Editorial
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| Ray Stevenson |
In 1937, Hitler’s Nazi Condor Legion obliterated Guernica, a Spanish town and people by massive, continuing bombing. The horrendous Nazi blood bath was committed on behalf of the Falangist Franco forces engaged in the destruction of the Spanish peoples first fragile attempt at democratic Republican rule. The "Westernized" democracies of the United States, Great Britain, France and Canada turned the backs in their deliberate "non intervention" policy. They had guaranteed and opened the door to WW II and the German "Drang Nach Osten" (March to the East) assault in the attempt to destroy the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The bombing and devastation of Spanish Guernica introduced a new "strategic" element known since as "terror-bombing" with the then unheard of highly technological developments and "fine tuning". The yield in profits is also "unheard of " result.
The purpose, advancing the war concept beyond the pre- (and "post-"Von Clauzewitz’s "war science" of armed military formations that confronted each other for the unchallenged occupation of territory,
that for the most part excluded civilian casualties. The new and strategic "terror-bombing" now envisioned the destruction of civilian populations and infrastructure wholesale from the air.
Since Guernica, sixty-five years ago, an uncounted hundreds of thousands, millions, of innocent civilians have perished and been summarily murdered by the "strategic" device of "terror- bombing". During and following the Spanish Nazi-Falangist debacle, the "new" strategy of unlimited war on civilians ran through Ethiopia, all of WW II and culminated in the "highly efficient" (from the "war scientists" savage, unprecedented view) of the atomic, nuclear incineration of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians in Hiroshima and also Nagasaki. The order was issued by President Truman, of the United States of America. To date the Transnational Corporate masters of that "Christian" country have not repeated their nauseating action of wholesale nuclear "terror-bombing". Instead, they have developed and used such macabre items as "cluster" and "Daisy-Cutter" bombs!
No other nuclear-armed country has thus far dealt the horrendous criminally insane weapon on designated peoples and targets. In fact, no other Government (with the exception of the USA), has threatened to do so. Whether prayers to God, Jehovah, Allah, Gautama (or whomever), all the peoples of every land might raise their "hosannas" or thanks for being spared, we will not venture to say.
Rather, the implacable and also unswerving will of every people against the horrors of "terror-bombing" must be raised in a crescendo of resistance so that every nation, every people, every national and also international institution shall demand that every government and military establishment remove strategic "terror-bombing" from their "science of war" and aggression, once and for all let the bemedalled generals, the war career politicians and war profiteers and salesmen of death be "retired forever" and thrown into the ashcan of history.
If the Canadian initiative for an international agreement can be reached for the removal of the war planted "Land Mines" what obstacles stand in the way of eliminating "terror-bombing" from the international war dossiers of the nations? Surely if the peoples of the world were to be surveyed on such a proposal, war-makers would find themselves a tiny, miniscule minority, sobbing over the lost glitter of their so-precious medals… not to mention the shiny new war machines ands lost profits!!!
But the likelihood of immediate, expedient action to bring about such renunciation of the "power to kill from the air", introduced by the Nazis so long ago, is not likely to happen tomorrow. After all, TNC control of energy and other resources and political, economic, social and cultural domination of billions of the world citizens suffering deadly ills of TNC exploitation, whether in the death grip of monopoly capitalism or seeking to collaborate with it, stands today as the modus vivendi, the "way of life"…(or "people. That has become increasingly apparent since the dismantlement of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the downgrading to near oblivion of even a faint whisper of any theory or practice for the revolutionary elimination of war and its monopoly roots by a building of a new socialist and collective structured of society, foretold by the political, economic and social sciences developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and for seventy years nurtured by the vast strength of the Soviet and other people living in our very material and changing world. It is time for theirs, and other voices to be heard!
According to one of these, Professor Herold, PhD, MBA, B Sc at the University of New Hampshire, USA, in a work entitled "A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan" the bomber planes sent by President Bush over that hapless country had extinguished life for 3,767 people in just eight short weeks, beginning October 7, 2001. That would create a "body count" of more than sixty innocent civilian deaths a day, presuming that the aerial-war killer fleet carried on its high level, secure from hostile retaliation, killing missions, every day. If that "kill-rate" held fast for another five weeks following another more than 2000 dead Afghan civilians can be attributed to President Bush’s and also the Pentagon untouchable "warriors" and notched up as "collateral damage". What the costs of the accompanying and also the colossal infrastructure devastation in Afghanistan might be is not calculable at this time but could certainly be in the many billions… including hospitals, schools, art and cultural images, and not to mention homes, whether mud huts, or mansions for the ancient feudalists and CIA installed war lords. Not included in the above figures are the deaths of the Taliban or so-called "Northern Alliance" Mujahadeen military personnel."
