Thanksgiving Message: We Are Not in Safe Waters Yet

November 23, 2017

Thanksgiving Message: We Are Not in Safe Waters Yet

The reverberations from President Trump's trip to Asia and in particular, to China, continue to shake-up U.S. and world politics, as a growing number of "mainstream" political figures and think tanks are now taking notice, with some even seeming to have been won over by the Spirit of the New Silk Road.. Trump told his cabinet that his trip to Asia was "an historic 12-day trip", with "more than $300 billion worth of deals...[which] means jobs for the United States at a very high level."

China and Russia, the two nations with which Trump wishes to increase collaboration, continue to engage in significant diplomatic and economic initiatives to promote peaceful cooperation and development, with new proposals coming from them virtually daily.

Yet, as Zepp LaRouche said on Monday, "We're not in safe waters yet." One can see a British imperial hand in the Middle East, with war talk coming from Israel and Saudi Arabia, and the financial system remains "one bad trade away" from a total meltdown. And, as Helga stated in last week's webcast, the attempt by Chancellor Merkel to pull together a "Jamaica Coalition" has collapsed, meaning that Germany will be without a real government at this time of opportunity, and crisis.

Join us on Thursday, for the weekly strategic strategic update from Mrs. LaRouche.

TRANSCRIPT

HARLEY SCHLANGER:  Hello, I'm Harley Schlanger from the Schiller Institute, and I'd like to welcome you to this week's webcast with Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. When we initiated this weekly webcast, our intention was to bring the spirit of the New Silk Road to a broader audience.  This was necessary in part because this was not getting any legitimate coverage; it was either being blacked out or lied about in the mainstream media.  But it was also beyond that, to give you an opportunity to get into the insights of Mrs. LaRouche along with her husband Lyndon, who is one of the instigators of the idea which has become the New Paradigm represented by the New Silk Road.

Now, in the last weeks, we had a major emphasis on the importance of President Trump's trip to China and Asia.  We're seeing a continued flurry of diplomatic activity, so I'd like to start with what just happened in the last few days — the visit of President Assad of Syria to Sochi to meet with President Putin; a summit following that with Erdogan, Rouhani, and Putin; then also, the phone call between President Trump and President Putin.  So Helga, go ahead and give us some insights into what is going on.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  I must say, that this visit of President Assad in Sochi, where he met not only with Putin, but with the major Russian military leadership, is really an historic event.  Because if you remember, a little bit more than two years ago, when Putin decided to militarily intervene in Syria, the situation in that country was completely hopeless.  You had ISIS terrorists, al-Qaeda, and various other groupings which were in large part the result of the failed policies of the Obama administration and others — naturally, the British — and the situation was really truly absolutely desperate.  With a very bold initiative, Putin militarily intervened; and now, two years later, they could basically celebrate victory.  Putin said the ISIS terrorists are as good as totally failed; that there may be pockets flaring up here and there, but nothing dramatic, just as part of the terrorism internationally naturally still exists. But this was a very moving thing.  President Assad thanked the Russian military; Putin introduced him to them, by saying "I want you to meet the people who saved the Syrian people, the Syrian country."  And Assad expressed his profound gratitude, and said they will never forget.

Now, you can imagine the Western media.  They naturally don't say it's wonderful that the Syrian people now have peace, it's wonderful that the refugees can now return; which is what Assad basically said should happen.  No, they just keep their keep their grudging slanders against both Putin and Assad.

But I want our viewers to reflect about this for a minute. What do you prefer?  Do you prefer wars based on lies? Interventionist wars which have thrown the whole of Southwest Asia into complete chaos?  Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya in Northern Africa.  Or are not happy that peace can return?

And Putin is now continuing this.  He met the next day, as you said, with President Erdogan and President Rouhani of Turkey and Iran.  And he announced that there will be a Syrian National Coalition Dialogue which he will conduct in Sochi, where all parties of Syria will be invited, and that it will be the result of the will of the Syrian people themselves how to decide their own future.  But that obviously other countries should help in the reconstruction of the economy, the infrastructure, the agriculture, hospitals, schools.

So I think this is really a very dramatic change for the better in this situation, and it shows very clearly that Russia is not the aggressive war-monger and aggressor — which is the way it is portrayed by the Western media.  But Putin has brought peace.  And I really want to say this very strongly, because the propaganda against Russia has been so absolutely incredible, that people have stopped to look at things and appreciate them when they happen.  I think this is a very important process; Putin has involved a very large diplomatic initiative in the Astana process, he involves other countries like Jordan, even reaching out to Saudi Arabia.  Obviously, the role of Turkey and Iran in bringing about this peace in Syria is very important.

