This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Newt Gingrich: World War III

Imperialism attacks just about every Islamic force it can find

Former number three official in the U.S. Government, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich has called for President Bush to declare "World War III" on behalf of I$rael.

"'I mean, this is absolutely a question of the survival of Israel, but it’s also a question of what is really a world war,' Gingrich said. He then cited a litany of events that confirm this conclusion. 'North Korea firing missiles. We say there’ll be consequences, there are none. North Koreans fire seven missiles on our Fourth of July; bombs going off in Mumbai, India; a war in Afghanistan with sanctuaries in Pakistan … the Iran/Syria/Hamas/Hezbollah alliance.” In addition, he said 'there is the war in Iraq funded largely from Saudi Arabia and supplied largely from Syria and Iran.'"(1)

MIM's position is that World War III by English, French and U.$. aggressors against oppressed nations has been going on since World War II. It's just that Gingrich is getting around to noticing the increasing power of the Third World. His words also vindicate MIM's founding documents from 1983 on the real question being imperialism's overextension in the world.

The MIM Central Committee decision of May 17 concerning Iran and Islamic countries came none to soon. This fine day July 16th finds the imperialists engaged in war with more and more organized forces of the Islamic countries, and specifically using Iran as an excuse.

In May, MIM said,

"Overall, MIM finds the likelihood of anti-Islamic war higher than the likelihood of imperialist occupation of countries of our ex-comrades. The Islamic countries are at this moment tying down more imperialist troops than our ex-comrades are. Some of our ex-comrades have tolerated a party that formed on the basis of opposition to seeing the principal contradiction between imperialism and the oppressed nations. These ex-comrades stupidly tied themselves to a tool of anti- Islamic chauvinism."
I$rael's incursion seizing ground and air in Lebanon not occupied since 1996 is further proof. On July 16, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice also opposed a cease-fire between Hezbollah and I$rael.

If we at MIM got something wrong, it was slight:

"The people of Iraq are doing far more to shake the empire than any other armed struggle. Places two through five might very well go to Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Palestine."
Now we have to add Lebanon to the list of doing the most to fight imperialist occupation forces.

The general idea that occupation forces are going to Islamic countries is correct. Yet it remains true even as fighting goes on in Lebanon on the ground, air and sea that fake anti-imperialists do not correctly prioritize the struggle. They remain silent as alleged Maoists say they support "neither Islam, nor imperialism." This petty-bourgeois formulation is completely intolerable. The formulation arose specifically to evade what Mao said about the principal contradiction. It shows that there is a problem with basic anti-imperialism among those calling themselves Maoist and it also demonstrates the active penetration of imperialist agents into our ranks.

This sort of difficulty goes from the grass tips of the movement to work its way down and complicate political activities against imperialist war. In the past, MIM has tried to criticize fascist Limonov in Russia, but he says more and more often that "each year I get closer to Islam." Limonov the fiction writer is more intuitively correct on the sides he takes than these oh-so advanced people who think they have managed to support or conduct People's War without opposing imperialism. MIM will now have to bite its tongue about Limonov, because of all the garbage calling itself "Maoist" these days.

On July 16th, leaders of the "G-8" including Russia and the United $tates held a meeting and told I$rael that it should rein in its bombing of Lebanon after four straight days of attacks on civilian targets(2) including airports, roads, bridges and tourist infrastructure. I$rael escalated its imperialist attacks when the oppressed Arab people proved their ability to counter-attack when Islamic organization Hezbollah killed 8 I$raeli soldiers and captured two more in a cross-border raid.

Ironically, this cross-border raid is exactly the kind of thing that the imperialists have asked for. The United $tates has labeled Hezbollah "terrorist," but terrorism does not apply to military acts against soldiers such as Hezbollah carried out. Here was Hezbollah acting according to usual rules of military engagement when I$rael went berserk.

