The Lead

Bringing an End to Destructive Warfare, and Redeeming the United States

by Jason Ross (EIRNS) — Dec. 23, 2023

Countries that have committed great wrongs have had to undergo a process of redemption to regain their moral status in the community of nations. Germany following World War II and South Africa following apartheid come to mind. The United States, by standing essentially alone in the world in support of the barbaric destruction of Gaza by Israel, is consigning itself to an infamy that will outlast—by how long, we wonder—the United States’s profoundly necessary reconciliation.

The United States stands isolated in the United Nations, where a December 12 vote at the General Assembly on a ceasefire in Gaza drew 153 votes in favor, and only 10 opposed, including the U.S., Israel, Taiwan-recognizing Ibero-American nations Guatemala and Paraguay, and Compact of Free Association members Micronesia and Nauru.

The U.S.-led “Prosperity Guardian” operation to fight back against the Houthi-led blockade of Israel’s Red Sea port at Eilat is running into trouble, as the new “coalition of the willing” mostly comprises nations sending only a few officers and no naval assets. Only the U.K. and Greece have committed to join—with one ship each—the U.S.-led military operation. One participant, Seychelles, has not only declined to send any of its half-dozen naval vessels, but has also opted not to send any staff either. But at least Seychelles has provided its name to the venture, which is more than can be said for the ten anonymous members of the coalition, who, if they exist, have not provided even that!

Domestically, the United States, whose elites love to lecture others about “democracy,” is home to numerous efforts to prevent the citizens of the nation from voting for the most popular current candidate, Donald Trump. Colorado’s Supreme Court has banned him from the ballot, while Special Counsel Jack Smith was rejected by the Supreme Court in his efforts to secure a conviction before Election Day.

But this can all be changed! The bloated, wasteful, and deadly industrial component of the U.S. Military-Financial-Industrial Complex can be used to good account, through its conversion to useful production, as discussed in this EIR report.

“It’s not yet too late,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche reminds us in her Christmas message “Turn Swords into Plowshares.” She writes:

We need to replace the war cries for ever “more weapons” with a return to diplomacy and the idea that we can—and must—resolve all conflicts through negotiation, if we are to avoid ending up in global nuclear war and a nuclear winter, which would wipe out all memory of humanity’s existence.

Instead of the greed of the speculators of the MIFC, Wall Street, and the City of London, whose high rates of profit rely on taxpayer money pouring into new wars, we must defend the existential interest of the population: The interests of farmers, small and medium-sized businesses, train drivers, bakers, etc.

Swords to plowshares!

We are many, they are few!

For cooperation with the nations of the Global South!

The countries of Anglo-American NATO must atone for their foolishness and recognize their true self-interest in acting for the good, for a new world paradigm consonant with the uniquely creative nature of the human species.