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Sept. 13, 2024 (EIRNS)—Today’s 67th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) hosted over 1,000 people from nearly 40 countries, warning of the dire crisis facing mankind. Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the discussion by stating that we are at “a point of no return,” that the decision to grant Ukraine the “permission” to use U.S. and NATO long-range missiles to target Russia, and Putin’s clear declaration that if this is done Russia will know that this is not Ukraine, but the U.S. and NATO that are attacking Russia, and will “respond appropriately,” demonstrates that we are in the most dangerous moment in history, possibly days or weeks away from thermonuclear warfare.

Dr. Ted Postol, MIT professor emeritus and one of the world’s foremost experts on nuclear weapons, said that the fact that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would even suggest considering “the use of tactical nuclear weapons,” means he doesn’t know what this is. Blinken’s “cavalier” attitude towards the “overwhelming likelihood of the destruction of modern civilization as we know it,” shows his ignorance and almost unbelievable recklessness. “I realize it’s very strong language, but it’s just hard to comprehend that anybody could be so reckless, especially someone who is in a position where decisions he makes have serious consequences for the security of—really of the modern world. It’s that bad.”

Ukraine’s war on Russia has been lost, Postol said, and the invasion of Kursk, which has failed, has made it worse for Ukraine. Pulling their elite troops and air defenses off the front line in Donbas to invade Kursk has resulted in Russian forces moving forward at will, as the Ukraine forces left behind are “mostly unwilling and untrained,” many of whom are “running or surrendering, and near collapse.”

Dr. Postol then showed a series of maps and graphs which he stated he “prepared at the urging of Helga Zepp-LaRouche,” showing the size of the radioactive mushroom clouds from nuclear weapons which get blown by the wind, dropping their radioactive waste along the way. He displayed a map of Germany showing the impact of 10 (a number chosen at random) 75-kiloton Russian nuclear weapons and their potential effect, should Germany proceed with the insane U.S. policy of deploying long-range nuclear missiles in Germany in 2026, as currently planned. This submission to the U.S. plan is a “disservice to the German people and the German economy,” said Dr. Postol, which is already collapsing due primarily to the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines. The German people “have a right to prevent this,” he concluded, and called on them to show the leadership what they think of these insane policies.

Larry Johnson, a retired CIA official and a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), said that two positive steps in this extremely dangerous time were, first, that Putin’s clear statement had removed any doubt about the Russian position, and that it has gotten through to at least some in the West. A second development was the fake call on Sept. 12 from two Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, who impersonated former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a call to the rabid war-hawk Radoslaw Sikorski, the Foreign Minister of Poland, who admitted that all his bravado about defeating Russia and saber rattling for war were for show, that Europe does not really want a war with Russia, let alone a nuclear war. Johnson added that the West is miscalculating when they “read Putin’s patience for weakness.”

Dr. Mubarak Awad, the founder of Nonviolence International and an adjunct professor at American University, said that the people who are talking casually about nuclear weapons “have no knowledge of the impact of these weapons.” He said that many people argue that democracy is a superior form of government, but reminded that it was the U.S. who dropped nuclear weapons on civilian populations in Japan, and who have undermined every arms control agreement. In addition to the billions of dollars wasted building the nuclear arsenals, Dr. Awad noted the weaknesses displayed in our health systems during the pandemic, and that the health disaster which would result from a nuclear exchange would find the world totally unprepared. He denounced the U.S. refusal to consider any arms control agreements, calling for churches and other institutions to not be silent, and for people to mobilize and act so that the war madness is stopped.

Ray McGovern, a former CIA official and also a co-founder of the VIPS, agreed with Putin that the U.S. granting “permission” to Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to attack Russia is a fraud, since such delivery systems would be run by NATO forces, and would be, in effect, a NATO war with Russia. On whether Blinken and Sullivan would actually use nuclear weapons, he said that their primary concern was to “not lose”—not lose the war, not lose the election, and not lose their own freedom. They are clearly guilty of serious crimes, and if they lose the war and the election, they could well lose their freedom as well. He reviewed the lies by the U.S. and the U.K. which were used to start the war on Iraq in 2002, and warned of the possibility of a “false flag” attack now, even before the November election.

