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International Peace Coalition, Week 169

by EIR staff

Aug. 28—The 169th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, IPC initiator and Schiller Institute Founder. She acknowledged that after 169 weeks, the war danger is getting worse, but emphasized that solutions exist and we must win the political battle to implement them. In Ukraine, Britain and France are stoking the flames of conflict by introducing more high-tech weaponry, which increases the risk that Russia will treat them, and Britain in particular, as direct participants in the conflict, as Russian government Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned this week. In the Iran War, the United States has reached an impasse of sorts because of depletion of its arsenal.

Zepp-LaRouche has not yet reached a conclusion about the significance of the new “Mecca Alliance”—a trilateral mutual defense pact signed in Mecca on August 7 by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif—but it could possibly create an avenue for successful negotiation and a new regional security architecture, provided that it is combined with an economic development perspective such as the Oasis Plan. The Western economies are in a desperate situation, and the rearmament drive in Europe is “just so crazy,” particularly because there is an emphasis on the mass-production of weaponry which is technologically obsolete. The United States is now paying more in interest on its national debt than it pays for its stupendous military budget.

Dennis Small, Executive Intelligence Reviewʼs Ibero-American Intelligence Director, began by observing that President Donald Trump’s every campaign promise and prediction have been contradicted by reality, and recalled Lyndon LaRouche’s warning about the absolute folly of continuing failed economic policies. He recalled how current U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent played a key role in George Soros’ move to short the British Pound in 1992. He elaborated Bessent’s present gambit to use the Treasury’s trillion-dollar “rainy day” fund to buy back Treasury notes, and the defiant response of the financier community. We have reached a point where government debt and interest rates are both rising. Bessent is buying back long-term debt with short-term loans, which is accelerating us toward the precipice. Small also reviewed Bessent’s shrill demands that all nations should stop trading with Iran, which are likely to be rebuffed by all of Iran’s major trading partners, and concluded that this tactic will accelerate the development of a new security and development architecture that will supplant U.S. dominance.
Peter Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, in Washington, D.C., provided a video to explain the goals of his open letter to Pope Leo XIV, calling for an intervention by him to convene an emergency summit to prevent nuclear war. He is concerned that Trump’s “pathological narcissism” makes him vulnerable to pressure from those around him, to “break the taboo” against the use of nuclear weapons.

Zepp-LaRouche, in response, reminded participants that the drive for rearmament will be funded by cuts in entitlements, increasing the general misery and causing governments to further resort to war in order to divert attention from that, just as it did in the case of Germany under the Nazis.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed pointed out that the new interest bill for the U.S. government is now higher than the entire U.S. government budget in 1987. He then introduced Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

Johnson said that the corruption in the United States and of Trump personally “makes the corruption in Ukraine look tame by comparison.” He called Bessent’s so called “D-Day sanctions” against Iran “a complete joke,” because Iran is in the process of withdrawing from the U.S.-dominated financial system. He ridiculed Trump’s claim that the Strait of Hormuz is open, and reviewed the impending crisis as the world runs out of diesel fuel, which is “the economic heart of economies.”

Zepp-LaRouche acknowledged again that the situation is grave, but reminded the participants that the problem is solvable and that we can draw upon historic traditions such as Confucianism in China, and the Peace of Westphalia in Europe. These traditions informed her composition of her Ten Principles.

Dennis Small pointed out that the only reason there is a problem with Social Security and other so-called “entitlements” is that Wall Street insists that it is “entitled” to have its desires take precedence over the well-being and very survival of the U.S. population. He reviewed the personal corruption of Trump, whose family made $2 billion last year in cryptocurrency speculation, but warned against a simple-minded assumption that this is the root of the problem. He insisted that such corruption is simply a symptom of the presently bloated and dying financial structure. He demanded, with LaRouche, a return to a fixed-rate currency exchange system; predictability is good for trade in physical goods and bad for speculation. We must also close to speculators the door of free convertibility of currencies.

Dennis Speed quoted Hannah Arendt on the consequences of a news media that is permeated with lies: the population is rendered impotent because it no longer believes in anything. In response, Zepp-LaRouche pointed out that the use of the word “narrative” indicates that truth is no longer considered to be a factor in news reporting. In its place, we have competing fairy tales concocted by various factions to further their respective agendas.

Throughout the meeting, various speakers noted that there is widespread speculation about the recent visits of CIA chief John Ratcliffe and Archbishop Paul Gallagher to Russia. Dennis Speed asked Johnson for his take on this topic. Johnson characterized most of the hot talk about this as “a load of crap.” He opined that Ukraine’s survival as a nation is now very much in question and it may not last to the end of the year.

