The western world was stunned on Monday when President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a pull-out of Russia’s military forces in Syria — as suddenly and unexpectedly as he began the intervention last September. But the surprise in the West comes not from Putin, but from the fact that almost no one in the West understands how Putin thinks. He is perhaps the greatest strategic thinker since Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a quality of thinking, from the future, which is sorely lacking in the US and Europe today.

Putin, speaking on international TV Monday with his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, declared that the mission had been largely accomplished, that the terrorist offensive against the Syrian state had been crushed and was being rolled back – a major victory against terrorism internationally. He noted that his western friends had been uninterested in peace talks while the terrorist forces they were supporting were winning, but now had come around to join the peace effort. He made clear that the Russian support for the Syrian army against ISIS and al Nusra would continue — an effort which the competent leaders within the US military and foreign service are supporting.

Several political and military sources have informed EIR that there are intense discussions proceeding behind the scenes, along the lines of the Kerry-Lavrov collaboration, which will be revealed in the coming days.

Lyndon LaRouche pointed out today that this successful flanking operation by Putin in Syria, exposing Obama’s support for terrorists through his friends in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, has stymied the British Empire apparatus internationally, helping Putin’s friends elsewhere to stand up for their strategic interests — especially Xi Jinping in China. The Chinese are now preparing a program to tax speculative financial transactions — not to make money, but to curb the speculators. Hedge funds will be required to demonstrate that hedges and currency transactions are based on real trade or investments, not for speculative purposes — and this has sent the speculators into conniptions.

Why are Americans tolerating the destruction of their economy, the perpetual war policy, and an election campaign which is far worse, and more dangerous, than a clown show? Look to the belief in money — the measure of all things by monetary values and mathematical formulas, rather than by the progress of the real economy and human society. The US and European and Japanese economies are awash with liquidity, with money, but it is all fictitious. The real economy is in free fall — infrastructure decay, industrial collapse, mass unemployment — which is driving ever larger numbers of working people to suicide, thorough drugs or otherwise.

China and Russia and India have built a new paradigm, through the BRICS, the AIIB, and the New Silk Road, based on principles once embraced by Americans as their own. Americans, and Europeans, must once again embrace the concept of a common goal for mankind, based on the successful advance of mankind as a whole, or watch the current imperial rulers of the West lead the world to Hell.

The western world was stunned on Monday when President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a pull-out of Russia’s military forces in Syria — as suddenly and unexpectedly as he began the intervention last September. But the surprise in the West comes not from Putin, but from the fact that almost no one in the West understands how Putin thinks. He is perhaps the greatest strategic thinker since Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a quality of thinking, from the future, which is sorely lacking in the US and Europe today.

Putin, speaking on international TV Monday with his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, declared that the mission had been largely accomplished, that the terrorist offensive against the Syrian state had been crushed and was being rolled back – a major victory against terrorism internationally. He noted that his western friends had been uninterested in peace talks while the terrorist forces they were supporting were winning, but now had come around to join the peace effort. He made clear that the Russian support for the Syrian army against ISIS and al Nusra would continue — an effort which the competent leaders within the US military and foreign service are supporting.

Several political and military sources have informed EIR that there are intense discussions proceeding behind the scenes, along the lines of the Kerry-Lavrov collaboration, which will be revealed in the coming days.

Lyndon LaRouche pointed out today that this successful flanking operation by Putin in Syria, exposing Obama’s support for terrorists through his friends in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, has stymied the British Empire apparatus internationally, helping Putin’s friends elsewhere to stand up for their strategic interests — especially Xi Jinping in China. The Chinese are now preparing a program to tax speculative financial transactions — not to make money, but to curb the speculators. Hedge funds will be required to demonstrate that hedges and currency transactions are based on real trade or investments, not for speculative purposes — and this has sent the speculators into conniptions.

Why are Americans tolerating the destruction of their economy, the perpetual war policy, and an election campaign which is far worse, and more dangerous, than a clown show? Look to the belief in money — the measure of all things by monetary values and mathematical formulas, rather than by the progress of the real economy and human society. The US and European and Japanese economies are awash with liquidity, with money, but it is all fictitious. The real economy is in free fall — infrastructure decay, industrial collapse, mass unemployment — which is driving ever larger numbers of working people to suicide, thorough drugs or otherwise.

China and Russia and India have built a new paradigm, through the BRICS, the AIIB, and the New Silk Road, based on principles once embraced by Americans as their own. Americans, and Europeans, must once again embrace the concept of a common goal for mankind, based on the successful advance of mankind as a whole, or watch the current imperial rulers of the West lead the world to Hell.