Report on International Peace Coalition, Week 167
by EIR Staff
Aug. 14—The 167th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She warned that the idea is unrealistic that the Anglophile Empire, and with it the United States, will peacefully go out of business, as the Soviet Union did. The Iran war “is lost for the United States”; it did not achieve its goal of regime change, and it has depleted its stockpile of weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump does not seem to have found a face-saving way out. The new “Mecca Alliance” of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye is significant, because the constituent nations are all formerly close partners of the United States. The regional situation remains very complex, and “still has the potential of expanding into a global nuclear war.”
The Ukraine war continues to be “a situation of utmost tension,” where the barbarism becomes worse by the day. In Panama, the United States proclaimed its dominance of the Western Hemisphere, in a clear violation of the intent of the Monroe Doctrine. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her hope that China’s Global Governance Initiative will be discussed next month in the United Nations General Assembly.
Richard Anderson Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s chairman of the board of trustees, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories (2008 to 2014). He said he wished to emphasize a point raised by Zepp-LaRouche, the difference between the way the USSR went peacefully out of business, and the bellicose thrashing of the Anglo-Americans. He pointed out that the genocide in Gaza has been very profitable for the U.S. arms industry, and the private sector is putting pressure on the U.S. government with “exaggerated security threats and security interests.”
He also called attention to the “era of finance capital,” in which profits take precedence over production and the national interest, and asserted that this is fueling the bellicose foreign policy of the United States. “The Western efforts to wage colonial wars … have not produced a political victory; the weaker side, militarily, has been prevailing.” “The encouraging obsolescence of military power” is being challenged by the private sector which makes money regardless of whether wars are won, or lost.
The Iranians have learned that “trust doesn’t work with the West,” after the United States launched a war of choice, twice, in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The inability of the U.S. to stop this madness is only partially explicable by the “personality and style of Trump”; we must also look at the deeper, structural issues. Referring to the Mecca Alliance, he said that if it goes forward, and engages more countries, we will soon be talking of “West Asia” rather than the “Middle East,” explaining that the latter is a European-oriented term, whereas the former is how the Global South and Asian countries think of the region.
Neo-Feudalism: The New Stage of Imperialism
In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that the concept of “capitalism or imperialism” has reached a new stage. “The concept of the sovereign state is practically annulled”; the billionaire class is now calling the shots, and we now have “neo-feudalism.” Nations which have attempted to negotiate in good faith with the United States are now concluding that the U.S. cannot be trusted.
Co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Falk to comment on the “privatization of war,” and the claims of one British academic that we have returned to the “Palmerston era,” referring to mid-19th-Century British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston. In response, Falk observed that today’s situation is different, due to technological changes. Also, with the founding of the UN, there was an effort to move away from the Hobbesian anarchy of “might makes right” and toward a Westphalian world order, but the effort was flawed and allowed the dominant players to put their thumbs on the scales. Consequently, the UN Security Council today has enabled the crimes of the neocons against Gaza and Iran.
Zepp-LaRouche said that efforts to remedy this situation are hindered by mainstream media, which present “a narrative which is completely counter to reality.”
Ulf Sandmark, president of the Schiller Institute in Sweden, reported on weekly demonstrations there with which they have “attempted to break the spell” of making a taboo of advocacy of diplomatic solutions instead of war. In Sweden, the political parties are squeezing out antiwar politicians, who are also excluded from media coverage. The Schiller Institute is including these politicians in its demonstrations and giving them a voice.
Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), noted that Russia has moved from conducting its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, to all-out war. One manifestation of this has been the total shutdown of maritime activity in the Black Sea, which will be devastating for Ukraine. He listed numerous other developments in Russia’s conduct of the war, and compared it to the war in Iran, stating that both wars highlight the “delusional nature” of U.S. policy. Trump proclaims that the Strait of Hormuz is open and “under our control.” If that is the case, why are we running a blockade? The painful economic consequences of the war are completely divorced from the fantasy world of Wall Street, which can make money regardless.
The U.S. military is in trouble, on two fronts: It does not have access to the rare earths and other raw materials required to replenish depleted stocks of armaments; China has almost monopolistic control over those rare earths. Secondly, “the military across the board is in a mental health crisis.” There has been a wave of suicides and other deaths related to deteriorating morale and psychological stress among military personnel. The reports of deaths aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have significantly underestimated the number of casualties. There will be a political response from the angry parents of the affected servicemen.
A ‘Crony Capitalist Monster’
Johnson said that the U.S. military is not the greatest or most powerful military in the world, but it is the most expensive. He cited the astronomical costs of U.S. aircraft and drones, many of which have been destroyed in the war with Iran. He commented on the “profit collaboration” between the military and the private sector. Although “fascism” is a term perhaps too “emotionally charged” to describe it, he characterized this collaboration as a “crony capitalist monster.” Russia and China, operating on military budgets which are tiny in comparison, have achieved greater technical results.
Zepp-LaRouche returned to what Pope Leo XIV calls a “new Tower of Babel.” Peter Thiel, founder of the Silicon Valley tech firm Palantir Technologies, said that members of the billionaire class should not be shy about flaunting their wealth and power. The privation endured by U.S. military personnel stands out by comparison.
Co-moderator Dennis Small reminded the participants that the “military-industrial complex” should be called the “military-industrial-financial complex,” because, as EIR has shown, the largest arms manufacturers in the United States are owned by the leading financial speculators. This, he said, is the Achilles’ heel of the war machine.
Numerous speakers referred to the recent manic activity by so-called “U.S. Deputy Secretary of War” Elbridge Andrew Colby, who has been making the rounds and issuing public comments about U.S. dominance in Asia and the Western Hemisphere, in addition to promoting the use of nuclear weapons.
Daisuke Kotegawa, former official in the Japanese Ministry of Finance, former Japanese executive director at the IMF, and research director at the Canon Institute in Tokyo, submitted a video on the topic of immigration, which he said became a problem for Europe only after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the sabotage of development plans for Africa. He also noted that the population of Ukraine has declined from 40 to 30 million due to the war there.
Discussion
In response to a question from an African participant, Zepp-LaRouche asserted that colonialism still exists, although typically Europeans are in denial. She said that the IMF exemplifies the new structures of colonialism.
Another participant posed a question about the Oasis Plan, which has been discussed on a regular basis at IPC meetings. Zepp-LaRouche replied that the only thing required would be a commitment by a number of Southwest Asian nations. She speculated that the new Mecca Alliance might be a prospect for this. A “devil’s advocate” asked her whether it was time to reevaluate the tenth of her Ten Principles, the assertion that humans are fundamentally good. Her response was an emphatic no; the current degraded culture cannot be seen as the last word on human nature. We have a long history to consider, and the net improvements in the human condition teach us that humans are essentially good. A dark age can always be overcome by a new renaissance.
