March 22, 2024 (EIRNS)—The following is a slightly edited version of the opening remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche to the 42nd weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on March 22:
I think all thinking people are aware of the fact that the war danger is accelerating at an incredible speed. It’s almost impossible to think where to start with the evolving crises of humanity in which we find ourselves. Not only do we have an increasing danger of a NATO versus Russia war coming almost around the corner; a worsening of the situation with China; but also, you have these unbelievable humanitarian crises which are killing people by the hundreds of thousands. That is, naturally, Gaza, Haiti, and Sudan. To say that humanity finds itself in an extraordinary crisis is a very mild way of describing it. That is why we have formulated a statement which we want to present today, because we want—if you agree—to use that as a device of mobilization and contacting as many people, organizations, institutions, and elected officials as we possibly can. Because I think if we don’t change the present course of events, I think we are heading straight into a disaster, a road of no return.
I think it’s difficult to say which crisis is worse, because all have the potential of going completely out of control. The situation around Ukraine is clearly moving towards a point of some change, as General Kujat said already in August 2023, that when it is clear that the Ukrainians cannot win—and that is becoming very clear—that NATO will be before a decision to either go for diplomatic negotiations or to escalate.
Right now, it is as if sheer madness, insanity has gripped the minds of many leaders in the West, that they want to go for the confrontation. This is reflected in the fact that despite the fact that Chancellor Scholz still is holding out (fortunately) by not agreeing to send the Taurus cruise missiles, that does not prevent the opposition and even parts of his own coalition from keeping up the drumbeat to get the Taurus sent. This would not be a game-changer as much as no other weapon has been or will be a game-changer, because if the entire Ukrainian population is weakened to the point that they cannot keep fighting, no weapon in the world will make the difference. But that does not prevent people from escalating.
Macron’s also incomprehensibly crazy statement to send French troops on the ground into Ukraine; the Deputy Chair of the Duma, Pyotr Tolstoy, basically made a very tough blunt remark saying that if these French soldiers come to Ukraine, they will suffer the same fate as Napoleon’s army. If you remember, an army of several hundred thousand was diminished to a few dozen miserable people at the end of Napoleon’s campaign. And not much better was the fate of the Reichswehr who tried to get into Russian territory. So, it is very clear that the Russians are right now evoking that picture of these two major campaigns which ended with a crushing defeat of those invaders.
NATO seems to be dead-set committed to escalate. There is right now a huge NATO delegation in Kyiv, meeting with the Kyiv government. But also there is a Kyiv security forum where a whole bunch of other top-level former officials—Van Rompuy, Barroso, Lady Ashton, and various other EU officials—are participating. Adm. Rob Bauer, head of the NATO Military Committee, said that NATO and Ukraine have never been closer, we are almost integrated. So, this is really clearly reaching a threshold, and nobody is talking about diplomacy.
We were very close to a diplomatic solution in March 2022, and the war could have ended right there, but then Boris Johnson, who should be blamed and discussed more as a warmonger—nobody is discussing that. He smashed this opportunity, and now we are inch by inch moving to World War III. The same Pyotr Tolstoy said that the French are provoking World War III by doing that. I think that we are really sitting on the verge of a terrible catastrophe of humanity.
It’s incomprehensible! The Germans, at the end of the Second World War, said “Never again!” and never again should war proceed from German soil. It seems that the takeover of several institutions in Germany by the Atlanticists is so complete that the entire history seems to be forgotten. This is unbelievable! The Germans, who had not the only guilt, but they had a large part of the guilt of what happened in the Second World War and the atrocities around it, and they seem to have forgotten all of that. In light of the German guilt—and they did have this guilt—it was incredibly generous that the Soviets or the Russians at the end of the Soviet Union agreed to a peaceful German unification. That also seems to be forgotten.
You have some revanchists today who say that it was the Ostpolitik of Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr that would have led to Putin’s invasion into Ukraine. It’s so unbelievable what people tolerate. And if you criticize that, you are immediately putting yourself at risk of being ostracized, of being attacked with all kinds of things. It is unbelievable!
So, a change is necessary. The only force which seems to be moving in the direction of a diplomatic solution is China. But it’s finding very little response from the forces in the West.
Equally upsetting is the situation in Gaza, where according to all reports by the UN, the dying is reaching 500 people a day because of lack of food, because of disease. Netanyahu is supposedly saying that the invasion of Rafah will occur sooner or later, that tactic diplomacy, but no effective intervention is occurring at this point.
So, I think we need an extraordinary mobilization of people of good will. It is not the people who want war. If you go in every country and ask the people, “Are you in favor of world war which could annihilate this civilization?” an overwhelming majority naturally would say, “Absolutely not.” But it is the media and what Ray McGovern always calls the MICIMATT structure which makes sure that only the warmongers are being heard on the TV and radio. We have to somehow find a way of countering that, and putting solutions on the table; because these solutions do exist.
We will soon have our Oasis Plan conference for Southwest Asia, which is getting a lot of very positive resonance; especially from forces from the region. And we absolutely need to have a New Paradigm, because if there is any lesson to be learned from the Peace of Westphalia, it is that if you continue a war beyond a certain point, there is nobody left alive to enjoy the victory. That is the reason the people in the Peace of Westphalia came together and agreed on the principles which are the foundation for international law. We are now at a point where nobody will win a victory in this crisis. Therefore, we need some approach like the Peace of Westphalia, the new international security and development architecture which would include the interests of every single country on the planet, both security interests but also development interests.
If we cannot get to such an approach, I am afraid that we may not live very long. So, I think we should really take this resolution, and then we should use that to really go into an all-out mobilization to awaken people and make sure that this policy is changed.