Tony Chaitkin, an historian and author of the book Who We Are: America’s Fight for Universal Progress, reviewed the historic battle in the U.S. between advocates of industrial and scientific development on the one hand, against the financier classes, going back to the slave runners and Tory bankers who tried to crush the American Revolution. He pointed to John F. Kennedy as having had the courage to stand up to Wall Street and to the war parties, defending development and science for the U.S. and for the world. He said “Wall Street built no industries,” and still today opposes the rise of other nations while poisoning our own development. These are America’s age-old enemies, he stated, who now would stop the rise of Russia, China and the Global Majority.

Carl Osgood, an EIR analyst and military historian, presented the history and development of the 1958 Military Defense Agreement (MDA) between the U.S. and the U.K., which Biden and Prime Minister Starmer are now attempting to amend so that it does not need to be renewed every ten years. Osgood warned that this would prevent any future President or political movement from changing it—known as “Trump-proofing” by some in British intelligence—but more accurately described as “nation-state proofing,” putting everything under supranational control.

The discussion period included various ideas on how the UN General Assembly, which begins its 2024 debate session next week, can intervene on the nuclear war danger and on the genocide in Palestine. One participant said that we must address emotion, since many people do not respond to reason, and warned that social unrest leads to war. Zepp-LaRouche countered that there is “no contradiction between reason and emotion,” and that Friedrich Schiller showed that the emotions can be elevated to the level of reason. She also noted that wars are created by the oligarchy, not by tensions in the population, who are driven to fight wars usually against their own best intentions.

Zepp-LaRouche thanked all the speakers, “especially Ted Postol,” adding that if Germany survives, it would have a great impact on the global crisis, and that Postol’s intervention, with reason and emotion, would deserve significant credit for that. [eir]

Aug. 30, 2024 (EIRNS)—Today’s 65th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) placed a major focus on the fact that the world is poised at the very edge of a U.S./NATO-initiated nuclear war, and that this threat must be met by both mass demonstrations around the world to stop the madness, and a drive to lift the quality of thinking by the population and its leaders to adopt solutions which are clearly possible.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, initiator of the IPC and founder/chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, opened the meeting with what she described as an “extremely disturbing report” that, even though the Permanent Five members of the UN Security Council have reiterated that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” there is now a drive for just such a war coming from the U.S. and NATO. She urged listeners to read an article by nuclear weapons expert Ted Postol, reporting on the (still not publicly released) new nuclear posture document adopted by President Biden in March 2024, according to David Sanger’s story in the New York Times on Aug. 20. The U.S is preparing to fight a three-front nuclear war, against Russia, China and North Korea, by taking out all the ICBMs in silos in Russia and China with the use of “super fuse” improvements in the accuracy of the U.S.’s existing nuclear warheads.

Postol characterizes this as total insanity, especially given the fact that Russia has Poseidon drone submarines capable of launching nuclear weapons from harbors of major U.S. and European cities. Zepp-LaRouche concurred that the concept of fighting and winning a nuclear war is both false and clinically insane, as it could end civilization. She added that Germany’s acceptance of the U.S. decision to deploy long-range ICBMs in Germany starting in 2026, a decision made without any consultation, even with other NATO countries, is a virtual submission to the total loss of sovereignty. She stressed that the historic example of Germany acting unilaterally will cause profound concern across Europe, and urged an immediate and broad public debate on this decision.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst and one of the co-founders of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), pointed to the myth that the deployment of F-16s to Ukraine would be the new Wunderwaffen which would win the war for Ukraine. One F-16 was just destroyed, and the pilot killed. That shows, he said, that “Regardless of the plans, the chance for the unexpected to happen is very high.” This is equally true with nuclear weapons.

Glenn Diesen, a well-known Norwegian analyst of strategic affairs, described the current crisis as “the most dangerous moment in history.” The unipolar world under Anglo-American domination has collapsed, he said, but they have no “Plan B.” There are no negotiations. This is a problem 30 years in the making, after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., when the West declared itself to be the unipolar rulers of the world, believing that military force could maintain the peace. The decision to expand NATO was opposed by wiser minds, such as former U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry and former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Jack Matlock, but it went ahead anyway, with the belief that Russia could be forced to submit. But Russia will not be broken, and there is no alternative in the minds of these Western leaders other than escalation.

Mossi Raz, a former member of the Israeli Knesset and former secretary general of Peace Now, said that the crisis between Israel and the Palestine did not begin on Oct. 7, but has been around for a long time. If there is conflict, there must be negotiations, not escalation, and it must be international. He asserted that the Arab League peace plan is the best one on the table, and said it is conferences like this one of the IPC that are necessary to achieve peace. He said it is very difficult to get Israelis and Palestinians to work together, “but it is possible.”

Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and co-founder of the VIPS, addressed the fact that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has been in China for three days, fruitlessly trying to break China away from Russia. Chinese officials told Sullivan his demands were “absurd.” Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, McGovern said, are panicked that if the war in Ukraine is not won before the November 5 U.S. presidential election, that they will be out of office, and perhaps also “could lose their freedom.” The danger is that they want to box in Russian President Vladimir Putin, in order to provoke a response, to which the Biden Administration will then respond possibly with a “mini-nuclear weapon.” He said he thought there was a “50-50” chance that they will do so, but that Putin will not “go for the bait.”

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter provided a video message warning that Ukraine Kursk invasion was failing. The Ukrainians will eventually all be killed or driven out. The even greater problem for Ukraine is that the winter will be pure hell, without adequate power as a result of the war. The imminent danger of escalation to a nuclear exchange is the greatest threat.

Irene Mavrakakis, a medical doctor and leading organizer of the Rage Against the War Machine (RAWM) rallies, reported on the upcoming RAWM demonstration at the Washington Memorial on Sept. 28, followed the next day by a second demonstration sponsored by Rescue the Republic. Sept. 28 will also be an international day of action against nuclear war. IPC moderator Anastasia Battle encouraged participants to organize parallel demonstrations everywhere. Scott Ritter is organizing anti-war demonstrations in New York State and elsewhere on Sept. 28.

A professor in Geneva, a former UN official, said that the world’s leading media are all on the same line, the one narrative. He added that NATO is not a defense institution. It has long since become an enforcer of the unipolar domination by the Western leaders and fits the Nuremberg Code’s definition of a criminal organization, citing the atrocities against the populations of Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and more. NATO’s existence is inconsistent with the UN Charter.

An African IPC participant from Mali noted the horrendous continuing wars in several African nations, and that the Ukrainian Ambassador in Senegal admitted active Ukrainian support for the insurgency in Mali. We are all human, he underscored. We cannot let this war spread all over the globe.

An Argentine participant, disturbed by the implications of the Postol article that Zepp-LaRouche had cited, called for a large international meeting to address the mounting danger of nuclear war.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche concluded the meeting looking to the importance of the upcoming BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, and the revival of the “Spirit of Bandung” and the Non-Aligned Movement. The West must give up confrontation, and cooperate with the Global South. Instead of complaining about migrants, the solution is to create 4 billion new productive jobs across the Global South. People will want to remain in their own countries. Pessimism can be countered, she said. Her proposed Ten Principles for a New International Security and Development Architecture are intended to spark optimism and open a broader policy discussion on real solutions. The growing censorship of dissenting voices should make clear to all that we are in a “pre-war” situation. The IPC’s strength is the understanding that Man, as the creative species, can resolve these problems. [eir]

Aug. 23, 2024 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the proceedings of today’s 64th consecutive Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) saying that her earlier view of the danger facing all of us in the next six months has been confirmed by developments of the last week. She described as “eye-opening” a report in the Financial Times of Aug. 13, on the recent discussion of a nuclear demonstration strike by Russia on an uninhabited area, to show that they mean business if NATO provocations continue.

The Kursk invasion, which she described in great detail, has increased the danger of nuclear war. It has been timed to exploit the “hot phase” of the U.S. presidential campaign, when candidates make a public show of military “resolve” in order to win votes. The fact that Russia has thus far refrained from using nuclear weapons is being used by British think-tanks and media to dangerously argue that there are no “red lines” that we should hesitate to cross.

She characterized Secretary of State Blinken’s recent trip to Southwest Asia as “caving in to everything that Netanyahu is demanding.” “It is a nightmare that the whole world is watching this and not intervening,” she said. She reported that Ronen Bar, chief of domestic Israeli security agency Shin Bet, just issued a warning, made public on Aug. 23, that settler terrorism in the West Bank is leading to a global delegitimization of Israel.

In the U.S., the secret “Nuclear Employment Guidance” of President Biden, written in March but leaked to the New York Times this week, puts the recent NATO summit in a completely new light; we now know that preparations are underway for nuclear war with Russia, China and North Korea. Regarding the Democratic National Convention, Zepp-LaRouche observed that “an amazing Hollywood performance was conducted,” where there was no debate, no discussion, and everything was orchestrated. “Can we expect anything different from Kamala Harris?” she asked, and then presented a ghastly excerpt from Harris’ convention speech, in which she promises that the U.S. military will be the “strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world,” to roars of approval from the assembled minions.

