Bring the Troops Home Now!

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Akiss goodbiye to finglat for Bing Oiill? A sailor departs for duty in the Persian Gulf By throwing up a blockade of all goods going into or out of Iraq-and invading Saudi Arabia-the U.S. government has launched a war against the Iragi people and the Arab nation as a whole.

In a massive military buildup not seen since the Vietnam War, Bush and his generals moved a military force the equivalent of a medium-sized city into Saudi Arabia and amassed a powerful fleet of warships in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, and the Mediterranean in preparation for escalation of the war. U.S. forces have now taken an offensive posture in their deployment in Saudi Arabia.

In launching this war, Bush-himself a rich "oil man"—is acting in the interests of a tiny handful of super-rich families who own controlling interests in the big oil monopolies and all other key sectors of the U.S. economy.

The annexation of Kuwait to Iraq is just a pretext for Washington's aggression. Based on historical links that go back to the Ottoman Empire and its Basra province before World War I, Iragis have long claimed Kuwait as part of their country. The colonial powers separated Kuwait from Iraq at the turn of the century. When the British declared Kuwait to be an independent monarchy in 1961, the Iraqi government again asserted its claim that Kuwait was part of Iraq.

Kuwait has no viable agriculture or industry except for oil wells. Its Emir, or monarch, is a puppet of U.S. and British oil monopolies. The workers in Kuwait come mainly from outside. More than 60 percent of the population has no citizenship rights.

On the other hand, some 2000 idle princes of the al-Sabah royal family have a hundred billion dollars at their disposal in assets outside Kuwait alone. [For more background on how the imperialist powers carved up the Arab East into separate countries, and the ar¿entile tor The news headline proclaimed, "Morning Panic Costs Dow 52 Points."

The lead paragraph went on to explain: "Stock prices plunged yesterday on continuing uncertainty about the Persian Gulf crisis.... As turmoil in the Middle East continues, stocks will remain under pressure, analysts said."

The above San Francisco Chronicle headline and story are typical for daily newspapers across the country. While the U.S. government and military press their drive against the Arab people of the Middle East, the financial markets continue to nosedive. There is little confidence that this imperialist aggression will lead to economic stability.

In fact, the opposite is expected. "Clearly the 1990 oil shock will send producer and consumer prices skyward in August and September. But it will also be a hammer blow to a weak economy," reports the Aug. 27 Business Week.

"America is already on the edge of a recession; an oil-price rise of 25% might push it over the edge; and never before has America gone into recession with a structural budget deficit stuck at around 3% of GNP [Gross National Product]," adds the Aug. 18 Economist, a British weekly.

Is U.S. in recession?

Before the U.S. rulers sent tens of thousands of troops into the Middle East, there was little doubt that the economy was on a downward spiral. The "oil shock" is pushing the U.S. economy into a recession that will likely be worse than the one in 1981-82.

Traditionally a recession is when the economy declines for at least six months; that is, when the total goods and services (continued on page 16)

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sush holding a tiger by the tail in the Mideast

War threats ser economy into onomy in tailspin