April 25, 2024 (EIRNS)—The U.S. Congress voted up an orgy of money that they don’t have, to push military weapons into the most unstable parts of the globe. In defense of “democracy,” Democratic and Republican legislators talk tough about crushing peaceful demonstrators opposed to the genocide in Gaza.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister said “thanks” for the $61 billion of aid, but then explained to the suckers in Western capitals that nothing will work to stop Russia short of all-out mobilization for war production. “The West has to realize the era of peace in Europe is over.” Congress, with reckless disregard for the consequences, also authorized President Biden to seize Russian funds in the U.S. Sure enough, yesterday a Russian court ordered the seizure of close to a half-billion dollars of JPMorgan Chase’s funds that are in Russia.
It is not that obvious how to steer out of some combination of a financial implosion and a thermonuclear World War III. So, what do we do now?
In her weekly webcast, Schiller Institute chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche was asked by listeners just that, to which she responded:
“Well, that is, indeed, a good question. What we have said from the beginning, after the Russian special military operation in Ukraine started in February 2022, it was clear at that point that we were on a trajectory to World War III, because obviously—one is not allowed to say this, but it is the fact that history did not start on Feb. 24, 2022. Some people may think otherwise, but there was a whole pre-history, and it was very clear that we were on a trajectory of a potential conflict between NATO and Russia. And at that point I started to talk about the need to move to a new international security and development architecture, which would take into account the interests of every single country on the planet. And I remember, at that point I had discussions with some military experts, and they said, ‘Oh, that’s a good proposal, but it’s much too early. You have to wait until this plays out, and then after the disaster is obvious, then you can make such a proposal, and maybe people will listen.'
“And I said, ‘Well, it may be too late at that point,’ and I think we are very quickly reaching that point: Because what is behind the vote for these three topics you mentioned—Ukraine, Israel, and the Pacific—if you take all the different things together, there is no question that the NATO forces, the United States, Europe, the British, they are all determined to keep the rise of China down, to basically deny Russia a role as a world player, they would like to have Russia split into many pieces.”
After referencing the strategic miscalculations of Russia, which thought “that the special military operation could be done very quickly,” and of “the West, of NATO and the United States,” which thought that sanctions would bring down Russia, she stated:
“So the potential of miscalculation absolutely is continuing. It is so clear that the decision in the United States, involving both parties—and we should talk about what caused that shift of House Speaker Mike Johnson to occur; but also in Europe, the idea of militarization of the economies, of the German economy being prepared for a coming war in Germany, that is complete insanity. And that makes all the more important the need to make what I call ‘an intellectual jump,’ to somehow get above the idea of geopolitical confrontation, the Wolfowitz Doctrine in the United States, which says that the United States, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, should maintain its status as number one in all fields, economically, politically, militarily, and ensure that no other country or group of countries surpasses the U.S. power in this respect, which is clearly not possible.
“You cannot try to curb and slow down the Global South. The Global South is now already 70% of the GDP, 88% of the world population. China is rising without any question: Just if you look at the number of new engineering students they are producing every year, it is much more than Germany, Japan, and Italy combined. And that has something to do with China having a population of 1.4 billion people, and they have an economic policy which is set on innovation, the injection of the most advanced technologies all the time.
“So, I think a little bit of realism would be required. And the only way how we will get out of this, is we have to get enough support for the idea that we need a new world order which allows for the wellbeing and survival of every single nation on the planet, and that means nothing else than that Europe and the United States should find a way of cooperating with the Global Majority. In my view, that is the only thing which will solve this problem. I know that the entire military-industrial complex is completely going in a different direction, but that is the problem we have. And I’m absolutely certain that if we are not capable of giving ourselves a new order in the tradition of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended 150 years of religious warfare in Europe, because everybody was convinced, that if they would continue the war, nobody would be left alive to enjoy a victory. And in the time of thermonuclear weapons, that is more true than ever.
“So the short answer to your question is, help us to organize such an international security and development architecture, starting with conferences. We have to introduce this subject in universities, in think tanks, among groups of countries, but we have to start to discuss it, and think about implementing it in earnest.”
In a world burdened with too many strategic miscalculations, here’s a strategic calculation: Perhaps democracy doesn’t have any value unless people take themselves seriously—and also do the more difficult work, of dealing with others seriously. Here is the full webcast, “Peace Requires a New Strategic Architecture: If We Unite We Can Move Mountains.”
