GULF WAR
Stop the imperialist aggression against Iraq! A LL the debates and ON THE night of January 16/17 George conjectures that pre- Bush unleashed his strike force - of ceded the outbreak of unprecedented power — in an attack on Iraq. the war can now be resolved. First of these was the The most formidable, violent and debate on its real objectives. sophisticated air attack in history is under Whatever attitude one may have way, and, at the moment of writing, appears on the question of Kuwait, there can no longer be the slightest to be achieving its objectives without great doubt that the real aim of the difficulty. This will come as a surprise only to impressive concentration of those who have either believed the campaign region goes beyond the "libera- American forces in the Gulf whipped up in the imperialist media around tion" of the Emirate. This objec- the theme of the "new Hitler" with "the fourth tive could have been achieved most powerful army in the world", or those such, going far beyond the question of Kuwait or the regime of Saddam Hussein.
The destruction of Iraqi potential by the United States and allied forces aims at eliminating a regional power capable of standing up to American plans in the area, threatening Washington's Arab financial backers and protégés, influencing the oil market and breaking the strategic superiority of the Zionist over the Arab forces, which has existed for more than four decthrough a sustained blockade, without bloodshed, as some of the American establishment - fearing the negative effects of military action on imperialist interests in the Arab and Muslim countries in the Arab and Muslım countries - wished.
But this was not the objective of Bush and his acolytes. This self-appointed world cop unilaterally despatched forces to the region that went well beyond what was needed to defend this other Texas that is the Saudi Arabian kingdom, or the needs of the embargo decreed by the Great Powers united in the United Nations Security Council. Since the start, Washington's real aim, as we have explained many times, has been the destruction of Iraqi military potential.
Bush plainly stated this, in an official letter addressed to Saddam Hussein during the Baker-Aziz meeting on January 9 in Geneva. This letter does not say: "leave Kuwait or we will dislodge you by force", but in substance "get out unconditionally, otherwise your military establishment will be destroyed." Given the point that things had reached, the Iraqi dictator had, furthermore, every reason to believe that, even if he withdrew, the French promises that this would carry no risk would turn out to be at best only the fond wishes of Paris.
American officials and experts were repeatedly stating that, even if Iraq decided to withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait, Saddam's Iraq would be subjected to sanctions. a continuing embargo and tions, a continuing embargo and other forms of harassment aimed at making him pay the price for the invasion of Kuwait and strangling his military potential.
The definition of the objectives of the first phase of operation Desert Storm is eloquent. It is not the Iraqi taken in by Saddam's rhetoric.
ades.
These have been the real aims of American imperialism in the Gulf crisis since the start. Those like the social democrats, who have pretended to believe in the "international legality" of the American action, and have defended this idea against the defended this idea against the pacifist inclinations of public troops stationed in Kuwait who have been attacked, nor is the assault restricted to missiles and other Iraqi military means that could be used to directly support the troops.
The Cruise missiles and the formidable air fleet used in this phase have targeted Iraqi objectives which have a military potential in the broad sense of the term. That is to say, not just existing forces, but everything that might permit Iraq to rebuild its military power in the future, such as the nuclear, chemical and armaments industries.
That phase of military action that generally takes place when it has become clear that the enemy will fight to the end, was here the very first one, that is, a lightning, massive night time strike by the American forces. That is to say a deliberate aggression against Iraq as opinion, have ultimately played the game of the American big brother. The French imperialist government is not winning over anybody in the Arab world by "limiting" its participation to an attack on Kuwait. The Soviet bureaucracy, for its part, has hit the lowest level of cynicism during this crisis. After being well paid for its collusion with Washington in the UN, it has taken the opportunity to try to brutally subdue Lithuania.
What is taking place in the Gulf is the first big battle of the "new world order" so dear to the heart of George Bush. It will not be the last. The present Arab generation will have to draw the same lessons from this as did the generation of 1967, which saw at one and the same time the heroic resistance of the Vietnamese and the humiliating defeat of the Arab regimes by Israel.
Rotten bourgeois dictatorships are incapable of a victorious resistance to imperialism. The latter's technological superiority can only be overcome by a prolonged popular revolutionary mobilization supported by the world anti-imperialist and anti-militarist movements. such support is more than ever Such support is more than ever needed for the masses of the region. For them to be able to get rid of all the tyrannies that oppress them it is first of all, and above all, necessary to win the immediate withdrawal of all the forces involved in this crimi- all the forces involved in his crimi- 3 nal imperialist aggression. *
February 4, 1991 • #199 International Viewpoint among the Arab masses who have been
BUREAU OF THE UNITED SECRETARIAT
OF THE FOURTH INTERNATIONAL
GULF WAR Apocalypse Now — part II NEVER in history has a war, and its plans, been "so-much foretold"', so far in advance. The offensive unleashed by the United States army and its allies in the night of January 16/17, 1991 corresponds in detail to the scenario developed by the Pentagon's strategists since the start of what it was convenient to describe as the "Gulf crisis".
At the time of writing - January 18, 1991, — less than 48 hours after its start, the offensive has only begun. Nonetheless, phase 1 will certainly run according to plan, since it depends on air forces and missiles, in which the aggressors have crushing and comprehensive superiority. The Pentagon has, of course, prepared several variants for the subsequent phases corresponding to the range of ington, as we have constantly emphasized, had set itself the objective not of "liberating" Kuwait, but of destroying Iraq's military/industrial potential.
This was the minimum, non-negotiable programme for the Bush administration: not only to remove the Iraqis from
Kuwait, but to remove Iraqi pretensions to regional hegemony in defiance of the US, and in this way to set an example to the rest of the world. This objective had to be reached at whatever cost - whether by military or "peaceful" means.
Thus the only choice left to Saddam Hussein was whether to capitulate without a fight or be crushed by force — to grovel or be forced to grovel. This analysis completely ruled out all the chimerical "Arab solutions" and other compromise formulas. As we have stressed, the intransigeance in this conflict has not come from Saddam Hussein, but the American president. The Iraqi dictator was certainly ready for a variety of possible compromise formulas.
Even ruling out any Iraqi territorial gain, in line with Bush's "principle" of "no reward for aggression" no reward for aggression , a compro- a compromise would have been possible on the basis of the proposal made by Saddam Hussein himself on August 12, 1990, ten days after the invasion of Kuwait. (This "principle" is not, of course, applied to Israel — plans floated by the US government for Israeli withdrawal from any part of the territories occupied in 1967 always involve big concessions by the neighbouring Arab states).
Falling into Washington's trap
The despot of Baghdad had then realized the hole he had dug himself into. He had marched blindly into the trap set for him by Washington* . After vainly threatening the Emir of Kuwait to extract from him the funds needed to refloat the Iraqi state, he then invaded Kuwait, promising to withdraw three days later with the hope of getting a satisfactory deal.
Then, faced with the refusal of the Kuwaiti ruler to negotiate, he proclaimed the latter overthrown" and later announced the annexation of Kuwaiti territory, pursuing his flight forward faced with American and world reaction. On August 12, Saddam Hussein proposed a global discussion on the presence of his army in Kuwait and those of the Israeli forces on the West Bank and Gaza and of Syrian forces in Lebanon.
The aim of this manoeuvre was not to justify the continuation of the occupation 1. "Une guerre tant annoncée" the title of an editorial in Le Monde, January 18, 1990. 2. See International Viewpoint, nos 190, 191, 194 and 197. 3. IV 191. 4. It has been well documented that the US goverment allowed Saddam Hussein to believe that it would not intervene in his conflict with Kuwait. not intervene in his conflict with Kuwait.