I started reading the WSWS in 2006 at the height of the Iraq war. I was in the Middle East at the time and was repulsed by the US atrocities and the bloody suppression of Iraqi resistance, as were vast sections of the population as well.

Pro-western political tendencies and the media portrayed the “Iraqi mess” as caused by blunders of the Neo-cons or the meddling of Iran. Other tendencies that were traditionally against US intervention were incapable of offering a consistent analysis of the underlying causes of the eruption of US militarism in the region and were ultimately rooting its origin back to the expansionist attitude of the Neo-cons and the interest of the oil companies.

The existing conceptions of the US wars of occupation in the region were a reflection of the views of various political tendencies in Europe and the US. The common denominator of all these views was a disregard for the historical economic decline of US imperialism and the massive geopolitical changes following the disintegration of the USSR. Hence it was convenient for these various tendencies to blame one section of the US political system as “insane” or “evil” to whitewash the complicity of the other major party of US imperialism in these bloody wars, i.e. the Democratic Party. I found the analysis of the WSWS totally different.

So it was the consistent exposing of the Democratic Party, based on an objective assessment of the US position in the world economy and the inherent weaknesses and the class character of the anti-war movement that made me appreciate more and more the unique role of the WSWS as the tribune for saturating the workers and youth with analysis of major political, economic and cultural developments from a class perspective.

The intensification of the assault on the living conditions of workers and youth combined with expansion of US military interventions under Barack Obama, which was uniquely anticipated by the analysis of the WSWS, strengthened my support for the SEP and WSWS.

I think the main obstacle in forming an independent socialist movement in imperialist countries is the confusion prevalent among the working class about the nature and the role of the Democratic Party and various social democratic and labor parties in Europe. The WSWS has quite correctly placed the struggle against these factions and their pseudo-left supporters at the forefront of its analysis.