The latest war in Lebanon, apart from showing the
brutality and barbarism of the Israeli government and its main allies and
supporters, is also shedding light on the limits of the Bush administration's
plan for world domination – the holy trinity, which some educated bourgeois
professors like to refer to as Pax
Americana, End of History and Empire.
Scarcely three and a half years ago, when preparing the
attack on Iraq, the Bush
administration tried to usher away the imperialist interests of what they
dubbed ‘Old Europe'; that old, aching and slow Europe,
namely France, seems to have been called back on the stage of international
politics. Up to Wednesday (9 August) the future of the area was being discussed
and agreed, in a two-man party, by France
and the USA.
The text of the much talked about UN resolution agreed by France and the USA
has been presented in the bourgeois media as a titanic effort to establish a
long lasting peace in Lebanon
and stabilise the Middle East.
The resolution, since it is designed to facilitate the
Israeli task of weakening Hezbollah until an international force takes over,
did not call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanese
territory and granted Israel
the right to continue with defensive
military operations. In other words, the UN legitimised and backed Israel's aggression, since right from the
beginning, as is clearly stated in the second paragraph of the draft, that is
what Israel
has been doing:
"Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities
in Lebanon and in Israel since Hizbollah's attack on Israel on 12
July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both
sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of
internally displaced persons."
The
situation is such that the Arab League had to send out a delegation to New York to try to
arrange a less humiliating wording for the resolution. They are under immense
pressure at home. The people of the Middle East,
disgusted at the brutality and dimensions of the Israeli butchery, are
demanding their governments step in and bring the war to a halt.
So
far, the Arab ruling elites could hide behind a cold-blooded diplomatic game,
leaving the leading roles to those imperialist powers with some influence in
the region. However, the publication of the agreed draft has obliged them to
take action.
One
of the Israeli government's main goals is the drastic reduction, possibly the
elimination, of Hezbollah's guerillas capabilities to operate in the bordering
area of northern Israel.
The
Israeli government knows that to do so it would have to occupy the country and
conduct a ruthless war of occupation. As they already know by experience, such
a war is long, costly, demoralising and, ultimately, unwinnable.
So
by creating a humanitarian, diplomatic and political crisis in the area they
are hoping an international 'peace' force will do the job for them.
Such
an international force, to police and disarm Hezbollah, would have to deploy,
at least 15,000 soldiers. And, as Israeli Primer Minister, Mr Olmert, stated
last week, will have to be "made up of armies and not of retirees: of
real soldiers and not pensioners who have come to spend leisurely months in
southern Lebanon, but rather an army with combat units".
The
question now posed is, will French society, whose armies would form the bulk of
the occupying forces, be ready to pay the price that a war of occupation would
require? What will happen in France
once coffins wrapped in a French flag start arriving back to the Metropolis and
more and more resources are diverted to the war effort? Would the French
workers and youth, who have waged wave upon wave of protests and strikes,
marched and even rioted, over the past few years, be willing to accept this?
The
latest war over Lebanon
has a logic of its own. It has already sent shock wanes throughout the region.
Initially the British and American imperialist bloc seemed to believe it would
assist their push to reshape the Middle East.
Instead what we have is yet another element of instability and turmoil. For the
masses as Lenin predicted ‘capitalism is horror without end.'
To
any reasonable human being the idea of America
and Britain attacking Iran might sound fanciful, especially given the
condition in which their armies find themselves in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
However, millions of people around the world are today wondering if those who
are capable of the brutality we have seen so far could indeed launch such a new
attack, if not on the ground then perhaps from the air.
To
bring in an old colonial power with imperialist interests in the area to disarm
Hezbollah and to claim that will bring stability to the zone is, certainly, the
most nonsensical statement one could have heard or read in recent times, and
the media is plagued with such nonsense.
Is
there no hope for the people of the Middle East?
There
is indeed hope, but it is not to be found in the reactionary fantasies of the
bourgeois media. The hopes of the Middle East
peoples, as well as the hopes of the European and American youth in uniform,
lie alongside the hopes of the workers, peasants and oppressed around the
world. That is, in the struggle for socialism. Neither the imperialist powers
of the world nor the reactionary ruling elites of the region have any solution
to offer. The future they are preparing is an endless cycle of bloodshed,
carnage and destruction. Such despair is the only future capitalism can offer
the masses of the Middle East. Their ‘road
maps' are all detours over a cliff, the only route to hope lies in the struggle
for a socialist federation of the entire region.
