April 2, 2026—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and widow of the late American statesman and economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, issued the following statement on April 2:
On Feb. 24, 2021, I published a letter where I demanded that Barbara Boyd and a number of other individuals associated with the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) “immediately cease and desist, both now and in the future” from “using Mr. LaRouche’s name,
likeness, and potentially other confusingly similar terms.” The content of that statement still stands, and people should reread it. It is, however, urgent that it be updated at this time.
After an amazing, universal approval of every single policy of the Trump administration, as if not only Trump himself but even the worst neocon and neoliberal elements of his team were more infallible than the Pope—such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and his brazen promotion of cryptocurrency and every imaginable form of financial speculation—Mrs. Boyd and her gaggle have definitely abdicated from the human species by supporting Trump’s war of aggression against Iran. When Trump threatens to “bomb Iran back to the Stone Age,” he is openly bragging that he is waging war against the Iranian people, and that is a war crime.
Such unconditional support for Trump, at a moment when the entire civilized world—including those who had some hope that Trump would fulfill his promises to end the wars and not start new ones—is turning away from him in disgust over his rejection of international law, his kidnapping of a head of a foreign country and the assassination of a supreme religious leader of another, and now the mass killing of a civilian population, sheds light on the moral and intellectual demise of the Boyd gaggle, now gathered as Promethean PAC and Promethean Action. That this pitiful bunch has the nerve to compare the greatest intellect of our time, my late husband Lyndon LaRouche, with President Trump, who is known to not read a single page, shows their loss of moral judgment.
Whether these intellectual nobodies were actually taken over before they discovered and announced in late 2020 that they had “irrevocable” differences with the movement of Lyndon LaRouche, by some agency, in order to be groomed to later try to confuse people about the ideas of LaRouche, probably will only be established after a new “Church Committee” of sorts is established—an idea which was vehemently opposed by Boyd earlier, for some strange reason. In any case, there are still some people around who have a vivid recollection of how far she was willing to go for a ride.
Anybody who has the slightest inkling about Lyndon LaRouche would know that he fought his entire life against such barbarism as is now being demonstrated by Trump in respect to Iran, and by Barbarian Boyd.
Phone one-tap: +16469313860,,86558216425# US +13017158592,,86558216425# US (Washington DC)
A Dialogue of Civilizations: Is There Still Time to Prevent the War Against Iran from Escalating into a Global Nuclear Conflict?
Do not make the mistake of dismissing the dialogue about proposed solutions to the war now raging across Southwest Asia that will be aired during an April 6 EIR Emergency Roundtable Dialogue, as “impractical,” “unrealistic” or “out of reach.” There is nothing more “impractical” than allowing the current trajectory of the U.S.-Israeli war of aggression against Iran to escalate into a full-scale nuclear conflict, which would have a high probability of ending all recognizable human life on the planet.
On Monday, April 6, leading international strategic thinkers and representatives from Iran, the United States, Europe, China and various nations of the Global South will engage in a frank dialogue on the nature and origins of the current war against Iran—and its underlying historical and policy origins—and will seek solutions based on organizing a new security and development architecture to meet the legitimate needs of each and every nation in the region and across the planet.
We reject the geopolitics and religious warfare proposed by the likes of Samuel Huntington and his Clash of Civilizations, a doctrine which he intellectually plagiarized from the violently anti-Islamic leading British orientalist Bernard Lewis, an outlook that stems from the Hobbesian view of Man that we are as animals with each at war with all. We instead embrace the outlook stated by EIR Editor-in-Chief and Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche in a March 9 open letter to Pope Leo XIV, calling for a Dialogue of Cultures in the spirit of the 15th century Catholic Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, who has been cited as a model by the Pope, because we must “avoid a descent into an irreparable abyss… (We must instead) cause a change in world history and fulfill the will of God, who for sure did not create the world and gift humanity with reason, to have it destroyed by the lack of it.”
President Trump has announced a “postponement” until April 6 of his threat to bomb Iranian energy and industrial infrastructure, so long as Iran capitulates to America’s demands for unconditional surrender. There is of course no guarantee that Trump will hold off until April 6 on a new round of attacks, and in fact Israel has already continued bombing Iran’s steel plants, the Bushehr nuclear energy facility, and so on.
The policy required for the entire region—from India to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Gulf—is one of reconstruction and Dialogue of Civilizations, such as the Oasis Plan proposed in 1975 by the renowned American economist and statesman, Lyndon LaRouche, and today updated by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute.
“We need to have the idea of joint economic development based on the concept of the Oasis Plan for the entire region,” Zepp-LaRouche stated to the March 27 meeting of the International Peace Coalition. “First, to have canals from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea to the Dead Sea; use peaceful nuclear energy for vast amounts of desalinization of ocean water, to use that to green the desert, to build forests, farmland, orchards, and basically use that water to feed an infrastructure. Thereby we could build development corridors, like connecting the China-Pakistan corridor and the North-South transport corridor from St. Petersburg to Chabahar and possibly beyond into India, and connect it with other development corridors, connecting these countries with Turkiye, with Africa, with Europe. Because in ancient times, that region was the place of the ancient Silk Road, and at that time it was the hub for connecting the three continents through trade, exchange of science, of technology, of art, of ideas, of philosophy. And that is what that region can become again.”
Speakers:
Panel 1 – ‘Can the Iran War Be Stopped Before Nuclear Escalation?‘
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org. Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.
