the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 28, 2010
President Obama fired General Stanley McChrystal for his remarks about the Obama administration in a Rolling Stone article. But Obama’s problem is not McChrystal’s remarks. It’s the war itself.
Military officials always resent civilians, and they always talk about their civilian leadership the way McChrystal did. The fact is, if they were in control of the war, McChrystal’s remarks would not be a problem, even made so publicly.
But U.S. imperialism does not control the war, even though we keep hearing otherwise. The month of June was the bloodiest month so far with 85 coalition deaths, more than any previous month. Last year had by far the highest casualties of any year, and 2010 is already on pace to surpass it. Even though the U.S. has stepped up the war, it controls less of Afghanistan, not more.
Imperialism has been trying for decades to impose its will on a region it has not been able to control. And now, after nine years of steadily worsening war, with more and more civilian deaths, the U.S. tries to pretend it’s playing nice and reaching out to the population. But the population is not buying it, not rolling over like they want it to. So the war continues, and gets more bloody.
So now, the criminals are all blaming each other for their failure–from Obama and McChrystal, all the way down the chain of command of civilian officials AND military officers.
They’re like rats jumping a sinking ship. But it’s the Afghan population that is drowning, for U.S. imperialism’s crimes.