People's Democracy

US President, George Bush, in his first customary "State of the Union Address" has, once again, struck a belligerent posture. This annual exercise is the declaration of policy and programmes by the US President for the coming year.

Expectedly, Bush dealt with current US "war against terrorism" and the severe economic recession in global capitalism. Imperialist arrogance was at its height when Bush declared that the war against Afghanistan is just the beginning of a global war against what the US shall define as "terrorism".

He listed over 12 countries as being "eligible" for US military intervention on this score. Even though the US war against Afghanistan did not yield the USA's prime suspects, Osama bin Laden or Mulla Omar, President Bush has declared that such brazen unilateral US military interventions will be at the centre of US global policy even beyond his tenure as the President.

Clearly, US imperialism, as anticipated, is using the post-September 11, 2001 world situation as a pretext to legitimise and extend the imperialist policy of strengthening its global hegemony through military interventions against sovereign nations.

George Bush has attempted to give a theoretical basis for strengthening US global hegemony by taking recourse to the by now discredited thesis of the "clash of civilisations". Stating that the "civilised world faces unprecedented dangers", he described the "axis of evils" listing countries like Iran, Iraq and DPRK (North Korea) as the next immediate targets. It is an irony that such countries are being termed as a threat to civilisation which, for many millennia before Christopher Columbus discovered America, were crucibles of vibrant civilisations.

Bush's speech also confirms that US imperialism will use the present situation not only to strengthen its global hegemony but also to browbeat developing countries into accepting an international economic order that will help advanced capitalist countries to emerge from their current severe recession. US imperialism is thus seeking to intensify the process of economic exploitation of the developing world. All this will be done in the name of fighting terrorism!

It is pathetic to see the Vajpayee government acquiescing to these declared US imperialist hegemonic objectives. Far from gearing up the Indian people and arming ourselves with policies that can resist such an imperialist onslaught in order to protect India's economic sovereignty, the Vajpayee government, with its unabashed servility, is endorsing such imperialist designs. The Indian people, however, are not carried away by US imperialist machinations. They will rise against both, US imperialism and this Vajpayee government, to protect our country's interests and sovereignty.