Britain: Socialist Appeal goes fortnightly!

Socialist Appeal editorial statement, April 2003

"We still have a love affair with Iraq. We may not like the guy who runs the store, but the merchandise in the store sure is attractive." Lucio Noto, Esso's former vice president.

As American and British planes continue to blitz Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk and other towns in order to satisfy the American military-industrial complex, bloody shrapnel-ridden casualties amongst innocent men, women, children and babies continue to mount up. There is growing revulsion around the world, not least in Britain, where 500,000 people demonstrated against this naked aggression in the country's biggest ever war-time protest. Meanwhile, George Bush said he was "feeling fine".

Despite all the propaganda being churned out on a 24-hour basis, it is clear the plans of the imperialists have gone astray. They originally said the war would be a push over, over in days according to Rumsfeld, as the Iraqi army simply surrendered without a fight. Their policy of 'shock and awe' would smash Iraqi morale, destroy communications, and render the Iraqis impotent. But this has not happened. Now they are needing to despatch up to 200,000 more troops to Iraq. The American and British military are in a mess. Within hours, after assuring everyone the 'coalition of the willing' had taken Umm Qasr, then Basra and Najaf, they were forced to admit the opposite, saying they are facing stiff resistance.

They said they were "armies of liberation" that would be welcomed enthusiastically by the population. But this has not happened either. They are seen as an invasion force. The blockade of Basra is preparing a disaster. There is a serious prospect of a cholera epidemic in the city. It is a humanitarian catastrophe in the making.

In a cynical propaganda stunt Blair said the Iraqis executed two British soldiers, a claim vehemently denied by the relatives. Caught lying, Downing Street is being forced to backtrack.

"This war is not going to be easily won", states the London Evening Standard. "The invading armies must now steel themselves for the possibility of a bitter battle for Baghdad – a prospect which commanders do not relish, either for themselves or for its impact on the civilian population." (24 March) However, Baghdad is not a small town, but a massive city of five million, with no prospect of evacuation. It is where the coalition will meet it fiercest resistance to its plans for occupation. Not all the years of "urban warfare" in Northern Ireland will prepare them for this Armageddon. It will be more like the bloody battle for the Chechen capital of Grozny.

We have witnessed the bombardment of Baghdad and elsewhere and the carnage created. We have seen the pictures of innocent children paralysed and reeling in agony with allied shrapnel wounds and burns. This war is being conducted live on TV around the world. As a result there is a good deal more shock than awe.

"It looks like it's the bombing of a city but it isn't", stated Donald Rumsfeld. "It's very precise targets." But the military admit that something like 10 per cent of their 'smart' bombs go astray. When 3,000 missiles are launched over two days, some 300 miss their target. 15 charred and mutilated bodies, mostly women, children and old people, were dragged from the 'smart' bombed marketplace in northern Baghdad. American missiles have struck southern Turkey and Iran, and a busload of Syrian workers fleeing Iraq was destroyed. Whether all these 'misses' are accidental is a moot point. The Turkish regime has suddenly backed down from its stated intention of invading Northern Iraq – a policy opposed by the American imperialists.

No wonder innocent civilians are dying in Baghdad and elsewhere. The numbers killed by 'friendly fire', a truly Orwellian term, is also testament to limits of allied technology. This is no 'clean' war. It is a bloody war, no different from the colonial wars of the past.

The shift from air war to ground war will be a massive test for the imperialist armies. The Americans will be haunted by their experiences in Vietnam, Beirut and Mogadishu. That is why they were reluctant to launch a ground war in Kosovo, and in Afghanistan they relied upon the Northern Alliance. The prospect of urban warfare sends shivers down their spines. Last September the US Joint Chiefs of Staff published their doctrine for urban operations. It makes sober reading. The document warns of a "high level of injury and exhaustion of personnel", placing enormous stress on command, control and communications.

Despite all the lies and hypocrisy emanating from Washington and Downing Street, the majority know this is a war for oil, markets and spheres of influence. It has nothing whatsoever to do with 'democracy' or 'weapons of mass destruction'. Any weapons of mass destruction are the remains of those sold to Saddam over the years by British and American governments. Near Basra, British troops found detonator fuses in boxes labelled Wallop Industries Ltd, Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

The vast majority of people are opposed to this war. The job of removing Saddam Hussein is the job of the Iraqi people themselves. The peoples of Serbia and Indonesia overthrew their dictatorships without the Royal Marines or the US Seventh Cavalry. All the Americans want to do is install a US protectorate. A 'retired' US general is already being groomed as the next Viceroy of Baghdad. For the masses it will mean even more suffering and oppression. As always, the Kurds will be sold out. Already 10,000 Turkish troops are poised to enter the Kurdish areas of Northern Iraq to "protect their interests". They are simply following the example of the Americans and British.

"War is the continuation of politics by other means", wrote Clausewitz. It is the struggle for markets, raw materials and spheres of influence that drives all imperialist wars of aggression. Only by the overthrow of capitalism can we finally eradicate the underlying causes of war.

Tony Blair is a poodle of the reactionary George Bush. His foreign policy like his home policy is based on the interests of the market, of profit, of capitalism. He has dragged Britain into this war against the wishes of the majority. He has ignored public opinion. He has torn the Labour Party apart with an unprecedented 139 Labour MPs voting against him. A special Labour Party Conference must be convened to demand the halting of this war. British troops must be recalled immediately. The £3bn ear-marked for war, which could escalate to £10bn, must be used instead to pay the firefighters, nurses, and other low paid workers.

There are calls for Blair to be removed as party leader. We whole-heartedly support this call. Sooner or later Blair is finished, but this won't happen automatically. The trade unions, which founded the Labour Party, must immediately organise to reclaim the party. This initiative must go hand in hand with the fight for socialist policies as the only alternative to Blairism and the market. Join us in that struggle.