. We said: "The United 
States has gone to war to maintain and extend its 
economic power over Iraq, the oil reserves in the 
Persian Gulf and the entire region. Victory in this 
war will increase Amerika's strength as the world's 
most powerful nation."(3)

The war against Iraq marked the beginning of a 
period of open Amerikan violence in the Gulf-oil 
region. In April 1991, we quoted a congressman who 
said, after the war, "The power has shifted . . . 
the world is a different place today." And George 
Bush said at the same time:  "Now, we can see a new 
world coming into view. A world in which there is a 
very real prospect of a new world order. The gulf 
war put this new world to its first test. And my 
fellow Americans: We passed that test."(4) Theyalso 
killed several hundred thousand people, depending 
on accounts.

Amerikan power was increased by the war against 
Iraq and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The 
imperialist competition for hegemony over the 
Middle East is relatively light at the moment. The 
"coalition" of countries that supposedly fought 
Iraq was a sham from the beginning, with no country 
providing even one-tenth the number of troops that 
the U.S. sent to Iraq.(5) It was an Amerikan war, 
and to Amerika went the spoils. There are some sour 
grapes, especially in France, which has lost 
economically from the Amerikan seizure of control 
over Iraq's oil. That's why France was cool about 
endorsing these latest attacks, and why they are 
refusing to participate in the new, bigger air-
occupation zone.(6)

Imperialism expands to survive, and in its 
expansion it also sows the seeds of its own 
destruction. To convert imperialist wars into 
revolutionary victories for the people, we have to 
vigilantly learn the lessons of the past in order 
to direct our energies in the best possible way. At 
present, our principal weapon is information. We 
urge readers to work with MIM to get out the true 
story of Amerikan aggression and imperialism, and 
build public opinion for the revolutionary 
struggle.


NOTES:
1. Washington Post, 9/6/96, p. A23.
2. MIM Notes 48, January 1991.
3. MIM Notes 49, January 18, 1991.
4. MIM Notes 51, April 1991.
5. MIM Notes 50, March 1991
6. New York Times 9/6/96, p. A17.