Pakistan’s PTV evening commentary today featured former Ambassador Jamil Khan and the Schiller Institute’s Harley Schlanger in a roundtable on Ukraine and the threat of nuclear war.
After Schlanger emphasized that Prime Minister Khan is right in remaining outside of blocs, he identified “bloc politics” as a continuation of 19th-20th century British geopolitics, then reviewed the case Putin made for security guarantees. The U.S. and NATO rejected Putin’s demand, he said, instead seeking to provoke a war to launch a destruction of Russia’s economy, which is now underway with the sanction policy, which is really warfare. Schlanger emphasized the importance of the Schiller Institute call for convening a conference to create a new security architecture, and why this must also implement a financial architecture, based on Lyndon LaRouche’s economic policies. He spoke of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s commitment to a new strategic architecture, and how in combination with a rejection of neoliberal policies, this is the way to guarantee peace.
In response to a question about western hypocrisy, given the attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, Schlanger spoke of the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis by JFK, and how today’s crisis is a “reverse Cuban Missile Crisis.” The nuclear alert declared by Putin was a reaction to the harsh sanctions, and Putin had said repeatedly that Russia has nowhere to go if Ukraine is brought into NATO.
Finally, he explained that the main reason for the trans-Atlantic assault against Russia and China is the rejection by many nations of the unipolar world, a rejection led by Russia and China, and how the financial policies of the unipolar forces have brought the world to the edge of a systemic collapse.
Ambassador Khan, after initially expressing “anxiety” over Russia’s policy, took up Schlanger’s polemic, saying that NATO expansion is seen by Putin as a “question of life and death,” and the Russian leader had no choice but to “draw a red line.”
