LAROUCHE ADDRESSES TOWN HALL MEETINGS
Thermonuclear War Looms:
How We Must Prevent It
[PDF version of this transcript]
Here is Lyndon LaRouche's opening statement to a simulcast on March 10, addressing town hall meetings convened in their states by the six congressional candidates who make up the LaRouche National Slate:
- Diane Sare (N.J.),
- Rachel Brown (Mass.),
- Bill Roberts (Mich.),
- Kesha Rogers (Tex.),
- Summer Shields (Calif.), and
- Dave Christie (Wash.).
LaRouche was introduced by Summer Shields, who moderated the webcast. See the video of the event, including questions and answers.
Summer Shields: ... With growing clamor for military intervention into Syria and Iran emanating from the British, a group of patriots has gathered, led by those gathered watching this event here at the various audiences, and the leadership of the U.S. military as well. And now, a resolution has been introduced into the U.S. Congress by Congressman Walter Jones, reemphasizing the constitutional role of the U.S. Congress, and only the U.S. Congress, in authorizing the declaration of war, and stating that any move by this President to unilaterally authorize war will be met with impeachment—and might I add, long overdue impeachment. Since its introduction, House Concurrent Resolution 107 has gained widespread attention by several independent media outlets around the country. In response to the introduction of this resolution, Mr. LaRouche commented, "This bill could save the United States from destruction."
With that said, I believe what you will be participating in today will be of monumental historical importance. I have been personally associated with Mr. LaRouche for about a decade now, and the one thing that I know with absolute certainly, is that you are never going to find it easy to predict what he's going to say. So, without any further delay, I introduce to you, and ask you to join me in welcoming economist and statesman, Lyndon LaRouche.
LaRouche: Thank you very much. I bring you some bad news, and you're treating me very kindly for the kind of news I have to deliver up front. I have some better news to propose, which could be adopted, which I will get to in this process, but first, let's take the really tough issues.
The Threat of Thermonuclear War
We have presently, on the national scene, that is, nationally recognized candidates—there may be others who are appropriately filing, but in terms of the major appearances on the screen—we have five such persons: one Democrat, who is not fit for anything, the current President of the United States; and we have four Republicans of note, of which three are absolutely intolerable, and one, who might be accepted as a continued member of the Congress, but is obviously not qualified for getting anywhere near the Presidency. So therefore, we have a Presidential campaign which is developing, in which all of the presently acknowledged leading candidates are unfit for public office, except the one from Texas, who is not fit to be President, but is still fit to serve in the Congress, as such.
The worst part about this, is that we are faced with general thermonuclear warfare. This is no estimate; this is no joke. It could be averted, but as of now, there's nothing in place which is going to avert it, except for a heroic and patriotic element in our national defense system, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But for that Joint Chiefs of Staff and its intervention, thermonuclear war, number one, would have already occurred. It's only circles associated with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and others involved, who have blocked the current President of the United States from successfully launching what he has intended as World War III, thermonuclear World War III. Under British direction.
What makes the thing more complicated, is that there is no alternative President for occupying the office right now. That is, Obama's presence as the President of the United States means there's nothing except the Congress standing in the way of World War III, thermonuclear World War III.
Let me just detail for you what some of the parameters are that we're talking about. World War III, in terms of the forces which are now deployed by the United States and others for such a war, would be a thermonuclear war, not any kind of conventional war. This war, if it were to be launched, would probably lead to the extinction of the human species. Because the kind of operation they have declared themselves committed to do, would mean that in order to carry out this thing successfully, they would go to a level of launch of thermonuclear weaponry, which probably would lead to the extinction of the human species, because of the by-products of such a war.
Now, there are elements, like the leading elements in terms of our Defense Department, our military department, who understand this, or at least understand an approximation of it, very well. And therefore, if we assume that the five—four Republicans and one Democrat—were to be the candidates for President of the United States, it would be almost certain that there would be an extinction, in the United States and elsewhere, coming as a result.
So therefore, it's not a question of who's going to be a rival of these five clowns. The question is, how are we going to get rid of, number one, the current President of the United States, whose continuation in office would virtually ensure, except for some extraordinary measure, would ensure probably the extinction of the human species, but certainly something approaching that?
