Karl: Reg Whitaker comments on the US attack on Afghanistan smack of blatant partisan subjectivity that forms part of the culture of reformism:
To argue that "this victory was too easy" suggests that the author of this piece would have been happier had the so called war in Afghanistan been a "less easy victory" for Washington. Politics is to be reduced to the subjective abstract taxonomy of too easy, less easy and difficult. Of course Washington's victory was going to be "too easy". To conclude that Washington has "untrammelled power" because of the Afghanistan war's specific character is fantasy at its crudest and most unimaginative. If Washington was to choose to go to war against Bermuda, lets assume it is an independent sovereign state, we would be rather surprised that its victory turned out to be "too easy". We would not expect any objective analyst to conclude that the easy victory was evidence of untrammelled US power. Evidence of untrammelled power is when the US has "a too easy victory" over a country such as France or the UK. Washington was free to go to war against Afghanistan when it was sure that no major, nor even minor power, would assist the Taliban regime. Washington's victory was a pseudo victory. The fact that Washington was forced to form the so called global coalition is, if anything, evidence of the limits of US power. To crush a fragile state Washington was forced to summon up vast resources and win the support of global capitalism in the form of a grand coalition is, if anything, clear evidence of its weakness. That a fragile power such as the Taliban was cheeky enough to, in a sense, challenge Washington is evidence of the limits of Washington's power. The fact that the WTC and Pentagon was attacked is a reflection of the growing sharpness of capitalist contradictions and the limits of American power. The fact that the most powerful capitalist state in the world was forced to go to war against the puny reactionary Taliban regime is evidence of the extent to which the contradictions of capitalism have been growing in intensity. The fact that Washington was forced to go to war against such a minuscule regime is irrefutable evidence of the limits of American power. The actions of the Bush administration are mistakenly presented in the context of choice. It had no choice. It was forced to go to war. The absence of choice or freedom is evidence of its limits and the degree to which the contradictions within US imperialism have been becoming increasingly uncontrollable. The growing problem facing Washington is that increasingly it cannot seek to solve many problems without resorting to military action. The growing obsolescence of capitalism increasingly renders military action the only option. The reformist character of the anti-war movement (and commentators such as Tariq Ali) is that they present the war as the product of choice -even moral choice. They suggest that there is such a beast as a rational benevolent imperialism that behaves in a way that largely serves the interests of people in general --independent of class. This reflects itself in the strategy of the anti-war movement and explains how it collapsed so ignominiously. The Taliban is dead! Long live the Taliban! Karl Carlile Be free to visit the web site of the Global Communist Group at http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/ ------------ Reg: Because this victory was too easy. Much easier than many (myself included) thought possible. A large country has been conquered virtually without sacrificing the life of a single American soldier in battle. The tribal chiefs were bought with money and changed sides. Opposition was shattered by giant bombers, riding high in the sky, nearly out of eyesight, dropping enormous bombs, more powerful than any of those used against the Nazis in World War II. At no time in history has any state had such untrammelled power. Even the Roman Empire, at its zenith, did not come close to it. The Romans always had a rival power to contend with - Persia. In order to achieve their victories, they had to send the legions and sacrifice human lives on far-away battlefields. From time to time they suffered terrible defeats. No victory came easily, and certainly not cheaply. By contrast, the United States is now the only great power on earth. No other state comes close to it, no military or economic power can compete with it. From the Afghan experience they can draw the conclusion that there is no need anymore to send soldiers anywhere - the bombers can crush any opposition with sophisticated bombs...
