Colin Powell says divide and conquer, but problems arise [Edited September 26.] September 22, 2001--The mainstream U.$. press is discussing a wide variety of changes to fight the "war against terrorism." Most media corporations are focussing on the idea of people's giving up freedom so that it is easier to spy on the people; however, Colin Powell and others have made it clear that they will use the carrot and stick internationally. Carrots Congress is already talking about helping Pakistan get its $40 billion debt forgiven.(1) For a country like the United $tates which has bought off hundreds of millions at home and in places like Taiwan, southern Korea and other outposts, the idea of buying off Pakistan's 140 million people does not seem implausible. A survey that showed only 7% Pakistani support for the U.$. side of the war against Afghanistan certainly comes to mind.(2) In actuality, MIM does not believe it will be possible to buy off the Pakistani people, for the same reason that the labor aristocracy can only be a minority internationally. Even in the United $tates, making a loyal class of labor aristocrats took a long time. Even two years ago, an aggressive program to forgive debt would have been possible for the Amerikan imperialist economy. Now the idea of handing over billions to Third World countries who line up in the war against terror may be too much for imperialist bond markets to stomach, just because the economy is doing so poorly. Nonetheless, MIM is in favor of a global economic stimulus program that includes Third World debt forgiveness. Reformists should take a look at Arjun Makhijani's book, "From Global Capitalism to Economic Justice." Another carrot it appears the United $tates is offering is diplomatic relations with those it did not have relations with before. Cuba is one place where the imperialists have made an effort to get on track. It appears that five or six countries have a chance to get off the U.S. Government list of countries that supposedly sponsor terrorism. In return, Central Asian countries can also offer Uncle Sam military bases that will be useful in controlling ex-Soviet oil. Currently, Central Asia is the most difficult region in the world for the U.$. imperialists. Colin Powell is telling Third World countries that Uncle Sam will help remove terrorist cells inside their countries. If bribery fails, there is the stick. More failures with the stick As of the 22nd, the FBI is taking back its assertion that it knows who the hijackers were. It turns out that six of the hijacker names were Saudi names of people who are still alive in Saudi Arabia. The hijackers simply stole identities. The bad publicity has riled up people in Saudi Arabia who can see that the United $tates is rushing to judgement. Meanwhile, Secretary of "Defense" Donald Rumsfeld has admitted that clues left behind in the hijacking were intentionally misleading--speaking of "evidence they wished to leave behind to confuse our search."(3) This is something that the international proletariat needs to understand as a reason why the "security" approach adopted by the U.$. imperialists can never succeed. The imperialists already spend $30 billion a year on "intelligence" only to be defeated by people spending $3 on knives and box-cutters. These $3 terrorists caused the stock market to lose $1.4 trillion in value in one week,(4) but still the imperialists do not wish to give up their futile approach. They simply cannot admit that militarism has advanced to such a point where the world must get along like communists in a dream or face extinction. Spending another $100 billion on intelligence will not change the fact that people who leave false information behind will confuse their trackers. Today it is possible to manufacture false telephone, fax and computer signals systematically to confuse Big Brother U.$. imperialism, and all this confusion sown by intelligent adversaries is much cheaper than tracking it down by "intelligence" operatives. For every 1% of true information they get, the U.$. spies may receive 99% false. MIM is not even slightly concerned that the U.$. imperialists can "win" with their approach to "security" and "intelligence." With every passing day, the intelligence or counter- intelligence of U.$. adversaries will only increase in quality and quantity in this modern, high-tech world. The imperialists cannot "win" with their system. All they can hope to do is prolong militarism and its component part of terrorism long enough to get everyone killed. Only communism can bring about a unity of interests that would make such approaches history. It would be much more efficient to allow the Maoist Peoples' Wars to win in the Third World and then give that $100 billion that would have been wasted on spying and war in reparations to the Third World for development instead. The current U.$. puppet-elites in the Third World merely squander development money on themselves and their U.$. corporate partners without helping their nations. Instead of spending billions on the military and "intelligence," spending billions on reparations paid to real socialist economies would mean global economic development and a long-run boost to the U.$. economy. Aside from the impossibility of the "security" and "intelligence" approach in the contemporary world, there are sheer political and cultural difficulties for the imperialist approach. Saudi Arabia has found it necessary to deny that it will allow offensive aircraft operations from its U.$.- made airbase.(5) MIM is not aware whether or not the Saudi government is lying or not. It needs to cover up its relationship to the Amerikan imperialists to soothe the Arab people. It appears that Uzbekistan is willing to provide airbases in the open and take the public relations hit in the Middle East. On the plus side, Colin Powell told BBC that the United $tates would not use nuclear weapons against terrorist organizations.(6) On the negative side, Powell came right out and said what MIM said in earlier articles, that the plan is to divide and conquer. "Secretary of State Colin Powell is suggesting that Usama bin Laden will be the first target, but not the only one in the administration's assault on terrorism. He told reporters that when the U.S. has 'dealt with' bin Laden and his network, 'We will then broaden that campaign to go after other terrorist organizations.'"(7) In other words, once Uncle Sam is done with Osama bin Laden, no Third World country knows who the United $tates will call "terrorist" next. Having already used the word "crusade" and "infinite justice," the Bush administration is not hiding that its plans mean misery for the Arab peoples. Colin Powell has spelled out a number of organizations Uncle Sam plans to go after. Powell specifically mention the real IRA and the FARC, ELN and AUC of Colombia. For Latin Americans to think they will not be affected by this is crazy. Now Colin Powell has made it clear the United $tates will intervene in Colombia and Kashmir, where intervention follows simply from the fact that Afghanis are fighting there on the Islamic side against India.(8) We remind the world not to be overly tempted to believe in the carrots U.$. imperialism can offer, because the imperialists can only offer more gravy by exploiting someone else more than they do already. Large investment projects in the Third World often end up being gifts to the corrupted elites, who measure success by profit and not how projects serve needs in Third World countries. This coupled with how "intelligence" spending is wasted money seals the doom of the imperialist system. The only question is whether it will also doom the humyn species as it goes down. Notes: 1. http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/21/ret.us.allies/ 2. See the MIM Notes article, "Third World solidarity can bring peace: a call to rulers and exploited," http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/sept112001/te xt.php?mimfile=thirdworld.TXT 3. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/wolf.blitzer.repor ts/ 4. "Brutal Week on Wall Street," http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/09/21/markets/markets_ne wyork/ 5. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- dyn/articles/A6731-2001Se 6. http://news.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id= 1709253046 7. 20Sept2001, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34693,00.html 8. 22Sept2001, http://news.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id= 2023770638 India is one Third World country where the proletariat may be momentarily confused, because India has been at war with Pakistan and Afghanistan in Kashmir, but that war has not been high-intensity enough to clarify the political minds of the Indian proletariat yet. [Typos corrected September 26th.]