So hopefully, this will lead to a stabilization also of the remaining crisis points like Yemen.  I think this is a very, very positive development, and I think people should really not be blinded by ideology, but understand that this is part of the paradigm shift.  Because China and Russia are working very closely; China will play a role in the reconstruction of Syria. China just sent 1,000 tons of rice to the Syrian people to help overcome shortages.  So, I think this is all part of a new spirit of countries working together for the common good.

SCHLANGER:  One of the people who happens to appreciate what the Russians are doing, is President Trump who had a longer talk with President Putin on the phone the other day, and talked with him about U.S. involvement with this process.  So, I think that's something that indicates that, in spite of the media, the President is still going ahead with his plan to cooperate with Russia.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  Trump afterwards said the discussion was great, it covered the Syria situation, North Korea, Ukraine, and that they had a very profound dialogue.  The same thing was emphasized by the Russian side; several spokespersons of the Duma and the Federation Council basically expressed great optimism and hope that now the Russian-American relations would turn in a better direction.  Again, who would not be happy that the most important countries — the U.S. and China, the U.S. and Russia — are starting to have a cooperative approach?  Anybody who opposes that is either a moron or morally depraved; there is no other way you can otherwise characterize such people.

SCHLANGER:  Well, just to identify one of those types, David Ignatius of the Washington Post wrote a column yesterday in which he said, "Why hasn't Rex Tillerson left?  He and Trump don't get along.  There are only two things they agree on.  One is cooperation with China on North Korea and trade; the other is cooperation with Russia on Syria."  My response to that is, "Well, what's wrong with that?  That's the way things should go."

Now, in light of this, we also see quite a bit of additional diplomatic activity, with the Japanese being involved; a trip by the Panamanian President to China.  Give us a sense, Helga, of the broad scope of this motion right now.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  The New Silk Road initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative which has been put on the agenda by Xi Jinping more than four years ago, and which had a long process of building, involving more and more countries.  First the G20, then the BRICS, the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization], all these organizations participating in one sense or another in this process; and then, culminating in the Belt and Road Forum in May. And now finally in the 19th Congress of the Communist Party of China, which laid out a beautiful perspective how the world should come together in a peaceful way until the year 2050.  Now that dynamic is the dominant dynamic in the world.  And contrary to what the Western media are saying, Prime Minister Abe of Japan is clearly seeking to improve very, very massively the relationship with Russia.  He has stated again that Japan will try to have a deeper, better relation to solve the problem of the Northern Islands and also get a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, which I think is a very laudable effort.  But also, Japan is moving closer to China; they probably will join the AIIB [Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank] very soon.  They already are cooperating with the Belt and Road Initiative.

The President of Panama has — Panama, which used to be one of the countries recognizing Taiwan and not the mainland People's Republic of China — they recently switched that alliance.  And the President of Panama visited China in a state visit and said that the collaboration between Panama and China is just the tip of the iceberg, that the entire Latin American continent will follow, and that this is not directed against the United States, but the United States is invited to join the same kind of cooperation.

So I think there is clearly a strategic re-alignment going on which is very, very positive.  Just to mention it, one after-effect of Trump's visit to China, I watched the press conference of the Governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, who announced to the media the positive effects of the $83.7 billion of economic deals Trump brought back from his trip, for West Virginia.  He said this means jobs, this means hope, it means process production, not just raw materials export.  We will have process work, and this will all turn the situation in West Virginia, which is the third-poorest state of the United States. So, this is spreading optimism, and there is a very strong current to really straighten the world out.  It is the result of Xi Jinping, Putin, and also Trump.  These are the people who are most vilified by the Western media; which should make you think, what's wrong with these people?

SCHLANGER:  And as you talk about the Asian perspective, we can also look at Europe, where there's been tremendous inroads by the Chinese in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the Baltic states. And now Austria as well had a couple of very big conferences on the New Silk Road.  In contrast to that, we're watching the disintegration of the political parties in Western Europe.

You had forecast a couple of weeks ago on the webcast here, that the "Jamaica Coalition" — the Red, Green, Black coalition in Germany would fail.  It has now failed.  Just contrast for us what's happening with the Chinese in Europe and then, on the other side, the implosion of the European Union.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  These "Jamaica" negotiations didn't go anywhere, because none of the participating parties had anything to say in terms of content — where should the future of Germany be? — or the future of Europe.  No vision, just a hick-hack about little issues; stupid issues like how quickly Germany should move out of coal, basically bankrupting the economy entirely; what was not accomplished from the exit from nuclear energy, they want to finish off with exiting from coal and similar things.  Then naturally, the terrible discussion about should the families of the refugees be allowed to also come to Germany; rather than saying now that there is — due to the Russian intervention — peace in the Middle East possible, and how can Germany, as a strong export nation, participate in the reconstruction of Syria?   Or how can we help to develop, together with China, the African continent?  None of such discussions took place, and instead, this thing collapsed.