At the Monday, March 30 White House press briefing, a reporter had the temerity to ask Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt what President Donald Trump thought about what Pope Leo XIV said in his Palm Sunday message: That Jesus “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying, ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.’” The ever-deft Leavitt twisted the question around, claiming that the troops appreciate that the commander in chief prays for them. She chose not to address the Satanic prayers of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who calls himself the “Secretary of War” and prays for violence and no mercy.
Mohamad Safa, who just resigned from his post as executive director of the Patriotic Vision-PVA at the United Nations because “some UN seniors are serving a powerful lobby and not the UN,” warned: “I don’t think people understand the gravity of the situation as the UN is preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran…. I gave up my diplomatic career to leak this information. I suspended my duties so as not to be part of or a witness to this crime against humanity, in an attempt to prevent a nuclear winter before it is too late.”
Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson posted a letter from a Marine commander asking his troops, “Is your gear packed and ready to go? Are your family affairs in order?” Johnson wrote: “A letter like this can only mean one of two things: 1) It is an elaborate deception campaign to convince Iran that the U.S. is going to attack in hopes that Iran will back down, or 2) He understands that he is sending a portion of the Corps he commands into the valley of death. I am hoping it is the former, but I fear it is the latter.”
For his part, the delirious President of the United States Donald J. Trump made another insane post on Truth Social, which reads in part: “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’”
According to Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday message, if President Trump prays for success in this mission, which is a violation of international law and an intent to commit war crimes, God will not hear him.
Meanwhile, on Monday, March 30, NASA teams arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the countdown for man’s first orbit around the Moon in over 50 years.The first time human beings orbited the Moon was Christmas of 1968, a difficult year for Americans and world citizens, in which both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy had been assassinated. The NASA astronauts on that flight, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, chose to read the first ten verses of Genesis because “The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion,” said Lovell. “There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that’s how it came to pass.” They closed their reading of Genesis with the message: “May God bless all of you on the good Earth.”
There is a phenomenon known as the “overview effect,” which is the singular emotion that strikes those who view the Earth for the first time as a whole from outer space. It is described as a sense of wonder, of unity, of the smallness of the Earth and the vulnerability of it, accompanied by a passionate commitment to care for it and humanity.
God will probably welcome a prayer that our astronauts arrive in Moon orbit soon enough to share those images of the Earth with everyone here, in time to prevent us from plunging over the abyss into nuclear war.
Short of putting everybody on the nearest spaceship, LaRouche organizers are planning a series of street deployments and street theater over the coming week leading into Easter Sunday. One wonders if an exorcism were to be performed on Paula White, would there be anything left?
In discussions with associates today, Helga Zepp-LaRouche urged that her open letter to Pope Leo be circulated at houses of worship throughout the week and weekend, particularly at churches on Easter Sunday, April 5. The letter can be found here.
March 27—The 147th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) commenced with a tour d’horizon by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. “The situation is still one of utmost suspense,” she said, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump has twice delayed his ultimatum on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure. After Trump twice used negotiations as a pretext to prepare for an attack, there is little trust in his proclamations. Up to 7,000 additional U.S. troops will soon be in the region, indicating a possible ground invasion and a massive escalation of the conflict. The “decapitation” strategy has failed; the Iranian government remains firmly in control. Countries around the world are affected by skyrocketing oil prices, as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh, who represents the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico, has proposed in a recent presentation to the IPC to return to the idea of a dialogue of civilizations. This was counterposed to Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations, which proposed Islam as a new enemy image to replace communism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Zepp-LaRouche called attention to an extended Oasis Plan, proposed not just for Israel and Palestine, but for the region as a whole, and for the benefit of the many nations from Afghanistan on the east to Africa on the west which have been devastated by neocon operations over the past 25 years. The region can once again become the hub between three continents, she said.
Domestically, “Trump is confronted with a complete crumbling of support inside the United States,” noted Zepp-LaRouche. There is a wide discrepancy between what the public was given as the reason for this war against Iran and what members of Congress are being told in briefings. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is a shining example of a European statesman with the courage to oppose the war.
U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret.) Dennis Fritz of the Eisenhower Media Network observed that we keep hearing that this war started in 1979, but it actually started in 1953 with the coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. We also supported Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. The United States and Israel are the greatest sponsors of terrorism, said Fritz. We attacked Iran in the midst of negotiations twice. Does Iran have the right to defend itself? They will never give up ballistic missiles, because those are the basis for Iran’s national security. Iran warned us that they would close the Strait of Hormuz if attacked.
Fritz then introduced the next speaker, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Brian McGinnis, saying that “they thanked him for his service by breaking his arm.”
McGinnis is a retired Marine and current Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, who had his arm broken by U.S. Capitol Police and Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy as they attempted to forcibly remove him from a recent congressional hearing. He said he was honored to be introduced by Fritz. McGinnis went on to say that money laundering has been intrinsic to the wars of the past 25 years. He urged that we continue to expose the “Greater Israel” project. “Our government is leading us in a direction that is sacrificing our moral high ground,” he concluded.
‘Pangs of Conscience’ Will Haunt Their Lives
Zepp-LaRouche responded by expressing her “deep, heartfelt gratitude” to Fritz and McGinnis. Co-moderator Dennis Speed reported that other people from the military who are candidates for office in the United States are saying that they refuse to be associated with the administration’s criminal policies. “This may be the fastest way to send up an S.O.S. to the rest of the world,” she said. Moderator Anastasia Battle added that whistleblower Lt. Col. (ret.) Anthony Aguilar, U.S. Army, had said that the girls’ school in Minab, Iran, was targeted intentionally for a missile attack, to harm the morale of the girls’ parents, many of whom are Iranian government officials. Fritz said that our military is imitating the policies of the Israel Defense Forces, and our Secretary of Defense is encouraging our troops to violate the basic rules of war. They will live with this for the rest of their lives, afflicted with PTSD in addition to their pangs of conscience.
