Franz J.T. Lee, August, 2009
Obama: Necessity of war in Afghanistan ... the continuation of Democratic politics?
In a previous commentary we indicated that United States President Barack Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush, in all probability is steering his corporate ship of State, his 'Titanic,' towards turbulent waters, to a programmed, protracted world "war of necessity," towards Afghanistan and Pakistan; a fact which could generate an ill-fated 'Eurasian' world war, that is, making the wildest dream of corporate imperialism come true.
In reality this "New American Century," this new Conquest is called Big Business; backed by the 'Life Sciences,' the World Trade Organization, the pharmaceutical, military and industrial complexes. They all play a central role in this global drama, in ideological lingo euphemistically it is called "world peace," alternatively, the 'war against terrorism'; of course, to crown it all, as our text books say: in capitalism, if the Obama administration wants 'peace' it better prepares itself for war! Also, we should not forget what Clausewitz taught us: War is the continuation of politics by other means. The Necessity of War in Afghanistan is the continuation of Democratic and Republican United States politics at home.
Furthermore, as Halliburton has taught us, Big Business is a Big War in Iraq; this tradition has to be kept alive by the White House, by the Pentagon, NASA, UNO and NATO.
Let us try to get a somewhat clearer picture of what really is going on around us, let us recall a famous declaration of President Obama: "This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaida would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting; this is a -- this is fundamental to the defense of our people."
As such Obama is perpetuating a hoax of Corporate America, a myth, a fictitious horror story in which he himself surely does not believe.
We know that over the last decades no "historic" event ever took place without the previous knowledge, mostly with the very authorization, planning and carrying out of Uncle Sam. The 'Project for a New American Century' is the blue print of the current policy of "full spectrum dominance,' of the 'rainbow revolutions' and of the belligerent conflicts in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia. It is also the guide for the second conquest of Central and Latin America.
So
far, so good.
The ruling classes are not saints, saviors,
humanitarians or pacifists, they are capitalists, imperialists. Let
us not mix up different realities! Their historic aim is to exploit,
dominate, discriminate, militarize and alienate. If some of us
did not yet comprehend all this, well, soon we will have to learn to
know the truth the hard way. Living in tent cities and under the
bridges of the USA, the once so proud middle classes of yesterday are
now learning pretty fast that 'War is Peace' and 'Freedom is Slavery
(Orwell).
What
else could we expect from capitalism, colonialism, imperialism and
corporatism? The above mentioned is their essence, existence,
historic role and quo vadis. Concerning international class struggle
and emancipation, Frantz Omar Fanon taught us: A master is not a
slave and vice versa; there exists no master without a slave, and
vice versa; to get rid of any one of the two is getting rid of both.
Some of us are still too near to the lighthouse, we cannot yet see
its warning lights, the overt and covert rocks of the advent of
global fascism. The current fleeting events of a systemic
collapse are darkened by lies, hoaxes and ideology, by all
belligerent genres of psychological operations. The daily
isolated news bullets and bulletins coming from the Murdoch empire
simply kill the intellectuality of our already severely damaged
neurones, destroy their capacity to abstract, communicate, interlink,
contradict and think. We are being disabled to interlink events and
news into an understandable whole; we are not being informed, rather
we are being uniformed, conformed and deformed.
In
recent history typical examples of corporate bellicose maneuvers were
the support given to the luckily failed coup against President Hugo
Chavez of Venezuela in 2002 and the ousting of Presidents
Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Manuel Zelaya of Haiti and Honduras
respectively. In all these cases the USA actively and materially
supported destabilization plans against progressive, legitimate
and democratically elected presidents.
Here
in Venezuela, the destabilization 'war of ideas', ... more precisely,
the 'war of ideologies' or 'ideological warfare' ... and
'psychological operations' have long begun. USAID and scores of
similar institutions, some of them disguised as non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), have their offices in Caracas and are financing
the anti-Chavez campaigns of the 'opposition' right here in the
country. The battle is declared against some of them, but many are
still freely engaged in clandestine operations.
