As of the beginning of the sixth week of warfare by the United States and Israel against Iran, their respective military operations titled “Epic (Epstein) Fury” and “Roaring Lion,” are clearly seen as a combined Operation “Stone Age,” from the predictable escalation of their bombings and attacks currently underway. The impact is escalating worldwide as well, in terms of disruption of fuel, chemicals, food, transportation, and means of life for hundreds of millions of people.
U.S. President Donald Trump boasted of the United States’ capacity for destruction in his broadcast address to the nation on April 1, saying he could, “bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages,” if he wanted to.
On April 2, U.S.-Israeli forces bombed the new “B1” suspension bridge in northern Iran, which opened in 2023, as the tallest in Southwestern Asia. The weapons split the bridge span in two, killing people in the hit, and more people in the double tap. Another dramatic bombing in the past two days hit the Pasteur Institute in Tehran. Established in 1920, it is the oldest health and medical research centers in Iran, and all of the region.
These two bombings come amidst thousands of other attacks from drones and air strikes. Nationwide, according to the latest report of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, covering the damage over the past five weeks, “115,193 civilian units, including 91,498 homes and 22,580 commercial facilities, have suffered severe damage or been completely destroyed.”
At the same time, Iran continues its defense. Early Friday, April 3, a U.S. F-15 E fighter jet was shot down in southwestern Iran, near the top of the Persian Gulf. U.S. forces report they have rescued one of the two crew members of the plane, while still searching for the other. Meantime, a second U.S. aircraft was downed by Iran, reportedly part of the search effort, with the pilot ejecting outside Iran territory.
What we are seeing is how the U.S. has turned into a hegemon, completely relying on force. Trump posted on Truth Social today, “Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” he said. “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!”
The U.S. stance was described by Russian senior diplomat Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov in a TASS interview out on April 3: “The emphasis on exclusivity, hegemonism, and the use of force is absolute in Washington’s current policy. This is one of the reasons why the world is being shaken by one crisis after another….”
Moreover, the U.S. war machine is claiming divine approval for its use of force to kill and destroy. At the April 1 White House Easter lunch, attended by President Trump, Pastor Paula White-Cain, Senior Adviser to the White House Faith Office, likened Trump to Jesus. Describing how they both had travails, she intoned to Trump: “Because He rose, we all know we can rise, and, Sir, because of His resurrection you rose up. Because He was victorious, you were victorious. And I believe that the Lord said to tell you this: Because of His victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hand to.”
Within hours afterward, the White House website took down their coverage of White-Cain and all the other speeches at the event, posting “page not available,” but the stance is clear. It is the same as repeatedly displayed by self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who also posted this week about blasting Iran back to the “Stone Age.” On April 2, he peremptorily ousted from office three top Army officers, which has the strong odor—though details are not public—of eliminating opposition to his claims that “God is with us,” and destruction is noble. Note that one of them removed from office on April 2 is Major General William “Bill” Green, Chief of Chaplains of the U.S. Army’s Chaplains. He is an endorsed minister of the National Baptist Convention of the U.S.A.
There is no placating this madness. It must be stopped. At today’s International Peace Coalition—the 148 consecutive Friday session—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, initiator of the IPC and leader of the Schiller institute, called on collaborators internationally to mobilize enough political forces to defeat the war drive. She said, it can be done. That is the purpose of the emergency dialogue set for April 6, hosted by this EIR News Service as its third online roundtable this year.
Pope Leo XIV has over this Holy Week raised the urgency of ending the warfare and acting for peace, in repeated ways since March 29 Palm Sunday, when he stated, God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” Today, Good Friday, he spoke by phone with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, and Ukraine’s acting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling for them to conduct diplomatic solutions to the warfare they are waging.
Importantly, in the United States, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who heads up the Catholic chaplains across all the U.S. military, has spoken out, raising the issue of the Pope’s call for negotiation for peace, as specifically differentiated from the justification for war given by Defense Secretary Hegseth. Broglio was asked about this for a CBS News interview that will air on Easter Sunday, April 5. Broglio was formerly President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose current President, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, issued a statement on April 1, 2026 for “an effective dialogue that leads to a ceasefire and a negotiated end to the conflict with Iran.”
Now is the time to endorse and circulate the letter issued March 9 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who “Calls On Pope Leo XIV To Intervene on the Level of Nicholas of Cusa.”
Attend the EIR Emergency Roundtable on April 6.
Zepp-LaRouche ended her remarks at today’s IPC discussion, with what she called, “her Easter message”: “I can only say, you have to try to evoke the very best inside your own soul you ever have been thinking about, and make that grow, and make it become a force of political intervention. Because only if we mobilize the best in all of humanity to act together right now, do we have a chance to stop this catastrophe. So those are my words for Easter.”
