On 8 April the USA signed a new ‘arms control’ treaty with Russia with the published aim of controlling and limiting the spread of nuclear weapons. Communists and anti-imperialists the world over know only too well that this treaty won’t prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to terrorist states such as Israel; it is of course designed singularly to prevent nuclear weapons getting into the hands of those countries imperialism wishes to plunder, occupy and oppress. The entire treaty, the way it has been promoted and the bombastic declarations from the imperialist media on this ‘historic’ occasion are a poor smokescreen for the absolute irreconcilable mess and quandary the US imperialists have found themselves in.
The ‘new Start’ treaty has been the first document of its kind to be wholly unclassified, and since it was signed in Prague last month the US administration has tried to make much of this fact. Robert Gates the US Defence Secretary declared that publishing it in full and unclassified removed any ambiguity about US nuclear posture. What it does in fact remove is any semblance of omnipotent power that US imperialism still likes to project; far from being an exemplar of ‘openness’ or ‘frankness’, the full publication of the treaty shows that the only move left to US imperialism is to make open terroristic threats to countries like Iran and the DPRK in the forlorn hope that they can be terrified into abandoning their own independent scientific endeavours to provide both a reliable source of power for their countries, and perhaps if necessary a means of defending themselves from aggressive imperialist powers like the US. In an article in the New York Times David Sanger[1,2] reported as follows: “the president said in an interview that he was carving out an exception for ‘outliers like Iran and North Korea’ that have violated or renounced the main treaty to halt nuclear proliferation…”
“Over the past year, they [the Obama administration –Ed.] have aided the interception of North Korea’s shipping. They have sought to develop new sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and to undermine its nuclear program with a program of covert action.
“Robert S. Litwak, vice president for programs at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said that Mr. Obama had expanded an effort begun by President George W. Bush to globalize the effort to contain the nuclear aims of both nations. Under Mr. Obama’s strategy, he said, ‘It is the United States and the world versus Iran, not just the United States versus Iran.’ ….The new strategy takes that effort one step further, warning both countries that the United States could still use its nuclear arsenal to counter any effort to sell or transfer the country’s nuclear technology to terrorists.
“’The United States will continue to hold accountable any state, terrorist group or other non state actor that supports or enables terrorist efforts to obtain or use weapons of mass destruction,’ Mr. Gates said on Tuesday, ‘whether by facilitating, financing, or providing expertise or safe haven for such efforts.’”
The full and open publication of the treaty and its dissemination around the planet must be one of the biggest open acts of nuclear thuggery committed in recent years. Perhaps the US was hoping that upon receipt of this ‘black spot’ the DPRK and Iran would at once collapse in terror and pass out of this world in the manner of Billy Bones in Treasure Island!
DPRK and Iran
The treaty states that the nuclear arsenals of the two counties (Russia and US) will be reduced to 1,500 warheads, which is about 30 percent lower than present.[3] Strategic offensive weapons will be based solely on the territories of the US and Russia although the US will continue to have regional ‘missile defence’ in European countries Romania and Bulgaria. This will make both those countries a potential target in any future war, a fact which is not lost on the people of these countries who are beginning to discover that their ‘freedom’ from the Warsaw Pact has translated in reality into becoming a ‘shield’ for the US! Furthermore the US declared that it would no longer retaliate with a nuclear strike if it was attacked by chemical, biological or ‘cyber’ warfare, the US is indeed a kindly and reasonable policeman! In making this gesture of goodwill to the peoples of planet earth the US reserved the right to launch a nuclear attack upon both the DPRK and Iran. Daniel Domby reported for the Financial Times;
“If a non-nuclear weapons state is in compliance with the non-proliferation treaty and its obligations, the US pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it, [of course it is the US who gets to decide who is and isn’t in compliance! As it has done in the case of Iran time and time again – Ed.] said Robert Gates, secretary of defence. Any chemical or biological attack against the US or its allies “would face the prospect of a devastating conventional military response”.
Far from reducing tension and bringing the world closer to the supposed goal of peace, the new Start treaty is sharpening the contradictions and threatening those countries who do not wish to be crushed by imperialism with nuclear destruction! Strange then (or perhaps not) that Kate Hudson, a prominent member of the revisionist Communist Party of Britain and chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) should state: “This is a very significant day and a positive first step on the road to a nuclear-free future”![4]
Comrade Hudson displays a touching faith in imperialism and its alleged peaceful intentions. She believes in the peaceful mission and good intentions that imperialist powers, their lackey’s and despots pretend to harbour for the future of the planet! She writes in her CND statement[5] as follows: “It is a year this week since Obama committed the US to building a world free of nuclear weapons. Today’s agreement is just the sort of concrete step needed to achieve that goal…” [6]
With leadership of the CND such as is offered by the likes of Kate Hudson, what chance does the anti-war movement stand in this country? Whilst we are stuck with minds that fail to appreciate the utter treachery, murder and carnage that exists in every move the imperialist powers make we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
In a statement last May on the successful nuclear tests conducted by the DPRK the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist – Leninist) wrote:
“Whether or not to conduct nuclear tests or to develop missile technology is a matter pertaining to the sovereignty of the country. In a world where the leading imperialist powers possess massive nuclear arsenals, and where US imperialism has not only threatened but actually sanctioned their use, our party has always held the view that we unconditionally support the right of socialist countries, and other developing countries bullied and threatened by imperialism, to develop and possess nuclear weapons for their own defence.
“In the case of the Korean peninsula, we note that the nuclear issue is one that is entirely of the making of the United States. The US imperialists planned and threatened to use nuclear weapons in their barbarous war against the Korean people, 1950-53. The only reason they were not used, as they were against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is that the Soviet Union had by then succeeded in developing such weapons of its own.”
US imperialism is desperately attempting to maintain its dominant position in the world and in doing so is utterly overstretching its resources and misjudging its strength. US imperialism is a dying force and is on its way out. The new Start treaty is a further example that imperialism seeks to control and consume the world’s resources, it cannot stand independent countries and states. But the world is waking up, and behaviour must be able to reflect the real world. Men like President Ahmadinejad, whilst couching their words in the language of religion can recognise the facts that are obvious to social scientists:
“The capitalist system has come to an end and radical change is a necessity … The painful results of the capitalist system have manifested themselves in wars, divisions, terrorism and discrimination in international relations.” (President Ahmadinejad, quoted in ‘Capitalism at its end’, presstv.ir, 9 November 2009)
NOTES
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/world /07arms.html ;
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/06arms.html;
[3] http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-04/26/c_13268236.htm;
5] ibid
[6] ibid
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