..Larouche Online Almanac
Published: Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2006

Volume 5, Issue Number 52

*Sponsored by LaRouchePAC

This Week You Need To Know:

Chickenhawk Down
by Jeffrey Steinberg

In response to the James Baker III and Lee Hamilton-directed Iraq Study Group report, President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney turned to their chickenhawk allies at the American Enterprise Institute to craft a counter-plan, based on the fantasy premise that a "surge" of American troops could secure victory in Iraq before the 2008 Presidential elections. On Dec. 14, AEI Fellow Frederick Kagan released the AEI utopian scheme, "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq Interim Report." The 52-page power-point presentation, delivered by Kagan at an AEI forum, argued, in effect, that a two-year "surge" of upwards of 50,000 additional U.S. combat soldiers into Baghdad and into the Sunni stronghold Al Anbar Province, would break the back of the resistance and bring peace and stability to Iraq. The AEI document outright rejected the idea at the heart of the Baker-Hamilton study: That the U.S. must negotiate directly with all of Iraq's neighbors including Iran and Syria, and settle the Israel-Palestine conflict, if there is any hope of stabilizing Iraq and withdrawing the American forces—without having to shoot their way out of the country. ...continued

New Year's Message from the Schiller Institute: Finally! Good News from the U.S.A.: New Hope for Germany
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

The following is a translation of a mass leaflet now being circulated in Germany:

Dear Citizens,

The Democratic victory in the U.S. Congressional elections on Nov. 7 brings tidings of hope for Germany. The Democrats' landslide victory was due in large part to the massive increase in voter participation by young Americans aged 18 to 35. And this shift in attitude in a growing number of America's youth, has become a decisive factor in international policy-making and in America's foreign policy.

There is also a second change in America with worldwide significance, and that is the timely coincidence of this Democratic election victory with the release of the so-called Baker-Hamilton Report......continued

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Recent LaRouche Webcasts*

"Organizing the Recovery from the Great Crash of 2007" Nov. 16, 2006
World Crisis on Eve of U.S. General Election - From Berlin Oct. 31, 2006
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"Rohatyn as Satan" July 20, 2006
"Emergency Actions Required by Congress" June 9, 2006
"The Greatest Economic Crisis in Modern History" Apr. 27, 2006
"Make a Platonic Revolution to Save Our Civilization" Feb. 23, 2006
"Rebuild a Looted U.S. Economy"
video: Baltimore: from Industrial Powerhouse to Death Zones
Jan. 11, 2006
"The Tasks Before Us in the Post-Cheney Era"
Videos: US Dams, US Nuclear Plants
Nov. 16, 2005
"Rediscovering America: The Lessons of LaRouche's Famous Oct. 12, 1988 Forecast" Oct. 12, 2005
Sept. 16, 2005
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We Need Young People Who Are Hungry for a Future of Civilization'

by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.

This is a substantial excerpt from LaRouche's closing remarks to the conference of the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity (BüSo), held in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, on Dec. 17.

... Let's go to the larger issue: We are not a drinking and marching society. We are an organization internationally, which is dedicated to the purpose of trying to save civilization from a catastrophe which has taken over the world since the death of Franklin Roosevelt. At the time that Franklin Roosevelt died, he was committed to ending colonialism internationally. That had been his commitment to Churchill, before the war ended, before his own death. Had he lived, colonialism would have disappeared immediately. ...continued

InDepth Coverage

Note: EIR (Print edition) is not published this week. It will return on January 5, 2007, and will be a double issue.


This Week in
American History


December 26 — January 1, 1839

Lincoln's Fiery 'Sub-Treasury' Speech Defends the National Bank

During the waning months of his Administration, President Martin Van Buren (1837-41) had sponsored legislation known as the Sub-Treasury Plan, which had so far failed to pass both Houses of Congress. The 1840 Presidential election was fast approaching, and the Whig Party, which supported the American System of economic development, was hopeful that the almost twelve years of disastrous policies sponsored by the previous two administrations could soon be reversed.

President Andrew Jackson had withdrawn the government's deposits from the U.S. National Bank, founded by Alexander Hamilton, and had placed them in "pet banks" owned by his cronies. To make matters worse, he had vetoed the Maysville Road Bill, which had allocated Federal funds for building a road in Kentucky. These two actions severely limited any Federal support of infrastructure projects, which most of Jackson's cohorts declared to be unconstitutional. This assault on America's productive capacity had been the strategy of the British Empire ever since the first colonists arrived in Massachusetts Bay, and the Whig Party recognized the implications for America's national security.

The State of Illinois, trying to develop its resources on what was then still the frontier, passed infrastructure legislation which included a canal that would link its ports on Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. Because of the Federal strangulation of credit, Illinois had to issue its own bonds to finance the needed projects. The lack of a National Bank tied America's economy to the ups and downs of the London Markets, so that the Panic of 1837 wreaked havoc on the infrastructure projects of Illinois and many other states.

In that context, the Presidential election of 1840 loomed large. The Whig Party in Illinois decided to prepare for the coming opportunity by holding debates with the Democrats to highlight the differences in policies. Abraham Lincoln was then serving as a State Representative and a statewide Whig Committeeman, and he was chosen as one of the Whig spokesmen in the debates.

The series of debates began in November of 1839, and continued through December, with Whig and Democrat speakers alternating. Lincoln did very well in his first debate, but felt that he had not sufficiently answered Stephen A. Douglas in the second debate. Therefore, he scheduled a third appearance on December 26, and his presentation was a thorough discussion of the difference between placing government money in a National Bank or placing it in the proposed Sub-Treasury locations.

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