Demagogy written in blood, juicy profits for imperialists rich Khuzestan province of Iran, historically an area inhabited by Arabs. This would have thrust the Baghdad into a position of leadership of the entire it should not be forgotten that the Saddam regime, which came to
The current Iranian offensive comes in the fourth year of the Gulf War.
This conflict has already resulted in more than 250,000 deaths, twice as many permanent injuries and an estimated 400 billion dollars worth of material damage.
The Khomeini regime's assault along a long front but centered around the Iraqi oil fields of the Majnun Islands, the Islands of Madness (majnun" means "mad" in both Arabic and Persian), has ushered in one of the bloodiest phases yet.
Masses of "islamic" volunteers with minimal training and minimal armament, a large proportion of them boys in their early teens, have been hurled against well-equipped Iraqi forces. Tens of thousands of them have perished. But the stalemate remains unbroken.
It is becoming more and more clear that it is unlikely either side can win the war.
The patrons of both regimes cannot afford the destabilization that would result if either regime were to strike a decisive blow.
Salah JABER and Saber NICKBEEN
Any advantage on one side is quickly stronger and larger country.
Iraqi forces are being better equipped by
Soviet and Western suppliers of hardware.
The Iranian human-wave attacks can be met by the Iraqis with poison gas.
If the pro-US sheiks contribute to financing the Iraqi war effort, Iran earns over 20 billion dollars annually from its oil exports to the West, over 12 billion of which is spent on the war (a large part going to maintain the soliders before they are sent to their deaths).
If the Iraqis get Super-Etendard planes from the French, the Iranians are supplied with badly needed spare parts for their Chieftain tanks by the British so that they can continue to launch attacks.
to halt the advance of the Khomeini faction toward taking total control of the Iranian state. It feared that the consolidation of such a regime on its borders could cause instability inside Iraq itself.
The fundamentalist mullahs tightening their grip in Tehran had made clear their intentions to overthrow the secular Baathist regime in Iraq and replace it with an Islamic one based on the Iraqi Shiites. They started advocating this right from the February 1979 revolution that overthrew the Iranian monarchy.
For its part, the Saddam Hussein regime also hoped to capitalize on the turmoil in Iran to reverse the balance with its traditional rival in the region. It sought to wipe out the humiliation that it suffered at the hands of the shah in 1975, when it was obliged to sign the Algiers agreements giving joint soverpower in 1968, originally presented itself as a spearhead of Arab nationalism, fervently anti-imperialist Arab government. In the early it appeared as one of the major causes of instability in the region.
Baghdad moved closer to the Soviet Union (whilst decimating the ranks of the Iraqi CP). It supported all sorts of radical opposition groups in the Gulf
It projected the most violently anti-imperialist rhetoric in the region.
the Palestinian Rejection Front led by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine of George Habash. And in Iraq itself it carried out the most extensive nationalizations.
However, the Baghdad regime was obliged to make a big step toward reconciliation with the imperialists and their local pawns in order to defeat the Kurds in the 1974 civil war. The price paid for betrayal of the Kurds
The Kurds, led by the traditional nationalist leader, Mullah Barzani, rebelled against the regime's attempt to deprive them of the gains they obtained in the revolutionary upsurge that followed the ouster of the pro-imperialist Iraqi monarchy.
At the beginning, the Kurdish nationalist forces received support from the US, Israel and the shah, who were anxious to bring pressure to bear on Baghdad. From
Peculiarly enough, both sides get their eignty over the Shatt-al-Arab, Iraq's the imperialists' point of view, the opsupplies from almost the same sources. The Soviet Union is heavily supplying the
Thousands of Iranians have been slaughtered in the war (DR) Iraqis. But the Iranians have also gotten Soviet arms indirectly through Syria and North Korea. The Iranians get spare parts and ammunition for their mainly American weapons directly from US suppliers, through the Israelis and on the so-called European black market. The Iraqis get military aid from their American friends through Egypt and Jordan.
As long as neither side can gain a decisive advantage and the flow of oil from the area is not blocked, the death toll can continue to mount.
The reactionary nature of both contending regimes itself makes it unlikely that this war will end soon. They have to bleed their own oppressed peoples to exhaustion before they can concede that they have achieved nothing.
The bourgeois nationalist regime in Iraq, based on savage and all-pervading repression, began this war in the attempt International Viewpoint 26 March 1984 only outlet to the Gulf, to Iran.
eration was a big success.
