NO to war!

The US and its NATO allies are rapidly preparing for a big war in the 
Middle East. They intend to launch military attacks and probably occupy a 
number of Middle East countries — Libya, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan 
and Pakistan have all been listed. Accusations have even been made against 
China. One military commentator being interviewed on US TV said that the US 
had no less than 62 countries on its list.

The Australian Government is blindly going along with the demands of its US 
master by invoking the ANZUS Treaty.

There is no intention to seek a political solution by referring these 
charges against specific countries to the United Nations or to gain UN 
approval for its war plans. The UN is being totally relegated.

President Bush has already declared that the US is at war. His war plans 
are being presented as a war for "civilisation", when in fact it is a war 
to preserve the continued existence of capitalism and to achieve US world 
domination — a long held ambition of the US ruling class.

War hawk, Henry Kissinger, is calling for a long-term war against every 
Third World country which is "too independent".

As far back as 1997, America's then Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, 
declared that NATO would become the Cop of the World, "active from the 
Middle East to Central Africa".

One US military official declared, "We have a very large hammer that can be 
brought to bear in a number of ways at any time. That's not a threat, it's 
a fact."

The Sydney Morning Herald headline screamed: "A war without 
borders". Yes!, and a war without end!

Large-scale military mobilisations and exercises are already taking place.

The largest NATO exercises this year are taking place in Bulgaria. The 
largest British military exercises since the Falklands war are taking place 
in Oman in the Persian Gulf. US warships are standing off the coast of 
Iran. The US and Japan are tightening their ties to beef up their military 
integration. US reservists have been called up and Bush tells them "to be 
ready".

The US FBI and the CIA and other agencies are being authorised by the 
American Congress to recruit criminals to their ranks to undertake 
assassinations in various countries that do not toe the line and refuse to 
capitulate to US demands.

The question has to be asked — who has benefited from the attack on the 
World Trade Centre and the Pentagon? What is the economic situation that 
has created the urge for a new major war. Behind military and political 
actions there are always economic factors, although war is always dressed 
up in moral motives — in this case the war against terrorism.

The New York Times (August 20) had this to say about the situation 
of the world economy: "The world economy has slowed to a crawl as the 
United States, Europe, Japan and some major developing countries undergo a 
rare simultaneous slump.

"The latest economic statistics from around the globe show that many 
regional economic powers — Italy and Germany, Mexico and Brazil, Japan and 
Singapore — have become economically stagnant, defying expectations that 
growth in other countries would help compensate for the slowdown in the 
United States...."

Bush was also facing the fact that even the very narrow social base of 
support he had when first elected was rapidly being eroded by the deepening 
economic slump in the US and around the world.

Unable to advance any solution to the growth of unemployment and 
catastrophic losses on the stock market, facing criticism over 
the evaporation of the budget surplus and the reversal of its 
pledge not to spend Social Security funds, the administration 
was showing signs of internal dissension and disarray.

Faced with a desperate economic situation and the possibility of recession 
in all the main capitalist countries, the massive rejection of the policies 
of corporate globalisation by tens of thousands of demonstrators in many 
cities and the political isolation of the US following its boycott of the 
Durban anti-racism conference and its refusal to support the Kyoto 
environmental protocols and many other acts of the US leadership, the 
attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon is being used as the 
justification for war against many countries.

But the US is attempting to use the situation for more than economic 
reasons. The Middle East countries have the largest oil resources and they 
also have a strategic location in relation to the future war that the US 
leaders have in mind — against Russia and China.

The unprecedented lying and racist media campaign to whip up sympathy for 
the New York victims, forgets the victims of US bombs in many countries.

The aim is to justify and stampede many into supporting a "war against 
terrorism". But such a war will be against countries and the millions of 
people of those countries who want no more than a better life for their 
families. They will also become innocent victims.

A pause in the hysteria and cool heads are desperately needed at the moment 
before Bush and his supporters impose on the world a calamitous war which 
will bring millions of casualties.

The well-known American commentator Michael Moore, who is travelling in the 
US, writes in an e-mailed dispatch:

"I continue to be amazed at the large number of people — both on the radio 
and those we run into — who are completely opposed to some half-cocked 
military response to what has happened.

"No matter what the media tells you or shows you, I am convinced there is a 
majority of Americans who, though they want justice and want to be 
protected from further attacks, do not want George W Bush to start sounding 
like Dr Strangelove.

"I feel I have a responsibility as one of those Americans who doesn't feel 
good right now to speak out and say what needs to be said: That we, the 
United States of America, are culpable in committing so many acts of error 
and bloodshed that we had better get a clue about the culture of violence 
in which we have been active participants.

"I have received more emails this week than ever before — about a thousand 
every four hours. Ninety per cent of them are from people who also refuse 
to be drawn into some form of senseless bloodletting, and who agree that we 
need to find the right way to bring those to justice who committed these 
acts."

On the initiative of Friends of the Earth a statement has been circulated 
to and endorsed by a number of NGOs and politicians. The statement calls 
for "a calm response in the face of this tragedy. The world needs to take a 
deep breath and not take rash and counter-productive steps in retaliation 
for these attacks ...

"We call on the international community not to allow this atrocity to 
increase hatred, racial and religious intolerance ... true security can 
only be rooted in social and environmental justice."

But in their desperation and for economic, political and military reasons 
the Bush administration and those other warhawks they have succeeded in 
gathering to their cause, may act quickly before the people of many 
countries awaken from the brainwashing they have received from CNN and from 
the many politicians who care little for the fate of humanity.

The broadest movement of all who are for the maintenance of world peace and 
the working through of a political solutions to both individual and state 
terrorism is urgently necessary.