The following is a statement of the Communist Party USA on the Bush war drive
The world is faced with the nightmarish specter of endless wars, unbridled military aggression and global chaos brought on by Bush’s “war on terrorism.” Under the pretext of combating terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration has set its sights on Iraq as the first target in its drive to dominate and control the world.
Such a war poses grave dangers to all humanity, and cannot be allowed to happen.
It is now clear that the Bush administration was planning an attack on Iraq even before it came to power. Such an invasion would provide the immediate justification for the creation of a global “Pax Americana” – a blueprint for maintaining superpower domination in line with U.S. corporate interests. Using the euphemism of “regime change,” the Bush administration aims to expand the frontiers of “U.S. national security interests” to undermine international laws and the UN Charter itself, which call for respecting the national sovereignty of all countries, and for peaceful resolutions of all conflicts. Bush’s speech at the UN was a thinly veiled attempt to shroud the wolf of unilateral military action in the sheep’s clothing of Security Council resolutions – a move subsequently exposed by his refusal to accept Iraq’s unconditional agreement to resume weapons inspections.
The cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has been its drive to dominate and control the world’s oil supplies. Iraq alone accounts for ten percent of all known oil reserves. This policy has led the U.S. military and the CIA to overthrow democratically elected governments, arm undemocratic and dictatorial regimes, including that led by Saddam Hussein, and to finance, arm and train despotic opposition groups and terrorist organizations. These policies were pursued in the name of human rights and democracy in the Middle East, which an invasion of Iraq would expose as pure hypocrisy.
At home, the administration has exploited the Sept. 11 attacks to push through measures such as the Patriot Act, which drastically curtail constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. The administration is banking on these measures and tough talk against Saddam Hussein to divert people’s attention away from the corporate corruption scandals, failed economic policies that favor the rich, and its complete subservience to right-wing corporate interests. Yet in spite of all their efforts, a growing movement which includes labor, peace, religious groups and Congressional opposition, is challenging the Bush war doctrine. Polls show ever greater majorities of Americans questioning that doctrine.
The Communist Party USA believes that the war Bush wants would be a full-fledged frontal assault on working people. Tens of thousands of our sons and daughters are asked to sacrifice their lives – and those of innocent Iraqi civilians – for the oil monopolies and the military-industrial complex. Our parents and grandparents are asked to sacrifice their need for prescription drug coverage and Medicare benefits to pay for a $200 billion war. Our brothers and sisters are asked to sacrifice their demands for living wage jobs and affordable education to protect the profits of Wall Street.
Above all, the American people are asked to sacrifice peace and friendship among nations for an endless war to fill a bottomless pit of corporate greed. If we spill blood for Bush’s war in Iraq today, then tomorrow we will be asked to die for Bush in North Korea; a week later in Iran; a year later, in China. This war is an imperialist war – a war that all peace-loving Americans must oppose.
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