The meeting concluded with pointed proposals, which emerged from an intense discussion among participants from across the world. Zepp-LaRouche asked participants to find ways to circulate and promote the Chandra Muzaffar resolution to invoke UN Resolution 377(V) and put the issue of the genocide in Gaza before the UN General Assembly, since the UN Security Council has been paralyzed by U.S. vetoes. On the urgency of retooling the military-industrial complex for peaceful purposes (including independent Congressional candidate Jose Vega’s proposed “Space Civilian Construction Corps”), she recommended that we review all the many such proposals, and issue a fresh, comprehensive plan. And in an answer to a comment by one of her countrywomen from Germany about unifying the peace movement, she said we should wake up our fellow citizens to the fact that the implications of the Ukraine/NATO invasion of the Kursk region in Russia should make us put aside our ideological differences and fight to ensure the survival of us all. To do this, she concluded, “We have to jump over our shadow, as we say in Germany.”

Stopping the Terror from the Billionaires

Dr. Marino Elsevyf, professor of Constitutional and Criminal Law at the University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, thanked Zepp-LaRouche for remaining faithful to the principles of her late husband, “the great American leader, Lyndon LaRouche,” principles which he shares as well. He had attended the September, 1995 Independent Commission hearings on the LaRouche trials. Concocting criminal charges against a political adversary, to avoid the appearance of a political prosecution, is a well-known tactic. He added that in Latin America, “we call this ‘prevarication.’”

Dr. Elsevyf’s remarks were followed by brief video excerpts from the 1995 hearings. Helga Zepp-LaRouche was shown saying that the biggest crime committed by the permanent bureaucracy of the Justice Department was not the unjust imprisonment of Lyndon LaRouche, but rather the denial to the world of access to his ideas, which were so badly needed. LaRouche himself was shown discussing what led to the prosecutions, including his back-channel discussions during the Reagan administration with officials of the U.S.S.R., which were “somewhat fruitful but ultimately aborted.” Henry Kissinger’s faction felt that “I was getting too big for my britches.” When President Reagan endorsed LaRouche’s proposal for the Strategic Defense Initiative, “there were a lot of people out for my scalp.”

Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former chief of the Army Criminal Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate General at the Pentagon, elaborated on the March “Nuclear Employment Guidance” of President Biden, which envisions a nuclear war simultaneously or sequentially against Russia, China, and North Korea. Colonel Black emphasized that this is not framed as a response to an attack, but rather as “employment.” He pointed out that this was supposedly prepared to counter China, whose nuclear arsenal is only slightly larger than Israel’s, not in the same category as the U.S. Black insisted that the saber-rattling increases talk of nuclear war “and is designed to move us inexorably in that direction.” The U.S. has a first use doctrine, and “the President is not constrained by law.” U.S. policy toward China “has become mercilessly provocative,” he said. He concluded by reporting on the appalling comments of USAF Gen. Mike Minihan, who said that “when you can kill your enemy, every part of your life is better. Your food tastes better. Your marriage is stronger.”

For All of Humanity

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) in Malaysia, reviewed the history of the Zionist project in Palestine, calling it “one challenge which stains our conscience.” “Zionism is a racist ideology, which has nothing to do with Judaism … it is actually a betrayal of the Jewish religion,” he said, adding that “in principle, I support this notion of linking peace to development,” as promoted by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute. “Most of all, anchoring this development in the goodness of the human being.”

Steven Starr, former director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, provided a timeline of Ukrainian attacks on Russian bases where nuclear weapons are stationed, as well as attacks on strategic radar systems. He stressed that these attacks cannot be carried out without technical assistance from the U.S. Russian nuclear plants are also under attack. “Basically, NATO has invaded Russia.”

Jack Gilroy of Veterans for Peace read the “Peace Pledge,” which is being initiated at New York’s Binghamton University, asking students to reject recruitment to any job that feeds the war machine. The Pledge reads as follows: “I renounce and reject all allegiance to any firm that produces, sells, or gives weapons or weapons systems or hardware or software to any entity. I shall never interview for or accept any offer to work for any such firm.”

At the end of the discussion, Zepp-LaRouche elaborated on the idea of transforming our militaries into a cadre for development. She had once forced herself to read all 800 pages of Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State, and he promoted having the soldier being “an adjunct of the weapons systems.” Rather than militarization of Europe, she said, we should retool and rebuild. China has 40,000 km of high-speed rail, whereas the U.S. has a grand total of zero, and Europe is in comparable bad shape. Instead of squandering the remaining industrial and technological capabilities on senseless neocon wars, we must be careful to transform the planet for the better.