Paul Gallagher, co-editor of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), had sent a video message in which he reported on how he is investigating the request by the Trump administration for an additional $200-$250 billion for the Iran war. The persistent decline in U.S. manufacturing productivity is to be corrected by a huge slush fund for military production. The plan is being run by 30 top investment bankers, who are being paid salaries of $300,000-$500,000 a year. We now have a military-industrial-financial complex, indeed, said Gallagher, but this has little to do with the Iran War; it is intended instead to produce new “War Unicorn” companies for new “kill technologies” toward eventually confronting China.
Eduardo Gabriel Fernández is a graduate of the Advanced Course in National Defense and a member of the General Jorge Edgar Leal Observatory on Argentine Sovereignty. He reported that the current government of Argentina is reviving the policies of the military dictatorship which ruled from 1976 to 1983—after the overthrow of President Isabel Perón’s government, a trend which is being protested in the streets by the people of Argentina. He is circulating among bishops in Argentina Zepp-LaRouche’s open letter calling on Pope Leo XIV to intervene on the level of the 15th-Century’s Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, and one of them has agreed to present it to the entire Bishops’ Conference there.
Schiller Institute organizer Tim Rush offered areport on organizing by citizen activists, who visited 390 offices at the U.S. Congress. Congressmen are conditioned to discuss issues in a binary for-or-against fashion, and they are unprepared for the IPC’s approach of posing solutions which lift the discussion to a higher vantage point.
An Appeal to the Human Soul
Zepp-LaRouche expressed the hope that our appeal to the human soul can become stronger than the war machine. “I believe that the true nature of man is beautiful, is positive,” she said, and reminded the participants that a nuclear war would not merely annihilate the presently living generations, but also all the scientific and cultural achievements of all the prior generations.
Dennis Fritz agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that it is the economic success of China, based on the successful application of the policies advocated by Alexander Hamilton, that has made them into an adversary in the eyes of our present political leadership.
Zepp-LaRouche described how Nicholas of Cusa was conscious of the fact that he had found a unique and unprecedented mode of thinking: humans, in the image of the Creator, can resolve conflicts by ascending to a higher level of reason than the level which gave rise to the conflict. Pope Leo XIV has called attention to this as well. She contrasted this to the Jeffrey Epstein Class, comprising people who feel that there are no limits or constraints on their power, whose lusts become increasingly perverse. These are not happy people; they have lost their souls.
Final Thoughts
Brian McGinnis described as “riveting” the idea that the United States could pivot away from the destruction in the Middle East, to the regional development and “greening of the desert” promised by the Oasis Plan.
Dennis Fritz indicted the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) for being the impetus for the wars against both Iraq and Iran. He praised the interventions of Jose Vega, an independent candidate for Congress from New York’s 15th District in the South Bronx, and Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war organization CODEPINK; he said that the latter had “beaten down Cory Booker [U.S. Senator from New Jersey] so bad” that he will no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Zepp-LaRouche concluded by saying, “The issue of the One Humanity has to become our battle cry.” Trump, if he is to be believed, has announced in his latest ultimatum that April 6 is his new deadline for capitulation by Iran, and we have chosen that date for our next EIR Emergency Roundtable online event. She asked all participants to please work to maximize worldwide participation.
The live dialogue will be broadcasted at 12am ET / 5pm CET due to change to Daylight Savings Time in the US.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org. Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.
The world whipsawed again on Monday March 23 as President Trump surprised the world by announcing a halt on U.S. strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. The U.S. and Iran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in all caps, adding that he had postponed strikes on Iran’s infrastructure for a five day period. Oil prices fell and stocks surged at the news.
Iran, however, denied the allegations, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry stating that “no talks are taking place between Tehran and Washington.” It added that Trump’s remarks were “part of efforts to manage energy prices and buy time for the implementation of his military plans.” When asked about this, Trump simply suggested that “perhaps that hasn’t been conveyed” because of how badly their country has been destroyed.
There are claims flying in every direction, with very little confirmed as to what, if any, diplomatic process is actually underway, or whether the whole thing is simply an inelegant way for Trump to throw his hands up and walk away. While this is a welcome reprieve in a situation that was quickly headed toward disaster, including possibly nuclear war, at best it is only a pause in a far uglier policy that is still very much alive.
The real issue was laid out by American statesman Lyndon LaRouche 20 years ago, in an article titled “Strictly Speaking, There Is No Iran Crisis.” In it, he said that the push for a regime-change war against Iran was “a continuation of the evolution of what became known as Britain’s Sykes-Picot gambits.” LaRouche continued: “That is to emphasize that the targets of ‘The Crisis on the Global Chessboard’ include Russia and China, Russia more immediately. However, the more immediate phase of the British-led game in progress, is the promotion of British Arab Bureau veteran Bernard Lewis’s revival of the global anti-Islam strategy which had been the basis for the creation and perpetuation of that medieval imperialist alliance of the Venetian financier-oligarchy and Norman chivalry, known as ‘The Crusades.’ What is in progress, currently centered in [then-British Prime Minister Tony] Blair’s and Jack Straw’s Liberal Imperialist London, is the creation of that permanent state of warfare and revolution intended to be the organizing principle of a new form of global imperialism, a form currently labeled ‘globalization.’ A global, perpetual religious war against Islam, is the British imperial policy adopted currently, for this purpose, by the Blair allies associated with the U.S. Bush-Cheney regime.”
