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SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1990 11 virtually every corner of the globe.

Furthermore, Gorbachev's course (and the course of all the Stalinists) toward capitalist restoration continues to follow its logic to the end. The Soviet and Chinese Stalinists are falling in line behind American imperialism's counterrevolutionary action in the Gulf like any one of Uncle Sam's run-of-themill allies and vassals.

But while imperialism gains from this in one place, it loses in another: Now the so-called threat of Soviet "imperialism" has all but evaporated. It is clearer than ever before that the current military adventure, this time in the Persian Gulf, is motivated by nothing more than the naked interests of capitalist imperialism. Americans will have less reason than ever to kill and be killed in defense of corporate profits. countries, was limited to a single export— pearls. When, during the First World War, local traders attempted to expand commerce beyond the framework of British interests, the British blockaded Kuwait.

During the World War, the British conquered the Arab portions of the Ottoman Empire. The northern territory, Syria, was mandated to France (which sent troops to seize the area in 1920). In the meantime, Britain awarded itself Irag and Trans-Jordan. The desires of the people of the region for independence, as well as for Arab unity, were thwarted. After putting down several rebellions in Iraq, the British helped to place Faisal, the former nationalist leader whom the French had expelled from Syria, on the Iraqi throne.

In 1922, Sir Percy Cox, of Zionism"

La Socialist Action pamphlet y Ralph Schoenman (104 pl Send $4 (price includes postage) to 3435 Army. St. #308, San Francisco, CA 94110. Make checks payable to Walnut Publishing Co. The hidden bustomy of Zhomism

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the Middle East "The Hidden History