MIM Notes 175, December 1, 1998 DOWN WITH U.$. IMPERIALISM! As the U.$. geared up for its third firepower display in the Persian Gulf this year, the Amerikan militarists were boasting that their Arab and European allies no longer oppose bombing Iraq. The Amerikan militarists of course downplay their own aggressive actions, pointing that even with the most rapid build- up of military force by the U.$., weapons are still not at February, 1998 levels when Amerika last threatened to step up its military brutality against the Iraqi people. As MIM Notes went to press, bourgeois news reports were that U.$. attacks had been averted with an Iraqi pledge to not interfere with the arms inspections.(3) For the time being, the Amerikan war against people of Iraq has returned to death by preventable health causes instead of death from Amerikan bombs. Dennis Halliday [see adjacent article] is only the most famous example of what liberals and bourgeois humanitarians internationally are going through. Many who have supported the U.$. and U.N.'s quieter methods of persuasion are seeing mounting evidence that even so-called diplomacy is an assault on the Iraqi people. While the Amerikan imperialists crow about their allies' support for bombings and aid workers come more in touch with the violence of even their own charitable work, MIM Notes reminds our readers that revolutionaries cannot ask: "how can Amerika most gently exert its hegemony?" We must consistently focus on "how best to support the struggle of the international proletariat to free itself from Amerikan hegemony?" As even the purveyors of international aid will tell you, kinder and gentler imperialism in Iraq is still the most brutal form of genocide. Dennis Halliday was well-enough convinced of this to give up his job. UNICEF, a branch of the very UN that administers the sanctions has pointed out that UN Resolution 986, under which Iraq may sell prescribed quantities of its oil in exchange for money to buy food and other basic necessities, has not helped the conditions for Iraqi children. 750,000 children under the age of five had died in Iraq as a direct result of the sanctions as of mid-1997.(1) Workers in Iraq for CARE, a large First World charitable corporation not known for their radical anti-imperialism, have pointed out that "Iraq was not a Third World country before the (1991) war - and you can't run a developed society on aid." The aid workers are referring to Iraq's level of development compared to its neighbors, and compared the to majority of the CARE clientele. Health care and education were widely available in Iraq before war and poverty crippled the national infrastructure. Iraq was able to develop national health and education systems through reinvesting money from oil sales, and was also able to generate an economy that would support some resistance to U.$. domination of Iraqi actions internal to its borders. A CARE worker described Iraq's level of development in relation to the sanctions: "What is wrong with the water system here is a result of breakdown and damage to complex and very expensive water purification plants. And this eats up hundreds of thousands of pounds in repairs - for just one region of the country. The doctors here are excellent but because of sanctions, they haven't had access to a medical journal for eight years."(2) As MIM Notes reported on the bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan, an Amerikan military campaign against a neo-colony or semi-colony is not always a direct defense of established economic interests. Because Amerikan imperialism relies on being the most powerful economic and military force in the world, the u.$. is willing to use guns every time a country does not bow to its will. As the uncontested biggest imperialist country on the planet, Amerikkka seeks to coerce every corner of the globe through not only military means, but also economic and diplomatic means. When a country like Iraq first steps out of the U.$. plan, Amerika must step in and re-establish its control. A disobedient Iraq is a particular threat to the United States because Iraq controls what is a scarce resource at the global level: oil. While Iraq's wealth is in part dependent on the imperialists to buy their oil, the concentration of oil in a select number of countries put these countries in a position to demand better prices for their raw materials. Other Third World countries with less scarce natural resources are unable to demand as high a price from the imperialists. Whereas the imperialists typically play Third World countries against each other, Iraq has managed to use the imperialists against each other. This is the independence that the First World in general and Amerika in this particular case, so fears and to which it responds with threats of massive aerial bombardment. Likewise, Amerika does not care about the supposed threat Saddam Hussein's government poses to the peoples of the Arab world. Amerika only cares about stretching its economic and military influence more thoroughly around the globe. Amerika has no interest in protecting Kuwait or Kurdistan from Iraqi weapons, it cares only about its ability to dictate resource usage in the Persian Gulf. The great danger in the way the U.$. and U.N. have framed sanctions and military strikes at Iraq is that progressive activists may become caught in discussing Iraq's weapons capacity. The militarists plant the question in anti-militarist debates: if we don't use sanctions or our weapons to stop the Iraqi weapons, what do we use? MIM places such heavy emphasis on Amerikan weapons capacity because we hope to persuade our readers that preserving this country's version of justice is not worth it. Mao pointed out that humans are a tiny speck on the life of the universe, and MIM follows Mao in the realization that we may blow ourselves up before achieving international peace through socialism and the eventual disintegration of nations. Within this framework, how could we say that using Amerikan force of any kind is justified in containing Iraqi force of any kind? Acknowledging that humans are small and insignificant allows Communists to embrace the knowledge that the only defensible use of force today is aimed at liberating people from oppression. We call on all anti-imperialists and anti-militarists to join us in categorically rejecting U.$.-U.N. interference in the affairs of sovereign states, and to support with us the quests for sovereignty of those nations that have not yet achieved it. Notes: 1. Iraq Action Coalition, Summary of Facts updated April 1998 http://leb.net/IAC/ 2. "Women Fighting to Stem Disaster in Iraq," The Independent 14 October, 1998. 3. MSNBC, November 14 1:51 PM ET Article edited by MC234.