Replace George Bush and Dick Cheney with Trump’s new brand of Silicon Valley neocons and Prosperity Gospel crusaders, as well as the ongoing role of Tony Blair in the Middle East, and the situation is clear. Add in the growing role of Palantir, which epitomizes the way this “permanent state of warfare” was necessary to implement “a new form of global imperialism,” as it simultaneously establishes both global surveillance platforms and increasingly lethal (and financially profitable) military techniques—all under the rubric of defending “our way of life” from our “adversaries.”
Yet, despite this evil and almost unfathomable level of danger, the world is perched at an absolutely unique inflection point. Nothing can “go back to normal” after this conflict is over, as is also the case after the genocide in Gaza. The world has fundamentally changed, and the moral bankruptcy of the West has been irreversibly exposed for the world to see. If growing parts of the world were not already looking for the exit from this imperialistic nightmare, you can be sure they are now. The question remains: What will replace it? Can mankind actually organize itself into a new system which doesn’t ultimately lead to a war of each against all?
There is a flurry of diplomatic activity underway throughout Southwest and South Asia, with significant nations, such as Turkiye, Egypt, and Pakistan, playing new roles in reining in this crisis by the hands of the Americans and Israelis. The recent proposal by Oman’s Foreign Minister to establish a regional framework for the transparent use of nuclear energy, is also an indication of how this region could begin to break free from the British Empire’s matrix of permanent war and geopolitics.
Speaking to associates on March 23, Helga Zepp-LaRouche summed up the opportunity before us in the following way: “I think it is really up to us to say that this present course of events, even if this goes back and forth by the day, it has to be taken off the table entirely, and it has to be replaced … with the idea of a total change in the direction of the Oasis Plan, and an Oasis Plan being expanded to the entire region, from India to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Gulf. Because this region includes many countries that have been victimized by the interventionist wars in the last decades, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, and the West Bank. The entire region is now in shambles, given the fact that the business model of the Gulf states, being on the one side extremely wealthy from their oil income, but having no in-depth state. Their populations are very small, all the work is being done by guest workers, and being protected by the U.S. military bases. This business model is now in shambles, and therefore it would be in the vested interest of these Gulf states to use the money of their sovereign wealth funds to invest in regional infrastructure programs … desalination of large amounts of ocean water, [building] canals and systems of irrigation—creating a greening of the desert like China has done in the case of Xinjiang and in the northeast, where they greened a desert the size of the territory of Germany, where now there are forests and farmland and orchards and tourism, and people have become wealthy rather than being dirt poor.
“So that approach has to be put on the table…. And if all relevant forces would work together, the Sunnis and the Shi’ites cooperating, rather than being played according to colonial scripts since Sykes-Picot and earlier, creating a clash of civilization, they should unite and go for peaceful development. That is our unified approach, and the United States should be convinced that that is in the best interest of the United States as well.”
March 21, 2026 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the International Peace Coalition (IPC ), started the 146th consecutive Friday weekly meeting of the IPC on March 20 by challenging the audience to help stop the dangerous, “breakneck speed” of a spiral into the Iran War, chaos, and the very real potential for nuclear war. Following Israel’s bombing of the South Pars off-shore natural gas field in the Persian Gulf which Iran shares with Qatar, Iran is retaliating in the war by attacking oil and gas facilities of neighboring Gulf states hosting U.S. military bases. This is contributing to the oil price shock that could seriously risk a blowout of the world financial system. The United States is moving ground troops into the region which could target disputed islands off the coast of Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia is threatening to join the war, but the three main actors have incompatible goals—the United States wants regime change, Israel wants total destruction of Iran, and Iran insists that the United States must leave the region and pay reparations for the damage from the war and many years of destructive sanctions. Zepp-LaRouche saw hope in the recent call by Foreign Minister of Oman Badr Albusaidi—who was in the midst of mediating U.S.-Iranian negotiations when the United States and Israel launched their “unlawful military strike” against Iran—for a meeting of all countries in the region to move towards a regional non-aggression treaty, pivoted on an agreement on developing nuclear energy, as a pathway out of the ongoing unwinnable war. China’s special envoy for Middle East affairs Zhai Jun is in the region and has been promoting a quick end to the fighting and economic development.
In Europe, Zepp-LaRouche noted the reluctance of Europeans to join the war. Europe has offered to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, but only after the fighting ends. She also noted that Iran’s Ambassador to Germany Majid Nili Ahmadabadi has been asking about the role of the United States at the Ramstein Air Base, suggesting that Germany is complicit in the war. She spoke of Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi visiting the White House on March 19 and being subjected to a cruel joke about Pearl Harbor, when a reporter asked President Trump why the United States did not give Japan advanced warning about their intent to start the war against Iran.
Zepp-LaRouche noted that the former head of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Kent, has said that the FBI has blocked investigations into the shooting death of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the July 2024 assassination attempt against President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Kent has warned that there may be live, ongoing assassination plans against the President. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has warned that the U.S. effort to militarize and control space is a dangerous escalation. She noted that all of these events could easily go out of control, and stressed the need for negotiations, development, and a dialogue of civilizations. She also noted that Pope Leo XIV is an American and in a unique position to bring other religious leaders together to prevent a descent into barbarism.