Again, before the imperialists started using the word "terrorism" to refer to anything they don't like politically, the word meant:

"n : the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation (sic.) or coercion or instilling fear."(3)
Yet what was I$rael's response in Lebanon if we disregard the press releases that the media so willingly lap up:
"Since Wednesday, 63 Lebanese, including two soldiers, have been killed and 167 others have been wounded, according to Lebanon's internal security forces. (Watch Lebanese try to cope with violence in Beirut -- 4:10)

The IDF reported that at least four Israeli civilians and eight Israeli soldiers have been killed, and more than 100 others have been wounded."(4)

These numbers are still true July 16th in a general way: Hezbollah has killed more troops than civilians while I$rael has killed vastly more civilians than troops. So where does the definition of "terrorism" really apply needs to be asked.

Now I$rael is threatening Iran and Syria with war, though some military analysts say it would be unwise. Most indicative of I$rael's public opinion drive is I$rael's claim that 100 (400 according to Gingrich) Iranian troops are helping Hezbollah in Lebanon, a large enough force to be significant but small enough not to make the rest of the world think "how come we did not detect it?"

Saudi lackeys rushed to defend I$rael with words. Nonetheless, the Arab League found itself forced to say that the peace process was dead.(5) Discussion of a general regional war is hot in the air. Conspicuously absent is Egypt, but that's no surprise given all the U.$. aid it receives. Then again, there is also Turkey. How long will Turkey go on watching u.$. imperialism ruin the entire region we wonder.

In May, MIM's Central Committee said:

"Tolerating the chauvinism of the First World Trotskyists only increases the opportunities for imperialist aggression."
Thanks in part to the Iran-bashing of fake anti-imperialists led by state agents and thanks to the petty-bourgeois wavering on the principal contradiction, the imperialists succeeded in rallying imperialist public opinion on Iran--even while Bush's poll numbers were in the low 30s. Now I$rael attacks Hezbollah while citing Hezbollah's links to Iran and justifies aggression by land, sea and air against Lebanon just for harboring Hezbollah. Unscientific polling by CNN shows 61% support for I$rael. So MIM's Central Committee quote above proved correct almost right away.

Support for I$rael is something MIM warned on again and again. Instead of following the real Maoist leaders, who warned about Amerikan labor aristocrats gung-ho for I$rael, some fools listened to others about an exploited white proletariat about to rise up that just needed its demands for bikini-wearing in Afghanistan to be met. Making such concessions to the labor aristocracy of the West never does any good.

A combination of state agents and people confident in the white so-called workers downplayed the possibility that Iran-bashing could lead to war, not to mention imperialist declaration of World War III. Tied to that was illusions about white so-called workers having seen through Bush, with his poll numbers so low, their reformism typical of labor aristocrat circles. This reformism was so shameful that some continue to defend a deal with the CIA & Democrats against Bush. These dogshit worshippers of the labor aristocracy refer to Ray McGovern as a mere "former CIA analyst." He was in fact, a major cog in the Ford administration, the very same administration in which Rumsfeld first became Secretary of Defense. Yes, that is the same McGovern and Rumsfeld who staged an incident in front of network television on Iraq while other protesters were shuffled out. It was the same Ray McGovern charged with the responsibility of briefing Ford each day on all intelligence matters of the world. It would be hard to imagine a more sinister figure, especially given Ford's own reputation as someone who could not walk and chew gum at the same time. Ray McGovern was no minor figure, the equivalent of a business analyst in a corporation the way our fake Maoists reported on him. They had to report on McGovern that way, because they had a lot to hide. Now we learn who is willing to let them hide that.

Yet even as fake Maoists spewed direct CIA line on weapons of mass destruction and infighting with the Pentagon, and even as they equated Islamic theocracy with imperialism, others stood by silent. The discernment of these others has proved lacking. Real Maoism will continue to arise in the imperialist countries to oppose imperialism and also give impetus to an eventual rise of Maoist People's War in the occupied Islamic countries themselves.

Notes:
1. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/7/16/155736.shtml
2. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2197676
3. See dictionary.com
4. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/14/mideast/
5. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/15/arab.league/