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Aug. 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—The 63rd consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today amidst what Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, described as an “escalation step-by-step closer to a point of no return.” She said, “There is now an active discussion—maybe already a decision—to deploy the stealth Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, JASSMs, to Ukraine.” Ukrainian jets would then be able to launch these highly accurate long-range missiles. And with this move, the U.S. intends to “influence the German decision” to make available the Taurus cruise missile, which Germany has so far refused to do because of the fear that this would escalate the situation to possibly World War III. She further stated, “The entering of Russian territory in the Kursk region would not have been possible without technological advice by NATO. The decision was, in all likelihood, made by NATO,” which is making the option of a diplomatic solution close to impossible according to Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Likewise, Israel has made clear its rejection of diplomacy, by assassinating the chief negotiator for Hamas.

Looking at how we got here, Zepp-LaRouche noted that August 15 was the anniversary of the 1971 demise of post-World War II Bretton Woods system, with U.S. President Richard Nixon’s move on that date to floating international exchange rates and vicious austerity. Lyndon LaRouche had forecast the inevitably of such an event, and warned that it would lead to a resurgence of fascism and a new world war. The precision of his forecast and the urgency of his warnings had a global impact, leading to a second important event: The October 6, 1986 Leesburg raid by 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, who surrounded the LaRouches’ home with orders to kill if the opportunity presented itself. LaRouche and his supporters warned that if that effort to silence a dissenting voice were not vigorously opposed, actions of this type would continue and no one would be safe.

Lyndon LaRouche’s warnings turned out to be prophetic, as was borne out most recently by the Aug. 7 FBI raid on the home of former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was the next to speak.

Ritter said, “once nuclear weapons become mainstreamed,” once the genie is out of the bottle, there will be no limits to their use. As a weapons inspector, he was proud to have been involved, not only in non-proliferation, but in an actual reduction of nuclear weapons. Today, proponents of arms control are mocked and vilified. “We are a nation addicted to war,” he said, which must “constantly search for conflicts that feed the military-industrial complex.” Ritter continued, “Those who raided my house last week are enemies of the United States and the Constitution.” He agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that, had people rallied around Lyndon LaRouche when his home was raided, maybe we would not be seeing these abuses today. Later, in response to another speaker, he replied: “I’m not a politician, I’m a Marine…. The First Amendment is the battle I will fight and die for,” if it comes to that. “I take violent umbrage at the notion that disinformation and misinformation are a threat to democracy…. I believe that the average American is capable of discerning fact-based truth.”

Moderator Dennis Small remarked about some of what made Lyndon LaRouche such a target. In 1982, LaRouche met with world leaders to promote a reorganization of the financial system to reverse the catastrophe which followed the end of the Bretton Woods system. After he met Mexican President José López Portillo, who shortly afterward attempted to implement his proposals, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked then FBI Director William Webster to take action against LaRouche. What followed were covert operations, the Leesburg raid, and ultimately, the jailing of LaRouche and a number of his colleagues on spurious conspiracy charges.

Video excerpts about those 1986-1989 events, featuring remarks by LaRouche and former United States Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, who served as LaRouche’s attorney on appeal, were broadcast. LaRouche said that there were groupings inside the permanent bureaucracy of the Department of Justice which act like hit teams. Ramsey Clark spoke of a combination of government agencies, media and NGOs which connived to destroy the LaRouche movement, which he described as a “fertile engine of ideas.” Clark had seen similar operations, but “this case takes the prize.”

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), recounted the story of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom from illegal search and seizure, both big concerns for those who had suffered under British Empire rule. Speaking of the illegal search of Ritter’s home, McGovern said, “You can persuade a magistrate in upper New York State to sign anything if you’re the FBI.”

Zepp-LaRouche briefed the meeting that when she founded the Schiller Institute in 1984, its charter was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Today, Germany is passing legislation that permits secret searches of homes and electronic devices. “This is a real danger to democracy in the so-called rules-based order.” The global crisis could be easily resolved if the U.S. were to return to the ideas of President John Quincy Adams, who presented a vision of America that “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”

Jack Gilroy of Veterans for Peace invited participants in the IPC to the Aug. 16-19 Veterans for Peace convention, where he will be speaking on a panel, Sunday Aug. 18 at 12noon, on the war industry. They will be on college campuses this fall to oppose recruiters from the war industries, asking students to sign a pledge never to work for them.

