Can World War III Be Prevented?

With the 2012 elections out of the way, the US edges ever closer to war with Iran. China and Russia have clearly indicated they will support Iran if it is attacked by Israel or the US. Both are nuclear powers. Thus there is no longer any question where or when World War III is likely to start. Below are two fascinating videos that offer compelling arguments that the corporate oligarchy controlling the US government is doing everything in their power to launch a war against Iran.

Land Hunger as a Motive for War

The first and longest is by Fred Harrison, author of The Traumatised Society. Arguing from a macroeconomic perspective, Harrison explains why the capitalist elite automatically turns to war when confronted with a severe economic depression. He illustrates with the two worst global depressions in history: the one occurring in the 1900s that led to World War I and the one in the 1930s that led to World War II.

As Harrison explains it, land confiscation, speculation, resource extraction and monopolization of the cultural commons (e.g. the public airwaves and money) is the single most important mechanism for the transfer of wealth from Producers (i.e. workers) to the Predators (the ruling elite). Eventually, however, the Producers are squeezed dry, which manifests in a severe economic depression. The Predators typically respond by looking for new land and resources to confiscate. They do this through conquest and military and economic colonization – and war.

Harrison lays out in detail the land hunger that led the ruling elite in Italy and Germany to instigate World War I. Likewise Hitler and his corporate backers sought to alleviate the severe depression confronting Germany in the 1930s by expanding Germany territory through the invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia. 

Harrison concludes by linking US aggression in the Middle East to land (and resource) hunger on the part of the US rent-seekers (i.e. corporate elite). China, in turn, has their own rent-seekers – party bureaucrats who have made themselves obscenely rich through land development and speculation. A good example is millionaire real estate tycoon Xi Jinping, China’s current president. Chinese rent-seekers are driving China’s economic colonization of South Africa, South America, Asia (and Detroit). They’re also pushing Chinese territorial claims on Japanese and Filipino islands.

War to Stall the Collapse of Capitalism

A much shorter video by Storm Clouds Gathering, also argues that war in Iran and World War III seem increasingly inevitable. However it does so from a microeconomic perspective. Specifically it links an imminent attack on Iran with the likely collapse of the US dollar and the American economy. Because the US dollar is no longer backed by gold or silver, it only continues to have value because of its petrodollar status. The US has military treaties with a number of oil producing countries that they will oil in dollars. This forces most oil importing countries to keep US dollars in reserve, with the resulting demand inflating its value.

Unbeknownst to many Americans, George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq closely followed a decision by Saddam Hussein to sell oil in euros, rather than dollars. Likewise the US/NATO invasion of Libya closely followed a similar decision by Muammar Gaddafi. In a similar vein, US military designs on Iran have nothing to do with Iran’s non existent nuclear weapons program. Since March 2012, Iran has been selling oil for euros, yen, and gold and is open to negotiating acceptance of other currencies, including Indian rupees:

The Storm Clouds Gathering film emphasizes the importance of the mother of all corporate lobby groups, the Council on Foreign Relations, in pressuring Obama to declare war on Iran. Hillary Clinton’s reference to the CFR telling the State Department what “we should be doing” is no slip of the tongue.

Both Harrison and SCG video argue that the only way to stop a US/Israeli invasion of Iran and World War III is by mobilizing the American public to launch a massive pressure campaign, of the scale Egypt is currently witnessing in Tahrir Square. I agree.

Want to stop World War III? Here’s how:

Join the anti-Iran war movement.  No matter what your ideological bent – liberal, conservative, progressive, libertarian, socialist, anarchist – there’s a group nearby that’s right for you.

Below are links to five of the largest antiwar coalitions (and the US Green Party):

http://www.answercoalition.org/

http://stopwaroniran.org/iranstatement.shtml

http://www.peacecoalition.org/campaigns/iran.html

http://hopoi.org/

http://libertarians4peace.net/

http://www.gp.org/

 

photo credit: roberthuffstutter via photopin cc