The 147th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) commenced with a tour d’horizon by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. “The situation is still one of utmost suspense,” she said, noting that U.S. President Donald Trump has twice delayed his ultimatum on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure. After Trump twice used negotiations as a pretext to prepare for an attack, there is little trust in his proclamations. Up to 7,000 additional U.S. troops will soon be in the region, indicating a possible ground invasion and a massive escalation of the conflict. The “decapitation” strategy has failed; the Iranian government remains firmly in control. Countries around the world are affected by skyrocketing oil prices, as the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. Ambassador Abolfazl Pasandideh, who represents the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mexico, has proposed in a recent presentation to the IPC to return to the idea of a dialogue of civilizations. This was counterposed to Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations, which proposed Islam as a new enemy image to replace communism after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Zepp-LaRouche called attention to an extended Oasis Plan, proposed not just for Israel and Palestine, but for the region as a whole, and for the benefit of the many nations from Afghanistan on the east to Africa on the west which have been devastated by neocon operations over the past 25 years. The region can once again become the hub between three continents, she said.
Domestically, “Trump is confronted with a complete crumbling of support inside the United States,” noted Zepp-LaRouche. There is a wide discrepancy between what the public was given as the reason for this war against Iran and what members of Congress are being told in briefings. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is a shining example of a European statesman with the courage to oppose the war.
U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret.) Dennis Fritz of the Eisenhower Media Network observed that we keep hearing that this war started in 1979, but it actually started in 1953 with the coup against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. We also supported Iraq in the Iraq-Iran War. The United States and Israel are the greatest sponsors of terrorism, said Fritz. We attacked Iran in the midst of negotiations twice. Does Iran have the right to defend itself? They will never give up ballistic missiles, because those are the basis for Iran’s national security. Iran warned us that they would close the Strait of Hormuz if attacked.
Fritz then introduced the next speaker, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Brian McGinnis, saying that “they thanked him for his service by breaking his arm.”
McGinnis is a retired Marine and current Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, who had his arm broken by U.S. Capitol Police and Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy as they attempted to forcibly remove him from a recent congressional hearing. He said he was honored to be introduced by Fritz. McGinnis went on to say that money laundering has been intrinsic to the wars of the past 25 years. He urged that we continue to expose the “Greater Israel” project. “Our government is leading us in a direction that is sacrificing our moral high ground,” he concluded.
‘Pangs of Conscience’ Will Haunt Their Lives
Zepp-LaRouche responded by expressing her “deep, heartfelt gratitude” to Fritz and McGinnis. Co-moderator Dennis Speed reported that other people from the military who are candidates for office in the United States are saying that they refuse to be associated with the administration’s criminal policies. “This may be the fastest way to send up an S.O.S. to the rest of the world,” she said. Moderator Anastasia Battle added that whistleblower Lt. Col. (ret.) Anthony Aguilar, U.S. Army, had said that the girls’ school in Minab, Iran, was targeted intentionally for a missile attack, to harm the morale of the girls’ parents, many of whom are Iranian government officials. Fritz said that our military is imitating the policies of the Israel Defense Forces, and our Secretary of Defense is encouraging our troops to violate the basic rules of war. They will live with this for the rest of their lives, afflicted with PTSD in addition to their pangs of conscience.
Paul Gallagher, co-editor of Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), had sent a video message in which he reported on how he is investigating the request by the Trump administration for an additional $200-$250 billion for the Iran war. The persistent decline in U.S. manufacturing productivity is to be corrected by a huge slush fund for military production. The plan is being run by 30 top investment bankers, who are being paid salaries of $300,000-$500,000 a year. We now have a military-industrial-financial complex, indeed, said Gallagher, but this has little to do with the Iran War; it is intended instead to produce new “War Unicorn” companies for new “kill technologies” toward eventually confronting China.
Eduardo Gabriel Fernández is a graduate of the Advanced Course in National Defense and a member of the General Jorge Edgar Leal Observatory on Argentine Sovereignty. He reported that the current government of Argentina is reviving the policies of the military dictatorship which ruled from 1976 to 1983—after the overthrow of President Isabel Perón’s government, a trend which is being protested in the streets by the people of Argentina. He is circulating among bishops in Argentina Zepp-LaRouche’s open letter calling on Pope Leo XIV to intervene on the level of the 15th-Century’s Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, and one of them has agreed to present it to the entire Bishops’ Conference there.
Schiller Institute organizer Tim Rush offered a report on organizing by citizen activists, who visited 390 offices at the U.S. Congress. Congressmen are conditioned to discuss issues in a binary for-or-against fashion, and they are unprepared for the IPC’s approach of posing solutions which lift the discussion to a higher vantage point.
An Appeal to the Human Soul
Zepp-LaRouche expressed the hope that our appeal to the human soul can become stronger than the war machine. “I believe that the true nature of man is beautiful, is positive,” she said, and reminded the participants that a nuclear war would not merely annihilate the presently living generations, but also all the scientific and cultural achievements of all the prior generations.
Dennis Fritz agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that it is the economic success of China, based on the successful application of the policies advocated by Alexander Hamilton, that has made them into an adversary in the eyes of our present political leadership.
Zepp-LaRouche described how Nicholas of Cusa was conscious of the fact that he had found a unique and unprecedented mode of thinking: humans, in the image of the Creator, can resolve conflicts by ascending to a higher level of reason than the level which gave rise to the conflict. Pope Leo XIV has called attention to this as well. She contrasted this to the Jeffrey Epstein Class, comprising people who feel that there are no limits or constraints on their power, whose lusts become increasingly perverse. These are not happy people; they have lost their souls.
Final Thoughts
Brian McGinnis described as “riveting” the idea that the United States could pivot away from the destruction in the Middle East, to the regional development and “greening of the desert” promised by the Oasis Plan.
Dennis Fritz indicted the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) for being the impetus for the wars against both Iraq and Iran. He praised the interventions of Jose Vega, an independent candidate for Congress from New York’s 15th District in the South Bronx, and Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war organization CODEPINK; he said that the latter had “beaten down Cory Booker [U.S. Senator from New Jersey] so bad” that he will no longer accept money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Zepp-LaRouche concluded by saying, “The issue of the One Humanity has to become our battle cry.” Trump, if he is to be believed, has announced in his latest ultimatum that April 6 is his new deadline for capitulation by Iran, and we have chosen that date for our next EIR Emergency Roundtable online event. She asked all participants to please work to maximize worldwide participation.
