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The Draft and Cannon Fodder for Imperialism
by Sidney Martinez
Sunday, Sep. 12, 2004 at 2:18 PM
tllnational@yahoo.com
Covers the upcoming draft
The Draft and Cannon Fodder for Imperialism
By Sidney Martinez
In this tumultuous period in history more and more it's becoming apparent that Capitalism is now making its transition into full-fledged Imperialism. As we now reach the most blatant imperialist stage of Capitalism we find that in America one final shock to the masses is on the order of the day. This grand shock comes in the form of the draft since the Vietnam days we heard that it would never happen again. Yet now at this point we begin to see the transition into the epoch of Capitalist crisis in which the ruling classes are left with no options. In a previous article "Economic Booms and Wartime Plunder" we explained how the competition between domestic and foreign Capitalists was leading us to an eventual burst in the Real Estate bubble. 1 month later the Bourgeois Economist Lou Dobbs on CNN's Money Line confirmed this prediction to be true. As such many more of the predictions we made came to pass and now the trade wars between domestic capitalists and China are in full swing.
The Bush administration know it could never win a war with China at this stage so faced with little option to stimulate economic booms the Capitalists are left with only 1 more option. Increase military spending and if an outright civil war breaks out in Iraq the answer will be send more forces to help defend the Semi-Cacique regime of Iraq. In its current stage of development the Semi-Cacique Regime of Iraq is still not able to defend its own interests before a new borrower state can effectively be established, the masses of Iraq must submit. Only a serious defeat dealt by the armies of the American Creditor state guarantee Iraq transition fully into a Cacique Democracy.
In order to guarantee the forces would exist to deal with the masses of Iraq, Bush’s first move was to call up all the reservists he could get. However Bush knows this would never be enough, some in the Pentagon have even admitted to this. Meanwhile the Capitalists continue to demand defense of their interests by the state and this being the case Bush is now attempting to sneak the draft through both houses (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163.) What is interesting this time around is that draft doesn't just include men but it also includes women and quite frankly even the mentally ill and disabled basically anyone between ages 18-26 fit to carry a weapon. The new bills do not provide exemptions for people with disabilities.
It seems for some odd reason Bush knows something voters don't. He knows he's going to win already in spite of everything this bill he's made no effort to try and pass before the elections. In any case these bills are being sneaked through both houses and neither party, or candidate seems to be saying a single word about it. It seems apparent that no matter who wins Bush or Kerry both will find some use for the draft. Yet with this going on the unwavering support of the Anti-Bush movement for John Kerry is not wavering. It should be obvious to anyone however that if Kerry hasn't spoken out against the draft maybe its because that if he's elected he'd still increase the number of troops in Iraq. I'm sure Kerry would cite escalating tensions in the country as the reasons just as Clinton maintained barbaric sanctions in Iraq.
No matter who wins Capitalists will need cannon fodder in Iraq to defend their interests. Even if Kerry was to say tomorrow he was opposed to the draft it would be a promise he couldn't keep. Even if he did say he was why would he wait in the first place? Where is John Kerry waging a valiant struggle against the draft right now? The reason why Kerry can never act in the interests of the people is simple he'd have to declare himself an anti-capitalist to do so. Of course we all know that Kerry will never do that and thus will never wage a valiant struggle against the draft. One of John Kerry's most well known supporters Michael Moore did forget to mention one major problem with Democrats pointed out by his own movie. Moore forgot the simple fact that every person on Capital Hill that he talked to about registering their child for the Army was both Democrat and Republican. Is "anybody but Bush", in this case John Kerry, a Democrat whose not even against the draft, a better choice? How can a choice between two candidates who support the draft be a choice at all?
The most appalling thing about these new draft bills has to be the fact that they do not exclude women, disabled or the mentally ill. Anyone not hospitalized who is able to move and fit to carry a rifle can be drafted. Sending the mentally ill and disabled off to die is a sign that no one is exempt except for the severely disabled. Sadly it would be good for business because it means that less funding needs to be spent taking care of that sector of society. Whichever candidate wins office could simply just cut funding to healthcare by justifying it by saying there's not as much need to provide services for the not so severe cases of mental illness or disability. Since every disabled person fit to carry a weapon would be off serving as cannon fodder for Imperialism more money could be devoted to the war effort. Further were not even taking into account how the mentally ill would react to the war torn environment and how they could snap when placed in such in environment. Of course for Bush and Kerry this is of no real consequence as more death in Iraq means more profits for the Capitalists. Ultimately what it comes down to is that Democrats will seek to increase profits no matter what.
Another thing to take note of is that for all their traditional values Republicans begin to move further away from the traditional male "bread-winner" and the unwaged female domestic laborer. Capitalism forces even the Religious right to abandon some of its traditional values in favor of meeting all that Imperialism demands. This time around escape to Canada will not even be an option or anywhere else for that matter. New Smart Border legislation as well as no exemptions even for students means that America will become a closed off country with no hope of escape from service. If a student is joined they have the rest of their semester to finish before deployment. Pretty soon right-wingers won't be able to tell us to leave the country because we won’t be able to.
In response to the breaking news of this many students will hit the streets and following the example of the most class-conscious layers, the working and toiling masses will also hit the streets. As we saw before the youth will always be the first to get active and the question of leadership will once again present itself. Like before when the ANSWER Coalition led by The Stalinist Workers World Party (WWP) betrayed the student movement with its lack of perspective. The youth will most likely be duped by these opportunists and will fail to create any sort of long-term mass movement against Imperialism. Of course this time around things will be different since the WWP’s first attempt led to a split in its own organization it is most likely that we will again see internal schisms within their own organization. Once again however if the correct leadership does not take a mass base in the movement no long-term solution to war can ever be reached.
As we attempted to tell students and youth before in the last anti-war movement the need for a long-term perspective needs to be realized. If these same students ignore our perspectives a second time the future of the world looks very bleak. If they develop illusions that sole political action and mass street mobilizations are how you end wars for good then nothing can ever really change for the better. Only Socialism can end war and imperialism for all time as long as Capitalism exists the profit motive for war will always force the dual parties of Capital to war.
Whether it is the nice guy approach of great Democrats like Clinton that included dropping bombs on Iraqi children or giving millions in aid to the brutal Fujimori regime of Peru which slaughtered millions of its own people. Or to the blatant and idiotic, drunken, cowboy at a rodeo approach of Bush.
The only solution for workers in this country is to fight Capitalism. The enemy is Capitalism and there is no real war but the class war. Only voting for candidates like Leonard Peltier can ever make any sense. We invite all to join The Trotskyist Labor League (TLL) today in building an alternative to Capitalism!
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