Condemn the U.S.-British Aggression

Against Iraq

Statement of the Manitoba Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

March 20, 2003

At approximately 5:30 a.m. (Baghdad time) on March 20, 2003, the United States launched over 40 cruise missiles against targets in Iraq. A full-scale attack with thousands of cruise missiles and bombs is expected later today, as the American and British forces attempt to destroy the morale of the Iraqi people with what they call "Shock and Awe" and a "Hiroshima effect".

The Manitoba Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) adds its voice to those of millions of people around the world who are condemning this barbaric aggression against Iraq by the United States and Britain. This aggression is neither sanctioned by the United Nations, nor is it legal under international law. As such, this American-led war constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity and its architects must be held accountable for their crimes by the world's people.

This war by the world's most powerful country against a people who have been rendered virtually defenceless is not a war to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq. Far from it, the Bush administration has already announced that it intends to install a military dictatorship in Iraq ruled over by U.S. General Tommy Franks. It has pledged to stay "as long as is necessary" to establish a puppet regime which will be willing to subjugate its country to the American dictate. There are also strong indications that the American occupiers intend to carve up Iraq into several small, feuding principalities in order to ensure its permanent weakness. Meanwhile, with the tacit approval of the United States, Turkey is preparing to crush the Iraqi Kurds and seize Iraq's northern oilfields, while Israel is poised to use the war as a cover for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied territories. There are also reports that Israeli war planes stationed in Turkey are preparing to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran. Bringing democracy to the region is clearly not even on the agenda.

Even before the U.S. bombs began to rain down on the Iraqi people, it had become clear that this war is not even aimed primarily against Iraq. Iraq and its people are merely pawns in a much larger geopolitical chess game being played out between the United States and its imperialist rivals - France, Germany, Russia, Japan and China. Iraq's crime is that it is sitting on one of the world's largest reserves of crude oil and has dared to resist American dictate. Iraq is serving as an example to the world's people of the consequences in store for them if they, too, dare to resist the American empire. It will also serve as a military base for the United States to seize absolute control over the oil resources of the entire Middle East. Military control of those oil resources will provide the United States with enormous leverage to bring its chief imperialist rivals into line if they dare to challenge the American domination of the world. This is the essence of the Bush Doctrine announced last September.

Whether or not the American imperialists succeed in their plans will be determined, not by weapons of mass destruction, but by the actions of the world's people. It is extremely important to grasp that, despite appearances to the contrary, the United States is operating from a position of extreme strategic weakness. Its economy is on the brink of collapse and the enormous expense of this war, as well as the even greater expenses associated with maintaining a global empire, could easily push it over the edge. The growing resistance of the world's people, coupled with the intensification of the inter-imperialist rivalries, is bound to push U.S. imperialism even deeper into crisis.

There are those who claim that the fact that the U.S. has launched this war against Iraq represents the failure of the anti-war movement. This is not true. Clearly nothing short of a popular, revolutionary uprising by the American people, themselves, could have stopped the Bush warmongers from committing this murderous act. The Bush administration simply paid no heed to the fact that the vast majority of the world's people, and all but a small handful of governments, are opposed to its war. This is not a reflection of the weakness of the anti-war movement, but of the desperation of the U.S. imperialists and the extent to which they have embarked upon the path charted by the Hitlerite Nazis. In spite of this, the anti-war movement has not only succeeded in mobilizing tens of millions of people in demonstrations over the past several weeks, but has also succeeded in isolating the Bush and Blair regimes in world public opinion. This is no small accomplishment.

The task facing the world's people now is to step up the opposition to imperialist war to a new level, to intensify the political pressures on the U.S. imperialists and anyone who supports their war. Our aim must be to ensure that the imperialists can find no way out of the economic and political crisis into which they are rapidly sinking. This struggle must be waged both to stop this particular war, as well as to eliminate the economic and political system which spawned it. This is a struggle for civilization, itself.