RAIL Statement in opposition to NATO bombings 

On March 24th the United $tates and its military alliance called NATO
started bombing Yugoslavia. One military officer estimated bombing would
go on for a month. President Clinton has said he will not send troops, so
as with Iraq the stated objective is to weaken the military forces of the
Serbs. This is a war over control of the Balkan region which only benefits
small cliques of local reactionaries and the foreign imperialists who back
them. Humanitarianism is a mere pretext for the imperialist aggression.
It's a real tragedy for which blame belongs on the imperialists and the
capitalist system and which the people themselves have to resolve - not
NATO.

In 1991, the Gulf War destroyed the vast majority of Iraqi infrastructure.
Since 1990, the US and UN, have imposed devastating economic sanctions on
Iraq. In the past 8 years, over 1.5 million people have died from
preventable causes in Iraq. Over 1/2 of them have been young children.
Prior to the war with the U.S. in 1990, Iraq had an advanced medical
system and few died for such reasons.

On August 20, 1998 the U.$. bombed Afghanistan and Sudan, claiming this
was its way of attacking accused terrorist Osama bin Laden. The attacks on
Iraq and Yugoslavia, like the attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan, represent
the Amerikan effort dictate military and economic policy around the globe.
In some cases, the u.$. will bomb a country whose leaders were formerly
under its wing. Amerika armed both Hussein's Iraq and neighboring Iran
when the two fought a devastating war in the 1980s.

The u.s.  is the strongest imperialist power in the world today. It
controls the largest proportion of colonies and exploits the greatest
number of people for the greatest profit. Part of ensuring the domination
of u.s. corporations is backing up the financial imperialism with military
might. But today, Amerika does not even restrict its military attacks to
countries over which it has direct neo-colonial control.

These bombings were done in the name of democracy but RAIL asks what
democracy is it that starves Iraqi children to death, arms and trains
military dictators to seize power in Latin American countries, and sends
its army into any and all countries it wants to control without regard for
the interests of the people.