WARS AND IMPERIALISM
Editors
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of World War (WW) I, we are producing below an article by Mahmood Awan.
WW 1 highlighted inter-imperialist contradiction and conflict. In the early decades of the 20th century, Britain and France controlled most of the colonies in the world and their rich resources.
Germany was a latecomer to the colonial game and the war was fought over the division of the colonies. In the ensuing battles that were fought mainly in Europe, Britain made full use of its colonial assets and recruited soldiers from various parts of India, but mainly from Punjab, as cannon fodder for fighting its wars. Mahmood Awan highlights the way lives of Punjabi peasants, Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu, were sacrificed to preserve the British Empire. WW II was fought for world domination in which German, Italian and Japanese fascists attacked not only Britain, France and America but also the Soviet Union.
Since the end of WWII, inter-imperialist conflict has been replaced by inter-imperialist cooperation. The first victims of this were the Soviet Union and the East European socialist countries, though not by direct military intervention. The current targets of inter-imperialist collusion are the Arab countries. Iraq and Libya have been destroyed and the focus now is on Syria and Palestine. The tactics are more elaborate and complex and involve recruiting and promoting various strands of Islamic fundamentalists against each other and against the remaining secular Arab nationalists.
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