politics for the 99%

Published on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Johannes Stern, 21 June 2014.

The German bourgeoisie is responding to the debacle of US imperialism in Iraq by intensifying its campaign for militarism and war.

On Tuesday, during her first official visit to the US, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen spoke out in favour of a strong Bundeswehr (German armed forces) participation in an international military intervention. Germany had “key positions and capabilities, which other countries do not”, she said. The UN had asked her “that Germany one day also lead a United Nations military peace mission”, and the defence ministry was considering how the Bundeswehr could be more heavily involved.  

Last weekend, federal President Joachim Gauck repeated his call for a more aggressive foreign policy and more military interventions. He had “the feeling that our country should perhaps put aside a reticence that was advisable in previous decades, in favour of a greater sense of responsibility”, the president told broadcaster Deutschlandfunk .

Gauck called several times for the stronger use of the military. In the “battle for human rights or for the survival of innocent people”, he said, it was “sometimes necessary to use weapons”. A “last resort” could not exclude the “deployment of military means from the outset.”

It is increasingly clear that the war offensive of the German bourgeoisie is closely related to the historic crisis of US imperialism. The German media has commented on the US military debacle in Iraq with a mixture of fear, anger and shock.

Under the headline, “America’s dangerous hesitation”, Spiegel Online writes that the US is completing “an historic change of course in foreign policy” under Obama. Washington no longer “wanted to be world policeman” and was adopting a more restrained position. Although Islamic fundamentalist groups were marching on Bagdad, America was staying in the background and was not sending ground troops, but only “a handful of soldiers”. And this, even though the “job” in Iraq is far from over, the newspaper wrote.

Under the provocative headline “Iraq: Imagine there is a war, but no one intervenes”, Josef Joffe complains in the current issue of Die Zeit about the end of “America’s short-lived supremacy”. After “thirteen years of war in the Middle East, after 5,000 dead and four trillion dollars”, the US was “tired” and was exercising “self restraint”. In Europe too, America no longer has a “military option”; the 300,000 soldiers of former times have been “shrunk back to one-tenth”.

Joffe is a cynical war propagandist with close ties to the American neo-cons, who responds to each crisis with calls for a massive military intervention. He accuses Obama of “backing down” and “indecision”. Rogue states such as Russia, China or Iran would move into the vacuum and develop their “power politics”, he says. Noticeably desperate and angry about the widespread anti-war sentiment within Germany, he provocatively poses the question: “What happens if America no longer wants to be world policeman?”

The constant complaint about the alleged “inaction” of the US, which runs like a red thread through the German media commentary, is patently absurd. Obama has sent warships to the region, and following the NATO bombing of Libya has again been preparing a war that threatens to drown the entire Middle East in blood.

The German bourgeoisie accuses the US of “inaction” because it has come to the conclusion that the period in which it could pursue its geopolitical and economic interests in the shadow of the United States is over … //

… There is at least one good thing about the persistent calls for war and German “leadership”. They make clear that the ruling class has not changed its spots. No one should have any illusions. When the German bourgeoisie last sought to rule the world, it brought Hitler to power. It will employ no less brutal methods today to suppress the massive resistance of the population and to push through its rearmament.

he working class must not let things proceed that far. It must stop the warmongers before they are able to once again cast the world into the abyss. There is only one way forward. The Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party, PSG) must be built as the centre of opposition to the return of German militarism. The struggle against war and its cause, capitalism, requires the mobilization of the international working class on the basis of a socialist programme.

(full text).

(my complaint: what shall we do with our stupid mains-stream mass-voters eager to elect them for gov).

Links:

Pope Francis ‘excommunicates’ Italian mafia, on Russia Today RT, June 22, 2014: Calling the practices of Italian Ndrangheta crime group the “adoration of evil,” Pope Francis said the Mafiosi “are excommunicated” from God and the Catholic Church, in his address to tens of thousands of people in Calabria, southern Italy …;

Gaza in Crisis: The Strong Female Voice of Hamas, on Spiegel Online International, by Juliune , 2014 a Amalia Heyer, June 20, 2014 (Photo Gallery): Isra al-Mudallal is the outspoken, strong-willed new spokesperson for the Hamas government in Gaza. Her goal is to become a role model for young girls – but first she has to overcome the region’s conservative traditions …;

Bank Bailout: Bankster Says Only Gun to Head Will Oblige TARP Repayment, on Global Research.ca, by Kurt Nimmo, June 20, 2014; …;
Troubled Asset Relief Program TARP on en.wikipedia is a program of the United States government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008. It was a component of the government’s measures in 2008 to address the subprime mortgage crisis …;

Book Launch: Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s & 60s, a video on Socialist Project.ca, 16.08 min, June 11, 2014;

All Work and No Pay, video and text on Bill Moyers, 26.46 min, April 4, 2014;

Inka Karal Best indian’s songs wuauquikuna, 56.22 min, uploaded by kefal72, July 17, 2013.