Peace is not at hand. Prolonged war is on the agenda. Bush II and the Pentagon will not stop with what at least superficially appears to be a victorious foray into Afghanistan. They openly fantasize about bringing to heel some 40 or 50 states that are not with them in the war against "international terrorism."

The rain of bombs on Afghanistan sends a clear message to the world. The US, and its coalition of allied states and junior partners like Canada, are ready to use military force to make and break governments in Afghanistan. The US is prepared to enlist allies, but not to subordinate its right to use force to the United Nations or international constraint.

If the Pentagon has its way, there will be other targets -- such as Iraq. The notion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction has been the pretext for one of the worst crimes against humanity of the twentieth century -- the harshest and cruellest sanctions regime in the world, which has led to over two million deaths, striking hardest at children, the elderly and the sick.

Now a new propaganda campaign exploits fears of "bioterrorism." Iraq is alleged to be a key producer of biological and germ weapons. In words like the ultimatum to the Taliban, Bush has warned the Iraqi government that it must allow the return of US weapons inspectors or face the full consequences.

Preparations are undoubtedly underway. There is a considerable military build-up in the area -- much of it not required for use against Afghanistan. Canada's main military contribution to the war effort has been warships attached to a US task force. Will Canadian warships be part of new attacks on Iraq?

The war against "international terrorism" carries with it the spectre of a new era of US-led military interventionism.

The Mid-East is the current epicentre of conflict. But "anti-terrorism" could be the pretext for intervention in other areas. No one should forget Plan Colombia. The war on terrorism has given repressive regimes like those in Latin America the green light to crack down on opposition.

Capitalist globalization is tied to state military domination. Before September 11, attention focused on the role of trans-national corporations and international institutions like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization. Emphasis was placed on the erosion of state sovereignty and the downsizing of state services.

Following September 11, "America struck back." This is not merely a vicious act of revenge, it embodies a political, military and economic strategy -- the Bush II doctrine.

US strategy is scoring some initial successes including in Afghanistan. In the mid-term it may run into numerous obstacles. The US may become entangled in the complex web of Mid-East and Central Asia politics. Bombs and state military terrorism can breed enduring hatred, future wars and terrorist acts. Promises unfilled, be they to resolve the situation in Palestine or provide a better life economically, are bitterly remembered. In the game of power politics, betrayals and shifting alliances, today's ally can be tomorrow's enemy. But for the moment, the world according to Bush II, the Pentagon and CNN is in the ascendancy.

The new phase of military interventionism has a paper-thin justification. Globalization has indeed produced some vicious counter-reactions, including acts of undoubted terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists. This has allowed western leaders to portray themselves as waging a "justified moral war in defence of civilization." Such justifications hark back to the days of the British Empire, when moral superiority was the watchword used for military control, political tutelage and economic domination of the world.

What are the US-led war objectives? They clearly go well beyond bringing terrorists to justice. (Justice indeed -- Bush wants martial law courts and summary executions appear to be tacitly approved.) The new agenda is to impose a stable pro-western government in Afghanistan. That doesn't have much to do with democracy or women's liberation. One gang of fundamentalist thugs is to be replaced by another slightly more presentable and pliable gang. An all-male council of all tribal chieftains is supposed to help determine Afghanistan's future. Maybe the monarchy will be restored. It sounds more like Saudi Arabia than respect for democracy and human rights.

The US, and other imperialist powers, are prepared to make and break every kind of unprincipled alliance to defend their strategic interests. Afghanistan is a mere geo-political pawn in the game to control the region.

Interest means strategic resources, especially oil. The Middle East has it, and so does Central Asia. The largest unexploited reserves in the world lie in republics that were formerly part of the Soviet Union. The scramble for control is on. It is little accident that a president and administration so closely tied to big oil interests is flexing its military muscles in the region.

Unbridled US interventionism is not new, but it been redefined in a new context. The Soviet Union has disappeared. Despite its wrong polices and undoubted crimes, it offered some limited checks on the full exercise of US military dominance. Many, if not all, third world liberation struggles are in retreat, far less willing or able to directly contest US power than in Vietnam. Equally, "anti-terrorism" has become an effective catch-all mantra (superseding the war on drugs, etc.). It is being used to fuel patriotism, to cement the US working class to its rulers and to marginalize or suppress opposition. (The same tactics are used in other imperialist countries, including Canada, though with relatively more opposition.)

Why? If everything was going swimmingly for global capitalism, war and the military options would not be so brutally displayed.

However, the capitalist triumphalism that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall is proving hollow. The myth of endless prosperity is being threatened by global recession. For most of humanity, the prosperity never arrived. Global inequality and injustice has characterized the neo-liberal era. Some people, especially youth, were disgusted by what they saw. A broad opposition movement has arisen in many countries, and belatedly in North America. Its radical wing has militantly contested the global agenda in the streets, especially at economic summits.

World capitalist leaders have no responses to economic problems but more of the same failed solutions. They want more rapid and brutal implementation of trade liberalization, privatization, deregulation and cutbacks in social programs. As world leaders counsel unity in fighting terrorism, the World Trade Organization met in Doha, Qatar. It succeeded in accomplishing what it failed to do in the protest-laden atmosphere of Seattle -- launch a new round of global trade talks. These talks will focus on items like protection of investor rights and opening up public services to private profit.

However, all is not harmonious. Beneath the surface lies an increasingly brutish struggle for survival between capital and workers, between advanced capitalist and third world countries and between various imperialist nations.

This is the context in which the US is using military means to increase its power. This power is being exercised both internationally and domestically. The Canadian government is rushing to play the game.

The only way to stop war and the global capitalist agenda is militant, mass-based action against war and against the flurry of new laws designed to create a national security state in which our rights to oppose are drastically curtailed.

The priority is building an effective anti-war, anti-racist, anti-repression movement. However, at time when war clouds the future, we should remember the stark words of Rosa Luxembourg, the most powerful critic of the slaughterhouse of World War I -- we are faced with a choice between socialism and barbarism.