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The following interview was given by Lyndon LaRouche to Iranian National Radio on March 20, 2023. It was broadcast recently. This transcript was taken from a tape where the interviewer was sometimes faint. INR: In your point of view, what is the real purpose of America and the British to launch war on Iraq? LaRouche: Well, I don't think the President of the United States actually knows what his purpose is. However, the people who are controlling his policies, which include Vice President Cheney, and that circle, are intent on actually world empire, not Iraq. Iraq is simply treated as an opportunity to start a larger war, in which, of course, China is ultimately targetted, Iran is among the targets, and so forth. INR: How do you evaluate the successful outcome of the American and British attack on Iraq? LaRouche: This goes back to 1991, at the end of the so-called Desert Storm, when the President and his then military commander, Colin Powell, said: "Don't go to Baghdad," that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait had been reversed, "the Iraqi forces involved had been destroyed, do not occupy Iraq." Cheney and others disagreed. And together with certain forces in the right wing in Israel, have maintained this policy ever since. After the 11th of September, 2023, Cheney and his friends became active again. They are now going for world empire, sort of a caricature of a Roman Empire, with nuclear weapons. That's their policy. I don't think the President himself understands it, but these people behind this, including those in Britain who are supporting it, understand this very well. INR: France, Germany, and Russia, don't agree to launch unilateral war on Iraq. (Inaudible)...the situation of the world after this war? LaRouche: Their view is correct, as expressed by the French Foreign Minister, in particular, in the United Nations. They are very aware that the Iraq issue is not the issue. The issue is an imperial policy for a world empire. They understand that. That's why the so-called triple alliance of Russia, Germany, and France has emerged on this issue, why China supports it, why others support it. They recognize that...let me give you an example of this that will help to explain it. What the United States has done, in launching this attack on Iraq, despite, in defiance of, the United Nations, is the same thing Hitler did in threatening Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the same thing Hitler did in invading Poland, in 1939. Europeans involved, understand that, and understand that this is a revival of a Nazi-like policy, which we outlawed at the end of the war, the last war. INR: Throughout the foreign ministry and ......... say that after this war is carried out, the UN is not the practical institution, but is only a moral institution. How do you argue about this? LaRouche: I don't agree at all. What is happening is, the United States is pulling itself down, by this kind of adventure. For example, you can probably imagine what the war is going to cost, if you add an occupation as well. The attempt to occupy a destroyed Iraq, is going to cause confusion throughout the whole region. You're talking about trillions of dollars, over several years. The United States already has a federal deficit of over a trillion dollars a year, approximately. There is no way the United States can, financially, economically, sustain this kind of war. In the meantime, the international financial system is collapsing, it will collapse anyway. If the United States opposes cooperation with the Asian countries, Eurasian countries, such as Europe and Asia, then the United States has no chance of recovering from this depression. Therefore, the economic factor is going to cut in, and will be increasingly decisive in determining what happens with the outcome of this war. INR: There is news that Saddam Hussein organized a suicide pilot to target the Americans and British in the present war. Do you think this would be successful for the Iraqi regime or not? LaRouche: Iraq is in a desperate situation. And, when you put a country in a desperate situation, with a leader such as Saddam Hussein is, you can expect anything. I don't think that these particular type of things, individually, mean much. The most deadly thing that Saddam Hussein has threatened, and I understand that oil is being pumped into trenches for it, is to set fire to the oil fields. He would destroy the oil fields of Iraq, rather than allow anyone else to occupy Iraq. That's one of the threats which he's made, which is very, very, credible. INR: The American authorities say that, after two or three weeks, they will be successful in war, and can change the regime of Iraq. In your point of view, if this war goes longer than two or three weeks, what will be the consequences on the American situation? LaRouche: First of all, the people who are saying that, or advising President Bush to say it, are incompetent, militarily. All of the leading flag officers, retired, and serving, that I know of, from the US Army, from the US Marine Corps, and similar authorities in Britain, that is, the leading senior military authorities in Britain, have all denounced it, saying this is totally incompetent. So this is a war which is decided by Corporal Hitler, not by competent military forces. Therefore, what is being said from the US government, as propaganda, on the two- to three-week outcome of the war, is false. Yes, Iraq could be virtually destroyed by these kinds of attacks, physically, but that does not mean it can be successfully occupied, or that the region will not blow up in the United States' face, if they continue this attack. INR: The other question is about after this war, after the changing of Iraq. What is your point of view about the terrorist attack on the US soil, and the British? LaRouche: I think what we are going to see, is the people behind Bush, I'm talking about Cheney, I'm talking about that crowd around Cheney, these people will not stop at Iraq. Iran is obviously among their targets, they've made it very clear. China is another ultimate target. North Korea is among their targets, and so forth and so on. So there is no limit to what the war will become if these fellows remain in control of the policy. But the other side of it is, what they are proposing to do, it's insane, and we cannot anticipate in advance, what the consequences will be. All we know, is that they will be horrible, for the United States, as well as everybody else. INR: What about the psychological war on Iraq? LaRouche: Everything is going on. But it is madness. One has to understand that the people in the United States, and in Britain, who are pushing this, are insane. That you cannot assume that what they say, or what they think they believe, is true. The real world rejects them, and I think the expression of Russia, France, and Germany on this question, is very mild. It is appropriate, but it very much understates what I think many of the people behind the scenes actually think about this. It is insane. INR: How do you evaluate the humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq after this war? LaRouche: Oh, God, this is terrible. I think of the people. First of all, this is a Hitler-like war, as I said, like Hitler's invasion of Poland, or what he intended to do in Czechoslovakia. This is a Nazi conception. As a matter of fact, the people in the United States, who developed this policy, designed it on the basis of Nazi policy. For example, the people behind Cheney, Cheney himself, expresses a Nazi policy, publicly, on this war question. These people are conducting wars of virtual extermination, in the worst ways the Nazis did. You probably know them from the Iran-Iraq war period. What they were doing on the Iraq side, for example. This is a war of extermination. And I just... the people, the people, you know, to me, it's horrible, because I know they are human beings, and human beings should not be killed like this. Children, women, everything, it's horrible. INR: What is your opinion about the future of Iraq? LaRouche: I am determined to finally bring justice, if I am able. Iraq should just be left to make its own decision. I do not believe in externally imposed solutions. A people must make their own government, and their own solutions. External forces must not try to create puppet states. You see the horrible thing that has happened in Afghanistan, as an example. What happened there is not a success. United States actions made the situation worse than it was before the US actions. And it will explode again. The Taliban will come back, and surface, they'll take over again. The drug trafficking will increase. The danger to the neighbors will increase. Nothing good can come out of this operation, with the way that the present US government intends it. I intend, if I have the power to do so, to bring justice, to give the people of the region an opportunity for peace, and for development. But when it comes to the case of Iraq, the Iraqi people themselves must make their own decision. And we must allow them to do that, and we must help to find the conditions under which they can do it. Otherwise, we will not have a stable neighbor in Iraq. - 30 -
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