Larouche Online Almanac

Published: Monday, April 7, 2003

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Volume 2, Issue Number 14
Back Issues

The first week of President George W. Bush, Jr.'s Middle East war sufficed to unmask the military doctrines of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Cheney, and their pack of Chicken-hawks, as the work of fools or, most probably, worse. Since then, the Bush Administration's current Defense Department's utopian military policies, are now ever more

widely recognized among relevant professionals, and qualified other critics, as combining elementary military incompetence with several dimensions of unworldly delusion. The relevant delusions of Rumsfeld's, Cheney's, and Ashcroft's flock, are to be recognized as an outgrowth of the fusion of two ingredients: the first, the Nietzschean fascism of Professor Leo Strauss; the second, that imperial, and frankly satanic, Wells-Crowley-Russell-Hutchins, English-speaking utopianism of the high-flying 'military-industrial complex,' which has been the principal, alien adversary of the Classical U.S. military tradition in statecraft since the closing phase of World War II.

Predominant control over the present Bush Administration has been secured, until now, by a Cheney-led fusion of the combination of Chicago University's imported fascist—that Professor Leo Strauss—with Wells' and Russell's goal of world government through Hitler-like, preventive nuclear war. Speaking in terms of epistemology, the 'genetically' Nazi-like ideology of a Strauss, was that of a figure whose own writings, like those of his underling Allan Bloom, recall those of the Nazi philosopher, Martin Heidegger, who influenced Strauss....complete article

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this week in history

April 7-13, 1933

April 10, 1933 was a historic day for the United States: the day when President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a message to Congress calling for the Creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority. This call for the implementation of a water-management, power-generation, and overall development plan for the seven-state region around the Tennessee River, was destined to lead to a project so successful, that it was the model for major infrastructure-development programs worldwide (including today's Three Gorges Dam in China), and is still such a model today.

Last year, at this time, this column reprinted FDR's original message, and a summary of the accomplishments of the project (see EIW Vol. 1, No. 5). This year, we emphasize the way in which the TVA model can be used today.

On Dec. 7, 2002, in an address to an event in California, Lyndon LaRouche called for the creation of a new Federal agency, along the lines of Roosevelt's Tennessee Valley Authority, as the means of financing the trillions of dollars worth of infrastructure projects which are required to put the American economy back on track. This mechanism, LaRouche said, could be called a "Super-TVA," a credit-generating mechanism which would disburse low-interest, long-term credits into the states, to launch the program of energy production and distribution, water management, and mass transit-rail network programs, which are needed to rebuild the tax-revenue base, and the physical economy.

To make this happen, LaRouche added, will require emergency legislation to repeal all the deregulation laws of the past 30 years.

The TVA project called for a set of multi-purpose dams, rural electrification, improvement of agricultural productivity, and overall upgrading of conditions of life for the population. Its center was the Muscle Shoals hydroelectric dam project, which had been on the boards for decades, but the new plan was far broader. In announcing the plan, FDR specified the following powers for the agency:

"I, therefore, suggest to the Congress legislation to create a Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation clothed with the power of government, but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private enterprise. It should be charged with the broadest duty of planning for the proper use, conservation, and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee River drainage basin and its adjoining territory for the general social and economic welfare of the nation. This authority should also be clothed with the necessary power to carry these plans into effect. Its duty should be the rehabilitation of the Muscle Shoals development and the coordination of it with the wider plan."

And help the general welfare the project did. The TVA project, in the course of its first 10 years, dramatically changed the way of life from that of Third World-like impoverishment, subject to periodic flooding and misery: By 1958, the Tennessee Valley was a modern agro-industrial region, with higher electricity use per capita than many places around the country, an end to flooding, abundant manufacturing jobs, and the conquering of illiteracy and disease (malaria had been rampant).

The Federal Role

From the very beginning, the advocates of "free enterprise" loudly protested the development of the TVA. The local power utilities wanted to prevent the Federal agency from actually selling power over its own transmission lines. Others wanted to restrict the overall planning powers of the agency, which gave it the right to declare eminent domain, and permitted it to provide services, including libraries, for the workers in the area.

But, without the Federal powers, and Federal money, these improvements would never have occurred.

The TVA was set up as a Federal corporation which received monies from Congress, and also had the power to issue its own bonds, in order (initially) to raise up to $50 million. These bonds were to have an interest rate of no higher than 3.5%, and could be purchased by the U.S. Treasury. The Authority's monies were strictly tied to certain projects, such as the Muscle Shoals dam, or the nitrate plant (for fertilizer).

The linkage of the credit issuance to a specific project, is an absolutely crucial aspect of a Super-TVA program. In the particular case of the TVA, Roosevelt knew that the investment would more than pay for itself, not only in improved living standards, jobs, and tax-revenue increases, but also in terms of money. That was directly the case because the power plants which were built, were going to charge for electricity—although at a considerably lower rate than the private utilities were doing.
...more

Lyndon LaRouche on BBC: — 'A War That Has No Satisfactory Exit'

Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed on April 3 on the BBC's international news program "Five Live Up All Night" from London, on the Iraq war. This is the portion of the interview with Richard Ballyn aired that night.

Lyndon LaRouche on Iranian Radio
‘The War on Iraq Is A Drive for Empire’

This interview with Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. was conducted by Iranian National Radio on March 20:

Q: In your point of view, what is the real purpose of America and the British to launch war on Iraq?...

In Depth Coverage From Executive Intelligence Review
Links to articles from Executive Intelligence Review*.
*Requires Adobe Reader®.


