NATO, Obama Lower Threshold
for Global Thermonuclear War
by Nancy Spannaus and Jeffrey Steinberg
April 14—In an interview with the Russian news service RIA Novosti today on the situation in Ukraine, Lyndon LaRouche responded from the standpoint he has been stressing repeatedly over recent days: There is no local situation which is provoking the escalating conflict between NATO and the U.S. on one side, and Russia and China on the other. Rather, the British Empire and its pawns like Obama and NATO are determined to crush any resistance to their global imperial plans—and have thus brought the world to the threshold of global thermonuclear war in the attempt to save their bankrupt empire from destruction.
The critical thing is how he and his organization are acting to avert this danger from within the United States, LaRouche concluded at the end of the interview. We quote:
"The U.S. government under Obama, who is a British stooge, is running much of this operation. The British themselves are sitting behind there, running the operation internationally, with the Saudis and these other forces involved. So it's a very difficult strategic situation: We're on the verge of thermonuclear war. That doesn't mean it's going to happen, but it means the threat that it will happen is immediate, and we have to be very careful, and very efficient in what we're doing.
"What I'm doing myself, is trying to deal with this thing from inside the United States, and for me, it's very important that I do things, inside the United States, in order to try to get this monster, Obama, under control. If Obama were pulled out of office, this would stop! All we would have to do, is pull President Obama, the British stooge, throw him out of office—and we can impeach him. By impeaching Obama, this whole thing would break down, and that's what I'm concentrating on."
Step-by-Step Provocations
The Obama/NATO moves over recent days on the Ukraine front have brought the world closer to the brink of global conflict.
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First, Obama and NATO have waged a vociferous, lying propaganda campaign, claiming that Russia is about to invade eastern Ukraine, and insisting, like the puppet Kiev government, that anti-coup demonstrators who have taken over buildings in various eastern cities are Russia agents, and that Russian troops are massed on the border, ready to invade—with no solid evidence to back it up.
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Second, NATO has expanded its military deployments to the east, most notably with the deployment of the Aegis-equipped destroyer the USS Donald Cook into the Black Sea, with other NATO warships on the way. NATO's top military commander Gen. Phillip Breedlove is scheduled to present further plans, on April 15, for what is called military "reassurance" to NATO countries in Eastern Europe.
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Third, Obama sent CIA Director John Brennan to Kiev over the April 12-13 weekend to discuss handling the crisis of mounting unrest by anti-coup protestors in the eastern part of Ukraine, where he notably did not caution the Kiev regime against using violence to put down the demonstrations, as it has threatened to do. Deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych charged April 13 that Brennan had de facto sanctioned the Kiev regime's clampdown, which, in the area of Slovyansk, has already resulted in a number of deaths. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asked the U.S. government for an explanation of what was behind Brennan's trip.
The Kiev deadlines to violently evict the eastern anti-coup forces have been repeatedly postponed. However, the most rabid paramilitary forces in and around the Kiev usurper-government, run by the fascist Right Sector grouping, are calling for a mass mobilization to do just that, and are moving their armed followers into the area.
All of these provocations are occurring as the Russian government attempts to reach out to the U.S. to get a quadripartite negotiating process going which could avoid conflict. Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have had several phone conversations, and a meeting of the U.S., Russia, the EU, and the current Ukrainian government is tentatively scheduled for April 17 in Geneva. Russia has put a proposal for stabilization of the situation on the table. Yet, the rabid support the U.S. is giving to the fascist Ukraine government, and the possibility of a broad, violent crackdown, puts the meeting in doubt.
The Russian Response
The Russian government has carefully resisted responding in kind to the NATO/U.S. provocations, which are, as LaRouche said to Ria Novosti, designed to get it to react so that it is blamed for a confrontation. Instead, Russian spokesmen have repeatedly pointed out that the West is supporting gangs of fascists, who carried out a coup in Kiev, and showing absolutely no regard for the "international law" and "human rights" which they put out so much propaganda about.