The next speaker was Josephine Guilbeau, a 17-year U.S. Army veteran from U.S. Cyber Command and now active with the Eisenhower Media Network. Guilbeau spoke of her attendance at the Catholics For Catholics 3rd annual Catholic Prayer for America event in Washington, D.C. on March 19, where Joseph Kent spoke and received multiple standing ovations. She stressed that the USS Tripoli, with over 2,000 Marines, is just five days away from entering the theater of war, and that Americans must act now to avoid another ground war with no “off ramp.” Guilbeau called on Americans to contact their congressional representatives and send letters to the editors of major newspapers to stop the war, saying that we cannot allow Israel to drag us into another bloodbath. Zepp-LaRouche responded by stressing the importance of mobilizing other Catholics around the world to unite in opposition to the war. Guilbeau announced the Eisenhower Media Network sponsored March 26 press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., which will expose how, as in the Iraq war, contradictory or even non-existent intelligence has been used to dupe a U.S. President into the war on Iran.
Speaking next was Bassam El Hachem, a sociologist and professor at the University of Lebanon, who spoke of the delusion dominating the Trump administration that the war against Iran could be won in four or five days through decapitation. He said that this “adventure” was a failure, and it is now Iran which holds all of the cards. Iran has knocked-out the major U.S. radar systems in the region, forced the two U.S. aircraft carriers to pull back, and it controls the flow of 20% of world oil exports. Without its sophisticated radar, the United States is blind and Iran’s missiles have inflicted damage. President Trump has demanded that his “allies”—the same ones he has threatened with draconian tariffs—help him restore oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, to little effect.
Professor El Hachem noted that at the end of 2024 Israel and Lebanon negotiated an end to the fighting, Hezbollah honored the agreement, but Israel did not: It acted unilaterally to continue the killing. The United States was negotiating with Iran, but in the middle of the negotiations the U.S. acted unilaterally and started the war. He said that there has been a media blackout, but the U.S. makes sure that Lebanon is weak, which means that Hezbollah is the only local force which can respond to this fighting.
The professor continued that for three days Israel has been preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon, giving Hezbollah no choice but to fight. France has worked to negotiate an end to this fighting, but the professor does not expect this to work.
The final invited speaker was Diane Sare, an independent candidate for U.S. President, who asked if it were possible to end these wars without changing America? She said that only Congress can declare war, but this Congress embarrassed itself by abdicating its responsibilities, allowing the war to begin.
Sare called on whistleblowers and independent-minded candidates to unite to break the brainwashing by the billionaire elite which wants to dumb-down the population to eliminate optimism. Sare said that the peace movement must fight for economic development, eradicate poverty, provide clean drinking water for the world, and build nuclear power for a growing world. This peace movement must act as one humanity and promote a dialogue of civilizations.
A short video interview was shown of Chandra Muzaffar, a prominent Malaysian human rights activist, author, and president of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), who has called to end all hegemony. He suggested the importance of mobilizing individuals of faith, such as Mahatma Gandhi or Lyndon LaRouche—instead of appealing to religious institutions. Gandhi and LaRouche were people of faith, even though they did not always fit in with the rituals of institutional religious structures, both challenged us with what gives meaning to our lives or what we should do with our lives. Muzaffar said that in a time of crisis, this is the spiritual perspective that we need.
Zepp-LaRouche responded saying the elites are willing to waste precious lives as collateral damage. President Trump has said that he can do with Cuba whatever he wants. She said that we are already in a “Dark Age,” but she is worried that we are sliding into barbarism. She repeated her husband’s frequent question: Do we have the moral fitness to survive? Can we work for the benefit of others? Can we have a dialogue of civilizations? History has shown that arrogance has always led to destruction and we will not survive an Armageddon.
Sare added that people are naturally good and that we can see signs of resistance to this barbarism. Schools are prohibiting smartphones in classrooms, and promoting more reading instead of more screen time. Professor El Hachem added that students of all faiths are acting to stop the war, and he said that it is critical that “we must give young people hope.”
During the question period Sare warned of the danger of false flag provocations to expand the war. She said that President Trump has retreated in Yemen and Minneapolis while declaring defeats to be victories, and that she would be happy if he does the same thing in the Iran War.
A short video was played of former CIA analyst Larry Johnson arguing that nuclear weapons did not end World War II and they will not end the current conflicts. Zepp-LaRouche warned that wars never go as planned and warned of the danger of the unpayable $2.4 quadrillion financial derivatives bubble. She said the only way out of these problems is economic development, but the United States insists on dominating the world despite the fact that it represents only a small fraction of the world’s population. The Global South represents 90% of the world and it demands equality and will not accept an inferior position. Zepp-LaRouche added that Gulf states have shown what is possible in the middle of the desert, but instead of more luxury hotels, these nations must unite around an Oasis Plan development strategy. She said that China developed two of its poor desert areas, each the size of Germany in its northern and western regions—and turned them into lush gardens. There is no need for death and misery anywhere in the world.
Zepp-LaRouche said that the “American System” of economics demonstrates that credit for production always produces more value than the sum of the individual investments. China’s most favorite economist is Friedrich List, who promoted this same system. This “American System” was opposed to the British model of merely extracting value from trade. She called on the United States to return to its mission of being a “Beacon of Hope” for the world again, and that America should not go abroad “in search of monsters to destroy,” as called for by John Quincy Adams.
