The Lead

Nuclear War? No, We Were Born for Something Better

by David Shavin (EIRNS) — Mar. 13, 2024

March 13, 2024 (EIRNS)—Will the world survive the persistent epidemic of political mediocrities heading most Western governments? If you have become conditioned to accept small-minded and pathetic behavior from your leaders, is there a day of reckoning in your near future?

France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Feb. 26 attempted to stampede European nations into sending the troops of NATO nations into Ukraine to fight Russia, a flight-forward into a thermonuclear showdown. Previously, Macron, for all his faults, had not been among the top three most bellicose Western heads of state. France’s Marianne weekly usefully published a report on three highly secretive defense intelligence documents addressing the West’s disaster in Ukraine, which they offer as at the root of Macron’s panic. The surprise is not that the intelligence concluded that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was a failure, that Ukraine could not win, that Western military planning was “disastrous,” that the West’s insistence on more fighting would be “the most serious error of analysis and judgment,” or that Russia’s military knew what they were doing. (One report warned about sending French troops against such a military: “Make no mistake, up against the Russians, we are an army of cheerleaders!") Nor is it that Ukraine’s counteroffensive had “tactically destroyed” half of Kiev’s 12 combat brigades, and Kiev had no way to recruit enough fresh bodies. (Another report stated: “The West can provide 3D printers to manufacture drones or loitering munitions, but will never be able to print men.") The surprise is that some in French military intelligence refused to drink the Kool-Aid and, instead, reported the obvious.

At this point, a semi-competent leader of a nation would obviously stop and ask the Kremlin what were the unaddressed security concerns that caused them to go into Ukraine. However, a small-minded poseur is more likely to panic into a flight-forward mode—not a good thing in a world of nuclear weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to a question today—”It seems that both superpowers, Russia and the U.S.A., are playing … the ‘chicken game.’ … Is the collision imminent?”—by saying that the “boots on the ground” in Ukraine, such as those called for by Macron, means a direct confrontation. He then calmly stated that Russia’s “Our nuclear triad is more advanced than any other” country’s, that they are in “approximate parity” with the U.S., but have a more modern system. “Everyone knows it, all experts do.” But “escalation is not predetermined.” He held out that “I have said that Mr Biden is a representative of the traditional school and this is proved,” and so, assumedly, he doesn’t have to be stampeded by the warmongers. “But we are ready for it. I have said many times that it is a matter of life and death for us.”

Putin was very forthcoming on what he considered the underlying strategic problem, from over 500 years of colonialism: Now, Asia, Africa and South America have started to “associate our struggle for our independence and true sovereignty with their aspirations for their own sovereignty and independent development. But this is aggravated by the fact that there is a very strong desire in Western elites to freeze the current unjust state of affairs in international affairs. They’ve spent centuries filling their bellies with human flesh and their pockets with money. But they must realize that the vampire ball is ending.” Later he stressed, “It was then that they—those who are slightly smarter than others—started to think that the policy towards the Russian Federation has to be changed. It was then that the idea to resume the negotiation process, to find ways to end this conflict … appeared.”

The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, also weighed in today on the reality of nuclear war. He not only defended Pope Francis’ description of a turn in Ukraine toward negotiations with Russia as being courageous, but proceeded to locate the reality of the Pope’s comments: The “Holy See is concerned about the risk of a widening of the war” in Ukraine. “The escalation of the conflict, the outbreak of new armed clashes, and the arms race are dramatic and disturbing signs in this regard…. The risk of a fatal ‘drift’ towards nuclear war is a real one.”

Meanwhile, U.S. President Biden is worried that, given Israel’s ugly killings in Gaza and now the reality of vast starvation, he won’t be re-elected. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu did his best impression of “Hitler in the bunker” yesterday, with his rant before an AIPAC convention in Washington, before what used to be unquestioning supporters of all-things Israel. He declared that there was “no other option but total victory,” wiping out every last remnant of Hamas—even though his own military intelligence has long told him that such an objective is an impossibility. None of the pressure from Israel’s allies “will stop us.” He demanded his audience toe his line 100%. “[Y]ou cannot say you support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself and then oppose Israel when it exercises that right.… You cannot say you support Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, and then oppose Israel when it takes the actions necessary to achieve that goal.” Does Biden know how to deal with a “Hitler in the bunker,” and one holding nuclear weapons?

So, why is the Western world suffering from this widespread and possibly fatal infection of mediocrities? The former British Ambassador Craig Murray, in his “The Panic of the Ruling Class,” usefully identified a weak flank in those Western elites. When an outbreak of common sense is threatened—such as basing the creation of credit upon agricultural, industrial and scientific projects—that threatens the “vampire’s ball,” the vampires hurl the invective “anti-Semite.” This operation has controlled the U.S. population for decades, as when the name “LaRouche” is uttered and the victims succumb to nameless fear, for reasons they can’t identify, and causing them to lose control over their thought processes. Further, the invective, in itself, is a slur upon Jews, as they get thrown under the bus of the vampires. Murray’s summary point is that, for all the evil of the mass murder, the “Israeli genocide in Gaza has collapsed this narrative. Too many people have seen the truth on social media. Despite every attempt by the mainstream media to hide, obfuscate or distort, the truth is now out there. The reflex hurling by the Establishment of the `anti-Semitic’ slur at everybody who opposes the genocide—from the United Nations, the International Court of Justice and the Pope down—has finally killed off the power of that slur.”

So, no need to cower or to panic or be small-minded. Calmly study and circulate Congressman Robles’ call to end the danger of nuclear war, also available here in Spanish. Then get happy watching today’s strategic webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “Summoning the Courage To Face the Truth.” Tragedy is when a great moment in history finds a little people, as Friedrich Schiller pungently summarized. Nuclear war is the lawful result of little people. We are born for something better.