And now there is a big crisis because the only options left are a Grand Coalition, which Martin Schulz [from the Social Democrats] had refused, because the SPD got smashed in the Grand Coalition.  And naturally the perspective to continue with the Merkel policy will continue this process.  Minority government is very unstable; new election is feared by many of the established parties because the trend that they would lose even could easily continue.  So there's a big crisis right now, and naturally, all kinds of people are freaked out.

There was just a meeting in the Italian parliament which was supposed to discuss the possible misconduct of [then Banca d'Italia Governor] Draghi in the 2008 crisis, and his name wasn't even mentioned, because obviously people fear that the situation in Europe is unstable at this point, that you cannot have another scandal like that of Draghi.  And the Guardian is already saying, "who should be the leader when Merkel goes?"  Everybody is saying these are the last days or the last month of Merkel.

So it is a big crisis, because none of these established parties has any sense — they are so ideologically so blind and have spectacles on with which they watch the world, but they don't see anything.  So it is a big crisis, and therefore, the Schiller Institute is wanting to escalate our efforts to bring the perspective of the New Silk Road into all European countries, because that is the only way how we can get to a better perspective — for Germany, for Italy, for France, and all the other countries.

SCHLANGER:  Helga, you mentioned the Guardian column, and what the Guardian said, is that it's too bad that Britain has this problem with Brexit, because now is the time for Britain to step in.  But I think the problem has been is that the British never left! Despite the Brexit, you still have the City of London's influence on the European Union.  Maybe you want to say something about this: The new rules of the European Union on consolidating the bail-in policy; at the same time the Chinese are coming in with very strong Glass-Steagall financial regulation.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  Yeah, the EU is clearly not willing to learn anything from their past mistakes, and the Damocles Sword of a new "credit crunch," as the Guardian puts it, or better, a blowout of the system much worse than 2008, is absolutely with us.  And China just reinforced its Glass-Steagall separation of the banks, and they also have a new regulatory commission, basically to investigate means to shield China against the coming crash, of which they have been warning many times.

So it is really up to us to escalate the campaign for Glass-Steagall in Europe, despite the EU, because if there is an emergency, I'm not so sure that things can then be taken back into the sovereign control of the countries, when the existence of the nations are at stake.  And therefore, I think that the task to go for Glass-Steagall in the United States is really very, very urgent.

SCHLANGER:  And there's an ongoing campaign that we're leading for the restoration of Glass-Steagall. There are bills in both the House and Senate, and people can get involved with us in pushing the Congress — and the President — to finally go ahead with the step that they should have taken back in 2008.

Now, Helga the other really important story, which  I think is getting very little coverage, is this Italian television broadcast, which included interviews with three people who were identified as "snipers" participating in the killings that occurred in the Maidan demonstrations in Ukraine in 2014.  Now, this whole Ukrainian situation which was provoked by the neo-cons, by NATO, by Obama, by George Soros, became the excuse for the sanctions against Russia and the attempt to ice Putin out of any kind of discussions.  So, what do you know about these reports from the snipers and the involvement of the former government of Georgia and others to destabilize Ukraine and create this whole destabilization?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  This is, as Prof. Ivan Katchanovski, who is one of the official investigators of the forensic evidence of the killings on the Maidan, called a "bombshell."  And I can only absolutely agree:  Three of the snipers who killed the people on the Maidan admitted who gave them orders;  they said that it was [former Georgia President Mikheil] Saakavishili's military advisor, Mamuka Mamulashvili, who basically recruited them; and this Mamulashvili then later became one of the "Georgian Legion" leaders fighting against the pro-Russian Ukrainians in the Donbas.

Now, he recruited them and then basically, that led to all the sequence of events:  The coup in Kiev, the forbidding of the Russian language; then as a reaction to the Nazis practically taking over, with Western backing — remember that it was Victoria Nuland who had admitted that the Obama State Department had spent $5 billion on the NGOs, and naturally also the neo-Nazis which came in then, the Bandera forces — so this was all backed.  I mean, the narrative up to the present day is that this was all caused by Russia, that Russia annexed the Crimea, and they changed the narrative because the reality was that the people of Crimea voted in a referendum to be part of Russia, because they didn't want to be under the rule of Nazis in Kiev.

So the Western narrative has been entirely such as to blame Putin for everything, and all the sanctions and all the anti-Russian measures are based on this narrative, and this is now blown apart by this testimony.

