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President Bush Must
Change His Mind Quickly

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

Aug. 13, 2001 (EIRNS)—This statement by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., was released today by the LaRouche in 2004 Presidential campaign committee.

I appeal publicly to President George W. Bush, because, first, he is the President of the U.S.A., and, secondly, unless he uses his powers and influence in an appropriate way, there is presently nothing in sight which will prevent that general, spreading war in the Middle East which would lead, of necessity, to a new Masada—Israel's destruction by its own hand.

The present situation is composed of the following leading elements.

  1. Fanatics in leading positions in Israel's Defense Force (IDF), are presently committed to a process including systemic murder of the Palestinian Authority, and to other measures of strategic bridge-burning, along the way toward something like the Thirty Years War Europe suffered during the 1618-1648 interval—not only within the Middle East region, but spreading through Central, East, and Southeast Asia, and beyond.

  2. Under such conditions, Israel is now in the process of creating for itself a mire of virtually uncontrollable irregular warfare, a condition soon far beyond the capabilities of Israel's security-forces to control. Thus, Israel would bring about its own destruction, as strategic experts whom I know in Israel itself would agree, with which any rational expert there must concur, by definition.

  3. The larger, global strategic danger is, that the targetting of Islam's holy places in Jerusalem, by both certain Israeli fanatics and also masses of Protestant fanatics from the U.S.A., is in the process of transforming a long-standing Israeli-Arab conflict into what geopoliticians Zbigniew Brzezinski and Samuel P. Huntington have proposed as a spread of a generalized religious warfare throughout much of Asia. The case of the Taliban of Afghanistan merely typifies the kinds of religious conflicts, among Muslims as also against them, throughout much of Asia and beyond, unless the kind of lunacy typified by Brzezinski and Sharon is stopped.

  4. Unfortunately, while a rumbling anger against Sharon's policies is building up in Europe, only an intervention by the U.S. is capable of stopping the IDF-led war machine now running amok in Israel today. This puts President Bush in the position of being obliged to act counter to those sections of both his own Republican and the Democratic parties, in and outside the Congress, who appear to be literally Hell-bent to have a religious war take over much of this planet during the weeks and months ahead.

  5. Therefore, the question is, are there leading advisors to the President, who can persuade him to recognize the danger of not intervening in an effective way to halt the Israeli war-drive now, while that might still be possible?

In the effort to define war-avoiding alternatives, certain additional facts must be borne in mind.

  1. The problem inside Israel is not Ariel Sharon. Sharon, on record, has always acted primarily as an extension of the Anglo-American intelligence establishment, not as a religious fanatic. President Bush could ask his father, the former President, or James Baker III, about such important matters of background. Look back to the 1980s, beginning about 1982, when Sharon was operating inside what became known later to the U.S. reading public as the "Iran-Contra" complex. Sharon's tendency is to stay within the bounds of what that section of the Anglo-American intelligence community might consider "acceptable behavior."

    The danger is, that those who desire to use present atrocities against the Palestinians as a detonator of the kind of geopolitical religious warfare demanded by H.G. Wells-follower Brzezinski, recognizing Sharon's reluctance to break out of his mold, will use the escalation of the situation as a cover for dumping Sharon, in one way or another, and bringing to the fore those elements of the IDF who are disposed to unleash full-scale religious warfare through most of Asia and beyond.

  2. The President of the U.S. has the authority, and prospective collaborators abroad, needed to bring the errant impulses of the IDF to a sudden halt. He is in a position to muster the international support he requires for such an effect. No less dramatic intervention than that, taken suddenly, would be sufficient to ensure that the looming spiral of religious warfare does not erupt very, very soon.

  3. The question will be asked: What about those lunatics on both sides of the Congressional aisle, who are so rabidly pressing for Middle East war?

    Should the President act, he would have little to fear from those elements of the Democratic and Republican parties.

    Presently, except for his position as President, he has very little credibility; but, at the moment, the members of the Congress have even less. The collapsing financial system, and the depression conditions now gripping the U.S. increasingly, create an ideal opportunity for a President who understands the implications of his situation.

    The discredit of the leaderships of both the Republican and Democratic parties, especially on all leading economic issues, puts the President in the curious position of having both everything and nothing to lose: like the commander who has discreetly arranged an anti-personnel minefield around his own combat forces.

    In a combat situation, and the threat of an ominous, unwanted war is a combat situation, the troops will rally to the commander who has led them to safety. Such is the implicit strategic constitutional authority of a sitting U.S. President.

  4. The question is, does this President have the combination of advisors and ability to listen to them, which is required of him in this perilous situation? The question is, do we others have the wisdom and will to act on the basis of that set of facts?

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