In
subversion, in illegal anti-democratic operations against the working
masses, against socialist attempts, the USA and Europe are superb,
simply masters. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the well-known
German banker (of the Deutsche Bank) Herman Josef Abs (1901-1994)
revealed, the Orwellian Big Brother, aided by his European
companions, by means of the launching of a strategic arms race,
economically practically strangled the ex-Soviet Union and therewith
politically strangulated any real possibility of realizing a truly
global anti-capitalist socialism in the twentieth century.
Now,
does Obama indirectly have similar 'Colombian Plans' to destroy the
Bolivarian Revolution? Is he also promoting militarization of this
region in order to oust the 'unfriendly' governments in the
hemisphere, to destroy Mercosur, Caricom and the Bolivarian Alliance
for the Americas (ALBA)?
Is
this also part of the plans for a "New American Century"?
Consequently, what is our
commentary all about? We will briefly try to comment ad hoc on the
following urgent issues of our epoch.
*
Why is Obama also war mongering in Afghanistan?
*
Any basic difference between the war policies of Bush and Obama?
*
Over the last century did the Big Chasm between rich and poor in the
USA decrease? Under capitalism will it ever diminish?
*
At last, has Europe stopped the recession? Is the depression over?
For whom?
*
Are the big powers on their way to everlasting 'world peace', to
perpetual, global 'democracy'?
*
Finally, we will briefly comment on the quintessential issue: Are we
living in the epoch of the collapse of the capitalist system? Against
whom will it be more brutal than ever? For the sake of saving mankind
from annihilation, who have the historic duty to get rid of this
global pestilence?
Now,
without telling the real 'corporate truth' to the taxpayers, as
spokesman of the military and industrial complex, President Barack
Obama wants to wind down the Iraq war, but at the same time he is
pledging intensification of the war mongering in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, which he calls a "war of necessity". We may ask:
necessary for whom, for what? The answer is very simple: Not for the
poor of the USA, of the globe. Not for the inhabitants of tent
cities, not for the toiling laboring classes at the bottom of the
social pyramid, who carry the whole weight of opulent, corporate
America on their exploited shoulders.
According
to Tom Eley, in a speech to the annual convention of the 'Veterans of
Foreign Wars' (VFW) "the president warned that the war in
Afghanistan would be long and bloody, predicting 'more difficult days
ahead.' The insurgency in Afghanistan 'didn’t just happen
overnight,' Obama said. 'And we won’t defeat it overnight. This
will not be quick. This will not be easy.' ” 2)
Well,
as eloquent and clear very few leaders can talk about 'bloody wars'
and "collateral damage". How many Arab peoples, innocent
mothers and babies would today still be alive, if the United States
did not invade the region? For what did the foreign soldiers die as
'cannon fodder' in Iraq and Afghanistan?
To
know what the USA is doing in Afghanistan, what the Obama
administration hides from the public, we just need to study the
excellent writings of Michel Chossudovsky in 'Global Research',
especially 'The Global Crisis: Food, Water and Fuel. Three
Fundamental Necessities of Life in Jeopardy'. 3)
Just
like in the case of the ex-President Bush, but also of downright
authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, to get political and
electoral support, the Obama administration also uses psychological
operations, psycho-warfare, friend-enemy mechanisms, 'scape-goat'
indoctrination technology (Bin Laden and Chavez) to instill fear and
awe into the exploited, dominated and discriminated
classes.
