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VOL. 30, NO. 1, JANUARY 2012 WWW.SOCIALISTACTION.ORG U.S. / CANADA $1 After ‘withdrawal’ from Iraq, U.S. seeks new battlegrounds On Jan. 5, President Obama made a major speech about a coming shift in U.S. military strategy, a strategy that has been described as more “lean” and more “mean.” The fact that the speech coincided with the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq led mainstream commentators to characterize the change primarily as a move from employing large occupation forces in “nation-building” missions to the employment of drone warfare and special operations of the type that killed Osama Bin Laden.

While it is true that the United States, a nation deep in financial crisis and politically weakened by its failure to establish stable and effective client regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, hopes to do more damage with fewer troops and more Orwellian technology, the new strategy is hardly a decision by the U.S. elite to implement a substantial military drawdown. As The New York Times noted in an editorial on Jan. 5, even with the $500 billion in proposed cuts to the military budget over the next 10 years, the budget will continue to grow to be larger than in the past.

The Times editors also reflected ruling-class impatience with Obama’s election-year emphasis on the reduced deployment of ground forces, and reduction of the Army to 490,000 soldiers. “That sounds reasonable,” they said, “but there must be a clear plan on how to build it up again quickly as needed.”

It is also worth noting that the strategy review that Obama recently reported had come out was commissioned last year, well before the U.S. request to maintain a substantial combat force in Iraq had been squelched by the insecure Maliki client regime. In fact, the “shift” should be more properly understood as a geographic expansion of the number of arenas in which the White House hopes to flex its yet unchallenged military weight.

The direct link between the deepening of the U.S. economic crisis and the expanding geographic spread of projected military deployments is clearer than in Bilal Hussein / AP the past. While the White House has to deal with a real deficit in funds available for war, they are at the same time driven by conditions of extreme economic competition to use their military might to gain an edge. In the Middle East, Central Asia, the Asian Pacific, and Africa, the U.S. is determined to meet longstanding obTony Savino / Socialist Action INSIDE North Korea — 2 Visit with Mumia — 3 Indefinite detention — 4 Immigration — 5 Egypt revolt — 6 Film on Bosnia war — 7 Canada news — 8 Teamsters union — 11 Labor books — 11 (Left) Lebanese woman shouts anti-U.S. slogans during Dec. 30 march in Beirut to celebrate U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

jectives having to do with the ability to manipulate oil and gas supplies needed by its main economic competitors.

Iran and “the return to Asia”

Reporting of the Pentagon’s strategy shift, for example, focused on the U.S. decision to pay more attention on pressuring Iran and a new threat to intervene in the China Sea. The new sanctions on Iran, which make it more difficult for China and Japan to buy Iranian oil in the normal way, has stirred outrage in the East.

An amendment to the recently signed National Defense Authorization Act actually imposes additional sanctions on any countries or companies that buy Iranian oil and pay for it through Iran’s Central Bank. While this measure will probably not stop many sales in the long run (many such sales will likely be rerouted through new private banks), it is part of the new belligerency aimed directly at China.

U.S. intentions in the Pacific have been in the news since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in November 2011, took the side of the Philippines and Vietnam in a dispute with China over claims to the China Sea. Oil reserves in the South China Sea may total as much as 213 billion barrels. China has proposed joint development of the reserves by Asian powers, but the Philippines and Vietnam have rejected this proposal, with U.S. backing, and have awarded contracts to Exxon Mobil and other firms. Chinese vessels, including at least one military ship, have been testing the maritime boundaries declared by the Philippines. It is understood that the Pentagon’s decision not to reduce its number of aircraft car(continued on page 4, in “Obama signs bill allowing indefinite detention of U.S. policy opponents”)

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