New Zealand government, opposition support US war in Middle East
By Tom Peters
16 September 2014
On September 11, nine days ahead of New Zealand’s election, Prime Minister John Key and the main opposition Labour Party
leader David Cunliffe both declared their support for the Obama administration’s decision to escalate Washington’s
renewed military intervention in the Middle East.
Cunliffe told the media that US air strikes in Iraq were “lawful” because of an invitation from the Iraqi
government—which is nothing but a stooge of Washington. Key said the bombing was necessary to combat extremist Islamic
State militias (also known as ISIS or ISIL) that have seized parts of Iraq and Syria.
Key added that he had not “formed a view” on whether to support US intervention in Syria, but said any action against
ISIS was “in the interests of making a safer world.” Last year, the government, Labour and the Greens all denounced
Russia and China for preventing the UN Security Council from authorising a direct military attack on the Assad regime in
Syria.
The NZ leaders’ statements followed US President Obama’s announcement of an open-ended war in Iraq and Syria, on the
fraudulent pretext of fighting terrorism. In fact, ISIS is the product of Washington’s backing for Al Qaeda-linked
jihadist “rebels” in Libya and Syria, as well as the promotion of sectarian divisions following the Bush
administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Now the atrocities carried out by the Sunni extremist group are being used as the justification to consolidate American
control of Iraq and intervene directly in Syria to escalate the war for regime change in that country. The long-standing
aim of US imperialism is to dominate both countries and their resources, in preparation for a confrontation with Iran
and Russia.
New Zealand’s corporate media, like its counterparts in the US, Australia and Europe, has faithfully agitated for
bombing Iraq “to save minorities from being slaughtered by the terrorist soldiers” (Dominion Post editorial, September 5). ANew Zealand Herald editorial on August 29 also warned against any “accommodation” with the Assad regime and called for more weapons to be
given to Syria’s “moderate” Islamist rebels.
Amid this pro-war propaganda, the official opposition parties and their liberal and pseudo-left supporters are
conspiring to prevent the US intervention in the Middle East from becoming an election issue. In three televised debates
between Key and Cunliffe, and two involving the minor party leaders, discussion of foreign policy, particularly military
ties with Washington, was avoided.
Labour’s political allies—the Greens, the right-wing populist NZ First, and the Internet-Mana Party—have remained silent
on its statements supporting US bombing. There is a simple explanation for this: they all fundamentally agree with
Labour.
The Greens’ most recent statement on Iraq, on June 22, criticised Key’s support for US intervention, only to call for
UN-backed “multilateral action” instead. The party last year repeatedly called for the UN to approve an attack on Syria.
The Maori nationalist Mana Party and its ally the Internet Party have said nothing about Iraq for almost three months.
On June 25, Mana leader Hone Harawira criticised Key for being prepared to support “an American crusade which has
already killed thousands of Iraqi kids.” At the same time, he called on the government to stand “with the independent
nations of the world in condemning human rights abuses in Iraq and supporting efforts to reduce violence in that area of
the world.” This deliberately vague formulation left the door open to supporting intervention as part of a supposedly
multilateral “effort” to defend “human rights.”
A particularly insidious role is played by the pseudo-left groups Socialist Aotearoa (SA), the International Socialist
Organisation (ISO) and Fightback, which are all part of the Internet-Mana Party (IMP) and fraudulently promote it as
“progressive.” These groups are campaigning to boost the IMP’s presence in parliament so that it can prop up a
Labour-led government.
In their election coverage, all three groups have echoed Labour and the media’s criticisms of the National government
for colluding with right-wing bloggers to smear political opponents—a practice that is common to all bourgeois parties.
None of them have commented on Labour’s support for war in Iraq.
A decade ago, the pseudo-left groups, or their previous incarnations, were postured as opponents of the invasion of Iraq
and were active in anti-war protests, which attracted thousands of people. Greens MPs also fronted the protests, while
continuing to support the Labour government, which sent 60 soldiers to assist the occupation force.
In recent years, however, particularly following the economic crisis that began in 2008, these groups and their
counterparts internationally have shifted further to the right and become open supporters of US imperialism. While
describing themselves as socialist, they in fact represent a middle class layer, including trade union bureaucrats,
academics and Maori entrepreneurs, which has no interest in abolishing capitalism and ultimately benefits from the
economic and strategic dominance of US imperialism.
The ISO, SA and Fightback all published statements in 2012 and 2013 supporting the US-funded militias in the war to oust
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This year the Mana Party—with the pseudo-lefts’ tacit support—voted for two
parliamentary motions which denounced Russia over the civil war in Ukraine and aligned with the regime in Kiev, which
was installed in a US-backed, fascist-led coup in February.
The pseudo-lefts have latched onto Mana and the Internet Party in an attempt to gain a place for themselves within the
political establishment, on the basis of nationalist and racial identity politics. The Internet Party is openly
pro-business, while Mana represents indigenous capitalists. Since 2012, Mana has campaigned alongside Labour, the Greens
and NZ First against foreign investment, particularly from China, which is NZ’s number one trading partner. Mana has
also sought to divide the working class by scapegoating immigrants, who are largely from Asia, for unemployment and high
house prices.
Anti-Chinese politics, which has been a significant feature of the opposition parties’ election campaign, dovetails with
the needs of US imperialism. The Obama administration has enlisted all its allies in the Asia-Pacific, including New
Zealand, in its “pivot to Asia,” a strategy to militarily encircle China. The pseudo-left outfits have not only remained
silent on Mana’s anti-Chinese statements; they all falsely label China as “imperialist,” thereby lining up directly or
indirectly with the US military build-up in the Asia Pacific.
Whichever party leads the next government, it will proceed with the backing of the pseudo-lefts, Internet-Mana and the
Greens to further strengthen ties with US imperialism and support its reckless operations in every part of the world.