No to Imperialist War!
No to Imperialist Peace!

Hands Off Iraq!

It appears that a U.S. imperialist war against Iraq has been temporarily averted. The new agreement, accepted by Iraq under the threat that the U.S. would pound it with thousands of warplanes, ships, troops, etc., forces Iraq to open its sites to "UN inspectors." But the U.S. can threaten Iraq again any time it declares that Iraq is "not in compliance" with the agreement, for example, if it wants to look in Iraq's Presidential files for "weapons of mass destruction."

Thus a threat of imperialist war is becoming a period of imperialist peace. The great international working class leader Lenin pointed out that "war is the continuation of the politics of peace and peace is the continuation of the politics of war."

The current agreement, like the ones signed after the 1991 Gulf War, are unequal treaties that violate Iraq's sovereignty. They were signed as the result of a war which subjected Iraq to months of bombings that killed hundreds of thousands of people. The subsequent sanctions, which deprived Iraq of basic foods and medicines, have led to the deaths of another 1.5 million, mainly women, children and elderly people. The U.S. has also given itself the right to deny the Iraqi government access to certain areas, such as the Kurdish region in the north as well as the "no-fly zone" in the south.

All Clinton's talk about simply wanting Iraq to comply with its agreements are irrelevant, since these were unequal treaties imposed by force. His talk of the need for Iraq to give up its "weapons of mass destruction" is an attempt to force Iraq to give up its ability to defend itself. The capitalist press, which follows the lead of its capitalist masters, conceals the fact that it is U.S. imperialism that, more than any other country, has produced, exported and used such weapons. Let us remember that the U.S. is the only country in the world to have used nuclear weapons, when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War 2, annihilating some 200,000 people. It is the U.S. that has used chemical weapons in the form of napalm and Agent Orange in Vietnam. And it is most likely that U.S. weapons (possibly depleted uranium) have caused the unexplained illness known as "Gulf War syndrome" affecting thousands of U.S. troops and untold numbers of Iraqis.

The U.S. war and war threats against Iraq are not in the interest of U.S. workers or of ordinary soldiers. U.S. soldiers are mainly workers in uniform, who have been forced by lack of jobs paying a living wage to join the armed forces. The war only benefits the U.S. monopolies, especially the oil monopolies, who benefit from Iraq's inability to sell oil not controlled by U.S. companies. The U.S. also wants to show the other imperialist governments, in Western Europe and Japan, that it is the number one power, that it dominates not only Iraq but the whole Middle East, economically, politically and militarily. While the government claims it must cut back on social services (education, health care, welfare) for working people, it has no problem finding billions of dollars for war and preparations for war against oppressed countries like Iraq. Our fight is against our own monopoly capitalist ruling class, not against Iraq.

No Attacks Against Iraq!
End All Sanctions!
Defend Iraq's Sovereignty!
Our Fight Is At Home Against Our Own Exploiters!

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