By James Thompson

Although details are sketchy at this point, it appears a third war is now underway with full U.S. support in spite of the wishes of the U.S. people.

Fidel Castro predicted it. U.S. Department of Defense secretary Gates argued against it. The U.S. people will surely oppose it once they understand it. However, once again, the wealthy elite are having their way. Apparently, the U.S. is participating in aggressive action against Libya which is a violation of our constitution since Congress has not authorized war. Secretary Gates has indicated aggressive action towards Libya will be an act of war. Congress has not authorized such aggressive action so this is a violation of our constitution.

All people in this country should oppose this aggressive military action which will only be in the interest of the wealthy, but not the working people of this nation.

The world is in crisis. We have a catastrophe in Japan brought about by profit driven corporations who put more value on profits than on the safety of humanity and the other inhabitants of our planet. One of my friends pointed out that very little is being done to help the working people of Japan who are suffering from this three pronged catastrophe (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown), and yet the U.S. and its puppets are embarking on yet another military adventure in Libya which has probably already resulted in the deaths of untold numbers of working people.

We are part of a world economic crisis. Unemployment is still extremely high. Republicans are fighting to chip away every advance gained by working people since the Roosevelt administration.

Untold billions of dollars are being spent every day on the first two wars (i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan) and yet there are calls to dismantle our basic public services such as public education, police and fire departments. We don’t have enough money for our people and children, but we have plenty of money to slaughter working people in foreign countries.

This third front in the class war, (for this is very clearly a war against working people), may have some positive, but unintended consequences. It may serve as a lightning rod for working people and may mobilize them and reinvigorate the moribund left and peace movement throughout the world.

Clearly the election of Obama in 2008 signaled a massive outpouring of U.S. people yearning for peace and believing that the first African American President would lead them out of war and into peace. As it turns out, our President is so beholden to the powerful ruling class dominated by the ultra-wealthy that he must fight for the interests of the ruling class and abandon those who elected him. It is clear without a doubt that Obama has chosen to stand with the interests of the wealthy and sell the working class down the river.

So, the questions now develop which will set the stage for the next level of struggle. “Which side are we on?” “Will working people stand up and fight for basic human services and oppose aggressive, imperialist wars?” “Will the peace movement get back up on its hind legs and fight for justice and against war?” “Will the Communist Party oppose imperialism or will it capitulate to the interests of the ultra-wealthy?” “Will progressives sit this one out?” “How will the working people of the world respond to this outrageous intervention in a sovereign nation?” “How is it that the imperialist powers did not intervene in all the other middle eastern and African uprisings, but chose military intervention in Libya?”

The fate of the world depends on working people now more than ever. Only working people can restore sanity in a time dominated by capitalist distortions, lies and outrages. If we working people are not united then we shall surely be divided and conquered!

PHill1917@comcast.net

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 25 (acn) Cuba stated on Friday in Geneva that
interventionism in Libya is
unacceptable and opposed the exclusion of that Arab nation as a member of
the Human Rights
Council, the intergovernmental organ that is part of the United Nations
system.

Rodolfo Reyes, Cuba’s permanent representative at the organization,
spoke in one of the
sessions to analyze the issue, and recalled that less than 72 hours before
Cuban Foreign
Minster Bruno Rodriguez had expressed that some politicians and media
outlets incite to
violence, military aggression and foreign intervention in Libya.

Feelings are running high everywhere and I’m afraid that could lead to
serious
international and internal mistakes, warned the minister, cited by Reyes,
the National
Television Newscast reported on Friday.

We wish the Libyan people to achieve a speedy peaceful and sovereign
solution to the
situation created there, without any kind of interference or foreign
intervention, which
guarantees the integrity of the Libyan nation, said Rodriguez in his
speech, read then in
Brussels.

The ambassador stressed that the concerns that declaration reflected
became a reality and
that that State is amid a civil war, within the context of a world
economic crisis of great
dimensions, which plunges the peoples of that region and the world into
despair.

We’re all concerned about the loss of human lives and the damages
caused to the civilian
population due to the current conflict in that Arab nation, asserted the
diplomat, whose
statements were also published by the www.cubadebate.cu Web site.

He warned that the risk of taking advantage, in an opportunistic way,
of the tragic
situation to satisfy interventionist appetites, take sovereignty away from
the Libyan people
and seize its resources, can’t be accepted.

Some are already talking about a humanitarian military intervention,
which we oppose,
because, instead of solving the situation, it would complicate it even
more and could lead to
other serious implications, he said sententiously.

Reyes declared himself to be against some elements included in the
approved resolution,
which constitute what he described as “a disastrous precedent” for
cooperation in terms of
human rights, which the work of the Council should be based on.

He recalled that, from the start, when we were creating this new
Council, Cuba opposed the
clause on the suspension of a State’s membership.

In this regard, he pointed out that its inclusion in Resolution 60/251
set a negative
precedent that burdened the new organ with an additive that is
unparalleled in any other
organ of the United Nations.

Immediately afterwards, he asserted that it had never been cited until
today, but that its
use on this occasion will open the door to those seeking to legitimize
this mechanism, with
the purpose of using it selectively against countries disagreeing their
patterns.

Cuba, consequently, disassociates itself from the paragraph of the
approved resolution, he
stated.

Lastly, Reyes expressed that the island calls on calm and reiterates
its confidence in the
capacity of the Libyan people to solve their internal affairs, without any
foreign
interference, and to preserve the country’s peace, stability and sovereignty.

This is the first time that the suspension of a member of the of the
Human Rights
Commission, to which Libya belongs since May, 2010, is recommended, the
Telesur television
network reported.

The final decision in this regard will be made at the UN General
Assembly, the next meting
of which has been scheduled for March 1st in New York, specified the state
television network.