Feature:

How To Reconstruct A Bankrupt World:
The Eurasian Land-Bridge
We publish here the March 22 panel—on the Eurasian Land-Bridge idea—of the Schiller Institute conference,'Howto Reconstruct a Bankrupt World,' held March 21-23 in Bad Schwalbach, Germany. The panel was opened by EIR editor Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, introducing keynote speaker Helga Zepp-LaRouche. The full presentations by Zepp-LaRouche and Academician Vladimir Myasnikov, and also the Bad Schwalbach Declaration for worldwide circulation from the conference, were all published in EIR for April 4. We republish here only brief concluding sections of the speeches of Zepp-LaRouche and Myasnikov, within the entire proceedings of the Eurasian Land-Bridge panel.

Economics:

Extreme Tension Spans The Financial Markets
by Lothar Komp in Wiesbaden
Every new and broader shock could be the doom of several banks and insurance companies. The global financial system found itself in a catastrophic condition already before the outbreak of the war in Iraq.

'War and Economics' Join To Change Brazil Policy
by Lorenzo Carrasco
The unilateral decision of the administration in Washington to launch a war against Iraq, has sharply accelerated the diplomatic efforts of the Brazilian government to define an independent foreign policy, in order to guarantee the country some maneuvering room in the face of growing pressures in the areas of security and international trade.

LaRouche Is in Debate On Peru's Economic Plans
by Manuel Hidalgo
The economic ideas of U.S. economist and Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche saturated the first conference of the Interregional Coordination Council of Peru, held March 14 in Piura.

International:

The War Must Be Stopped Now! Remove Rumsfeld, Cheney and Co.!
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche
This is the text of a leaflet distributed beginning April 3 across Europe by the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity (Bu¨So) party in Germany, and allied parties and the Schiller Institute Europe-wide.

Historic Leipzig Peace Rally Hears: 'LaRouche Is the Man'
by Thomas Rottmair in Dresden
A world-historic individual, 91-year-old American Civil Rights leader Amelia Boynton Robinson, spoke at a historic demonstration against the Iraq war in Leipzig, Germany on March 31.

UN 'Uniting for Peace' Resolution Could Demand End to U.S. War on Iraq
by Mike Billington
Both the 22-member Arab Group at the United Nations, and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Group, have determined to introduce a resolution to convoke an emergency meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA), demanding an immediate end to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Arab Nations Changed, Shaken by the War
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
Among the factors which the United States and Britain mis- evaluated, in preparing their war in Iraq, is the power of resistance, not only of the Iraqis but of the entire Arab world. In the year before the invasion Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly warned that it would rapidly undermine the governments of neighboring Mideast nations, inflaming the Arab masses, leading to mass demonstrations; those governments which were either supporting the war, or not explicitly opposing it in words and deeds, would be threatened with overthrow.

Hardly Any Germans Support Iraq War
by Rainer Apel
According to legend, the ancient Greek goddess Nemesis had a very sharp memory—she would never forget any evil deed, and would pursue the culprit relentlessly until he (or she) were caught to receive his sentence. The problems which U.S. chicken-hawks like Richard Perle and Donald Rumsfeld are running into, indicate that a 'nemesis factor' is at work in the United States; and it is also causing its first casualties on the German side.

Bush: Mugabe 'Threatens U.S. Foreign Policy'
by David Cherry
'The actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons . . . constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat,' President George Bush declared, in an Executive Order signed March 6. The language seems very up to date in its imperial pretensions.

Interview: Yitzhak Ben-Aharon
Only New Thinking Will Bring Peace
Mr. Ben-Aharon, one of Israel's founding fathers, is a founding member of the Labor Party, and a trade union leader. He served as a minister in the government of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. He was one of the first Israeli leaderswho called for the return of all the territories occupied by Israel in the Arab-Israeli war in June 1967.

Danger to India In Anti-Muslim Policy
by Ramtanu Maitra
A major flaw in India's foreign policymaking showed up in the wake of the U.S.-U.K.-led invasion of Iraq. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee recently told the Cabinet of his coalition government that a stridently anti-U.S. posture is not in India's national interest. This was the cited reason for turning down the opposition's plea to pass a parliamentary resolution condemning the invasion.

National:

Rumsfeld's Military Thinking and the Nazis'
by Steve Douglas
The criticisms of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his chicken-hawk cohorts, by members of the 'traditionalist' U.S. military leadership, are not unlike those lodged against Hitler by various German Army leaders steeped in the traditions of the Prussian/German Staff. Hitler's perverse fascina-tion with Wunderwaffen/'Shock and Awe' high-tech weapons of his day, was duly noted by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, the most able of the German Army's group commanders:

New 'Pentagon Papers' Scandal Could Bring Down Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush
by Edward Spannaus
Are the leaks coming out of the U.S. military showing Donald Rumsfeld's interference in military war plans for Iraq, the opening stages of a new 'Pentagon Papers' scandal? This was the question asked recently by Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche, who noted that this scandal could quickly expand beyond Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, to Vice President Dick Cheney, and could potentially bring down President George Bush himself—if he is foolish enough to continue with the Iraq war.

Whole Gang of Iraq War Profiteers Must Go
by Michele Steinberg
More than a dozen 'task forces' embedded accross the national security spectrum of George W. Bush's Administration have been secretly planning for the takeover of Iraq, with full-blown plans for installing an 'occupation government' comprised entirely of an 'inner circle' of Anglo-American neo-conservative operatives and businessmen, who stand to reap great profits from the nation they just destroyed militarily and will be paid to rebuild.

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