Desert Slaughter

 

Dear reader,   The World Socialist Web Site is proud to be the only news media opposing the war in Ukraine on a principled basis. We emphasize that the international working class must learn the lessons of the past to resist the current nationalist propaganda onslaught, vilifying everything Russian, and using the Russian attack on Ukraine to galvanize patriotic fervor while the COVID pandemic continues to kill thousands daily.   This week, our publishing partner, Mehring Books, is featuring Desert Slaughter, a contemporaneous Marxist assessment of the 1991 First Gulf War and the "Desert Storm" destruction of Iraq by the United States.   The March 10 WSWS Perspective states: "The assault on Ukraine, with its devastating impact on the civilian population, must be condemned. The Putin regime’s claims to be acting in defense of Russia are incompatible with socialist principles—which place international class solidarity above reactionary assertions of national defense—and are refuted by facts. ...   "But this socialist condemnation has nothing in common with the deceitful and hypocritical denunciations emanating from the vast propaganda apparatus of the imperialist countries that cover over the central role played by the United States and its NATO allies in deliberately instigating the war. The narrative in the media, which presents the invasion as an unprovoked action, is a fabrication that conceals the aggressive actions by the NATO powers, in particular the United States, and its puppets in the Ukrainian government."   Provocation and fabrication are not new tactics for American imperialism.    In January 1991, Operation Desert Storm was launched by the George H.W. Bush administration on the pretense of defending “democracy” and Kuwaiti sovereignty from Saddam Hussein, who had invaded the sheikdom on August 2, 1990. With over 80,000 pounds of bombs and 100,000 US troops, American imperialism embarked on a bloody path that opened up more than 30 years of US imperialist war to dominate the resources of the Middle East and secure strategic advantages for the next war, the "great powers" war.   Between August 1990 and August 1991, the Bulletin newspaper, then the print publication of the Workers League in the United States, and one of the forerunners of the World Socialist Web Site, published dozens of articles and statements rejecting the lies of the Bush administration, exposing the history of US imperialist interventions, demonstrating that the historic cause of the war "was the outcome of the deepening crisis of American imperialism and the mounting tendency of the American ruling class to use military force to offset its protracted economic decline." The Workers League sought to "mobilize mass opposition to the gulf war, above all in the working class, on the basis of a Marxist program."   In late 1991, Labor Publications published Desert Slaughter, containing major statements from the Bulletin. Explaining its purpose, the Preface states: "...only in this volume will the critical reader find a coherent analysis of the gulf crisis. ... This book, as indicated by its title, is frankly partisan. ... Genuine objectivity consists not in adopting a posture of being 'above the battle' but in showing the social and class forces expressed in such a crisis as the US drive to war in the Persian Gulf."   Desert Slaughter also exposes the role of the mass media, which is described as "the most restricted, manipulated and censored in history."    To understand the present danger facing humanity, as the US and its allies teeter "on the rim of the volcano" with nuclear bombs at the ready, it is necessary to grasp the history of US imperialism and to provide the leadership for the building of a socialist anti-war movement. Desert Slaughter provides an insight into the predatory aims of the US government over decades, and a clear and farsighted perspective for building that leadership.

Desert Slaughter Statements of the Workers League   The 1991 Persian Gulf War heralded the beginning of a new imperialist re-division of the world, with US capitalism attempting to use military power to offset its declining position in the world economy vis-à-vis its major rivals.  Desert Slaughter exposes secret White House operations to draw Saddam Hussein into an invasion of neighboring Kuwait, and thus provide the long-awaited pretext for US military intervention in this oil-rich region. The US sought not just to defeat the Iraqi military, but to destroy Iraqi society, until that time one of the most advanced in the Middle East. Paperback

A Quarter Century of War:  The US Drive for Global Hegemony 1990 – 2016 By David North   Beginning with the first Persian Gulf conflict of 1990–91, the United States has been at war continuously for more than a quarter century. While using propaganda catchphrases, such as “defense of human rights” and “War on Terror,” to conceal the real aims of its interventions in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa, as well as its confrontation with Russia and China, the United States has been engaged in a struggle for global hegemony. Choose your format

Socialism and the Fight Against War Statement of the International Committee of the Fourth International   In 2016, the International Committee of the Fourth International issued this call to the working class and youth to build a new anti-war movement on an anti-capitalist and socialist basis, independent of all parties and organizations of the capitalist class.   The urgency with which this task must be taken up has never been greater.   Pamphlet

Imperialism and War: Classic Works   An annotated edition of V.I. Lenin’s classic text Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) and Nikolai Bukharin’s Imperialism and World Economy (1915 and 1917). Each of these works, written in the midst of World War I, are necessary in understanding the inevitable military clashes between industrial nations over markets and sources of raw materials. Paperback   Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism is also available separately

Into the Maelstrom:  The Invasion of Iraq And the Crisis of American Imperialism By David North   Two essays written immediately after the US invasion of 2003, analyzing its social and political causes and consequences. Published in 2013  with the introduction, “The Iraq War ten years on: A turning point for US imperialism.”   Pamphlet After the Slaughter: Political Lessons of the Balkan War By David North   This statement by David North was originally published on June 14, 1999 following the conclusion of the 48-day NATO bombardment of Serbia and Kosovo.   Pamphlet

The War & the International (1915) By Leon Trotsky   "The War of 1914 is the most colossal breakdown in history of an economic system destroyed by its own inherent contradictions," wrote Leon Trotsky in this unsurpassed analysis of the driving forces of imperialist war.   Choose your format War on War Lenin, the Zimmerwald Left, and the Origins of the Communist International By R. Craig Nation   The story of those who chose to fight the prevailing opportunism of the Second International and, the author argues, renewed socialism after the cataclysm of war.   Paperback

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