Prof. Henry Baldelomar, Chargé d’Affaires of the Bolivian Embassy in Washington, reported that the culture of peace is a key feature of Bolivia’s constitution, and it is for that reason that Bolivia has applied to join the BRICS. The U.S. has attempted to impose a unipolar world order, but Bolivia prefers the multipolar alternative. The IMF measures have created a state of dependency which has aggravated income disparities, exacerbating the tensions which lead to war. BRICS creates an alternative which will move Bolivia from a role as raw materials exporter, to a producer of capital goods. No longer a mere observer of decisions taken by the great powers, Bolivia will become a participant. Later, in the discussion, he wryly observed that the “‘migration problem’ which so concerns the Republican candidate” is a result of the exploitation of the South, “the use of resources by some at the expense of others.”

Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America and co-founder of Nonviolence International, expressed his indignation that retiring Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, in his swan song, asserted that Israel is “the most moral country in the world.” How is such a thing possible? Kuttab demanded to know, in view of Israel’s wanton killing of civilians and rape of prisoners. He blamed “the absence of international law … that applies to friend and foe alike.”

In concluding remarks, Dennis Small endorsed the comments of Professor Baldelomar, saying that Bolivia speaks for the majority of humanity. Co-moderator Dennis Speed provocatively asserted that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have a better understanding of the tradition of the American Revolution than people living in the U.S. today.

The 61st consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today, noting that in the preceding 60 meetings, roughly 1,200 individuals from 30 to 40 different nations had participated. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, at the close of the IPC meeting, urged participants to:

1) Circulate the call to implement UN Resolution 377 made by World Beyond War and an accompanying coalition of organizations. The UN Security Council has shown that it can’t function under the present circumstances, and only UN Resolution 377, “Uniting For Peace,” can supersede the Security Council and allow the General Assembly to intervene to stop Israel’s genocidal behavior.

2) Join the August 6 demonstrations, which will be held worldwide to commemorate the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3) Build next week’s Aug. 9 IPC meeting into a very large gathering, to also mark the anniversary of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.

4) Help us find people from every nation on the planet, who, through their life’s work, have contributed something essential to humanity, because these are the people who can be organized to join Zepp-LaRouche’s proposed Council of Reason to pilot the world safely out of the present existential crisis.

Zepp-LaRouche further explained the concept of the Council of Reason. The idea is not to pull together a large grouping of well-meaning people, but rather to find and recruit the handfuls of “elder statesmen” in each country, the key leaders who are committed to the development and security of all nations and all peoples, to lead the way in organizing for a new paradigm “worthy of the Dignity of Man.”

The IPC meeting began with her strategic overview, noting the targeted assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas chief negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran occurred because Israeli leaders believe that the U.S. will fully back them up, following Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress. The fact that they assassinated the key negotiator sends a clear signal that they don’t intend to negotiate. If the war stops, Netanyahu will face elections and jail.

What is looming is a potential war with Lebanon. Hezbollah is a more significant military force than Hamas. The death toll in Gaza is not just 39,000 people, but more likely the 186,000 estimated by Lancet medical magazine, or the 250,000 by strategic analyst John Mearsheimer. Foreign Policy magazine just published the option of assassinating Vladimir Putin, which Zepp-LaRouche described as an “eerily hair-raising discussion … the breakdown of any civility in international relations and diplomacy.”

Dr. Mubarak Awad, founder of Nonviolence International, opened with a personal account of life in occupied Jerusalem during the 1940s: His father was murdered by Zionist forces, and he, his mother and siblings became homeless refugees. So that he might survive, he was taken to an orphanage by his mother. His mother begged him not to carry a gun, not to fall into the “culture of revenge.” He went on to study in the U.S., returned to Palestine, and founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, for which he “was named, in Israel, the most dangerous fellow” and deported. Awad endorsed the Council of Reason, insisting that “we need new thinking”; we need something new because revenge isn’t working.

Graham Fuller, former CIA analyst, and Islamic scholar, focused on the emerging flashpoint of Iran. “Once again we find the United States completely incapable” of engaging in diplomacy in the Middle East, he said. The U.S. “must acknowledge the stupidity” of refusing to engage diplomatically with Iran. He characterized U.S. diplomats as “amateurs” for viewing the situation as a zero-sum game. The old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend “is really quite puerile and childish,” Fuller added. The U.S. refuses to engage with Iran because of “Israel and its violent objection to anything that would strengthen Iran…. Bibi Netanyahu would like nothing more than to have the United States involved in a war with Israel against Iran.”

