raghu writes: >... I don't buy the idea that the Iran war-mongering is driven by >considerations of capitalist class-interest....
The war against Iraq served some interest groups better than it did others, thus spawning the controversy between the unilateralists (Cheney, etc.) and the multilateralists (Obama, etc.) within the power elite. The idea of "capitalist class interest" needs to be clarified. The _objective_ interests of the capitalist class as a whole (on a world scale) involves reproducing and expanding the system over time while allowing the highest sustainable profit rate. This differs from the objective interests of U.S. capitalism, etc. The conditions allowing the attainment of this kind of collective goal are unknown (especially given the uncertainty inherent in all decisions involving the future), though various think-tanks propose different ways to attain it, usually describing the objective capitalist class interest as the "public interest." On the other hand, the _expressed_ capitalist class interest is more a matter of different capitalist interest groups competing in the political arena. (In practice, I think that the pluralist vision of politics works pretty well, though pluralists ignore the systematic biases toward serving expressed capitalist interests.) In this light, the multilateralists in effect argued that the policies pushed by Cheney _et al_ were bad in terms of objective capitalist class interests. Cheney, on the other hand, was representing a coalition of pro-Israel forces, the "we've got to control the oil" bloc, the "US should rule the world and punish deviants such as Saddam" bloc, and the like. (This list is not necessarily in order of importance.) -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