The live dialogue will be broadcasted at 11am ET / 4pm CET due to change to Daylight Savings Time in the US.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org. Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.
Lyndon LaRouche, the American philosopher and worldly statesman, once posed the question, “How much does a thought weigh?”
Ask yourself: What kind of substance and causal reality does an appropriate thought have on the material world? And does engaged dialogue amongst cultures and amongst nations actually play a role in averting physical disaster, when greed, pettiness, fears, cynicism, vengeance, outright meanness of spirit or any volatile mixture of such seem to take the upper hand in driving the world into senseless violence, killings, and war?
On March 3, in the 144th weekly session of the International Peace Coalition dialogue, the exchange of ideas prompted IPC founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche to issue on March 9 an open call upon Pope Leo XIV to sound a clear trumpet call to rally various religions, cultures, and heads of government to respond to the “might makes right” abandonment of law and morality, and to initiate the real world steps for a new international security and development architecture.
On March 15, the American-born Pope issued a call for an immediate ceasefire in Iran and, as Zepp-LaRouche summarized the developments over the last day: “[S]hort of responding to our campaign, the open letter to the Pope, nevertheless there are a lot of statements that have come from church circles, Vatican circles, all absolutely, massively condemning this war. State Secretary Cardinal Parolin rejected the claim that this is a preventive war, by saying that they keep the dialogue open, but that this is not a preemptive war. Cardinal McElroy, Archbishop of Washington, said the war is morally unjustifiable. Chicago Cardinal Cupich said it was sickening how the White House was splicing video game imagery into social media messaging about the war…. The head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference called on all religions to seek bold solutions to war, and even the German Cardinal Marx, who is the Archbishop of Munich and former head of the German Bishops’ Conference, sharply criticized the attack by Israel and the U.S., saying that according to Catholic social teaching, this is an illegitimate war and cannot be accepted. This is quite important because normally the German Catholic Church is always more close to the government, and they never stick their neck out like that. But he called on people not to resign themselves to this. He said, we must not allow ourselves to be discouraged. Now more than ever, we must be involved both as church and individual citizens. Now that is very important.”
Today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to occupy southern Lebanon, move almost a million citizens from their homes, and carry out a “security” mission there, modelled upon what was carried out in Gaza the last two years. U.S. President Donald Trump, asked whether he knew about this plan, admitted that he did, then stumbled around saying that it had to be done to destroy Hezbollah and that it had nothing to do with most of the population.
Over the weekend, Trump had claimed U.S. air strikes had “totally demolished” much of the Kharg Island oil export hub, but added: “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.” Not one of the countries he called upon to join him in sending warships to free the Straits of Hormuz has agreed. When Britain’s Prime Minister Starmer made his refusal, he reported: “I said to them: We will remember.” China responded by telling Trump to simply stop the unnecessary war and the Straits of Hormuz would be re-opened. At every turn, he issues new threats, as a King Canute ordering the ocean waves to cease. And now, his public behavior has become a major subject of public discussion around the world.
When the emperor is naked, the little boy’s innocent question—”Why is that man wearing no clothes?”—has a massively therapeutic effect on the whole population, one that had been spending so much effort damaging their own minds and spirits, so as not to say the obvious. Ideas deployed properly, when it looks like nothing works, is what works. This is what separates Zepp-LaRouche’s conclusion today from merely naive optimism:
“So I think we are well positioned to fight for a breakthrough. A breakthrough being that we have to absolutely get the new security and development architecture on the agenda, because only if we move people into a new paradigm of axioms of thinking, where we overcome geopolitics, do we have a chance to break out of it.”
The thought that humanity is made in the image of God, with a divine spark of reason, capable of necessary and creative interventions into the world, is arguably the most weighty substance in the universe.
The 145th consecutive online weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) featured a surprise guest, Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh who represents the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico. This was a unique opportunity for people who live in an environment dominated by war propaganda, to hear an unfiltered message from the nation the U.S. government is attacking.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator provided an update. She posed the question, Why did U.S. President Donald Trump start this war? Reportedly, it was U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, U.S. Secretary of State/National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner who convinced him that Iran was on the verge of attacking U.S. forces or bases. She noted that we have reached a new phase in neocon aggression, typified by targeted eliminations of heads of state, such as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro or the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. She added that this situation can still escalate to nuclear war, citing an editorial in The Hill by Harlan Ullman, senior adviser at the Atlantic Council, who bills himself as the principal author of the doctrine of shock and awe. Ullman suggests that the United States nuke Iran as the only way to achieve the requisite shock and awe. Zepp-LaRouche also reported on her Letter to Pope Leo XIV, calling on him to intervene in the spirit of Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei. It has come to her attention that a ranking Shiite cleric from Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi, has issued a similar appeal to the Pope. She concluded by saying, “The danger to humanity, in my view, has never been more grave than right now.”
Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh spoke next, called the present war “one of the most irrational wars in history… a betrayal of diplomacy. For the second time, we were attacked in the middle of negotiations… It was a blatant symbol of the use of power in the place of international law.” It was expected that the internet would usher in an age of humanism, he said, but instead, racists and radical nationalists have successfully exploited the internet. On the topic of the neocon “regime change” agenda, he said, “It is not clear who will be next after Iran—Mexico, or China?” He ended on an optimistic note: “With the pen and the word, it is possible to neutralize the effects of guns.”