Discussion

A German participant lamented the loss of Germany’s intellectual tradition, the “Land of Poets and Thinkers.” Zepp-LaRouche took the optimistic view that Germany has bounced back more than once from terrible dark ages, and it could happen again. She said that “the Europeans have allowed themselves to be de-rooted from their own cultural traditions,” unlike Asian nations that are bolstered by the positive elements in their 5,000-year history. Dennis Small responded with a bit of caustic sarcasm about the cultural development of Trump and present-day America.

Zepp-LaRouche returned to this topic in her concluding remarks, insisting that every person must mobilize his or her emotions to resist the depressive effects of “narrative control” and the degradation of culture.  The key to success in this struggle, she said, is the emotion of love.

International Peace Coalition, Week 168

Aug. 21—On August 21 the International Peace Coalition (IPC) held its 168th consecutive weekly meeting which Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC said may be our most important meeting ever. Two regional wars threaten to go out of control, and the use of tactical nuclear weapons is now a topic for casual discussion. This has been recently confirmed by former U.S. Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene who said that she is not guessing when she says that there is an open discussion in the Pentagon, or in the President Donald Trump administration, of using tactical nuclear weapons, but rather she knows from direct sources that this is a live discussion. Elbridge Colby, the so-called “U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy,” has confirmed on the record that the Pentagon is re-examining U.S. nuclear employment guidance in order to give the President what he calls “rational nuclear options” in a regional conflict with Russia or China—and he maintains that, unlike U.S. Nuclear Posture Reviews, this does not need to be approved by Congress or even be made public.

Zepp-LaRouche said that President Trump should admit that he has lost the war in Iran, but instead he is vacillating between saying he is talking to the Iranians and saying there are no talks—most recently warning of crushing sanctions against Iran and any country working with them. However, Iran has survived 47 years of sanctions, and it is the United States which is bankrupt with the federal deficit now passing the $40 trillion mark. According to media reports, Iranian officials threatened to attack U.S. military bases in Europe if the U.S. intensifies the war. Israel continues the genocide in Gaza, but has been committing similar atrocities in the West Bank. But President Trump is unable or unwilling to control Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The fighting in Ukraine is also escalating, but all of these wars are a consequence of the economic crisis, and the desire by western countries to maintain the 500-year-old colonial system of looting. Zepp-LaRouche stressed the urgency to circulate the letter which appeals to Pope Leo XIV to intervene by calling for a summit of global leaders to address the need of peace and nuclear disarmament. At least two former heads of state have already signed the letter.

Ray McGovern, the retired CIA analyst and founding member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), said that he started the day this morning the same way he starts every morning—reading the news from EIR. He highly recommended that people read an article by Jason Ross. McGovern questioned how Elbridge Colby could even talk about changing official nuclear doctrines without first consulting with the Russians. McGovern said that he has been watching the Russians and the Soviets before them for over six decades, and said that the Russians are “an open book,” and make their nuclear policy crystal clear. Colby is “still wet behind the ears” with no experience and no understanding of what war is. McGovern used to brief Colbyʼs father on the Russians. Elbridge Colby wrote that he wants “nuclear superiority,” but McGovern said that this is not possible and that nobody will be superior in a nuclear war, which is why it is called “Mutually Assured Destruction.”

McGovern stressed that President Trump is not well physically nor psychologically and could lead the world into a nuclear war either deliberately, accidentally, or by responding to an Israeli “false flag” provocation. This Israeli instigation is how President Trump started the Iran War. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz which is the equivalent of holding a nuclear weapon. Would Trump respond with a nuclear weapon? Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson recently spoke on the Judging Freedom podcast where he said that the U.S. military leadership would not allow Trump to use nuclear weapons. McGovern said that he prays that Wilkerson is correct, but that there is no assurance.

McGovern spoke of several near nuclear incidents such as in 1983 when Soviet Union radar indicated a missile attack, the Russian officer in charge [Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov] refused to launch a counterattack, knowing that there was a technical problem with the radar system and that there was no threat. Another crisis in Nov. 1983 was averted when the CIAʼs Mel Goodman—with whom McGovern said he was proud to work on Soviet foreign policy—bypassed all his superiors and went directly to CIA Director Bill Casey to warn that the White House had to stop ongoing western military exercises which were misunderstood in Moscow to be an attack on the Soviet Union. A third possible incident occurred when President Nixon had been drinking heavily and Kissinger warned military leaders that Nixon was inebriated and should he give orders to launch a nuclear strike the military leaders should first check with Kissinger. McGovern said that we are currently facing a level of danger that he has not seen since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and he again put the biggest concern on President Trumpʼs mental state.