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GULF WAR
bering of the Iranian state. Iranian oil consists of elements that, if anything, are idly, both to pay for the war and to meet himself.
Baghdad accepted the Algiers accords granting Iran's demands in the longstanding border dispute between the two countries. It in effect accepted the dominant role of the shah's regime in the region, and it abandoned its support for the opposition groups in the Gulf sheikh-
Having achieved their objectives, the shah, Israel and the imperialists cynically betrayed the Kurdish people of Iraq, delivering them to the tender mercies of the savage Baathist regime. The Kurds suffered one of the gravest defeats in their long and bitter national struggle.
Now, with the Iranian state in trouble, Saddam hoped even to get back the price he was obliged to pay for the heads of
He also hoped, apparently, to be able to influence decisively the outcome of the power struggle going on in exports to the West began increasing rapforeign debts. This essentially put the minds of the Western governments to
In return, the so-called economic blockade of Iran was more or less openly
Gradually, military equipment started finding its way to Iran. Despite the appearances, most of it came from Western sources.
Having gradually rebuilt its army and mobilized more than half a million volunteers through the Basi units controlled by the Revolutionary Guards and having suppressed the mass movement, the Khomeini regime managed in just under two years to push the Iraqi army back behind its own borders. Then it attempted to mount an invasion of Iraq, with the declared intention of "liberating" the Iraqi masses from the "infidel Saddam"
more reactionary than Saddam Hussein
For the great majority of the Iraqi people, it is hardly an attractive
In fact, it seems to offer nothing but going backwards.
It should not be forgotten that by all the usual criteria - the extent of nationalizations, industrialization programmes, agrarian reform, a monopoly of foreign trade, etc. — the Iraqi regime is more advanced than the one in Iran. Khomeini's Council of Guardians has already rejected such reforms as being against the laws of
The main effect in Iraq of Khomeini's obstinate pursuit of the war to over.
"infidel Saddam" has, thus, been to increase political support for the demagogic but reactionary Baathist re-
This is clear from the increasing to reverse the Khomeini faction. view, he preferred anybody else at the head of the Iranian state, from the mon- At this point the Saddam Hussein re- the war. archist general Oveissi to the Mojahe-
The international isolation Iranian regime in the wake of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamic forces and the taking of its staff as hostages meant also that an Iraqi attack could not be opposed by the USA and its surrogates in the Gulf.
Things turned out differently, ever, than Saddam Hussein Riding on a wave of nationalism, Khomeini faction managed to oust the bourgeois liberal group from the government and rebuild the bourgeois state. succeeded in strengthening ments of repression to an unheard of extent and to establish one of the most ruthless and dictatorial regimes seen in modern history. Khomeini's counterrevolution
In the course of one year, Khomeini's Islamic Republic suppressed all forms of autonomous mass organization, militarized every level of social life and decimated all political opposition. fence of the "Islamic homeland" and the need to unite against the aggression of the Kafirs (infidels) came to dominate all other considerations in the minds of the Persian masses.
chauvinistic hysteria was strong that it engulfed all the opposition from the extreme right to the extreme
Even the son of the ex-shah, Reza, the pretender to the throne, offered his services to "defend the homeland."
In these circumstances, the Khomeini faction, which still had the largest active mass support of any of the factions, gained the decisive advantage. It used its upper hand to ensure its total dominance of the state apparatus. Khomeini himself described the war as "a Godsend."
Before the war was a month old, preparations were already underway for release of the hostages and rapprochement with the USA. A few months later, the Carter administration made it clear to Iraq that it was opposed to any dismemand establishing an Islamic regime in gime began to offer peace, declaring its willingness even to abide by the 1975 Algiers accords. The Khomeini regime, however, refused to end the war, demánding, among other things, about 200 billion dollars in war reparations and a change of regime in Baghdad.
What happened in the next year and a half is a long sad story of more destruction and more deaths, and for nothing. Khomeini's theocratic dictatorship has repeatedly spent a few months to mobilize tens of thousands of new "volunteers" by means of economic and political coer. cion, and then, on that basis launched another offensive. In the course of a few of the volunteers are slaughtered on the Iraqi defenses, and then the whole cycle is started again.
The number of volunteers is relatively large, but in comparison with the population of the country, this does not mean that enthusiasm for going to the front pervades the society. A great many of these youth come from families dependent on the regime in one way or another. Many, of course, are also from sections of the population still influenced by the hopes aroused by the 1979 revolution and by the demagogy of the Khomeini
But the regime is being forced more and more to extraordinary means to press youth to go to the front, such as sending Revolutionary Guards to stop taxis and buses to check them for youth of military age not in the army.