Zepp-LaRouche described the motives of the IPC for inviting the Iranian ambassador: we have observed the discrepancy between reality, and the narrative being promoted by Western sources. She recalled the declaration by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, that the United States had intentionally engineered the collapse of the Iranian economy in order to trigger regime change, and referred also to Trump’s former Director of the CIA in his first administration Mike Pompeo’s tweet about the Mossad agents accompanying each Iranian demonstrator.
Former President of Guyana (2011-2015) Donald Ramotar conveyed to the Ambassador his admiration for the tenacity and courage of the Iranian people in the face of the attempts to destroy their nation. For some time now, he said, there has been an effort to destroy international institutions and international law. Iran is under attack because it is the only country standing up for the Palestinians, and because it is the main obstacle to Israel’s efforts to re-shape the Middle East. Iran’s fight is also a fight for Cuba, which is now under “almost unbearable” economic pressure in a similar mad attempt to incite regime change.
Pasandideh said that he wishes to thank Zepp-LaRouche for going to the “roots of this problem.” He thanked Ramotar for his expression of solidarity.
Father Harry Bury, a catholic priest for 70 years, a lifelong peace activist, and active in the Twin Cities Nonviolent and the U.S. Catholic Priest Association spoke, saying “Our hearts are breaking, truly breaking, at what is happening to Iran,” he said. “Jesus said that we are to love our enemies!” He stressed that history has shown us that violence does not resolve problems. He reiterated his endorsement of the Oasis Plan and the BRICS as an exemplary approach to peace. He asked all participants to add their names to Zepp-LaRouche’s open letter to the Pope.
Pasandideh responded by saying Bury’s beautiful words had touched his heart. He offered his view that Donald Trump is hiding behind religion, and this is an aggression against all religions.
Jack Gilroy, of Veterans for Peace, Pax Christi – Upstate NY, and Pax Christi International, commented on the contrast between what Father Bury is saying, and the endorsement of violence by the Christian Zionists. The stance of the Christian Zionists flies in the face of the non-violent message of Christ and the Jewish commitment to justice.
Pasandideh responded again that if we search for the origins of these problems, we find unilateralism. The UN Charter established a world based on laws and rights to say “never again” to the injustice that had led to World War II, and now these precepts are being ignored. He asked how can we return to multilateralism, which would rule out regime change operations. When we achieve multilateralism, we accept the cultural differences among nations.
Zepp-LaRouche recalled the role of President of Iran Mohammad Khatami, who brought about a revival of culture and the introduction of modern technologies to Iran.
Discussion
Gilroy called U.S. foreign policy “perverse,” substituting gunboat diplomacy for real diplomacy. He said that we must call upon religious leaders to preach the truth like Father Bury does. There are 20 million Christian Zionists in the United States, which is why the Israeli flag is flying over the White House. Where are the religious leaders who say we must stop murdering fishermen in the Caribbean?
Nuclear weapons expert Dr. Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a video contribution, said the Iranians may be able to continue the war for a very long time, manufacturing drones in underground facilities. The United States is unable to manufacture interceptors at a pace that can match Iranian drone production. And the interceptors are not working, they are unable to perform their functions as advertised.
A question was sent in for Father Bury: what can Catholics do about those in South America and elsewhere who reduce their faith to mere ideological anti-communism? He replied that we must educate ourselves, and then educate other people.
Diane Sare reminded the participants that she is an independent U.S. presidential candidate. She noted that nearly two thirds of the U.S. population are unable to read above a sixth-grade level. The key to deaf and blind Helen Keller’s liberation from her sensory prison was language. Sare noted that Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters are now training the FBI. Our U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and FBI agents need to be able to think, instead of being mindlessly violent.
A participant asked, can Israel be stopped from using nuclear weapons on Iran? Co-moderator Dennis Speed warned that the Jeffrey Epstein Class is not restrained by moral limits. They believe themselves to be above them; they are essentially Satanic. This mentality must be exposed and confronted in order to stop the use of nuclear weapons. Speed recalled that according to Russian intelligence, France and Britain are plotting to bring nuclear weapons to Ukraine.
Congressional candidate in New York’s 15th congressional district (Bronx), Jose Vega reported on his campaign’s petition drive to achieve ballot status, knocking on over 4,500 doors over the past few weeks and bringing a message of peace through development.
The live dialogue will be broadcasted at 11am ET / 4pm CET due to change to Daylight Savings Time in the US.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions & comments to questions@schillerinstitute.org. Please share the YouTube link with your friends, acquaintances, and colleagues to increase the reach of the solutions presented by the LaRouche movement.
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche today released an open letter to Pope Leo XIV, which began by explaining her purpose in addressing the Pontiff: “I am writing to you at this grave hour of mankind, since you may be the only person left who could hopefully avoid a descent into what you yourself called an ‘irreparable abyss…’” She went on to stress the imminent danger posed by the rapidly expanding Iran war.
Over the past 48 hours, despite wishful thinking to the contrary, the Strait of Hormuz has been closed to oil tankers, and energy supplies are suffering major disruption, as the U.S. and Israel carry out sustained, massive strikes on Iran. The Malthusian (aka ‘Satanic’) masters behind these policies measure their “success” in terms of closing down physical production, modern standards of sanitation and longevity, and the institution of sovereign nations. And for them, shutting down energy supplies is a long step in that direction. These are the super-decadent “Epstein Class,” who abide in a fantasy world populated only by objects of their depredation
Look at Central Europe. Today, Hungary called upon the EU’s Brussels gang to face reality, and drop the ban on Russian oil and gas. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Peter Fico warned that the gang’s “ruthless, crude violation” of international law has unleashed the type of recklessness of Ukraine’s Zelenskyy, in making a public call for the assassination of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Such a state of mind, Fico warned, could easily have Zelenskyy pull a Nord Stream 2.0, destroying the famous Druzhba oil pipeline from Russia to Europe.