Jack Gilroy, a leader in Pax Christi, spoke of the growing circulation of the letter calling on Pope Leo XIV to bring world leaders together to address the need for peace and nuclear disarmament. Gilroy said that the Pope is seen as a moral leader and is respected by people of all faiths. In the past Gilroy could meet with his congressman, but recently the congressman has given excuses to cancel meetings and the last time the meeting was canceled because the congressman was on an AIPAC-sponsored trip to Israel.

Garland Nixon, the media personality and political analyst, said that the members of the European oligarchy are the most rabidly pro-war because they are hysterical about the end of the 500 years of colonialism and looting. The British always had the goal of controlling shipping choke points, but now the Houthis have more control than the British Navy. Nixon said that these oligarchs are angry, furious, and irrational at the fall of their colonial hierarchy. Nearly everybody calling into his show want to know how they can help.

Dennis Small said that the 500 years of colonial looting and the drive for nuclear war are the same issue. Elbridge Colby is married to the Brazilian Susana Cordeiro Guerra who is the Vice President at the World Bank for Latin America and the Caribbean. In Brazil Guerra was a protege of the Finance Minister Paulo Guedes, a former student of Milton Friedman and one of the looters of the “Chicago Boys” under President Jair Bolsonaro.

Donald Ramotar, former president of Guyana, said the several western countries are desperate to “turn back the clock” to keep the 500 years of colonialism alive.

Jose Vega spoke about his independent congressional campaign and the website TheTorresFile.com which documents the money and corruptions around Congressman Ritchie Torres (Democrat in New Yorkʼs 15th C.D., the Bronx). Moderator Anastasia Battle gave a report of a scheduled “Crusader” confrontation in Dearborn, Michigan between Christian Nationalists and the large Arab community, however, activists and faith leaders from many denominations came out to defend the community and peaceful unity.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche closed the event stressing that “We are all in one boat,” one humanity. We need to promote the Extended Oasis Plan to end the cycle of violence and educate 30 to 50 percent of the population and join with the Global Majority. The world wants peace and stability, not wars and genocide. In recent weeks military leaders warned that we are sleepwalking into another 1914 war crisis. We must circulate the letter to every institution and every thinking person. (sac)

Report on International Peace Coalition, Week 167

by EIR Staff

Aug. 14—The 167th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She warned that the idea is unrealistic that the Anglophile Empire, and with it the United States, will peacefully go out of business, as the Soviet Union did. The Iran war “is lost for the United States”; it did not achieve its goal of regime change, and it has depleted its stockpile of weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump does not seem to have found a face-saving way out. The new “Mecca Alliance” of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye is significant, because the constituent nations are all formerly close partners of the United States. The regional situation remains very complex, and “still has the potential of expanding into a global nuclear war.”

The Ukraine war continues to be “a situation of utmost tension,” where the barbarism becomes worse by the day. In Panama, the United States proclaimed its dominance of the Western Hemisphere, in a clear violation of the intent of the Monroe Doctrine. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her hope that China’s Global Governance Initiative will be discussed next month in the United Nations General Assembly.

Richard Anderson Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s chairman of the board of trustees, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories (2008 to 2014). He said he wished to emphasize a point raised by Zepp-LaRouche, the difference between the way the USSR went peacefully out of business, and the bellicose thrashing of the Anglo-Americans. He pointed out that the genocide in Gaza has been very profitable for the U.S. arms industry, and the private sector is putting pressure on the U.S. government with “exaggerated security threats and security interests.”

He also called attention to the “era of finance capital,” in which profits take precedence over production and the national interest, and asserted that this is fueling the bellicose foreign policy of the United States. “The Western efforts to wage colonial wars … have not produced a political victory; the weaker side, militarily, has been prevailing.” “The encouraging obsolescence of military power” is being challenged by the private sector which makes money regardless of whether wars are won, or lost.

The Iranians have learned that “trust doesn’t work with the West,” after the United States launched a war of choice, twice, in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The inability of the U.S. to stop this madness is only partially explicable by the “personality and style of Trump”; we must also look at the deeper, structural issues. Referring to the Mecca Alliance, he said that if it goes forward, and engages more countries, we will soon be talking of “West Asia” rather than the “Middle East,” explaining that the latter is a European-oriented term, whereas the former is how the Global South and Asian countries think of the region.

