The formidable armada being deployed by the Western bloc in the Persian
Gulf (see the editorial in International Review n°51) has been a brutal
reminder of the real nature of the capitalist system, a system which, since its
entry into decadence at the beginning of the century, has led to the growing
militarisation of the whole of society, which has sterilised or destroyed a
considerable proportion of human labour, and which has turned the planet into a
vast powder keg.
At a time when the main governments of the world are making great
speeches about arms reductions or even disarmament, what’s going on in the
Middle East clearly gives the lie to any illusions about the ‘easing’ of
military tensions, and illustrates in a striking manner one of the major
components in today’s imperialist rivalries: the offensive of the American
bloc, which is aimed at pushing forward the encirclement of the Russian bloc,
and which in the first place involves bringing Iran to heel. These events, in
which there has been a high level of cooperation between the naval forces of
the main Western bloc countries, also underlines the fact that the sharpening
of economic rivalries between these same countries doesn’t at all stand in the
way of their solidarity as members of the same imperialist bloc. It also shows
that the climate of war covering the whole planet doesn’t only take the form of
military tensions between the two great blocs but also of confrontations
between certain countries linked to the same bloc, as is the case with the
Iran-Iraq conflict in which the latter country is being backed by the main Western
countries.