Prof. Dr. László Ungvári, President (emeritus) of Wildau University of Technology in Germany, insisted that “peace that is created through weapons is not real peace.” He reminded participants that the peace agreements that ended World War I became the impetus for World War II. He praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “one of the few persons in Europe who can talk with every leading politician in the world.” He posed the question: If the West really wants peace, why are they angry at Orbán?

In an excerpt of an interview conducted by EIR’s Mike Billington with Richard A. Falk, professor emeritus of international law, Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Falk observed that “it’s extremely difficult to penetrate the mainstream media” and to “challenge the fundamental way that the world is organized.” He expressed guarded optimism about the proposed Council of Reason, saying that there is a similar council of former Nobel Prize winners, but it hasn’t had much resonance with the media. He advised that Council members must be chosen carefully, and adequate funds raised. “All such initiatives help,” he concluded; “it’s worth a try.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that the IPC must unite the peace movement, including other groups mentioned by Falk: “As long as they are all fighting separately,” it is an uphill battle. If this gets into the UN General Assembly, we can obviate the mainstream media problem.

Answering Dr. Awad, Zepp-LaRouche developed her proposal for the Oasis Plan, which may not be considered practical by some, but we absolutely need an economic development plan that is in everyone’s interest. The situation is desperate, but we need to keep a vision of where we need to go.

During the discussion, Congressional candidate Jose Vega asked Dr. Awad to collaborate with his campaign by bringing his experience with non-violent action to the Bronx.

Eisenhower Media Network director Dennis Fritz addressed Dr. Awad, noting the irony that in the U.S., “we try to portray ourselves as defenders of human rights.” Awad replied saying, “I feel so sorry for the leadership of the United States” because they seem to be dominated by the tiny nation of Israel. He applauded the “American spirit” of the campus demonstrators, many of whom are Jews.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed reminded participants that the U.S. is capable of dominating Israel when it suits its purposes, as in 2020 and 2021, when the U.S. used its influence in Israel to forbid economic engagement with China.

A British journalist suggested we observe the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by reminding Europeans that those bombs could have landed on Germany, had they not capitulated.

There is an awareness of the growing war danger among some German leaders. Some NATO maneuvers were reported by whistleblowers because the maneuvers matter-of-factly took the destruction of Germany for granted. Chancellor Scholz, in February, opposed even sending helmets to Ukraine in order to avoid escalation, and opposed sending the Taurus missiles. Now he acquiesces to U.S. long-range missiles being stationed on German soil with no public discussion, a decision Zepp-LaRouche described as the “elephant in the room.” The EU is “behaving like a total vassal” of the Anglo-Americans. She referenced the “incredible speech” made by Prime Minister Orbán in Romania. He said that the West has abandoned the idea of the nation-state and the values that go with it. The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the “effort to make Global NATO in the Pacific” are all extremely dangerous.

July 26, 2024 (EIRNS)—The 60th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) convened today with EIR’s Dennis Small pointing to Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal for a Council of Reason, reminding participants that the danger is driven by the “endgame and demise” of the predatory, speculation-focused financial system. “A significant alternative is being put together” by nations of the Global Majority—the Global South—that can provide the economic underpinnings for a lasting peace. In China, the recent congress of the CCP made clear that science, creativity and innovation are the drivers for economic progress.

Zepp-LaRouche’s July 23rd “Call To Create a Council of Reason,” became an important point of discussion in the meeting. She had warned of the danger “that the world could split into two separate blocs, the collective West on the one side, and the nations of the Global Majority on the other. If this happens, not only could we see a new edition of a cold war, economic decoupling, and tremendous fall-outs and even crashes, but it could lead to a global nuclear war which could end all life on Earth.”

In the West, the political death-throes of the system are becoming more frenzied. With the withdrawal of Biden from the presidential race and the anointment of Kamala Harris as his replacement candidate, Small described how it is telling that the person in charge of selecting Harris’s running mate is former Attorney General Eric Holder, who helped his then boss, Barack Obama, select drone assassination targets, and authored the infamous “Holder letter” which provided a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” to the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks.

The institutional collapse in Europe mirrors that of the United States. The EU is trying to “run Orbán out of town on a rail,” because the Hungarian Prime Minister dared to pursue diplomacy for peace in the NATO war in Ukraine against Russia as an alternative to saber-rattling.