Neo-Feudalism: The New Stage of Imperialism

In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that the concept of “capitalism or imperialism” has reached a new stage. “The concept of the sovereign state is practically annulled”; the billionaire class is now calling the shots, and we now have “neo-feudalism.” Nations which have attempted to negotiate in good faith with the United States are now concluding that the U.S. cannot be trusted.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Falk to comment on the “privatization of war,” and the claims of one British academic that we have returned to the “Palmerston era,” referring to mid-19th-Century British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston. In response, Falk observed that today’s situation is different, due to technological changes. Also, with the founding of the UN, there was an effort to move away from the Hobbesian anarchy of “might makes right” and toward a Westphalian world order, but the effort was flawed and allowed the dominant players to put their thumbs on the scales. Consequently, the UN Security Council today has enabled the crimes of the neocons against Gaza and Iran.

Zepp-LaRouche said that efforts to remedy this situation are hindered by mainstream media, which present “a narrative which is completely counter to reality.”

Ulf Sandmark, president of the Schiller Institute in Sweden, reported on weekly demonstrations there with which they have “attempted to break the spell” of making a taboo of advocacy of diplomatic solutions instead of war. In Sweden, the political parties are squeezing out antiwar politicians, who are also excluded from media coverage. The Schiller Institute is including these politicians in its demonstrations and giving them a voice.

Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), noted that Russia has moved from conducting its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, to all-out war. One manifestation of this has been the total shutdown of maritime activity in the Black Sea, which will be devastating for Ukraine. He listed numerous other developments in Russia’s conduct of the war, and compared it to the war in Iran, stating that both wars highlight the “delusional nature” of U.S. policy. Trump proclaims that the Strait of Hormuz is open and “under our control.” If that is the case, why are we running a blockade? The painful economic consequences of the war are completely divorced from the fantasy world of Wall Street, which can make money regardless.

The U.S. military is in trouble, on two fronts: It does not have access to the rare earths and other raw materials required to replenish depleted stocks of armaments; China has almost monopolistic control over those rare earths. Secondly, “the military across the board is in a mental health crisis.” There has been a wave of suicides and other deaths related to deteriorating morale and psychological stress among military personnel. The reports of deaths aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln have significantly underestimated the number of casualties. There will be a political response from the angry parents of the affected servicemen.

A ‘Crony Capitalist Monster’

Johnson said that the U.S. military is not the greatest or most powerful military in the world, but it is the most expensive. He cited the astronomical costs of U.S. aircraft and drones, many of which have been destroyed in the war with Iran. He commented on the “profit collaboration” between the military and the private sector. Although “fascism” is a term perhaps too “emotionally charged” to describe it, he characterized this collaboration as a “crony capitalist monster.” Russia and China, operating on military budgets which are tiny in comparison, have achieved greater technical results.

Zepp-LaRouche returned to what Pope Leo XIV calls a “new Tower of Babel.” Peter Thiel, founder of the Silicon Valley tech firm Palantir Technologies, said that members of the billionaire class should not be shy about flaunting their wealth and power. The privation endured by U.S. military personnel stands out by comparison.

Co-moderator Dennis Small reminded the participants that the “military-industrial complex” should be called the “military-industrial-financial complex,” because, as EIR has shown, the largest arms manufacturers in the United States are owned by the leading financial speculators. This, he said, is the Achilles’ heel of the war machine.

Numerous speakers referred to the recent manic activity by so-called “U.S. Deputy Secretary of War” Elbridge Andrew Colby, who has been making the rounds and issuing public comments about U.S. dominance in Asia and the Western Hemisphere, in addition to promoting the use of nuclear weapons.

Daisuke Kotegawa, former official in the Japanese Ministry of Finance, former Japanese executive director at the IMF, and research director at the Canon Institute in Tokyo, submitted a video on the topic of immigration, which he said became a problem for Europe only after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the sabotage of development plans for Africa. He also noted that the population of Ukraine has declined from 40 to 30 million due to the war there.

Discussion

In response to a question from an African participant, Zepp-LaRouche asserted that colonialism still exists, although typically Europeans are in denial. She said that the IMF exemplifies the new structures of colonialism.

Another participant posed a question about the Oasis Plan, which has been discussed on a regular basis at IPC meetings. Zepp-LaRouche replied that the only thing required would be a commitment by a number of Southwest Asian nations. She speculated that the new Mecca Alliance might be a prospect for this. A “devil’s advocate” asked her whether it was time to reevaluate the tenth of her Ten Principles, the assertion that humans are fundamentally good. Her response was an emphatic no; the current degraded culture cannot be seen as the last word on human nature. We have a long history to consider, and the net improvements in the human condition teach us that humans are essentially good. A dark age can always be overcome by a new renaissance.