PRESS RELEASE
LaRouche on Putin Statement
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
September 7, 2004
The following statement for public release by the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee on Sept. 7, was uttered by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. as opening remarks delivered at a Labor Day conference held on Sept. 6.
On President Putin's statement, as reported in leading press in the United States, available today, such as the New York Times. The leading feature, the crucial feature of President Putin's statement, is featured internationally. This is the statement on Russia's reaction to the attack in North Ossetia, by forces which are deployed from within the Caucasus, and with the tacit support and sympathy of not only certain governments which are closely tied to the U.S. government, in the Caucasus at present, but with actually very obvious participation of covert elements, operating behind the scenes in these regions.
Now President Putin's statement, which is in the press, and which you can get copies of otherwise, is appropriate and ominous, in its characterization, that:
Russia has recognized it is under attack by terrorist methods, from sources outside Russia, which have a strategic interest in reducing Russia to impotence from its current status as a power. As some of this is reflected, in some of the European press, is, the argument is: Russia must pull its forces out of the Caucasus. That's the object.
We know there are people in the United States, including people who lap into the Democratic Party itself, through certain channels, who are behind this operation. This is an attack, a geopolitical attack, on a nuclear power, Russia; and, Putin, in plain language, without going further than need be said, is saying exactly that.
The commentaries which we have received on the Putin speech, in the meantime, as reported from Wiesbaden, for example, in interviews with key people in Europe, is a perception that the people doing this to Russia, are idiots. That, Russia has a history—not just Soviet Russia, but Russia, has a history which includes the history of Soviet Russia. This goes back to the Czars; it goes back to the 18th Century in particular, since Czar Peter, the Great; it goes through Alexander I, who, under Prussian influence, devised an effective strategy for destroying the invading army of Napoleon Bonaparte.
After that, in World War II, it goes to the response of Russia, strategy, which was an imitation, in a sense, of the policy of Alexander I under Prussian advice in the case of the war with Napoleon. Russian cities were to hold out. Stalingrad held out. Meanwhile, the Soviet forces were planning a strike from Asia, led by Zhukov, which hit the flank of the Nazi forces at Stalingrad, and then went on to the battle at Kursk, and a hard, rough, brutal battle, with great relative sacrifice of life and materiel, which ended up, in Berlin, and elsewhere.
This is characteristic Russian reaction. When an existential threat, to the existence of Russia is perceived, Russians, in whatever circumstance, will unite, in the great majority, and with great anger, and great force, against the known attacker.
The implication of the speech by Putin, is pointing directly the finger at President Bush and Cheney, and people around them. Putin is going to be cautious in that respect; but he is going to get the message across, in words which people should not misunderstand. If we do not get rid of the Bush-Cheney Administration, now, we are headed for a form of World War III, beyond the imagination of most.
In 1999 I produced a recorded tape, a videotape, called "Storm Over Asia." If you look at the events which have occurred, since the early Autumn of 1999, when that tape was produced, and trace the course of events up to this moment, the moment of the Putin speech, reported this weekend, then, you understand the nature of the present strategic situation. And you understand, that if we don't get rid of the Bush-Cheney Administration, this planet, as a whole, will go into, very rapidly, a succession of events which will culminate in the establishment of a planet-wide new dark age of all humanity.
This is not a debater's question. This is the question of the survival of humanity. And that is the question posed, in this U.S. Presidential election campaign. If Bush wins, kiss humanity good-bye, for some time to come.
