Abu Ghraib, Fallujah & Crisis of US Capitalism

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Friday May 07, 2004 22:31 by John Reimann - Labor's Militant Voice wildcat99 at earthlink dot net

The scandal of the tortures at Abu Ghraib, the US retreat from Fallujah both indicat a developing crisis for US capitalism and its drive for world comination

Falluja, Abu Ghraib, Bush and the Crisis of US Capitalism

The growing scandal around the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib is a further reflection of the developing crisis of US capitalism. Schooled in their isolated right-wing think tanks and their insane ultra-fundamentalist Christian theology, a layer of the Bush administration has been carrying out the policy which can best be described by that old saying of a naval captain, "damn the torpedoes (coming at us); full speed ahead!" In other words, since the collapse of the former Soviet Union, and given the blatant capitulation of the union leadership (meaning the leadership of the working class here), they feel that they have no opposition anywhere in the world. They feel that they can just simply rely on their own firepower as the solution for everything.

As they have the might, they will stop at nothing for total world domination (which cannot be achieved without secure oil supplies).

The torture of the Abu Ghraib prisoners does not stand in isolation, contrary to what Bush claims. There is the ongoing torture of the prisoners taken in Afghanistan and currently being held in Guantanamo Bay. These people are being held in outdoor pens in isolation, and with no formal charges against them. They are being held indefinitely. In the United States, the administration is now even claiming the authority to seize anyone here they claim is a terrorist and deny them the rights supposedly guaranteed to them, even including the right to see what evidence exists against them.

In Iraq, it is clear what has been happening: On the one hand, the US has been "subcontracting" much of its occupation role to private corporations. In part, this is to allow their friends to make some profits off of this dirty role. Another part, however, is to avoid taking responsibility for any war crimes. What is now being revealed is that Abu Ghraib was run by those whose job it is to extract any information they can from the Iraqis. They were not only trying to get information that the prisoners might have, they were also trying to demoralize them to the degree that the prisoner would be willing to become an informant. (This is also an indication of the degree of isolation that the occupying forces are experiencing there.)

Another reason for this torturing of the prisoners is the racism that is encouraged from the highest levels of the US military. One company commander, Capt. Todd Brown, was quoted as saying, "You have to understand the Arab mind. The only thing they understand is force - force, pride and saving face." (New York Times 12/7/03) Above him stand generals such as Lieutenant General Jerry Boykin, one of the Pentagon's planners in a counter-insurgency program. Last October, Boykin told an Oregon church congregation that the US was at war with Satan, who "wants to destroy us as a Christian army".

Any occupying army will become brutalized. This has been the case for the British troops in Northern Ireland and for the Israeli troops in the occupied territories. In the last case, there is a direct connection, since the Israeli regime has been helping train US forces in occupation techniques. In this context, we should consider what is the situation for the Israeli Occupation Forces. Former Israeli Staff Sargeant Liran Ron Furer recently wrote a book in which he describes how playing the role of occupying troops degrades and brutalizes the occupiers. He describes how his fellow soldiers used to humiliate the Palestinians who had to pass through their check point. They would beat them, urinate on them, make them do things such as stand on four legs and bark like a dog. Now, these same Israeli military experts who devised the occupation strategy in the West Bank and Gaza are helping train US soldiers in Iraq. What do we expect?

In addition to the racism encouraged amongst the troops in Iraq, there is the enormous stress they are under, being an occupying army, there against their will, worrying about bills back home in many cases, carrying out a policy they had no say in. And, most of all, hated by and isolated from the overwhelming majority of the people in that country. One soldier who was there, Dave Bischel (of Rodeo, CA) described the effect: "I saw quite a few soldiers just lose it. They'd start yelling and freaking out and throwing things." In other words, they started to crack psychologically. Other soldiers, put in charge of a brutal prison run by the most brutal elements in the world, with absolute power over other human beings, cracked in another way - they took it out on the prisoners.

The Bush administration, and US capitalism, is perfectly willing to accept and even encourage this brutality, because they feel that nothing can stand in their way. However, in Falluja they have started to encounter the limits of this approach. There is no military reason that they could not have forced their will on Falluja. All that would have been required is some massive bombing, etc. and tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded. However, they were forced to recognize that if they did this, the entire region would be likely to go up in flames and that friendly regimes like the Saudis could be overthrown. They were forced to retreat, as a result.

In other words, they have been forced to accept in practice that simple fire power is not the only factor in the equation.

Now, cracks are starting to appear in the Bush administration at home. On the one hand, Bush is partially blaming Secretary of "Defense" Don Rumsfeld for allegedly not having shown him (Bush) these photos for some time. Whether this is true or not is hardly important; what matters is that Bush is publicly criticizing one of his most influential cabinet members. On the other hand, the long-simmering differences between Colin Powell and the crazies within the Bush administration (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice and the other neo-conservatives and the Christian fanatics) is starting to boil over. In an article to be published in GQ magazine, Powell is allowing several of his key aides and allies to speak for him. They are characterizing Condoleezza Rice as "a jerk". They are bemoaning the clumsy, unstrategic way in which US capitalism is tromping all over the world, completely alienating key potential allies. They are even attacking these right wing ideologues for dodging military service. In part, what is happening is that Powell is trying to salvage what is left of his reputation as he sees the Bush ship sinking. Beyond that, Powell is probably also reflecting the pressure from the more pragmatic wing of the US capitalist class.

On another front, the influential magazine "The American Conservative" has now come out in favor of immediate US withdrawel from Iraq as has the right-wing demagogue Patrick Buchanan. Furthermore, a right wing split off party has nominated the former Reagan cabinet member Ed Meese for president. He will be running on an anti-occupation platform. All of this indicates the growing crisis for US capitalism.

Their problem is that they have gotten themselves into Iraq and now they cannot leave. To do so would be to enormously encourage any movements against US capitalist domination throughout the region and throughout the world. Iraq wold most likely be taken over by religious fundamentalists, perhaps breaking up into warring factions and partition. This would threaten to spread to other countires in this, the oil-rich region of the world.

So they cannot leave and they cannot stay. And as long as they stay, more brutalities and "war crimes" will be committed.

Once again, the silence of the US labor leaders distinguishes itself. Here are the people who are supposed to be leading a movement of working class people, the people whose chief concern should be to speak for our interests, and on this crisis at this moment, they have absolutely nothing to say. Were it not for their role, workers here in the US would have a real choice rather than the choice of Bush and his pale reflection, John Kerry. In the upcoming elections, it will be a mistake for anti-war and union activists to get sucked into campaigning for Kerry, rather than struggling to build a force capable of starting to challenge the global offensive of US and world capitalism. This fighting force must be built in the work places, the working class communities, amongst the rank and file of the unions, and in the schools.

The crisis of US capitalism in Iraq, and its true face as revealed in the Abu Ghraib photos, should be linked with the attacks of US capitalism here at home.