The incredibly callous, cynical brutality of the Bush and Oil TNC "countermeasure of revenge" for the September 11th aerial jet-passenger bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington is more and more revealed as time passes. Not only is Osama bin Laden a creation of the CIA hidden war, but also of billions of dollars of support going back to the CIA and official US foreign policy, dating back to 1980’s and help these mediaeval Mujahadeen. The purpose of the current "new" American war is to open up oil pipeline access to the treasure trove of oil reserves in the neighboring former Soviet republics.
New accounts in the Toronto Star newspaper in Canada of January 6, 2002 informs the readers that the top levels of Presidential authority in the USA, simply "looked the other way" and totally failed to cope with known facts of bin Laden Al Quaeda organization presence and or its purposes in, little or nothing was done to organize or impede those people by the U.S. intelligence or the vaunted police forces. Brought to the fore by such startling revelations are many deep-going questions as to why this was the case, and attack was simply "permitted to happen".
History is replete with instances of many "provocations" for hidden purposes. The Reichstag Fire of 1933, designed to swing German public opinion to full support of the Nazi Hitlerite regime comes to mind. The attempt then by the Nazi forces to place blame on the Communists for the fire, they had set themselves, was proven a total hoax…but Hitler rose to new heights in popularity. Similarly, repeated stories persist that advance of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in early December of 1941, and very silently (and prudently) permitted it to happen in order to defeat the then U.S. anti-war isolationist crowd politically, and thus gain support for U.S. entry into the anti-Nazi war. But the fact that the USA entry even then had been sidetracked for a lengthy period by the "isolationist" pro-Hitler gang of right wing forces. It can be correctly suggested that much of today’s support for the TNC "oil" warriors around President Bush hold common ideological and political anti-war pro-Hitler elements of the late 1930’s and the WW II period.
There can be no question that the USA monopoly and military hierarchy surrounding the Pentagon and its ferocious war activities are champions of the "terror bombing" escapades and tragedies born from today’s governmental and also political leaders of the highest levels. That does not exclude the aggressions by many other countries, including such as monopoly supported Great Britain and other NATO powers. But the leading force in this regard can only be the "safe haven" (until September 11th, 2001) of the continental USA. Aggressive military actions since 1945, often including "terror-bombing" have always been prosecuted by that country, in more than fifty instances of overt and covert aggressions, worldwide.
The list is too long to be enumerated here, but quickly to mind comes Vietnam, Latin and South America, the Caribbean, Iraq and the Middle East, Indonesia and South East Asia, Yugoslavia, Libya and now of course Afghanistan. Relentless and world-domination seeking, the policy is fuelled by insatiable TNC-Monopoly demand to control all energy, particularly oil reserves of the world. This is the cornerstone of U.S. and NATO policy apropos Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, as well as Israel-Palestinian imbroglio and the noxious that encouragement of bin Laden and Al Quaeda. Whether that worthies President Bush’s alleged "terrorist" activities are rooted in deeply held "fundamentalist" religious views, or in the smell of oil reserves treasures in his native Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the "Muslim" world remains an unanswered question…but the truth could be either…or an amalgam of both.
Wherein lies responsibility for the current crisis in international relations and the incoherent state of the world dominated by the "masters" of the military and capital accumulation of unprecedented wealth…the TNCs?
There are many and much too complex answers to that state of affairs to attempt an evaluation in this short article. But one central and coherent fact does emerge, hitting consciousness and also the conscience like a sledgehammer. Without full cooperation and also acceptance by the working class of particularly the "militarized" and "Westernized" countries…first and foremost of the USA, "terror-bombing" would be quickly ended.
During the U.S. ferocious "terror-bombing" of Vietnam, the Australian workers led by their militant Seaman’s Union effectively halted shipments of war materials. Harry Bridges, the West Coast militant leader of the Longshore Workers in the USA, called for similar effective action. He was swamped by the nauseating, outcry of "Commie treason" and opposition from the highest levels of the AFL-CIO union "leadership" in the U.S. Regrettably, the war-production workers of that time in aircraft etc. backed the top U.S. monopoly collaborating war promoting union leadership. Blatant "jingoism" and "brainwashing" by the corporate media added to the working class confusion and also backwardness.
Today the corruption of working people by the TNC war monopolist backing the hideous war on the Afghan and other people comes in many forms. It is that corruption that permits workers to continue to produce guns to kill fellow workers, and blindly engage in drinking from the TNC poisoned "terror-bombing" death cup. Unless this is cast away, the real alternative will be to forever carry the stinking "spit-bottles" of the "masters"…and continue mutual annihilation of the species.
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