Now, where is the Western media coverage about that?  It was only in Il Giornale, the Italian paper, and the Italian TV. And [German business daily] Handelsblatt today has a short article which is quite typical:  They say that the Russian state media blew this story up, and in Russia, the "country of conspiracy theories," people are now saying this was all organized by the West and Saakashvili, which it was. And then they also however report that Merkel was asked by a journalist if there would be an investigation of the events on the Maidan.  And Merkel, in her typical  way, said, yes there will be an international investigation.  Naturally, the Handelsblatt article does not mention the testimony of these three snipers, and the other Western media, as far as I can see before the broadcast, didn't publish anything.

But this is a big story, because if the truth comes out, if now the people who did the killing admit who hired them, this can change the whole situation.  And it should!  Because the entire demonization of Putin is based on the narrative around Ukraine. And I think if this is being straightened out, then there is one less reason — no reason left at all, not to dramatically improve the relationship with Russia again, and really return to a peaceful cooperation as it should be, and that is now absolutely closed.  So I think this is a big story.

SCHLANGER:  I would emphasize that point, Helga, because in a sense, we just had the 54th commemoration of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, where the likely real story is that there were snipers there who killed the American President, and this has been covered up for 54 years.  Now, here you have a situation where you still have the people involved alive, the memory is still there, and the consequences are still under way. So if this story does get out, if people can begin to see that this was an operation run by London, by NATO, by the neo-cons, Nuland, the State Department in the United States, it does not only change the whole question of U.S.-Russian relations, but it gives us an opportunity to really go back and make right the damage that's been done.

Now, in this context, I want to come back with what we were starting with, the Russian diplomacy, and then the Chinese diplomacy:  It's clear that this is part of the New Paradigm, and it's clear that President Putin has had a vision of this from the beginning, as does Chinese President Xi Jinping.  Where can people go to get more information on this and become more involved in becoming an active part of bringing the West into this New Paradigm?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  Well, you are at the right place:  You should come to the Schiller Institute.  Because I feel very happy, because especially if you go back to our various websites, and you read what the LaRouche movement, my husband has been saying since the early 1970s, really, in terms of building a just new world economic order:  He has published many, many books, articles; we have published an enormous amount of programs for the development of Africa, Latin America, Asia; we conducted hundreds of conferences on five continents, and this is our life's work which is now coming into being.  Because of Chinese New Silk Road policies, all of these plans — and you can compare what we said 40 years ago, and sometimes, in the case of my husband even 50 years ago — and now basically the world is moving in this direction.

So I'm very confident that the remaining questions, like, what is "freedom"?  what is "liberty"? what is "happiness"? These questions, you know, will also be straightened out. Because the Schiller Institute is called "Schiller Institute" because Schiller was called "The Poet of Freedom."  And if you look at his notion of freedom, it has absolutely nothing to do with the individualist hedonism, what people normally call the "values of the West," which are the idea that everybody can do absolutely what they please without regard for the common good or the development of future generations.

This is not the freedom of Friedrich Schiller.  Friedrich Schiller had the idea of freedom and necessity, of duty and passion, that you find your freedom in your necessity, and you do that by contributing to future generations and their wellbeing, and that is your sense of morality.

Also, the idea of "happiness":  It's not the hedonistic having pleasure in the here and now at the expense of the rest of the world; just as long as you feel good.  No! The pursuit of happiness which is in the Declaration of Independence, is a notion which comes from Leibniz:  It means that every person has the right to develop their potential in the fullest, to contribute to the wellbeing of society, and find your happiness in having such a noble mission.

So I'm optimistic that the values which have gone awry in the West, that because of a majority of countries moving in a completely different direction, going back to fundamental values of humanity, that this will also have a very positive effect on the West.  You know, Leibniz in his time complained about a similar moral crisis — this was the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War and the religious warfare, so he thought that Europe was in a big moral crisis then, and he had the idea to invite Chinese missionaries, to teach the Europeans natural theology to make them better people.  And it's almost an irony that we, today, are at a similar point.

But I think this is actually quite fun: So, there's all reason to be optimistic for the future.  and given the fact that in America it's today Thanksgiving Day, I think people should reflect on the principles of the Republic, the idea of the American Constitution, the noble goals in the Declaration of Independence, and re-read these things; read the Proclamation of Lincoln on Thanksgiving Day, and takes these values to heart and be happy.

SCHLANGER:  What a beautiful way to conclude this discussion.  It is Thanksgiving Day and I would encourage my fellow Americans, not to overdose on turkey and football and the usual nonsense, but take the opportunity to discuss with family the ideas that you've heard presented today by Helga and the Schiller Institute.

So, Helga, thanks very much, and we'll see you again next week.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  Yes, good-bye till next week.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Also Relevant