People's Democracy

The Costs Of “War On the World” 

                                                                                                     S R Bandaaru 

THE impending US imperialist war on Iraq is going to be a ‘war on the world’ with the entire populations of different countries being affected, in terms of human rights, cost of living and national economies. The American people and their economy – both at micro and macro levels - will be no exception.

The US imperialists want a war desperately in order to divert the attention of their people from the chronic economic problems.  The national debt of US has crossed $6,400 billion (Rs 3,00,00,000 crore). The trade deficit has crossed $453 billion this year. The foreign investment, which used to overshadow the trade deficit, has come down to $44 billion during last year from $124 billion earlier, thus exposing the vulnerability of US economy.

The dollar is losing its glamour. Millions of small and medium investors have lost trillions of dollars in the stock market which money has gone into the pockets of international finance capital. About a quarter of the top 500 American companies reported losses last year.  99 lakh Americans lost their jobs between 1999 and 2001.  After September 2001, many more lakhs of Americans in insurance, information technology, aviation and other sectors lost their jobs, value of shares and pensions.  As a result, the savings rate in America has come down to a mere 1.6 per cent in 2001. Poverty has increased to the (official) figure of 11.3 per cent constituting 326 lakh people. 

For such a bankrupt American economy, the cost of war on Iraq is estimated by various western economists, to be ranging from $121 billion to $1600 billion.  Some warmongers estimate that around $50 to $60 billion would be enough, which can be offset with earnings from Iraqi oil. All these costs have been estimated from the US point of view alone.  These costs take into account only the direct military spending, occupation of Iraq and peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance, impact of oil markets etc., but do not take into account the impact on other countries of the world. 

These estimates do not take into account the damage that could be caused by the large number of “terrorists” in different countries, who have been created by the capitalist-imperialist policy of “divide and rule”, over the years.  These estimates also do not take into account the human rights, human tragedies, the deaths, running into lakhs in the war zone; the spiralling prices that would affect billions of people; and several other hidden or unforeseen factors.  

An important impact of war on Iraq will be the oil prices.  The US economists estimate that the price, which was around $20 per barrel in January 2002, is expected to go up to $80 per barrel in a worst-case scenario situation of war, over a period of ten years.   Even at the current price of $30 per barrel, the costs of petrol, LPG, diesel and kerosene have already become very costly in India upsetting the budgets of even middle classes.  What would be the impact if the price of oil were to rise up to even $60 per barrel?   There is no need of a direct war!

The American bluff masters argue that Iraq posed a danger to their security and that North Korea, Iran and Iraq are the “axis of evil”, even as the brokers and jokers in the imperialist media nod their heads in approval. The point is that the US devil empire is spending  $396 billion out of a total outlay of about $800 billion (i e, nearly 50 percent of the budget) for its defence (or aggression) this year alone.  On the other hand, Iran spends around $9 billion; Iraq, Libya and North Korea each spend around $1.5 billion; and Cuba, Syria and Sudan each spend around $1 billion - each year.  The combined military spending of these so-called “rogue” states was around $15 billion (i e, 1/26^th of US) and still the US devil empire argues that this “axis of evil” poses danger to their “security”.   The US possesses 11,000 to 13,000 strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons, which are more than the weaponry of Japan and EU put together. 

The US devil empire is the biggest “rogue” state, out to sentence the entire peoples on the planet to untold miseries with a ‘war on the world’, in its drive for world hegemony.   Deaths for lakhs of people, disabilities for lakhs more, widespread diseases and destruction of properties worth billions of dollars are a certainty in case of a war on Iraq.