Because in order to launch a war against Russia and China, which are thermonuclear powers, the level of thermonuclear attack on these powers, and other powers, by the United States, Britain, and so forth, would mean a threatened possible extinction of the human species. And so voting for any one of these five candidates, for one reason or another, given the disqualification of those candidates, would probably mean an extinction of the human species. Because in order to do the job which is required to be done, if they're going to pull this operation off, would mean the virtual extinction of the human species. It goes to a level where the effects of such warfare are absolutely incalculable. Such warfare would never occur, on this planet, if sane people were in charge.
Now, there is important resistance, and you don't have to be in the majority to defeat this evil. People exaggerate numbers when it comes to voting. In the history of mankind, it has often been a minority of any nation, which has blocked evil of this type before, or a similar type before. Majority vote is much overrated. It is the way in which a people expresses itself, which causes some people to withdraw from their conceits and others to proceed with force, to make sure the proper measures are taken.
So, that considered, there is no way in which you could allow President Obama to continue as President, and allow these four Republicans, now prominent, to be included as a Presidential candidate, under which this nation could survive. We already have a worldwide financial breakdown crisis in progress; that is bad enough. This would mean mass deaths of American citizens, during the course of this year. Measures need to be taken, already, now, feasible measures of reform, which could avert that problem.
Two Urgent Measures
Essentially, on my agenda, there are two distinct measures which are absolutely indispensable, as constitutional measures to prevent the collapse of our economy. Because our economy right now is hopelessly bankrupt. In its present form of organization, the U.S. economy is hopelessly bankrupt. The Federal Reserve System has nothing in it that's worth anything! And all that happens, is someone declares, "Ah! The Federal Reserve System is worthless, it has a lot of obligations and no means for paying them, for meeting them."
Therefore, what we have to do is essentially take these measures, which I will indicate now, as constitutional measures, which are the only measures which should be featured as the principal issue of the Presidential election, apart from the fact of forbidding World War III.
These measures are, first, reenact the original Glass-Steagall law, put into place by President Franklin Roosevelt. Without that, the United States is as good as dead! And that is an absolute.
The second thing is, because of the degree of bankruptcy of the United States, the loss of the number of people who were employed and qualified for actual physical production, as opposed to some kind of make-work—the United States is hopelessly bankrupt, under the present financial-monetary system. And it's merely a matter of time, on the day in which that bankruptcy is declared, that you will begin to count the increase in the mass of deaths in the United States, from hunger and similar kinds of conditions. Those conditions are coming along in the Spring and Summer of this year, unless a change occurs.
The changes are possible, but the present incumbency, either these Republican four, or the only Democratic candidate of note, these are hopeless cases, and the United States under their leadership, is also a hopeless case. So in this respect the reenactment of President Franklin Roosevelt's Glass-Steagall, exactly as he specified, would be sufficient to prevent the disintegration of the United States, and allow for some degree of stability.
But it's not enough.
What we also have to do, is we also have to create a mass of credit, involving chiefly physical improvements, quality physical improvements, which will relaunch the buildup of the economy of the United States. If that is done, if these two measures are taken, number one, Glass-Steagall; number two, a measure of national economy, which revives real production on the basis of the original Constitution of the United States, that is, the pre-Andrew Jackson United States.
Andrew Jackson's destruction of the national economy was the cause of the degeneration of the United States, since the election of Andrew Jackson, when he killed the essential provision of the Constitution for a credit system, rather than a monetarist system. When they shut down the Second Bank of the United States, that was the time that the United States took a tumble, leading into the Civil War and other catastrophes, up to the present time.
So what we have to do, is we have to restore not only Glass-Steagall; we have to go back and restore, in effect, the original National Banking system of the United States. In other words, we will no longer depend upon money, as a standard of wealth. We will use credit as a standard of wealth, as we did, to save the United States, which was bankrupt, having won the Revolutionary War. So we're going to have to go back to that provision, which worked, excellently, until it was killed by the election of Andrew Jackson. And we have never fully recovered from the effects of that bum, a virtual traitor, Andrew Jackson, and his reforms and those which followed along the same lines.
