Video of the opening remarks of the panel is available here.
The 62nd consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) was convened today, an extraordinary forum featuring several prominent speakers, with approximately 550 participants in attendance. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened with a strategic update, noting the significance of the recent statement by Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, that the era of unilateral concessions by Russia is over. The August 5 incursion by Ukraine into Russia’s Kursk region clearly required the support of NATO, and represents an extremely dangerous escalation.
Zepp-LaRouche raised the question of whether Iran is going to retaliate for the two recent assassinations by Israel. Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has visited Iran, reportedly delivering a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering to mediate and urging restraint. Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants of the recent article in Foreign Policy which posed the policy option of a U.S. assassination of President Putin, saying, “I find this a complete breech of all diplomatic order among nations.” She described the intensive harassment of dissident figures in the U.S., including the FBI raid on the home of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, and the Transportation Security Administration’s treatment of former Congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, as effectively a terrorist suspect. “There is an effort to completely muzzle any criticism of these war policies,” Zepp-LaRouche said, and reiterated her calls for a new security and development architecture and a Council of Reason.
Col. (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, delivered an impassioned warning about the threat of nuclear war, “the principal, existential threat in the world today.” He said we have suffered from “extremely poor leadership from all three branches of our government.” Putting it in historical context, he said that hundreds of empires have come and gone during the 5,000 year sweep of modern history, but only the American empire, from 1945 to present day, remains. All the others are gone. None previously had developed the technology to destroy everything. A single submarine today carries enough missiles to destroy the world as we know it. Over the past 22 years we, the United States, have destroyed most of the treaties designed to reduce the danger of nuclear war, and we have fallen into the habit of “sponsoring horrific and pointless wars.” “I probably should stop and offer some hope—it’s difficult for me to do,” he said; “The answer is democracy,” a concept he described as “weary, heavily fatigued.” He prescribed that Americans must protest, protest some more, reject “cultish political movements,” and agitate constantly for the reduction of the hundreds of overseas bases: “It is contaminating the fabric of our nation to be out there in such a way.” He concluded by saying that the “pariah state of Israel … must be brought kicking and screaming” into agreements to ban nuclear weapons.
Dennis Kucinich, former, Congressman, Mayor of Cleveland, presidential candidate, and now independent congressional candidate, stated that “World War III is already happening on the installment plan…. The ‘thought forms’ that bring us war have overwhelmed common sense.” “The one thing I know from 16 years in Congress” he said, is that General Smedley Butler was right when he said that “war is a racket.” The fact that we are still talking about nuclear weapons as a policy option “shows how deracinated the moment is.” Kucinich concluded by calling upon activists to “arouse the people and let them know of the challenge of the moment,” in order to stop “this very sordid dance with death.”
Zepp-LaRouche thanked the two previous speakers and called for optimism, reminding everyone that Gottfried Leibniz said that every evil causes the potential for an even greater good to emerge. She said voices such as theirs, coming from the U.S., bring hope to the world.
Israeli peace activist Dr. Gershon Baskin insisted that “There is not now, nor has there ever been, a military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” “We are dealing with two extremely traumatized societies today” he said, and yet “this whole thing could end in a matter of weeks.” He added that both sides need new leadership, and “the United States has proven to be the worst mediator in the history of the Middle East conflict.” “This must be the last war!” he demanded, calling for a regional solution to bring security and development to both sides.
Jack Gilroy of Veterans For Peace (VFP), Pax Christi, and Ban Killer Drones, reported that VFP wants to “Get our people into the streets,” and expressed strong support for students, who will soon be returning to campuses from summer vacation, who are pushing for divestment in Israel, as well as State Department leaders who are resigning in protest. He reminded participants that VFP has prepared a letter which says that under international law, you must not deliver weapons to regimes that violate human rights. They tried to deliver this letter to the heads of General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin (“Lockheed Martin makes the Hellfire missile, just a few miles away from Disney World”), and BAE.
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and cofounder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), brought up the persecution of his courageous colleague and fellow anti-war activist, Scott Ritter. McGovern quoted Thomas Aquinas, who said that courage is the basis of all other virtues, and that anger can also be a virtue (because it looks at the good of justice). In the discussion, Zepp-LaRouche disagreed, saying that “Anger is not a virtue, anger is very problematic,” and asserted that agape is a better emotion. Later, McGovern explained that he was only advocating a moderate sort of anger, further quoting Aquinas that “Unreasoned patience sows the seeds of vice.”
McGovern posed the ominous question: “Will Israel use a nuclear weapon in extremis?” He suggested that they probably will, quoting an Israeli officer who said that “Our armed forces have the capability to take the world down with us.” He concluded by saying, “We can’t let Scott Ritter just stand out there uniquely, practicing the virtue of courage.”
Steve Leeper, Chairman of Peace Culture Village, is the former chairman of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, and former U.S. representative of Mayors for Peace. He said, “The global power hierarchy is shifting,” and made an analogy to the animal kingdom, saying that even with chimpanzees and dogs, when the alpha power weakens, there is an increase in violence. He said that it is problematic that peace groups compete instead of cooperating. “Warriors are far better at cooperating than we are.” He added that “The most vulnerable pressure point” on the body of the war industry is nuclear weapons, which must be banned in order “to graduate to a peace culture.” That one step will open the door to all other avenues of cooperation. He recommended that we find ways to unite the various peace organizations, and raise enough funds to spend $10-15 million a year on producing short videos and other activities to persuade the public.
Steven Starr, a senior scientist and nuclear war expert, who teaches at the University of Missouri, continued his series of presentations on the devastating effects of nuclear war. He showed photos of the aftereffects of the bombs dropped on Japan, which produced a firestorm of 15 square miles, warning that the next generation of thermonuclear weapons could produce one much larger, 152 square miles, and that today we have nuclear warheads so large that they could create a firestorm of 6,500 square miles.
J.R. Heffelfinger, director of the film, 8:15 Hiroshima, presented the trailer to his film, saying, “We are certainly on a march of folly.”
During the discussion, Zepp-LaRouche endorsed Dr. Leeper’s proposals for action, and emphasized the need to offer actual solutions to create the basis for peace and to “catapult this into the general discussion.” She reminded the participants of Lyndon LaRouche’s proposed Oasis Plan, which is needed to bring development and hope for a better future to the region.
Questions and comments came from around the globe:
Former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar said, “The crisis that we are facing in the world today is a reflection of the decadence of the system we are living in.” He called the situation in Gaza “A level of inhumanity that I have never seen before.”
A Colombian activist suggested that violent video games are contributing to the culture of war.
An activist from Qatar cited a report from Middle East Monitor, which said that the tonnage of bombs dropped on Gaza was six times greater than that dropped on Hiroshima. She warned that impunity for Israel will encourage other states to engage in similar crimes.
A video prepared by the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence in Iran was shown, which cited the legal basis for finding Israel guilty of war crimes.
Zepp-LaRouche said we must operate on two levels: we must build mass movements bigger than those in the 80s, plus we must create her proposed Council of Reason. For the Council, she offered historical precedents: the Council of Florence, the Peace of Westphalia, and the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa. We require a concept that solves all the crises at the same time, addressing the systemic nature of the crises. She reminded the audience of her ten principles of a new security and development architecture, of which the final three address the method of thinking required. The final and most provocative principle is that man is good by nature, and all evil is a lack of development, which can be repaired by more development. She observed that the James Webb telescope found 2 trillion galaxies, so it is ridiculous to speak of limits to either resources or human knowledge. Finally, she reiterated her support for the Muzaffar initiative, and urged the participants to “be courageous, and be loving.”
