'Capitalist intentions guide and govern American foreign policy'
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Chris Nteta is a South African supporter of the Black Consciousness Movement and professor at University of MassachusettsBoston.
In the United States, there is a growing movement to resist the war in the Middle East. However, today we learn that it is an international organization that is arising—in Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and many other countries—so we take heart and inspiration in knowing that we are not alone.
It would seem that United States' foreign policy is governed and guided not by those high ideals that we've come to associate with this country-the ideals that are spelled out in the "Declaration of Independence," in the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights. It's not guided by justice and the pursuit of peace and coexistence.
I'd like to submit that it's being guided by three things.
It is guided by racism. The fact that people of color die in foreign wars initiated by this country in disproportionate numbers to their population ration is racism.
The second is commitment to capitalism-the markets, the resources. Capitalist intentions guide and govern American foreign policy.
The third is the militaristic nature of this country. It is the military-industrial complex that not only guides foreign policy but dominates the domestic policy of this country. Those are the three: racism, capitalism, and militarism.
Politicians have talked about the "peace dividend." There were high expectations that with the cessation of the Cold War, this country would use the billions and billions of dollars that were being expended to expand the military buildup, to invest that money in fundamental needs that we have in this society. But now we hear that $10 million is being spent every day in the Middle East to sustain the 200,000 troops that are there. What does that say about domestic policy?
The military-industrial complex governs the policy of this country. It leads to the kind of assault on small nations like those we've spoken of tonight. We've heard about Panama, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Cambodia, Libya-and now it is Iraq.
People have referred to oil, that this is a war for oil, for profits, a war that is going to profit not you and me but the oil companies. Today it may be about oil, but tomorrow it may be in South Africa-for the platinum, uranium, manganese, the diamonds, and the gold there.
I, as a South African, am here today to make sure that the resources and the raw material in my own country do not become the target for Bush to go cascading in. Today it may be oil; tomorrow it will be something else.
It is not surprising that the United States-no respecter of international lawshould be using that very excuse to say that THE TROOPS