theDrahos

As the May 13 date nears for Obama’s summit meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) led by Saudi Arabia, Obama is fueling the Wahabbi plan for genocidal population wars in the name of countering Iranian “aggression.” Since the P5+1 signing of the framework of a nuclear agreement with Iran on April 2nd, the GCC has been in genocidal overdrive, in a gruesome population war of civilian killings and blockades in Yemen and in plans for an escalated campaign against Syrian President Bashar al Assad through the formation of a “new” Syrian opposition army called the “Army of Conquest,” that involves Saudi-Turkish-GCC backing for jihadists.

On Wednesday, Reuters published a story—leaked to them by “U.S. sources”—that Obama “is expected to make a renewed U.S. push” to offer the GCC “allies … a region-wide defense system to guard against Iranian missiles.” According to a Washington intelligence source, this is only the latest revelation about the massive arms deals and weapons systems that Obama is planning to offer the GCC at the summit, which he called right after the P5+1 agreement in order to quiet the protests of the Gulf Sunni oligarchs about Iran.

But, Obama’s games on behalf of the British-Saudi empire are actually setting the conditions for a greater war—as Lyndon LaRouche communicated in the April 3, 2015, webcast where Jeff Steinberg delivered Mr. LaRouche’s response to the question: “what are the broader implications” of the deal that had been signed one day earlier.

“The problem is not with the deal,” Steinberg said. “The problem is what President Obama has systematically refused to deal with, since the day he came into office as President. He’s refused to deal with the fact that the Saudis represent a grave threat to the entire situation, not only in the Middle East, but around the world: That you’ve got a British-Saudi apparatus, that is behind the drive for war, the provocations of terrorism….”

So, under Obama, “if you’re unwilling to take on the real tough nut, the real source of instability, the real threat of general war today, then how can you even look at something like a P5+1 agreement, without coming to the conclusion that the whole thing is a set-up! And it’s virtually an invitation, to the Saudis, to their British patrons in the royal monarchy apparatus, to the Israelis, to launch the kinds of provocations that are certain to lead to, minimally, a full-blown regional war….”

Individual GCC countries have already purchased components of ballistic missile defense, such as Patriots and THAAD (Terminal-High Altitude Area Defense), but Obama is pushing for the GCC to form a unified military command so that the US can install a BMD system in the Gulf — a clear provocation.

Recall that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov blasted the US and NATO for continuing to push for BMD systems, even though the nuclear deal with Iran was progressing and thereby removing the need for BMD systems. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin was even more explicit, noting in a Twitter post that the BMD was “never about Iran.”

EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche said today that “putting Glass-Steagall back into effect is the only way to start a revival of the U.S. economy. Let it bankrupt big financial institutions,” LaRouche added. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, recently announced for President, had just held a press conference to talk about “breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks” by some means other than legislation to restore Glass-Steagall, which is already in the House with nearly 50 sponsors. “If you don’t restore Glass-Steagall, it’s just not competent,” LaRouche said.

LaRouche’s view is that Bush and Obama have wrecked the U.S. economy to such a degree since Glass-Steagall was abolished, that there is no substitute for restoring it, “and then create the future credit system immediately needed to get production going again. We don’t have a solid, skilled labor force any more,” he said, after 15 years mass unemployment and misemployment under these Presidents. “But create skilled and productive employment, and people will have to get the skills on the job. Why is President Obama having so much trouble ramming his ‘free trade’ scheme down throats in Congress? The answer is not in Congress, but in important categories of constituents who know just how bad the U.S. economy has gotten under this President.”

“Hamilton is my war cry,” LaRouche said. “We have to create an economy the Hamilton-Lincoln way. The people have lost their skills and their incomes — they’re dying. We need a radical change, but a change certified by Alexander Hamilton’s successful policy.

“And we need to create a new Presidency around this. Not after the 2016 election — now.”

Behind the U.S. GDP zero-growth reported in the first quarter — which will be revised to negative growth as more data comes in — is the ongoing collapse in the vital area of business capital investment. It has stagnated with essentially no growth at all for seven years, negative net growth when depreciation of capital is taken into account. Big businesses can borrow at virtually zero interest; small businesses, not at all; and the big businesses, banks, oil companies, etc. are all using this borrowed debt to buy their own stock and buy other companies. Business capital investment fell in April for the seventh consecutive month, and the overall drop is 7% since last September. It is actually 9% lower over the year since April 2014.

No capital investment, no productivity growth. It fell by 2.1% in the first quarter; by 1.9% in the last quarter of 2014; and so on back. This is not even real productivity, but simple production or service performed per man-hour.

Productivity decline means real wage decline, the story of Obama’s “recovery,” and everyone, of course, knows it. Do they want to buy a “trade agreement” from this man?

The ADP Payrolls report on private-sector job creation in April, released today, was weak. It claims a 169,000 increase in private sector employment in the month. The March increase was revised downward to about the same, 174,000. This survey’s figures have fallen every month since last November’s 242,000; i.e., when oil prices collapsed.