But if we return to the National Banking system, set into motion under Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, then, in that case, we will be able to launch a full-scale, full-blooded recovery. And there is no other way that there will ever be an economic recovery, in the United States. These two measures, of constitutional weight, are the only thing that is required, to set into motion a recovery program, which will save us during this year, because these are measures which will be pushed into effect during this year, especially the Glass-Steagall Act, immediately; these measures will allow us to recover.
For Example: NAWAPA
We have one major program which is already being worked on by my associates and I, and this program is NAWAPA, the North American Water and Power Alliance. This program, which we're working to re-work and bring into play, is a 30-year program of a revolution in the water system of North America. It's the greatest project undertaken by any nation, in history to date. This program will enable us to take the unemployable people, as well as the unemployed who are still skilled, and take them into a process of development of their skills, along with a small number of people who still are leading skilled people, and to launch a program which will lead to a prolonged recovery of the United States. Together with similar programs added to it, we can begin, this year, to save the United States and bring it back to security.
We don't need any other gimmicks! We just need a few programs, led by the Glass-Steagall, and led by NAWAPA, and those two programs, together with others of the same kind, and seeking also international cooperation with other nations on related types of programs. With these kinds of things, we can totally rebuild our United States, to what it once was, before some of the recent developments have occurred.
These are our options. And they are the only options!
Work with Other Nations
Now, on the other side, outside the United States, we have, intrinsically, no problem, essentially, with Russia, under the presently elected new Presidency. The intention is there on their part, and it's not just a proposed intention, it's a very serious intention; it's a commitment which is as much, or more, in their interests, as it is ours. That means, we open up a recovery of Europe, Western and Central Europe, at least continental Western and Central Europe, which is now about to crash entirely. The whole present European continental system of Western and Central is now hopelessly bankrupt. It's just a matter of when the explosion occurs.
These actions by us, in the United States, in that direction—by putting these issues on the table, we can induce Western and Central Europe to save themselves, and to save civilization thereby as well.
So these are essentially our options.
Now, China is also a great partner in this process. India is a significant partner. China represents 1.4 billion people! India represents more than 1.1 billion people! These are not unimportant nations. The economy of Russia, and that of China, have been progressing, however poorly in some respects, but effectively, during the same time we, in the United States, have been recently going downhill, especially since Bill Clinton left the Presidency. We're headed toward collapse; Europe is headed toward disintegration. The European Monetary System is already disintegrating; there is no currency in Europe, which is actually defensible! We're simply waiting for the day, in which they all go, chain-reaction, collapsing, and their currencies become worthless. They're all in the situation like Germany was in 1923. That's where they are, and they're just waiting for the shoe to drop, when they go under.
Principles Are More Important Than Numbers
Now, under such circumstances as these, the number of supporters you have, the number of voters that you can induce to support you, is not decisive. Because if you take the way most voters have been thinking, in the recent two Presidencies—George W. Bush and Obama—we've been going nowhere but down! We're a doomed nation! And until we get the junk heap that these Presidencies have represented, there's no recovery, no possibility of recovery: We're finished!
But if we take these measures for ourselves, that I indicated, those kinds of projects to rebuild our economy; if we cooperate with the great projects which Russia has underway—and they're really great projects, with very great importance for the world as a whole; with China and India, and with some nations in Europe, like my friend Jacques Cheminade, who is a leading candidate for the election as President of France, right now—so with these resources, and pulling these resources and people together, we could save this planet. We still can.
What's important here, is not the number of votes you think you have on hand right now. Most of our citizens are confused. They have no idea what's going on; most of them would have no way of defining a conception of what would work; they might come up with ideas, but none of them would work. And we represent, together with people who we cooperate with, we represent people who do represent the solutions; all they need is the support, and the implementation.
And therefore, it's not the number of people we now represent. It's the principles that we represent, which will work, whereas the principles now presented to most people will not work! They will fail!
You can win an election, and lose a nation! And that's the situation right now. Continue to vote for these candidates, and you will lose the United States, and they will lose you. Adopt policies that will work—and they are available, especially in cooperation with other nations that are willing to cooperate—and we can solve this problem; we can manage it and solve the problem. That's where we stand.
And, I think at this point, I'll just throw this open, because I'm sure that I've provoked questions and challenges and so forth. And I think the most useful thing at the moment is to take that course, and stir up the debate, stir up the discussion among the people assembled here, and I think that will help to clarify what I've just said.
