There is no future without the past.
An empirical, mechanistic and a pragmatic approach to the revolution
sweeping across the region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea
would end up in a flawed analysis and a disastrous fate for the mass
upheaval.
There is no future without the past.
An empirical, mechanistic and a pragmatic approach to the revolution
sweeping across the region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea
would end up in a flawed analysis and a disastrous fate for the mass
upheaval.
Illustration: LatuffOnly
from a historical perspective, linking the past and the future with the
events unfolding today, can one give a complete picture of the
situation and outline the needs and the prospects of the revolutionary
movement.
The role of imperialism being portrayed by the media is not only
false but is a blatant deception to confuse the masses. There is nothing
new about the imperialist aggression in Libya. Its is the same old
story of a villainous autocratic ruler, who is rather erratic and hinges
on insanity, brutally trying to drench an uprising in blood and rules
over some of the largest sulfur free oil reservoirs in the world. The
bourgeois media is baying for the blood of this callous dictator who
just months ago was delivering pious sermons to the leaders of the G8
countries who listened diligently.
If we look into the not too distant past, the same narrative was
being expressed in relation to Noriega in Panama, Saddam Hussein in Iraq
and several other military and civilian stooges of imperialism across
the neo-colonial world who got on the “wrong side of history”.
However, the main subterfuge behind imperialist “intervention” is
their rather “deep concern” for democracy, freedom and human rights.
This motive has been the main ploy in the wars and invasions killing
millions in the last century by imperialist aggression. On August 6,
1945 President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. Air force to drop an atom
bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later they dropped a second bomb on
Nagasaki. They did this despite the fact that these were cities full of
civilian and that were of no military value and the Japanese were
already defeated and suing for peace.
The arrogance of American power was put into words by the managing
director of the New York Times, Neil McNeil, who wrote that both the
United States and the world needed peace based on American principles – a
Pax Americana. The earlier version of this was the Monroe doctrine of
1823 which was devised to subjugate the whole of the Latin American
continent.
In the 1960s high explosives, napalm and cluster bombs rained down on
Vietnam. The U.S. air force dropped toxic chemicals, including the
notorious Agent Orange on forests, allegedly to kill the vegetation and
deny shelter to the guerillas. A total of 18 million tons of herbicide
were dropped. In all, the U.S. dropped more tons of explosives on
Vietnam than were dropped by all sides in the Second World War.
The more recent rewards of democracy and human rights were reaped by
the people of Iraq who had to sacrifice at the alter of the imperialist
‘Kali’ more than a million children to attain these gems doled out by
the bosses of the planet. The genocide in Afghanistan and Pakistan with
daisy cutters, cluster bombs and drone attacks are the price of
achieving “democracy” of the rich for the rich by the rich.
However, the present aggression in Libya shows a certain exhaustion
of the bestial military might of U.S. imperialism. Apart from the
economic catastrophe that has hit them, they are hindered by their
failures in Iraq and by the quagmire that has become Afghanistan. That
explains why they want the Europeans to lead the assault.
Sarkozy and Cameron, with plummeting popularity ratings at home, are
trying to play heroes and villains in Libya. They want to portray
themselves as being “on the right side of history” and with the added
bonus of getting easy access to the large oil reserves and revenues
moving into the London and Paris stock exchanges.
This won’t help them much to water down the rage of the French and
British youth and workers who have been inspired and emboldened by the
Arab revolution. This rhetoric of “saving the people of Benghazi” is
very devious to say the least. Given that Gaddafi’s ramshackle forces
had proved unable to crush the rebels in Misrata and Ajdabiya, an armed
and hostile city of more than 700,000 inhabitants was a far cry for
Gaddafi’s mercenaries to capture Benghazi.
However, the imperialist aggression will not and cannot proceed as
proclaimed. Stratfor, the think-tank of mainly ex-CIA staffers, wrote in
its recent analysis, “The test will come if a war designed to stop
human suffering begins to inflict human suffering”. Regime change has
already displaced the stated mission. Bombing from the air or the sea
cannot achieve any of the desired results. It will have to be “boots on
the ground”. Even the Pentagon is terrified of such a prospect. Mission
failure is a serious possibility.
As the imperialist stooges fell in Tunisia and Egypt the masters
distanced themselves. But now the most formidable despots are trembling
in their shoes. And here come the double standards about human rights
and the farce of bourgeois democracy. Why the refusal to impose no-fly
zones on Bahrain, Oman and Yemen? U.S. “military advisers” are actively
taking part in the repression being carried out by the Yemeni autocrat.
But the army is splitting and the Saudis are trying to develop another
despot General Mohsen as a replacement.
The core country is Saudi Arabia, the largest producer of oil in the
world. This dynastic despotism has been shaken and is making desperate
attempts to stave off the revolt that is simmering just beneath the
surface.
Here there is an astonishing unanimity between U.S. imperialism and
Islamic fundamentalism. The religious right in Pakistan is so elusive
about the tyranny and brutality of their sacred Al Saud regime that they
consider it a sin to speak against this gang of former desert pirates.
However, the oppressed in Saudi Arabia will more than speak. They
have suffered the harrowing repression at the hands of this pious elite.
It is now a matter of life and death for these workers faced with
drudgery in the scorching heat of the Arabian Desert. Imperialism,
gripped by economic crisis and political decay, is acting like a wounded
beast. The intervention in Libya is aimed at cutting across the
revolutionary tide of the Arab Revolution. The Arab masses will only win
by overthrowing the system against which they rose, i.e. capitalism,
and smashing all obstacles.
