April 14, 2003: Pyrrhic Victory of the US Aggressors – a Political Disaster

1. The USA has won the war on Iraq militarily, but it has paid a high political price for it: In spite of a massive psychological conduct of war it failed completely to win over the world public to support this war.

The aggressors of the USA and Great Britain are found guilty of lying. No weapons of mass destruction have been found until today which could serve to justify the aggression. It is obvious that the USA attacked Iraq because it does not have any weapons of mass destruction and could easily be defeated.

The new international peace movement has clearly limited the scope for action of the aggressors and has decisively influenced the course of war. More than 17 million people in 680 cities in 66 countries demonstrated on 15 February. Out of consideration for the Blair and Aznar governments US imperialism postponed the already planned beginning of the war on 15 February and on 13 March as well. The USA could not establish the North front being planned in Turkey. Last but not least the USA and Great Britain always had to justify themselves when their bomb hail claimed casualties among innocent people.

During the war on Iraq the international coalition against "terror" which was developing after 11 September 2001 broke down. The contradictions between the imperialist rivals USA, Great Britain and Spain on one side and Germany, France, Russia and China on the other side were not only dividing the UN and the G 8, but also the EU and the NATO. Thus the plan for a world order under the leadership of the USA has obviously failed!

2. The strategic weakness of the aggressors has become evident by the war on Iraq: If a people is resolutely and strongly fighting for a just cause it can also militarily defeat a superpower. In a house-to-house fighting in the cities and in a guerilla struggle the technical superiority is relative. The courageous and just resistance of the Iraqi people could not develop its power in contrast to the victorious people’s war in Vietnam because its opposition to the hated reactionary regime of Saddam Hussein undermined its fighting spirit, and after all an organized perspective in the struggle for national and social liberation was lacking. Every people, however, needs a Marxist-Leninist party for its revolutionary struggle, for the liberation from exploitation, oppression, from starvation and war, which is capable and willing to organize such a struggle and to give it a socialist perspective. This is the most important lesson from the resistance in Iraq!

3. The international peace movement has lost a battle but has won strength and perspective. George W. Bush must reckon with it with every step in his aggressive "New War" which he is going to pursue with extreme military aggression in the next years. George W. Bush is already threatening Syria in public. Using the same outrageous arguments (so-called possession of chemical weapons of mass destruction, lacking cooperation with the USA) as he used against Iraq before, the psychological preparation of war has already started. The imperialist character of the aggressive US policy is obvious. The USA will not stop until it will have the whole Middle East under its military and political control.

4. The peace movement was including millions of mainly young people in the active resistance in Germany. It strictly kept its independence. It respected the objection to the war of the German government without allowing to be exploited for its policy. The peace movement rejected any direct or indirect support of the war (like e.g. allowing aircraft to fly over its territory) from the very beginning and sticked to that even when the government shifted towards supporting a quick success of the US aggressors on the pretext of shortening the suffering of the Iraqi people. Student leagues and school committees were representing a new mass movement of the youth. In spite of massive reprisals by the employers’ associations there were political strike actions of hundreds of thousands of blue and white collar workers for the first time in the companies as a core of the active resistance within the framework of a Europe-wide strike action on 14 March involving nearly 20 million participants. The Monday movement across the whole country in more than 80 cities in the end has developed to an important form of organization for a regular alliance of different forces of the peace movement.

5. Even if currently the open war has been ended the struggle against Bush’s "New War" will continue. This is why the struggle for peace cannot be ended. It is becoming more and more obvious that the point is the claim of the USA to economic, political and military predominance over the world. This is taking place against the background of the reorganization of the international production and the bitter competition between the 500 biggest super monopolies in the world to dominate the world economy. There are countries like Syria, Iran, Libya, North Korea, but also China and Russia on the list of US imperialism. Above all Bush’s "New War" is directed against the revolutionization of the masses of the people.

6. The MLPD is committing itself to combining the peace struggle with the struggle against the crisis management of the Schroeder/Fischer government. It pursues the goal of developing a society changing movement which will be capable of eliminating the causes of war, oppression and exploitation and of fighting for a socialist society without exploitation, oppression, starvation and war.

7. The ueberparteilich organized 11^th International Whitsun Youth Meeting is assuming special importance. It will take place in Gelsenkirchen on 7/8 June 2003 and will be the peak of the peace movement of the youth: as a self-organized alliance with international participants for the festival of the youth for world peace.