Ordinarily, compensation to the Pakistani government for its part in the so-called “war on terrorism” would be taking place. However the Trump administration has placed a temporary hold on much of the supply appropriated by Congress until Pakistan does more to satisfy Washington’s demands. 

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According to U.S. Army Colonel Rob Manning, Pakistan has not yet received any of the $900 million in Coalition Support Funds promised for fiscal year 2017. 

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In a written statement reported about on the Department of Defense website, he explained, “That amount has been suspended, not cancelled or reprogrammed, as we continue to hope that Pakistan will take decisive action against the terrorist and militant groups that we seek.”

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Pakistan’s officials have received over $8 billion in direct U.S. compensation since 2002. The so-called Coalition Support Funds depend on detailed reports submitted by the Pakistani government to Washington about required military operations against its own citizens. 

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Since launching the so-called “war against international terrorism” in 2001, the bipartisan aggressive war program of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class has insisted that every country must either side with the U.S. or face punitive action.

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In addition to all-out war, Washington has resorted to its old tried-and-true methods of bribing military and political leaders, hatching political conspiracies, carrying out coups, and organizing the assassination of militant leaders. 

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In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. imperialism is attempting to turn the clock back to the days of old-style colonialism in which the destinies of the countries are decided not by them, but by the politicians in Washington. While in Pakistan, Libya, the Philippines, Honduras, Colombia and elsewhere, Washington is continuing to fall back upon the neocolonial system in which the fiction of the formal political independence of the countries is maintained. 

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In both types of cases, the reality is that not only various economic lifelines of these countries remain in the hands of foreign capitalists, but also the political, military, cultural and other aspects of the life of the people. 

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Both of these systems of colonialism are  directed by the imperialists at halting the socio-economic development of the countries dependent on them, at adjusting their national economies to the requirements of monopoly capitalism, at subordinating these countries to the strategic interests of monopoly capital and at channelling their development along dependent lines.

Precisely because there is so much opposition amongst the people to colonialism, U.S. imperialism relies on the counter-revolutionary dual tactics of combining open military aggression with political deception. Above all, U.S. imperialism tries to portray the imperialist warmakers as advocates of peace while slandering the peoples who resist and fight for their rights as the source of “violence.”

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Make no mistake about it – the U.S. government intends to keep marching to the beat of war.

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The U.S. military machine is used not only to suppress the revolutionary crisis in the colonial countries and growth of the elements of revolt against imperialism on the external, colonial front, but also to protect and expand U.S. imperialism’s empire from “theft” by rival capitalist powers. 

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Since the start of the so-called “war on international terrorism” in 2001, U.S. imperialism has been working hard to make respect for the sovereign equality of countries and peoples a thing of the past and to replace it with the law of the jungle based on brazen violation of the sovereignty of countries. 

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And even while U.S. imperialism tries to keep its Big Power allies under its hegemony, contradictions and rivalries keep breaking to the surface. The U.S. was unable to maintain its “grand alliance” against Iraq. Even earlier, the disintegration and wars in the former Yugoslavia were directly linked to the contradictions amongst the various imperialist powers. The emergence of the European Community, the creation of the “euro” and the new EU military forces reflect the growing rivalry and struggle within U.S. imperialism’s core NATO alliance. Struggles keep breaking out over trade barriers and currency flows, etc. At the same time, sharp contradictions continue to exist with Russia, China and other countries. 

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The system of violence against the peoples as well as the disequilibrium and conflicts amongst the imperialists themselves will continue as long as imperialism exists because at its very foundations imperialism is a system of exploitation and subjugation. In fact, rather than lessening or disappearing, the contradictions of this system are becoming even more intense. 

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Imperialism is leading humanity to new, unprecedented wars and disasters. Grave dangers are facing the peoples. 

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In the U.S., the Workers Party – giving expression to the anti-imperialist and proletarian internationalist traditions of the people – works to build a broad, popular front against war and imperialism.

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In the present period, activists are involved in many fronts of struggle against the government’s aggressive foreign policy.  There is a movement underway demanding the closure of Guantanamo Bay detention center. There can be seen growing mass struggles against U.S. war schemes and interventions in Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Sudan, Somalia and against the brutal wars to impose colonial rule on Iraq and Afghanistan. People are coming out in support of the Palestinian liberation struggle. There are the growing solidarity movements with peoples fighting against U.S. domination and intervention in Latin America and the Caribbean, in Asia and throughout the world, and to mobilize public opinion and fight against the gargantuan military budget and the militarization of society, etc. 

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How should we push forward these on-going struggles against militarism and war and how can we win permanent victory? We say that the movement must: 1) unite the many currents of anti-militarist, anti-war struggle into one common front; 2) organize our movement on the basis of its own aims and agenda so that it is a pro-active rather than a reactive movement; and 3) build the anti-war movement as part of the independent movement of the working class and people, build it in opposition to and struggle against the capitalist class and the imperialist system which are the source of war and militarism.

Recognizing the bipartisan character of the U.S. war program is part of facing up to the need for the American people to create a real political alternative capable of defeating the capitalist program. However, to maintain the charade that the Democrats are the “friends of labor,” political opportunism continually tries to erase the consciousness of the people about the deeds of the Democrats and tries to deny the class character of the Democratic Party in particular, and of politics in general. Today, the political opportunists, after years of Democratic Party prosecution of the U.S. “war on terror” from the halls of Congress to the White House, are insisting that any criticism of the Democrats undermines the “historic imperative” of getting out the vote to replace Trump and to “restore U.S. credibility in the world.”

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This politics tries to liquidate independent, anti-war activity and replace it with electioneering. The politics of “replacing Trump” covers over the roots of the capitalist war program and in turn, the dangers confronting the American people. Trump’s agenda is the agenda of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class which seeks to shift the whole burden of the crisis of its system onto the back of the people through aggressive war abroad and repression at home. The politics of “replacing Trump” covers over the real aggressive, colonial program which always remains the basis of U.S. imperialism’s so-called

“war against international terrorism.” The biggest evil of this politics is that it seeks to buy time for the warmakers as well as thwart the growing consciousness of the people. It seeks to choke the will to find out which is inspiring millions of people to come into new political life. Instead of trying to suppress this awakening, the necessity is to nourish it and build up the only reliable weapons of the anti-war struggle – the consciousness and organization of the people themselves.

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The immediate aim of independent, anti-imperialist organizations is to maximize popular participation and mobilization to force the government to end the war and colonial conquest of Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal of this work must be to replace the war government of the Republicans and Democrats with a genuine peace government, a government of and by the people.