The Lead
What Is True Power?
by Megan Dobrodt (EIRNS) — Mar. 17, 2026
On March 17, 1776, 120 British ships carrying 11,000 troops and many loyalists besides, evacuated Boston Harbor after an eleven-month siege, under the steady gaze of the heavy cannons installed by General Washington and Henry Knox on Dorchester Heights. The mightiest empire on the planet had been driven out of Boston by the seemingly weaker forces of the American Continental Army, a demonstration that it is principle, and not force, that ultimately governs human events.
It is urgent that the spirit of that first Evacuation Day, the sense of victory over colonialism, be restored in the United States—as it is actively taking root in nations of the Global South—before the U.S., and thus the world, finds itself lurching into nuclear World War III.
The sense of both concern and outrage around the illegal U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is growing both inside the United States and out. Over the past few days, voices from inside the Catholic Church in Europe and the U.S. have echoed Pope Leo XIV in denouncing the illegal and brutal nature of the war. Within the Trump administration itself, the façade is beginning to crumble. On Tuesday, Joe Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, resigned, stating in his letter to President Trump, “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation…. Until June 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation…. I cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.”
The hysteria in response to Kent’s resignation is telling. Trump, flailing about in answers to the press, remarked, “When I read his statement I realized, it’s a good thing that he’s out, because he said ‘Iran is not a threat’.... [W]hen somebody is working with us that says they didn’t think Iran was a threat, we don’t want those people.” Truth, and the U.S. intelligence community’s own assessment, be damned. Others, from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, tripped over themselves to denounce Kent’s action.
Panic from the war party—and the Epstein class from which it comes—is only increasing as the U.S. finds itself more and more isolated. Trump’s insistence that other nations help to secure the Strait of Hormuz by sending military escorts for commercial ships has met with a resounding and nearly unanimous statement from all quarters of the world: “This is not our war.” Iran has also made clear that it is not interested in further negotiations with the U.S., nor a temporary ceasefire. “We will end this war when we guarantee that it will not be repeated, and that requires a decisive and final conclusion to the war,” warned Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on March 15.
Turn to an important op-ed in Global Times published March 17, which focuses on how China contributes to global peace and stability. “China does not export crises, shift contradictions, or rely on aggressive tactics to compete for interests,” the op-ed states. “Instead, it focuses on stabilizing its own path and managing its own affairs well, providing the world with more certainty, more opportunities, and more confidence.” Ironically, the foreign policy described, whose premise is confidence in its own domestic development, was once the proudest policy of the United States when it went “not abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” but instead offered a “beacon of liberty” to inspire the world by its own harmonious development, as President and patriot John Quincy Adams so beautifully championed.
The approach of putting the development of all mankind first and locating the role of the nation in advancing that within that top-down context is the mode of conduct which, because it is coherent with natural law, must govern the next phase of human development. This is the basis on which Helga Zepp-LaRouche has issued an urgent and repeated call for nations to convene for the establishment of a new security and development architecture to replace the collapsing system of geopolitics, and has also called on citizens around the world to take the responsibility to move such a conference onto the agenda.
In the United States, independent candidate for President Diane Sare, along with Congressional candidate Jose Vega and many others, are stepping up to take up the leadership needed to restore the United States’ true, anti-colonial mission. In a statement, “Is the Epstein Class Planning a New 9/11 To Justify Dropping a Nuclear Bomb?” Sare writes, “We find it tragic that in 2026, when our nation should be celebrating the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, we are instead threatening to bring on nuclear Armageddon and the end of civilization in the spirit of that very British Empire from which we intended to liberate the world.” Her statement is currently gathering endorsements from candidates around the nation, and Sare and others will hold a press conference on Wednesday, March 18, to call on more U.S. whistleblowers to step forward.
As was proven on March 17, 1776 and as is being proven by the burgeoning, new, post-colonial paradigm now taking hold around the world, it is the “weak force” of principle that holds power in the universe, not the pyrrhic might of the stronger. Step up now and act in that spirit and we just may ensure the permanent evacuation of empire from the stage of human history.
Contents
LaRouche movement
- Press Conference To Call on More U.S. Whistleblowers To Step Forward! (↓)
- Next EIR: Armageddon As Policy (↓)
U.S. and Canada
- Joe Kent Bombshell Resignation Over Iran War (↓)
- Hysteria Over Kent Resignation Shows Fragility of Iran War Policy (↓)
- Trump Visit to China Likely Postponed (↓)
Strategic War Danger
- Israel Assassinates Iran's Security Chief in Decapitation Strike (↓)
- Iranians Say It's the US Requesting Talks (↓)
- Experts Assert That Hegseth's ‘No Quarter’ Statement Is a War Crime (↓)
New World Paradigm
- How China Contributes to World Peace and Stability (↓)
- ‘Scientists for Peace’: Vatican Academy Issues Global Call to Action (↓)
Collapsing Imperial System
Harley Schlanger Update
Watch The Daily Update with Harley Schlanger, a short video update available every weekday morning from The LaRouche Organization.