Concerning
this body, mind and thought control, this 'Newspeak' and mental
holocaust, Tom Eley wrote:
"
To defend the intensification of the war in Afghanistan, Obama used
fear-mongering language that could just as easily have been uttered
by his predecessor, George W. Bush." 4)
In
fact, there is no big difference between the United States Democrats
and Republicans, both are chips of the same block, of the global war
economy, of the corporate military and industrial complex. It is not
a matter of personalities, of a white or black great man or woman
making history. Whether we know it or not, what gains top priority at
this moment is the construction of a United States "high-tech
army ready to deploy quickly all over the world". As we said,
Obama, ... like his predecessor George W. Bush, or Defense Secretary
Robert M. Gates, or his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld, or
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or her successor Hillary Clinton
... is just another 'chip of the same imperialist block', is a
pawn on the global chessboard of Corporate America. Who has
placed him there as president to protect ruling class interests by
all means necessary also can remove him any time. This is also valid
for all leaders of capitalist states.
Meanwhile,
crossing the Atlantic we notice that in Paris and Berlin euphorically
leading authorities and mass media boast that they have halted the
recession and that the European Union is on the road towards green
economic pastures and still political waters. The German politicians
and economists either never have heard about political economy or
Adam Smith or even Karl Marx. Probably they suffer from amnesia,
forgot all about Marx's 'Capital' or they simply cannot find any
positive substitute for arrogance and ignorance.
In
the German 'Handelsblatt', Torsten Riecke declared: "The
harshest downturn since the Second World War is over. The nightmare
is at an end." 5)
Let
us clarify the above myth with reality. At random, what about
essential characteristics of recession, about layoffs or unemployment
in Germany?
"Unemployment
in Berlin is also well over the federal average. In July 2009
unemployment rose to a rate of 14.2 percent compared to the federal
average of 8.2 percent. Altogether nearly 240,000 persons are
officially registered as unemployed in Berlin and over 80 percent of
them (192,000) are reliant on Hartz IV payments. The number of the
unemployed persons between the ages of 15 and 25 has also risen to
26,646." 6)
Ulrich
Rippert comments:
"What
is the underlying economic reality? Compared to one year ago, the
German economy has declined by no less than 7 percent. In a few
months, the German “cash for clunkers” scheme will
expire, accelerating the decline of the country’s auto and
auto-supply industry."
What
will be the consequences in the near future? He explains
further:
"The
consequences for the German steel, engineering and chemical
industries have already been felt. Up to now, mass redundancies in
Germany have been avoided by means of a reduced work-hours scheme,
which has been renewed several times. When the 1.4 million employees
on short-time work eventually join the ranks of the unemployed, the
official unemployment level will rise to 5 million."
7)
Hence,
all the big talk in Germany about the end of the recession is
just ideological rhetoric aimed at "confusing workers and
forestalling social protests, while behind the scenes unparalleled
attacks are been prepared on living standards and social benefits."
8)
Finally,
crossing the Atlantic again and returning to the USA, we
are witnessing one of the greatest robberies of all times:
pauperization wage slaves vegetating next to an opulent Herrenvolk, a
super rich master race. Marx, in 'Capital' predicted precisely this
Big Gap: the perverse concentration and monopolization of capital
accompanied by a geometric explosion of millions of impoverished
working masses.
Are
we exaggerating? Perhaps, but look at the statistics cited
below!
According
to Bill Van Auken, quoting the latest data from the United 'States
Internal Revenue Service' (IRS), "the income gap between the top
10 percent and the bottom 90 percent has reached “a level
higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the
peak of the stock market bubble in the ‘roaring’ 1920s,”
according to an analysis of the data published earlier this month by
University of California economist Emmanuel Saez. " 9)
The
updated report of August 5, 2009, especially with data of 2007, Prof.
Emmanuel Saez clearly shows the gigantic degree of the economic
exploitation of the United States working classes. 10)
As
'salary', as part of the United States national income, of the
shameless 'Surplus Value Robbery' only 1 percent, the creme de la
creme, ... the political secretaries, top bureaucrats and
technocrats, 'think tanks', 'CEOs', 'VIPs', etc ... officially is
earning an annual incomes of $400,000 and above.
Prof.
