JUST days after the mid-term elections dealt a decisive blow to his administration, Bush with the support of the Democrats has seen to it that his ambassador to the UN, Bolton, has vetoed a Security Council draft motion condemning the Israeli massacre of 19 mainly women and children in Beit Hanoun.
The UK, Bush’s main ally, duly abstained in the vote.
Once again, the main imperialist powers have signalled to Israel that it can slaughter as many Palestinians as it likes.
Today Bush is due to meet his main mercenary in the Middle East, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel.
Olmert has already issued two warnings to the Bush administration, that it must not leave Iraq – otherwise it will become a centre for terrorism and insurgency throughout the Middle East – and that it is vital that Iran is ‘made to fear’ the consequences of continuing with its present policies.
However, the time has long past when the US was in control of its own destiny as far as its adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan are concerned.
It has lost the war in Iraq and its military will resist any attempts to get them deeper into the Iraqi quagmire.
In fact, it was only able to invade Afghanistan and Iraq because it got the go ahead from Iran to do so. A deal was struck with the US and the UK to allow the Dawa party, the Badr Brigade and Ayatollah Sistani back into Iraq from Iran, on the basis that they would run southern Iraq for the UK and US military.
The US insistence that Iran must not have a nuclear energy programme soured, and then aborted that deal to the point where the British have had to abandon their consulate in Basra, because the British army did not have the capacity to defend it.
However, the sacking of Rumsfeld has brought back, into and around the Bush administration, imperialist politicians like Gates and Baker, former servants of President George Bush senior, who are contemplating calling in Iran and Syria, and to make a deal with them to help the US out of the quagmire.
Baker has already said that it is possible that Syria and Iran will have to be invited to assist with the peace-keeping in Iraq, to create the conditions for a US withdrawal.
However, Baker and Gates know that a price will have to be paid for playing such a role – concessions to Iran over its nuclear technology programme and the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. This is what Olmert fears.
There is an alternative to this, which is also being discussed. This is to organise a group of Ba’athist generals to overthrow the Maliki government which runs the Green Zone, and have a Ba’athist regime, without Saddam, to deal with the Badr Brigade and other pro-Iranian militias.
The just-made decision to allow large numbers of Ba’athists to return to their jobs in various government departments is a move in this direction.
That this would require a deal involving the release into exile of Saddam and a gigantic eating of humble pie by the imperialist powers is obvious.
This is why Maliki wants a speedy execution of Saddam. This is why he remains in the custody of the US. While the imperialists juggle with all of these reactionary combinations to try to cover their defeats, the insurgency has a huge opportunity to put an end to the occupation.
The defeats in Iraq and the Lebanon have reduced both the US and Israeli ruling classes to their real size; their aura of invincibility is gone for ever.
The insurgency in Iraq must adopt a national leadership, and declare its provisional government to create the conditions to end the occupation.
In Palestine, the Hamas and Fatah movements must declare a government of national unity, and through their fighting organisations declare the Third Intifada to secure the Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, with all of its refugees having the right to return, and with all of the Zionist settlers and settlements withdrawn.
After Bush’s defeats in Iraq and in the US elections, after the Israeli defeat in the Lebanon, the time has come to drive the imperialists and their agents out of the Middle East.
