London Marxism Reading Group

LINK: https://archive.org/details/the-gulf-war-did-not-take-place-jean-baudrillard/mode/2up

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As we write these words, Pakistan is conducting emergency surface-to-surface missile tests in the Arabian Sea. Its airspace is closed and Indian diplomats, naval and air defence personnel were declared personae non gratae early this morning. In the wake of the recent mass civilian (and military) casualty attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, the Indian government (blaming Pakistan-linked terrorists such as Lashkar-e-Taiba) has identified forty-two of what it calls "terrorist launch pads" across the Line of Control which separates Indian from Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan has declared that India's suspension of their mutual water treaty will be considered an "act of war". It seems likely that these two nuclear-armed states will soon once again be at war. When the high-speed metal starts flying across the once-independent nation of Kashmir, the region will become another hot zone in what (it now seems to us) can only be described as the twenty-first century's Third World War.

At the very least, the world is very much at war. Wars of resistance to imperialism continue across Yemen and the Red Sea (where US drones have been dropping like flies), Gaza and the south of Lebanon. Europe's first state-on-state shooting war since 1945 rages on, with no "diplomatic" solution in sight. The war-with-Iran faction controls the White House once again; in the last week, a second carrier strike group joined the USS Harry S Truman in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Iran, in a show of force ahead of upcoming "talks" on Iran's nuclear programme. The atmosphere across China's First Island Chain remains tense, with recent PLA drills around Taiwan underscoring the violent potential latent there. Myanmar's civil war rages on and the PKK's leader is ready to lay down arms in Syria in the face of Turkish aggression, preparing the way for a savage "peace that is no peace" in what remains of Rojava. And it's only a matter of time before Venezuela enforces its referendum declaring the Essequibo region of Guyana a territory of the Bolivarian Republic. We may even get war in Nunaat (Greenland) someday.

Basically, it's war - everywhere. That's why we're launching this special series of readings, to continue throughout May, June and possibly beyond, in which we try to get to grips with modern war; what it is, what it does, what its social function within capitalism and imperialism may be, and whether or not, crucially, the hard times have only just begun.

We're starting off with Jean Baudrillard's series of essays, collected in 1991 with the provocative title The Gulf War Did Not Take Place. Rather than deny the literal reality of the Gulf War, Baudrillard challenged his readers to consider the non-reality of "The Gulf War" as it was then (and is now) known to mass-media consumer audiences in Europe and the Anglophone countries, i.e. as a spectacular, perfect war, over within weeks, in which all the death and destruction was suffered on one side while the other simply kicked back in their air-conditioned control rooms and cockpits, pressing buttons and unleashing hell with impunity. The text addresses questions of technology, media, and spectacle as they relate to modern conflicts; the Gulf War prefigured not only the subsequent US invasion of Iraq but also the entire contemporary model of how high-tech wars, in the minds of military planners and PR/psychological operations specialists, are supposed to go. Even today, decades on, as conventional conflicts rage across the globe, we can see how mass media and social media continue to mediate our relationship with conflict, especially as non-combatants but even (increasingly) as participants. FPV drones for example have not only revolutionised battlefield tactics but, perhaps as importantly, the way recruitment and propaganda materials are filmed.

This will be a three-part reading, with the next instalment tackling chapter 2 (the second essay in the collection) and a final instalment for chapter 3 (the third essay).

Through this series, look forward to readings from the likes of Paul Virilio, Guy Debord, Carl von Clausewitz, Field Marshal Jomini, Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan, the British civil defence authorities and many more.

Happy reading comrades and stay safe! If you hear the air raid warning, remember: duck and cover.