At the same time, the Russians are reaching out to China, in particular, to strengthen their political alliances against such provocations.
It was announced today that Lavrov would be travelling to China on April 15, to hold discussions with his foreign ministry counterpart and with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Chinese have put out a statement warmly endorsing the diplomatic track and welcoming the scheduling of the April 17 Geneva meeting.
Officially, the Lavrov trip is billed as preparing for President Putin's scheduled China visit in May.
Don't Forget Asia
While Ukraine boils, President Barack Obama will be traveling to Asia, starting with a visit to Japan on April 24, followed by stops in South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines. While he "talks the talk" about great state cooperation with Beijing, Obama is in fact moving aggressively forward with an expanded containment and war drive against China.
This follows Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's recent China trip, where the Chinese openly challenged Washington's "two-faced" behavior (see article below).
Washington intelligence sources confirm that Hagel was sent with orders from the White House and the National Security Advisor Dr. Susan Rice to deliver tough talk to Chinese military and political leaders.
Although President Obama met with Chinese President Xi last month in The Hague, on the sidelines of a nuclear disarmament conference, it is notable that he will not be stopping in China on this extensive Asia trip. The exclusion of a Beijing stop underscores that his tour is aimed at containment. Washington intelligence sources have confirmed this assessment to EIR, and warn that the Chinese will likely react sharply to the provocative character of the Obama tour, particularly in light of the President's harsh anti-Putin rhetoric since the Western-backed coup d'état that was launched in Kiev last November.
Under the new war-fighting doctrine of Air-Sea Battle, American pre-emptive military actions targeting strategic sites on the Chinese mainland may be launched, ostensibly to defeat China's "anti-access/area denial" (A2/AD) capabilities. In response to this, Chinese leaders have already suggested publicly that they may be forced to abandon their "no first use" policy regarding their nuclear weapons arsenal. As is the case with Russia and the United States, China has a growing submarine-launched nuclear-missile capability within striking distance of the West Coast of the continental United States.
Thus, the Asia-Pacific region is on a hair-trigger for conflict that could quickly escalate into a thermonuclear war of extinction. The number of strategic crisis spots dotting the globe is growing by the week.
A recent Japanese visitor to Washington to attend the annual Spring IMF meeting expressed shock at the broad-based hatred of President Obama, coming from both Republican and Democratic circles, particularly national security and foreign policy specialists. He noted that a number of prominent retired military officers were unusually candid about their disgust with Obama's policy failures and lack of leadership qualities.
The level of hatred for Obama, the visitor noted, is not at all understood in Asia. He forecast, however, that the Obama war agenda will not be well-received in Tokyo, Seoul, or Kuala Lumpur. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he noted, is losing a great deal of popular support over his hardline anti-China rhetoric and his ill-conceived visit to the Yasakuni Shrine, where a number of World War II Japanese war criminals are buried (along with a large number of Japanese military heroes). Despite the backlash, however, it is expected that the American military buildup in the region will continue under the "Asia pivot," and will fuel growing anger in Beijing that Washington has adopted a containment policy against China.
President Obama's effort to force a dialogue between Japan and South Korea on the sidelines of The Hague summit did not go well, despite the fact that a trilateral meeting did take place. It is clear that Obama will be pressing even harder to forge a Tokyo-Seoul military partnership to tighten the military pressure on China as a top priority of his upcoming visit.
One senior U.S. intelligence source noted that American and Chinese leaders are in strategic harmony over the threat to regional stability coming from North Korea, and that the detailed cooperation over handling the North Korea crisis is the brightest spot in the Washington-Beijing strategic relationship at this moment. The United States and China agree that it is in their best interests for North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons capabilities and accept a nuclear arms-free peninsula. But this one area of promising U.S.-Chinese cooperation on a genuinely dangerous regional flash-point is a thin reed in the context of Washington's escalation of the "Storm Over Asia"[1] policy, first exposed by LaRouche in late 1999.
[1] See "Documentation: Storm Over Asia," Feb. 7, 2014. EIR, Feb. 7, 2014.
