ON SENATOR KERRY'S REMARKS-THE CLASS ISSUE IN THE IRAQ WAR

COMMENTARY

THE CASUALTY LISTS DO NOT LIE-THIS WAR IS FOUGHT BY THE WORKING CLASS AND MINORITIES-EDUCATED OR NOT

Forget the elephants, donkeys and greens-BUILD A WORKERS PARTY

After spending the past several months lambasting Massachusetts Senator John Forbes Kerry for his presidential pretensions and political ambitions I finally have a momentary point of solidarity with him. Do not worry. When he goes back to form I will kick him and the other capitalist politicans around-and enjoy it. But, fair is fair.

And what is this flap all about? Earlier this week, the week of October 30, 2006, Kerry made what was, as always for him, an ill-fated attempt to poke fun at President Bush and his alleged possession of an I.Q. However, the way that it came out in his West Coast junior college presentation Kerry appeared to be offering the students a cautionary note that if they fell down on the academic job they would wind up as 'cannon fodder' in Bush's misbegotten war in Iraq. As usual, his attempt at humor got him in more trouble than anticipated and the Republicans were waiting. Can this guy ever get out of the cardboard costume?

Notwithstanding that little problem, what Senator Kerry inadvertently blurred out was the deep, dark unspoken secret of American politcal life- the working class, the rural poor, and minorities are the main elements fighting the war in Iraq. A cursory look any day of the week at the casualty lists in the newspaper confirms this graphically. Read the personal profiles of the dead and wounded. Junior colleges, unlike the elite schools Kerry is more familar with, represent for many young working class and minority youth the last shot at obtaining some kind of socially usable skill. And, yes, if one fails there the prospects ARE bleak in an increasingly technologically driven world. Thus, no one should be surprised that between the pressures from military recruiters, home pressures and the brutal facts of an "economic" draft for many poor or minority families that the poor and minorities form a disproportionate part of the armed services. It was true in Vietnam, with even more deadly consequences. It is true in Iraq.

The filthy rich, the super rich and the merely rich would like to pay their fair share for the war but their tax advisors have advised them of the adverse effects on their tax shelters if they do so. Furthermore they would not dream of having their children play with guns. Their servants or their servants' children, yes, but not their own. The middle class, especially the upper middle class, may pay for the war but still shelter their children from the traumas of war. But the working class and minorities pay for the war AND provide the 'cannon fodder' for it. THOSE SOLDIERS AND SAILORS BETTER GET EDUCATED FAST TO ORGANIZE THEMSELVES TO GET THE HELL OUT OF IRAQ NOW. NOT ONE PENNY, NOT ONE PERSON FOR THIS WAR!

That said, Senator Kerry, despite his inadvertant insight, should still not be left off the hook. And that brings up the most important question of this parliamentary election season. As always the question to be put to every politican by anti-war militants is-Will you vote against the war budget? YES OR NO. That is the only meaningful parliamentary opposition to the war. On that note I can comfortably go back to lambasting the ill-starred Kerry.

Revised: November 3, 2006

WHO IS SENATOR JOHN FORBES KERRY AND WHY IS HE BLEEDING ALL OVER THE RUG?

COMMENTARY

KERRY’S MEA CULPA IS NOT ENOUGH-WE NEED A WORKERS PARTY CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT

FORGET ELEPHANTS, DONKEYS AND GREENS- BUILD A WORKERS PARTY!!

No one can fault Massachusetts United Senator John Forbes Kerry for lacking in commemorative spirit. Last spring he wooed an audience at Fanueil Hall with a speech observing the 35th Annivesary of his testimony before a Senate Committee investigating the Vietnam War (Do people in the real world, outside of politics, really observe such anniversaries?). This week, the week of October 8, 2006, he again is on the stump celebrating the 4th Anniversary of his ill-fated vote to authorize President Bush to go to war in Iraq. The highlight of the speech apparently was his ‘heartfelt’ admission that he was wrong to give such approval. As a matter of elemenatry politic hygiene one would think with Kerry ‘s gyrations that he would be hiding out alone somewhere in the hills of New Hampshire not shouting about it from the rooftops. But such is the nature of capitalist politics- when you really have the 'fire in the belly' to be president there is nothing you will not do to abase yourself to get that ‘job’. Ask Bill Clinton (and maybe, ask Hillary). Ask the master- Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Need I say more.

Let us go through the numbers on the question of opposition to the Iraq war one more time. On the national parliamentary level the only real action that counts in opposition to the war in Iraq is not some belated mea culpa on an authorization vote but the vote on the war budget. You know, the way the damn war gets funded. Senator Kerry voted with both hands (and probably both feet) for that one. Democrats and Republicans LIKE to vote for the war budgets. It is now worst than useless to think otherwise. A new set of worker party candidates or other independents with a socialist program must be put forth to vote against the war budget (among other things). But that is the music of the future. As bad as Kerry’ position is THAT women, punitive ( I do not mean putative) Democratic presidential candidate New York Senator Hillary “Hawk”Clinton’s is even worst. While making some very tentative anti-war sounds she continues to stand by her 2002 vote. And like Kerry in 2004 she will probably be anointed the ‘anti-war’ candidate in 2008 agains the Republicans. Well, let the liberal anti-war activists twist in the wind on that one.

One other point about Senator Kerry deserves mentioning here lest one think that he is the reincarnation of the pacifist Indian leader Gandhi. This week North Korea exploded some small nuclear devise which raised all kinds of hypocritical outcries of 'foul' from the exclusive international nuclear club headed by American imperialism. Senator Kerry went out of his way to comment on this so-called outrage and argued for ‘appropriate’ action to stem the North Koreans. For those who need it spelled out that means preemptive military strikes, if necessary. Kerry represents the real position of the Iraqi defeatist wing of the capitalist class. To President Bush they say- It’s Iran, stupid, It’s North Korea, stupid. No one in the establishment, least of all Kerry, is turning swords into plowshares here, they just want another target. After two destructive wars in Iraq the hard reality of international politics in the case of small ‘third world’ nations in the crosshairs of American (or other) imperialist guns is you damn well better have nuclear weapons or you will not survive. More on this latter.