Emmanuel Saez convincingly
shows
what Marx, Engels and Lenin have predicted long ago, that when the
merciless accumulation of capital would reach its inexorable global
zenith, then the real increase in the accumulation of perverse
wealth, of private property of the global means of production and
energetic resources would be concentrated at the top of the pinnacle
of the global social pyramid. In the USA, while the homeless middle
classes are being doomed to live in tent cities, this sharpening of
the social contradictions, the renaissance of class struggles is
taking place right now.
In
figures, in terms of salaries and revenues, of the reproduction of
labor or capital forces, the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS)
elaborates:
"The
figures released by the IRS are from 2007. They indicate that for
most of the top 10 percent (families with incomes of $110,000 or
more), there was little change in terms of income growth and share,
but the top 1 percent increased their share of the national income to
23.5 percent, compared with 22.8 percent in 2006." 11)
The
depressive global recession is grabbing all living things and persons
with its ravenous capitalist claws. Who does not wake up now is
already mesmerized into a deep peaceful sleep, into a docile a state
of total intellectual capitulation and physical subjugation. No blue
eyed prince, no snow white princess will come to kiss us tenderly
awake. On the contrary, while enjoying our slumber our Medicare,
social benefits and human rights have vanished into thin air.
One
of the side effects of corporate imperialism is that 49 million
people in the USA, among them the poorest of the poor, have no
access to health care. How healthy is Obama's ship of state? In the
USA, many do not even care about health anymore, to get out of the
depressive vale of tears, they just take their miserable
lives.
Thanatos,
self-destruction, human bombs have invaded the very working places of
the exploited United States laborers on a global scale. Agence
France Press (AFP) reports that in the USA suicide cases at the
working places have increased dramatically by 25%. Annually more than
30 000 people out of sole desperation, depression and
alienation take their lives. The victims are mostly men 'who did not
make it', between the ages of 25 and 34 years of age. 12)
As
explained in previous commentaries, all these are not just
expressions of a singular event, of a bank and financial crisis, it
is the epoch, the progressive collapse of the whole current world
order, of capital accumulation, of capitalism in its totality.
The
original accumulation of capital began over 2500 years ago. Humanity
already suffered millennia of barbarism. The system is older than
Metusalem, it is obsolete, it merits to pass away into galactic
oblivion. What next? Per aspera ad astra! Only the stars will
tell.
Here
and now, we note that the world system, capitalism, is mortally
threatened, its deadly weapons and its violent reactions show its
mortal fear, its coming fearful death, its lethal labor agony. The
following decades will be more violent than ever before. Obama
promised us long bloody wars in Asia. Measured by its arsenals of
arms of mass destruction, capitalism is not saying good bye with a
white flag, with smiling 'world peace'. However, capitalism
cannot darken the coming aurora of human emancipation and creation
with the tip of a thumb, it cannot stop the coming of galactic
spring, of 'what comes into existence merits to pass away"
(Hegel). As Marx, Engels and Rosa Luxemburg underlined: we have the
choice, barbarism or socialism. We may add: we have no choice
anymore, it is human creation and emancipation. Centuries ago, when
Europe, that is, Roman Catholic right wing Aristotelianism still was
burning women and thinkers on the stake, Arab-African scientists and
philosophers, like Avicenna and Averroes, called it: natura naturans
natura naturata ... creating, creative and created mother
nature.
******
Footnotes:
1)
See also: "Obama: This is a war of
necessity!".
http://www.ftleavenworthlamp.com/articles/2009/08/20/dod_news/dod2.txt
2)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/vfw1-a18.shtml
3)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=listByAuthor&
authorFirst=Michel&authorName=Chossudovsky
4)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/vfw1-a18.shtml
5)
Cited by Ulrich Rippert.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/euro-a20.shtml
6)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/berl-a21.shtml
7)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/euro-a20.shtml
8)
Ibid.
9)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/pers-a19.shtml
10)
http://karmalised.com/?p=10328
11)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/pers-a19.shtml
12)
See: http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n141008.html