Workers' Liberty
DOWN WITH THE WAR!
Down with the fundamentalists!

So far as anyone can make a plausible estimate, Osama bin Laden attacked the USA on 11 September not as an act of "desperation" but with a clear calculation in mind.
He wanted to provoke large-scale retaliation by the USA which would, in turn, fuel an Islamic-fundamentalist backlash sufficient to overthrow some of what bin Laden sees as the "fake Muslim" regimes.
The US government, with the help of Britain, has retaliated by sending the airforce of the richest land on earth to drop masses of bombs on an already wrecked and ruined country, one of the poorest countries on earth. Whether the rest of bin Laden's calculations work out, we have yet to see.
Horrible though the present regimes of countries like Pakistan are, their overthrow by fascistic Taliban-type fundamentalists will be an appalling defeat for the workers, the women, the democrats and the dissenters of any sort in those countries.
There are four clear arguments against this war.
1. As many, or more, innocent civilians will be killed by the US and British in Afghanistan as were killed by bin Laden on 11 September. In addition to the direct military casualties, unknowable numbers will die because of the economic disruption and chaos which the war is causing.
The people of Afghanistan need food, relief, and help in reconstructing the country, not bombs.
2. Even if the US captures or kills bin Laden – and they themselves say they may well not – this war will not end terrorist-fundamentalism. On the contrary, as bin Laden calculated, it is more likely to boost and spread it.
3. The US and UK are anyway not even trying to fight an across-the-board war against terrorist-fundamentalism. This is primarily a war of revenge designed to placate understandable American outrage over 11 September. The "target", Afghanistan, is selected for that purpose and no other. The USA retains its alliance with fundamentalist Saudi Arabia and seeks to mend relations with fundamentalist Iran.
4. The "coalition against terrorism" which Blair and Bush have put together includes some of the worse state-licensed terrorists alive today. This is a "war against terrorism" conducted by big, wholesale terrorists against the littler terrorists.
Terrorist-fundamentalism is a real threat – a threat, in the first place, to the mainly-Muslim people of the countries where the fundamentalist movements are strong. But the US/UK war will not deal with it.
The only answer both to the war and to terrorist-fundamentalism is international solidarity, and democratic and working-class resistance in every country.
We must redouble our determination to work toward remaking the world on the socialist basis of solidarity, democracy and equality, in place of the vicious world system which threw up these horrors.
We must build solidarity with the democratic, socialist and working-class struggle against militarism and against fundamentalism, all across the world. That is not a quick fix. But there is no quick fix. Bush's and Blair's "quick fix" will not be quick – they have had to admit that themselves – and will not fix anything fundamental.

The Labour Party of Pakistan is appealing for donations to help its fight on two fronts, agains the US/UK war and against fundamentalism. Please help. Details: Education Foundation Donations, foreign currency account (US dollars). Account number 1161774808090, Standard Grindleys Bank, Gulberg Branch, Main Boulevard, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan.

Workers' Liberty, P O Box 823, London SE15 4NA. 28 October 2001.
Web: www.workersliberty.org. Email: office@workersliberty.org. Phone: 020 7207 3997.