The same disease is taking over the United States. Thirty U.S. congressmen stood up and called out the ‘Armageddonist’ infection gripping various military commanders, starting from the end-of-the-world psychopath, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. President Trump continues to work in close tandem with Hegseth on Iran, telling the media that last week’s bombing of the Iranian girl’s school, in a “double-tap” attack – a war crime – was carried out by… Iran! Yet, later in the day, Trump proceeded to call Russian President Putin to discuss the crisis in Iran. While the specifics of which have not been made public at this time, Trump suggested that they should renew their pledge to consult more regularly.
Zepp-LaRouche’s letter to Pope Leo XIV intervened into this rapidly worsening global crisis with a direct call to action. “I am writing to you at this grave hour of mankind, since you may be the only person left who could hopefully avoid a descent into what you yourself called an ‘irreparable abyss,’ an escalation of the unprovoked war against Iran into potentially a global nuclear war, which would end all life on earth.
“In the recent period, the world has entered a radically worse phase, where international law has been declared nonexistent… and the principle of ‘might makes right’ is being elevated to be the privilege of the powerful.”
Needless poverty and death have resulted, yet, even worse, nuclear annihilation is staring humanity in the face. “Something that could be a positive, maybe even the decisive step to arouse the consciousness of the world, would be—in the spirit of the Council of Florence and the unity of the church brought about by Nicholas of Cusa, bringing the delegations of the Orthodox Church to the Councils of Florence and Ferrara—that you, your Holiness, and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as Patriarch Bartholomäus I of Constantinople, would take the courageous step and call together for all religious leaders of the world, as well as all people of good faith, believers and non-believers alike, to step forward in defense of peace.”
Referring to the Pope’s own call last fall for the “coincidence of opposites” method of thinking and acting, originally proposed by the Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa after the 1453 fall of Constantinople threatened to turn worshippers of one God into vicious factional warriors against each other, Zepp-LaRouche stated: “At a time when there is the danger of a world war, and when some use the cloak of religion to argue for an early Armageddon, that same voice of reason must be raised … that it cannot be that people kill each other in the name of God.”
She concluded: “If, as a first step, the Churches of the West and the East would unite and campaign actively and daily for world peace, this could affect the majority of people to express their commitment for peace and thus cause a change in world history and fulfill the will of God, who for sure did not create the world and gift humanity with reason, to have it destroyed by the lack of it.”
The following statement was issued March 9 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, for immediate and widespread international circulation and endorsement. We encourage signatures of endorsement from religious leaders of all faiths, as well as from people of good faith, to urgently develop the dialogue of civilizations needed for world peace.
I am writing to you at this grave hour of mankind, as you may be the only person who could hopefully avoid a descent into what you yourself have called an “irreparable abyss,” an escalation of the unprovoked war against Iran into potentially a global nuclear war, which would end all life on Earth.
The world has now entered a radically worse phase, in which international law has been declared nonexistent; the so-called “rules-based order” declared as always having been a charade; and the principle of “might makes right” elevated to be the privilege of the powerful. As a result, billions of people are suffering a dramatic worsening of their living conditions, and countless people are paying with their lives. But still worse, if the present course of events is not changed, the ultimate sin may be committed: the annihilation of the human species for the sake of satanic delusions.
Millions of ordinary people, in total despair, are asking: What can be done to change the course of history, when many governments, especially in the West, are obviously incapable of fulfilling their obligation to avoid damage to the people for whom they are responsible? Where are the institutions that can bring the remedy at this late hour?
Something that could be a positive, maybe even decisive step to arouse the consciousness of the world—in the spirit of the 1439 Council of Florence, and Nicholas of Cusa’s idea of unity of the church, bringing delegations of the Orthodox Church to the Councils of Florence and Ferrara—, would be for you, your Holiness, together with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, and Patriarch Bartholomäus I of Constantinople, to take a most courageous step. Together, call for all religious leaders of the world, as well as all people of good faith, believers and non-believers alike, to step forward in defense of peace.
Last year, on October 25th. in your Angelus sermon, you evoked the great philosopher and Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa and his notion of the Coincidentia Oppositorum, as the necessary method of thinking to bind things together in the world today. It was that same method of thinking which underlay Cusa’s beautiful dialogue “De Pace Fidei,” about “peace in faith,” which he wrote in answer to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. That dialogue served to uplift the thinking of the people of his time to the highest possible level—that despite distinct rites and practices, there is a knowable understanding that there is only one God, and one truth, which can, and must, be brought to believers of all faiths
At a time when there is the danger of a world war, and when some use the cloak of religion to argue for an early Armageddon, that same voice of reason must be raised, and the same question asked, as did the representatives of 17 nations and religions ask God in “De Pace Fidei.” It cannot be that people kill each other in the name of God.
The bells of all churches should begin to ring, the Adhan of all mosques should be shouted, the Shofar of all synagogues should be blown, in the whole world in this moment of utmost urgency to save mankind from its final tragedy.
If, as a first step, the Churches of the West and the East would unite and campaign actively and daily for world peace, this could affect the majority of people to express their commitment for peace and thus cause a change in world history, fulfilling the will of God, who for sure did not create the world and gift humanity with reason, to have it destroyed by the lack of it.
