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.
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