MIM Notes # 222 Nov 15, 2000 U$$ Cole: U.$. military takes a hit by MC5, October 15 2000 MIM mourns the loss of lives of at least 17 sailors killed on the U$$ Cole, October 12th while refueling in Yemen, a country of the Middle East. A bomb exploded on the side of the Navy destroyer. Sacrificed by the imperialist-militarist U.$. Government were: *Lakeina Monique Francis, 19, a Black womyn *Tim Gauna, 21 *Cherone Louis Gunn, 22, a Black man *Ensign Andrew Triplett, 30, a Black man *Ronchester Santiago, 22 *Seaman Craig Wibberley, 19 *Kevin Shawn Rux, 30 *Lakiba Nicole Palmer, 22, a Black womyn *Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, 21 *Marc Nieto, 24 *Ronald Scott Owens, 24 *Richard Costelow, 35 *Patrick Roy, 19 *Joshua Parlett, 19 *Gary Graham Swenchonis, 26 *James Rodrick McDaniels, 19, a Black man *Timothy Lamont Saunders, 32, a Black man They were all young people, most from the South.(1) Blacks and Latinos predominate in much combat action. The national background of the victims in no way excuses U.$. militarist action. Those who think that dying for imperialism will whiten the oppressed within U.$. borders and bring about true integration are wrong. Such is short-term thinking that provides no thorough answer for oppressive relations amongst nations. The attack on the U$$ Cole was no doubt righteous. Situated in the Middle East while the Israeli settler entity is mowing down the Palestinian people, the U$$ Cole symbolized the kingpin behind national oppression in the Middle East. It is the military defeats on the U$$ Cole and elsewhere which bring sense to the people within U.$. imperialist borders. Otherwise, the people within U.$. borders are inclined toward empire and war. President Clinton called the attack on the U$$ Cole "cowardly." That's what MIM would have said about the Zionist shooting of unarmed children with U.$. weapons and blessings, not an attack on military personnel like those on the U$$ Cole. The United $tates is launching cowardly attacks on weaker military forces and unarmed peoples around the globe all the time. The U$$ Cole is just a slight payback. We liken ourselves to the Japanese people during World War II. Mao had to organize the killing of many Japanese soldiers, because they had invaded his soil. Mao's forceful expulsion of the Japanese was in reality a great favor to the Japanese people and all people in the world seeking a day of peace and justice amongst nations. Mao did much to advance proletarian class consciousness in Japan, a prerequisite for eventual world peace. Likewise today, flattering the Amerikan people is no way toward global peace. MIM goes so far as to say that a global dictatorship of the proletariat over the imperialist countries will be necessary to lay the basis for a war-free world. In principle, we have nothing against the military occupation of Japan and Germany after World War II. For a time, the governments of those countries were dissolved and replaced by military governments of the victorious powers, including Stalin's Soviet Union in the case of Germany. These governments oversaw the dismantling of the military, extraction and distribution of reparations, and even land reform. The problem in the case of Japan and West Germany was that the occupying forces were themselves imperialists. Amerika, Britain, and France were not interested in abolishing production for profit, the class system, etc. They were principally interested in defending their own profits and markets. If they needed to re-arm Germany and give the former Japanese imperialists a leg up in order to do this, well, so be it. The sentiment among the Amerikan people --and especially the oppressed nationalities within U.$. borders -- is that the United $tates should not be global police. We hope the deaths of at least 17 young people on the U$$ Cole will clarify the thinking of the people within U.$. borders on what they will do to bring about global peace. The people need to replace their leaders with leaders with genuine anti-militarist credentials. They need to expend ferocious energy for peace or the deaths of the U$$ Cole victims and many others will be for naught. Neither Al Gore nor George Bush offer any solutions. They are afraid to work aggressively for long-range peace, because their capitalist system relies on world war. They represent a class of people that profits from war. During the presidential campaign debates, Bush said his peace plan is the tired, old "peace through strength." In all history, one country has been more powerful than others. That has never stopped war from happening. It's time to break with old thinking to get at the root causes of humyn conflict -- production for profit, the class system, conflicts over land etc. These can only be addressed by communism, as difficult as it will be to achieve. We cannot blame George Washington for attacking the British troops and we cannot blame the oppressed for now attacking the U.$. military across the globe. Instead, we should work toward a world with the causes of war removed. Public opinion polls show that Amerikans already know that. It is time that they act. They must act ferociously as never before in history, because tolerating even a slight but constant cause of war may mean the end of the humyn species. The Middle East alone and its economic conflicts are reason enough for a global dictatorship of the proletariat. Even a one percent annual chance of nuclear war destruction caused by capitalist aggressiveness or "greed" as the people call it should not be tolerated by the proletariat. After playing Russian Roulette (in which the bullet chamber is different each time and not related at all to the one that came up in previous spins) with 100 chambers and one bullet, the chance of survival is only 60.5% after 50 turns. In other words, a seemingly small one percent annual chance of world war means eventual doom. After 100 years or turns of Russian Roulette, the chances of survival are only 36.6%. After 200 years, survival has only a 13.4% chance. Notes: http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/10/13/shipattack.thumbnails.02.ap/