Since the withdrawal of the Iraqi army from Khoramshahr, there have been seven major Iranian offensives, all of which have ended in a stalemate, but leaving over 100,000 dead. It seems already that the current Iranian assault, although the largest so far, is not going to have any different result.
Despite all the Khomeini regime's propaganda, it is abundantly clear that even among the Shiites of Iraq there is no significant mass support for the ayatollah's reactionary designs. Council of Iraq set up in Tehran as a government to replace the Baathist regime resistance of the Iraqi soldiers ability of the Baghdad government to enlist a growing number of volunteers for
Why then is the Khomeini regime persisting in this costly and apparently futile campaign against the Iraqi "unbelievers?" The most immediate and obvious reason is to divert attention from the growing social and economic crisis in Iran aggravated by the rule of the mullahs.
The country's economic resources are being drained and wasted by parasitic bourgeois layers (which do not even offer any of the very mixed blessings produced by normal neocolonial bourgeoisies) around the regime, by the lumpen elements that live off the patronage of the mullahs and their traditional merchant base, and by the ever growing appetite of the swelling clerical caste itself.
Unemployment is mounting, having reached about 4 million. On top of this are the 2 million refugees from the war
For most of the masses, their standard of living has fallen to about a third of the 1975 level. repression of the working class has pushed the rate of exploitation to levels not seen for decades.
The mullahs crushed the Iranian revolution under the cover of the war. they are continuing the war to bolster the rule of the counterrevolution. This, however, is not the only reason, or for that matter the most important at the moexecuted over 20,000 left activists in the last two years, Khomeini's regime has for the time being suppressed resistance among the masses. Despite the deep resentment felt toward the regime, there is no mass movement of opposition. There are sporadic demonstrations and an increasing number of strikes. level is not such as to threaten the rule of
The fact that there has been a steady evolution towards normalization of relations with the imperialist powers and reestablishment of bourgeois business as usual is an indication of how little remaining pressure of the revolution there is on the regime.
The reason behind the continuing war
International Viewpoint 26 March 1984
fords them the money to pay for the nec- your weapons against your own rulers!
drive of the Khomeini regime, therefore, must be sought elsewhere. regime has its specific dynamic as a parasitic clerical regime trying to run a bour-
The historical causes and the balance of class forces that enabled such an exceptional regime to come to power have now passed away.
Having accomplished their historical task of crushing the Iranian revolution, the mullahs must now clear the way for the return of a "normal" bourgeois regime. Some factions within the clergy are even talking about the need to restore the monarchy. The Khomeini faction, however, is in no way inclined to relinquish
It has increasingly to try to justify its rule ideologically, whilst at the same time keeping its parasitic base
What seems to explain the regime's latest adventure of escalating the war is that the election campaign for the next Islamic parliament must soon get underticular, that would only be an incentive for Baghdad to continue the war and for the Iraqi people to support the fight to defend the national patrimony, "Iraq's
The imperialists have no reason to be anxious to see the war end as long as it remains in the present framework. weakens both the Iranian and Iragi regimes and makes them more dependent and tractable.
As for the Soviet Union, it has to safeguard its interests in Iraq in the face of competition from France. Moreover, the war diverts the Iranian regime's energies away from Afghanistan. But it does not want to see the Khomeini regime overthrown because in its view that would weaken the anti-imperialist front in Iran and strengthen the US presence in the
It is quite clear, in fact, that the imperialists are the main gainers from this war. Thanks to it, the US has managed to in fact shaping up as lucrative investment sites for the next decade.
The capitals of both countries are being flooded with representatives of Western construction and service industries. The Western financial press reports rumors that deals are being signed in Tehran that already add up to 30 bil lion dollars. The Iraqis could be prepared to pay even more.
In addition, the war has helped reactionary regimes throughout the region. In particular, it has given much more maneuvering room to the main strategic instrument of US intervention in the Middle East, Israel. War, the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and defeat of the Palestinian movement would have been more dif-
The reactionary sheikhdoms in the Gulf are now well armed. Emirates are directly and openly collaborating with the US interventionist forces.
way. The government has already delay- get away easily with building four mili- A few ed the opening of the electoral period as long as possible because it is in no way certain that the Khomeini faction can control the elections and get a majority out of the ballot boxes.
