Socialist
Worker | February 2010 |
no. 515ECONOMIC
CRISIS BREEDS MORE WAR
THE FIRST MONTH of 2010 ended with the news that Greece required
financial rescue by the rest of the European Union to avoid defaulting
on payments to holders of its bonds.
Greece joins Portugal, Spain and the Republic of Ireland in the
list of European countries on the verge of bankruptcy.
The effects of the financial crisis unleashed with the credit crunch
of September 2008 are still being felt, yet the only answer our
leaders have is to attack social spending on the one hand and, on
the other, to increase spending on the military.
Western governments are trying to assert themselves militarily where
they have increasing trouble asserting themselves economically.
Recent events have begun to open the door for a growing “war
on terror”, with the potential to engulf both Iran and Pakistan.
At the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, taking place currently
in the UK, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified he
did not regret the decision to wage war on Iraq despite the fact
that Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction:
“The decision I took—and frankly would take again—was
if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass
destruction we should stop him.
“That was my view then and that is my view now.”
Blair thus reasoned that even if Hussein didn’t have WMDs,
he had the potential to get them. Such a justification could be
used to launch a war anywhere in the world at anytime.
Blair also testified that he would support a war on Iran, referring
to the country 58 times during his testimony.
A war on Iran is not out of the question. The US maintains two ships
in the Persian Gulf equipped to shoot down missiles. The White House
claims this missile shield is in place to deter Iran. The US has
further increased tension in the region by moving missile defense
shields to Iran’s neighbours—Qatar, the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.
While 30,000 more NATO troops are moving into Afghanistan and the
war there continues to unravel, the US is stepping up its assault
on Pakistan. Attacks by US drones are on track to reach 150 this
year, up from 53 in 2009. The deaths of three US soldiers on the
ground in Pakistan has confirmed the US military presence in that
country, threatening to expand the already devastating “war
on terror” to a nuclear-armed nation of 120 million people.
US President Obama recently released the biggest US budget ever
at $3.8 trillion for 2011 with an increase in military spending,
bringing the Pentagon’s total budget to $708 billion. To finance
this, domestic spending will actually decrease.
The $700 billion bailout of the financial sector last year will
have lasting and painful consequences. According to Sal Guatieri,
an economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, “The legacy of the credit
crisis is long-running and has a lot of reach.
“What we’ve done essentially is move debt from the private
sector to the public sector, and spread the payments over generations.”
The Tory government of Stephen Harper is following suit, preparing
the ground for an assault on the public sector while increasing
spending for war. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives,
Canada will increase military spending this year by almost ten per
cent over 2009, bringing Canadian arms expenditure to a level 56
per cent higher than in 1998 and the highest it has been since the
end of the Second World War.
Canada ranks 13th in the world for spending on arms, and 6th among
NATO countries. The Canadian military budget is 20 times that of
the federal Department of the Environment.
Governments intend to force workers to pay for the financial crisis,
cutting spending on services, health care and education and increasing
spending on war. At every turn, we must fight back against this,
making the links between war-funding and the economic crisis. Fighting
against lay-offs, attacks on pensions, pay cuts and public service
reductions will be key in the fight ahead.
