Editorial
Starvation: the continuation of the Gulf war by other means
We have again witnessed the old story of a British Labour leader slavishly following in the footsteps of his American master
THE THREAT of a shooting war against Iraq has passed for the time being following the deal struck by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
At the level of logic, military action never seemed the most likely option. But then what happened over these last weeks has seemed more like the sort of bad B-movie Ronald Reagan used to star in than anything else.
After all, one of the dynamics in the situation seemed to involve the possibility of the President of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, being indicted — for lying about his sex life, and encouraging others to do so.
The build-up of military hardware and forces in the Gulf region, the glut of supposedly serious media coverage emphasising the barbaric nature of Saddam’s regime, and the siren cries of the military industrial complex demanding to test out their new weaponry and drive up the price of oil, could so easily have led to a situation which in the end excluded an escape route.
Behind the hype and the hysteria, the United States and its allies have important strategic interests at stake in the Gulf. However much pressure he was under, it was inconceivable that an American President would follow a path contrary to the political, military and economic needs of his class.
Clinton may have wanted to divert attention from the sex scandals: but the notion that he has become an unwilling prisoner of the Republican Party is a myth. This lie has been peddled by those who have illusions, or want to sow them amongst others, that the President is an honourable man whose record in office must be defended and his "legacy" carried through.
Whatever the truth about the Lewinsky affair, Bill Clinton would not be the first powerful man to have used his position to acquire sexual favours from young women in his employ. Nor is he the first powerful man to use the cover of ‘liberalism’ viciously to attack working people with more impunity than the overt right wing.
Saddam Hussein was a convenient target for the United States to demonstrate its self-proclaimed role as world cop. The flexing of the muscles may have receded, but no long-term solution in the interests of American imperialism has yet been achieved.
America will find another opportunity, under more favourable circumstances in the months and years to come to stamp her dominance on the region.
The alliance that the US put together during the Gulf war lay in tatters at the beginning of this adventure, and there was little hope of gluing it back together as so many shifts had taken place in the intervening period.
With the American build-up, both the Palestinians and the Jordanians had to ban pro-Saddam demonstrations. Many of the Arab states are more worried about internal opposition today and were thus more constrained against throwing their hats into the American camp.
It was hard to remember that Tony Blair was supposedly committed to carving out a new and central role for Britain as part of the leadership of the European union. Instead we again witnessed the old story of a British Labour leader slavishly following in the footsteps of his American master.
The opposition within the Parliamentary Labour Party was not able to build on its recent strides forward over lone parent benefits and attacks on the disabled, but was again reduced to the committed stalwarts.
Fortunately the anti-war movement did not wait for parliamentary leadership. With public opinion less convinced of the wisdom of military action than during the Gulf War, sizeable protests were swiftly organised across Britain. The left was generally able to set aside its usual pettiness and work in a united and co-ordinated fashion to protest this dangerous madness.
This time at least the question of sanctions was to the fore on protestors’ lips. If a shooting war has been averted, the war of attrition against the Iraqi people which has cost so many lives since the Gulf War is just as criminal.
The best way to ensure that a further imperialist assault in the Gulf is prevented is to build, from here on in, a substantial campaign to stop the war of starvation against the Iraqi People