Lyndon H. LaRouche

September 23, 2009 (LPAC) "By his recent statements, President Obama has based his continuation of George W. Bush's 9-11 emergency powers on a supposed terror threat from Afghanistan. When he announced on Sept. 10 that he was continuing those emergency powers, he said: "Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2009."

But earlier, on Aug. 17, he had told the Veterans of Foreign Wars that: "The insurgency in Afghanistan didn't just happen overnight and we won't defeat it overnight. This will not be quick, nor easy. But we must never forget: This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans. So this is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people."

"Obama is continuing the 'unitary executive' dictatorial powers assumed by Bush after 9-11, on the grounds of an alleged threat of terror from Afghanistan," Lyndon LaRouche said today. "This is a complete fraud, even if possibly based on Obama's ignorance of the true situation. There is no terrorist threat to the United States from Afghanistan. Gen. McChrystal's recent report is also a fraud in the same sense. US troop presence in Afghanistan serves no national U.S. interest whatever. In fact, we can walk out of Afghanistan right now.

"Like the Iraq invasion," he continued, "the Afghanistan invasion never did serve any U.S. national interest. The George W. Bush administration was manipulated into both invasions by the lies of Britain's Tony Blair. Both Iraq and Afghanistan exemplify those 'land wars in Asia' which have continually bled and debilitated the United States, to the advantage of our adversary, the British empire, ever since soon after Franklin Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945.

"In his time," LaRouche added, "President John F. Kennedy had had the good judgment to heed the warnings of Generals of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Dwight Eisenhower, against involving the United States in any other such long 'land war on the Asian mainland.' That was why he was murdered by British-linked networks: to allow the long U.S. war in Indochina to get under way.

"Obama's assumption of 'unitary executive' powers because of an alleged Afghanistan emergency, must be denounced as a complete fraud," he concluded.

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By Lyndon H. LaRouche, in association with the Political Action Committee (LPAC). www.larouchepac.com