Ukraine is now blocking the transit of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. NATO is taking control, not just of the Ukraine war, but also of nuclear war policy in all member nations, superseding national governments and “putting the United Kingdom in the catbird’s seat.”

‘The Bibi Extravaganza in Congress’

Many of the participants commented on the events of July 24, when Israeli Prime Minister and indicted war criminal Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress and was rewarded with 52 standing ovations. Netanyahu made “a rather transparent appeal” to Donald Trump, when he spoke of advancing from the Abraham Accords, a deal negotiated by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for the normalization of relations between Israel and a number of the smaller Arab nations, to something Netanyahu grandly called the “Abraham Alliance.”

Dr. Clifford Kiracofe, a former Senior Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and President of the Washington Institute for Peace and Development, characterized the Congressional session as “The Bibi extravaganza in Congress.”: “The spectacle, as disgraceful as it was, was not a new phenomenon,” he said, because Congressional support for Zionism dates back to the 1920s. “The Christian Zionists see the Israeli project as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy,” and because of the pro-Zionist frenzy in government circles, the U.S. is “incapable of any sort of balanced policy in the Middle East.”

H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, said that the Netanyahu visit stripped the U.S. of any pretense of concern for human rights. “We see them now in all their nakedness,” he said. Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and whistleblower, lamented the manipulation of American elected officials, saying “they gave ovations for genocide in the U.S. Congress.” Ramotar and Rowley both picked up on the idea of the Council of Reason. She strongly suggested that the Council examine the manipulation of people through the “choosing the lesser evil,” and thus leading otherwise good people to cheer on mass murder. President Ramotar made clear that he looks forward to the creation of such a Council of Reason, a deliberative body to steer the world towards safety and well being for all nations and all people.

Dennis Fritz, Director of the Eisenhower Media Network, on the question of the manipulation of Congresspersons, asserted that their behavior can simply be explained by the “love of money and power,” mentioning AIPAC in this context.

International Flashpoints and the Emerging New Paradigm

Former President Ramotar was a speaker at the conference in China, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Premier Zhou Enlai’s “Five Principles” announcement. His presentation in China was based on much of what he had discussed at IPC meetings: The talk of Southern Countries being a burden on the North is demonstrably false. From 1960 to 2020 there was a net capital transfer of $152 trillion from the South to the North. The Northern nations had created “debt problems and unequal trade relations.”

However, Ramotar now sees a “new balance in the world which was absent since the 1990s,” when the U.S.S.R. collapsed. The Western war frenzy is because they “feel that they are losing ground to the emergence of the BRICS.” Some have now become colonies themselves—with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz allowing the United States to station long-range missiles on German soil, with no consent from the German population. Ramotar, in conclusion, said, “I’m beginning to see more hope than I saw a month ago.”

Coleen Rowley focused on the mass manipulation of public opinion in the U.S., asking, “What can cause otherwise good people to turn into monsters?” She was shocked by the rapturous response to Netanyahu in the Congress. She suggested that if people can be led to realize that they are being fooled, maybe we can break the climate of manipulation. One hopeful sign is that more and more people are saying that they won’t vote party line. We must “defeat lesser-evilism,” she said, which is characterized by “people giving up their ability to analyze and think,” and becoming “what we call ‘good Germans.’”

Dennis Fritz, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he served as the principal senior advisor to four-star commanders, returned to Netanyahu’s address to Congress, saying he was personally affronted by Netanyahu calling demonstrators “useful idiots working on behalf of Iran,” because he was one of those demonstrating, along with other military veterans and esteemed intelligence professionals, such as retired Colonels Larry Wilkerson and Ann Wright. He would not advise anyone to join the military now, “to be used as pawns in a corrupt foreign policy.”

A Good ‘Ground Game’

A conversation between Fritz and independent Congressional candidate Jose Vega in the Bronx on the topic of the public interventions, made famous by Vega and CODEPINK, led to a broader discussion of how to reach people in all nations, and at all levels of society. Fritz said, “We need a ‘ground game’ to educate the people.”

In the discussion, Small endorsed a point, made by Rowley, that the “Council of Reason,” as proposed by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “has to take up as a central issue how a population can be degraded to support evil.” He added that to get away from “lesser-evilism,” you need “greater-goodism,” which echoes the controversy between Plato and Aristotle. He warned that populist disgruntlement, if colored by pessimism, leads to fascism. We need optimism, of the sort that can be generated by LaRouche’s Oasis Plan and World Land-Bridge proposals.