The Islamic Republican Party, Khomeini's main political instrument, is in such a deep crisis that the ayatollah himself has had to take his distance from it in order to reduce his faction's dependence on it. Launching a large-scale offensive against Iraq and putting the entire country in a veritable state of siege in connection with it offers the Khomeini faction the means for intimidating the other factions and maintaining a degree of mobilization of its own forces for the
The desperate tactics of the Iranian regime in sending tens of thousands of nearly untrained and badly armed boys to their deaths and openly declaring its intention to bomb all the Iraqi cities but the Shiite holy sites indicates that it has lost all hopes of an actual military vic. tory or a Shiite uprising. make more sense as a means to create an atmosphere of intoxication for the elec-
If the Iranian forces make even the slightest gains, the "Divine Spirit" (that is what Khomeini's first name, "Ruhollah" means in Persian) can assure his grip on power for a few more years. This explains why the main concentration of the Iranian attack has been in the poorly defended marshland areas of Hoor Al Howeyzeh, which are easier to infiltrate than to hold, as long as the Iraqi army remains essentially intact.
In fact, the Iranian military has made scant provisions for resupplying and reenforcing the bridgeheads that it won at little concerned about how long it can hold these points. They are mainly useful as something to boast about in the elec-
Even if the Iranian regime could hold on to these gains, it would not end the war. If it held the Majnun Islands in parInternational Viewpoint 26 March 1984 tary bases in the region and has prepared world public opinion effectively for a direct US intervention.
Two vociferously "anti-imperialist" regimes are now at the mercy of imperialism. Iran, which according to its rulers, is already on the threshold of self-suf. ficiency is in fact spending more on imports from the West than it did in the most extravagant years of the monarchy.
The Iraqi regime, which in its early years was executing CIA agents on the streets of Baghdad will have to export all the oil it can produce for the next ten years, working at full capacity, simply to pay its debt. The pro-US sheikhs in the Gulf now are in a position to decide the fate of Saddam Hussein, who once claimed the mantle of leadership of the Arab anti-imperialist struggle. Iraq has become one of the biggest spenders on Western
If Iran loses the war outright, the US and its friends in the Gulf stand to lose a great deal. The situation in Iran has been evolving favorably for the US, albeit slow-
There are now ample signs that the US can hope, after some time, to regain its domination of Iran. On the other hand, a destabilization of the Khomeini regime resulting from a defeat could create new threats for the imperialists, the least of which being a possible disintegration of Iran and the development of a power vacuum on the Soviet border.
If Iraq loses the war outright, it would be difficult to halt the adventures of Khomeini's exporters of "Islamic Revo-
And Saudi Arabia would be next in line. This is not to mention the devastating effect a collapse of the Iraqi regime would have on French imperialism, which is owed over 6 billion dollars and has almost three times that amount tied up in various contracts with Iraq.
The destruction caused by the war, moreover, is quite good for business. This is especially true when the oil income of the two countries involved afessary reconstruction. Iran and Iraq are years ago, it would have been extremely awkward to try to get the Arab world to swallow that.
All the crocodile tears the imperialists are shedding over the war do not mean that they have any reason to be unhappy
Of course, the longer the war goes on, the more the dangers of direct intervention by the imperialists will increase, in particular if the situation threatens to get out of hand from their point of view. Moreover, they will use every opportunity the war affords them to strengthen their means for intervening in the region and for manipulating the local conflicts. It is precisely this imperialist manipula tion that exacerbates conflicts in such neocolonial countries and gives them a new mass murderouș character.
In the grip of their savage ments, the Iranian and Iraqi peoples need the solidarity of the socialist, workers, democratic and humanitarian movements in the imperialist countries to keep the imperialist vultures out. to mobilize protests against all forms of imperialist intervention in this atrocious war, from the sending of imperialist forces to the area to the supplying and incitement of both local neocolonial re-
The quickest way to end the war is for one or both of the two murderous and reactionary regimes to fall. masses have no interest in seeing either
Their interests can only be served by weakening both and bringing
So far the weakness of proletarian internationalist consciousness in both countries and savage and thoroughgoing re. pression have prevented a mass movement against the war from developing. None. theless the continuation of the war is greater and greater sections of the peoples
End the fighting now!
- Iranian and Iraqi soliders turn
- Imperialists out of the Gulf!
meeting in Brescia (an industrial town to the north of Milan). An appeal came out of this meeting asking union leaderships to oppose all new attacks on the sliding scale and to transform the discussion on the cost of labour into a struggle for the defence of jobs'.