There are unusual periods in human history when the entire scope of life-and-death decisions facing Mankind—short-term decisions which will take us either forward towards a new renaissance, or otherwise hurl us into the bowels of hell—are as if telescoped down into a single day. That was the case of Monday, May 6, 2024.
May 6 was the beginning of a two-day state visit to France by Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he offered President Emmanuel Macron a clear vision of economic and political cooperation between the nations of the West and those of the Global South, with the enormous potential for development that implies for all nations.
But Monday was also the day that Russian President Vladimir Putin announced tactical nuclear weapons exercises in response to existential threats to Russia coming from France, the United Kingdom and the U.S. That same day, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the French and British envoys to Moscow and told them in no uncertain terms that if NATO put boots on the ground in Ukraine (as French President Macron has repeatedly proposed to do), or if their long-range missiles were used by Ukraine to strike deep into Russia, including Crimea (as British Foreign Secretary David Cameron bragged would be done), then Russia would strike back against their bases in Ukraine “and beyond.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova further characterized Cameron’s call to arms against Russia as “something absolutely insane.”
The set of Monday messages were of course meant not only for France’s benefit, but for all the NATO-allied nations of the West—and they are producing a kind of extreme strategic whiplash in the West. China and Russia are each responding to the international strategic crisis, and they share a commitment to bringing about a new, win-win shared community of mankind. Putin was newly inaugurated President of Russia on Tuesday, May 7, and he will be traveling to China in the middle of May, probably on May 15-16 according to Kremlin sources.
Reflecting on these developments, Helga Zepp-LaRouche urgently called for the population to act to change the current trajectory towards war. She warned in her May 8 international Dialogue webcast that the strategic crisis is rapidly bringing humanity to the very edge of the abyss, and that a way must be found to catapult the West out of its nuclear war drive before it’s too late. Although Russia has held tactical nuclear military exercises in the past, this is the first time ever that they have been called explicitly in response to strategic military threats coming from the West. NATO is also about to send F-16 combat aircraft to Ukraine, which are nuclear capable and which Russia has repeatedly warned would be shot down, no questions asked. And House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on May 5, that “We can’t let Ukraine fall because if it does, then there’s a significant likelihood that America will have to get into the conflict—not simply with our money, but with our servicewomen and our servicemen.”
We are rapidly approaching a dangerous point of no return, Zepp-LaRouche stressed. The threatened nuclear war over Ukraine is one part of the crisis; and the increasing genocide in Gaza, now with the beginning of an assault on Rafah, is another part of the overall crisis. But you can’t discuss and try to resolve each crisis as such, when the whole world is blowing up, Zepp-LaRouche insisted. The entire paradigm must be radically changed. The LaRouche Oasis Plan for peace and development in the Middle East is one major step in the direction of the needed new international security and development architecture, and must become widely discussed and debated around the world.
“We have reached a point where either the Western leaders are brought to reason, or we are entering World War III,” Zepp-LaRouche stated. The current Establishment is displaying “utter incompetence and delusion, and somehow have the idea that you have to destroy Russia, you have to destroy China for that matter.
“This has to stop! We need a public response from the population, because these leaders, who are clearly minions and dwarves, have no right to lead the world in this direction, which could lead to the annihilation of civilization,” Zepp-LaRouche demanded.
