The biggest air raids since the destruction of Dresden in the Second World War announced the start of Bush's war on Iraq. Already hundreds, probably thousands, have been killed – although the truth about casualties is being suppressed. Now we can see before our eyes the 'new world order' that Bush and his allies want to create.
'Desert Storm' is not about liberating Kuwait as George Bush claims. It is about utterly destroying and defeating Iraq. It is about making the Gulf safe for Western oil; about making the Middle East safe for imperialism and safe for Israel. The targets in the war are not just the Iraqi military and Saddam Hussein; they are also the Palestinians, and anyone in the third world who challenges US domination and control.
When Saddam invaded Kuwait he did so not in the interests of the people of the region, but to extend the power and wealth of the narrow Iraqi ruling class. When Bush mobilised his legions in retaliation he did it to reinforce US military and political leadership of the West, and to gain a giant victory in the Middle East – sending a clear signal to all those who would oppose American power.
The Gulf crisis and the start of war have been a test: war always tests out the real positions of any political group. The Gorbachev leadership in the Soviet Union have gone along with the war drive, giving the lie to the idea that collaboration with imperialism creates the basis for international peace.
The Chinese leadership, only too happy to send troops to crush its own people, has failed to oppose the war. The United Nations, alleged by some to be the mechanism to stop war, has been a sorry spectacle of abject compliance with US interests.
The Labour Party leadership, with Kinnock and Kaufman in the lead, have been an appalling and obscene sight – standing with 'our boys', with the Tories, with the Bush administration against the Iraqi people being slaughtered by US and British air power.
While Gorbachev's collaboration has made the war decision easier, it does not come out of fundamental strength. The US is a declining economic power. In more than a dozen countries since 1980 it has attempted to use its military leadership of the West to reinforce its political and economic position. Economic crisis and imperialist war always go together.
Saddam's invasion of Kuwait had no justification. But neither was there in Kuwait anything for ordinary people in the West to defend. Under the semi-feudal Emir Kuwait was an enclave for pumping oil to the West, with a tiny and super-rich population lording it over immigrant workers who did all the real work.
Now the war poses the very existence of Iraq. The Iraqi people being punished for Saddam's defiance of the US have every right to resist the attacks. Every socialist and democrat should defend Iraq – but not Saddam.
Hundreds of thousands of people, in the US, Europe and beyond, have taken to the streets in the past week to oppose war. In Britain the deep reserves of opposition to militarism in the labour movement must be mobilised. Kinnock and Kaufman do not speak for the huge percentage of the population who oppose the war. Most especially they do not speak for the labour movement itself. In the coming days the case against war must be taken into every factory, every office, every school and college. Kinnock and Kaufman must be called to account in every Labour Party and trade union branch.
The F-15s, the Cruise missiles and the B-52s are not the weapons of peace and democracy; they are the weapons of those who would keep the world safe for the rich and powerful, who want a new world order based on ceaseless violence to support imperial interests. Major, Ashdown and Kinnock are agreed on this barbarism. It is time for those who oppose it to stand up and be counted.