March 14, 2024 (EIRNS)—Here is the transcript of the Schiller Institute video from the International Peace Coalition meeting, March 8, 2024:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche: [Founder of the Schiller Institute, Germany] Let me all greet you and express my gratitude that so many experts are on this call because, I think a few thinking people in various parts of the world are getting really, extremely concerned about the fact that we are closer to nuclear war than at any time in history before. And given the breathtaking irrationality of many Western leaders, it is requiring an extraordinary effort of the International Peace Coalition and other peace movements, which we have to unite, to really get a change in the situation. First of all, we have the ongoing NATO maneuver, Steadfast Defender. This is 90,000 NATO troops deployed already now since February into May, exercising for the first time the idea that there is an attack by Russia on a NATO country, and large numbers of troops are being moved in this maneuver. There is a Russian publication which comments on that, saying that such maneuvers give a very good cover and a pretext for an actual attack, so in that sense, we are in a heightened alert situation for that reason. And the same goes, naturally, for the overall strategic situation, where the idea to have an international security and development architecture on the international agenda, which would take into account the interest of every single country on the planet, that is also coming more and more into the discussion because, as you will hear in a few minutes, a congressman from Mexico has made a very important speech with exactly that demand.
So I will stop here, at this point, but I can only say we are in a situation where we could lose civilization at any moment—it is that tense, and I think the discrepancy between what we know is going on, and what the awareness of the population is, there couldn’t be a greater gulf. And that is what we have to urgently remedy, and get people mobilized to change the policy, into a new paradigm, for a shared community of the one future of humanity, because that’s what we have: We are one humanity, sitting in one boat, and if this goes wrong, there is nobody going to be left to discuss why. That is why we have to increase our efforts tremendously.
Thank you.
Col. Richard A. Black (ret.): [Former head of the U.S. Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon, former Virginia State Senator] The writing is on the wall: Ukraine is a slaughterhouse. They’re losing the war, and the time is now that NATO, if they want to do something, they’re going to have to step in and do it themselves. Keep in mind that there are a tremendous number of people in all NATO’s countries, whose lives and reputation, whose family wealth, depends on war-connected activities, and they do not intend to let Ukraine go down.
So it’s an extremely dangerous time. We need to do whatever we can to resist the possibility of American and NATO troops becoming directly involved in the Ukraine war to a greater extent than they already have. Thank you.
Lt. Col. Ulrich Scholz (ret.): [Former NATO officer, former Tornado pilot, Germany] What I think is the war has to end, because it’s leading nowhere. On the very first day it was leading nowhere. Now, the question is, really, why do they keep on doing it? And for me, I would say, it’s a face-saving exercise now. They want to get out, but they don’t know how.
And the poor Ukrainians, I think, nobody is asking them, because officially we have their President, who is always very belligerent, but how do the Ukrainians feel? So, I think they are exhausted, and they are bled out, and I think just from this point of view, whoever is going to win on the political end, whoever is going to win, the Ukrainians are going to lose. So, I think this is the issue, that we somehow get talks, in Türkiye or wherever, where we can find, in the area of both sides, the West and Russia, we come to an area where we have common interests. I think that’s just diplomacy: Look for an area where we have common interests, and then focus on that one, and stop the shooting. That’s the only way to get out of it.
Graham Fuller: [former U.S. diplomat, CIA analyst, and Islamic scholar] As long as the United States simply cannot face the reality that it is no longer able to call the shots in the world, then we are still faced with a very dangerous situation. It’s almost like a tired boxer, who insists on climbing back into the ring, and showing that he can still fight and still be number one. It’s harsh to say that, but I fear that that is the reality at this point. Perhaps the truth in the United States is slowly sinking in, with the rise of China and the rise of the BRICS powers and the Global South; maybe it’s gradually sinking in. But it cannot happen too soon, because otherwise we are in a very dangerous game of “chicken” in Ukraine, with the United States determined to prove that its side will win.
And I hope, if some kind of voice of rationality can emerge at the end, and bring this war to a close, this could, hopefully, influence other very ugly and tragic situations, like the one in Palestine and Gaza, today. Thank you.
Prof. Richard Sakwa: [British political scientist, former professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent, U.K.] First point, I do agree that we are now in the foothills of a Third World War. It’s not, in a nuclear age, this sort of war is not going to be immediately declared, but we are—so far, we actually haven’t hit the first ladder on the escalation precipice or escalator, but we are very close to doing so. There are plenty of people in Moscow who are suggesting that, perhaps, some sort of a salutary warning, perhaps a small nuclear strike on a European town has been mentioned.
So once the taboo on even talking on a limited nuclear war is out there, and the way this is being dismissed by Western commentators, shows just how dangerous this moment is. This says precisely, which I know that the LaRouche Organization and all of us are emphasizing peace and development: In other words, a framework for commonwealth. We see it in all of the statements of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the enlarged BRICS-Plus organization, and indeed, the Russo-Chinese alignment, which is so important, and, indeed, with India and so many other states.
So, the Global South, the political East, simply refuses and hopefully can act as a moderating voice, and hold us back, escalating and climbing up further from the foothills to the peaks of the Third World War. That’s a little note of optimism, but I think in these dark times, we have to cling to the idea that the rest of the world simply isn’t playing this game.
Prof. Steve Starr: [Professor at the University of Missouri, former director of University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program] There’s a false narrative that you can use a tactical nuclear weapon, to stop the Russians, you can make them back down. Well, Russia has nuclear weapons, just as the United States does. And once we introduce nuclear weapons into a war, if you’re fighting another nuclear power, you want to bet that they won’t use them against you? I think that’s another false narrative. The Russians made fun of the idea of winning a limited nuclear war back in the 1980s.
So I think the danger of nuclear war is greatly exacerbated by these narratives, that “we can make Russia back down,” that “we have nuclear primacy over Russia,” and if we have leaders who are delusional and accept these narratives, then it’s a very strong likelihood that we can wind up being victim to them.
Dr. George Koo: [retired business consultant specializing in U.S.-China trade and Chairman of the Burlingame Foundation] All of the previous speakers have spoken about the danger of a nuclear war, as a result of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. I just want to mention that the Pacific is also a spark, a sensitive point, because the United States is sending the signal to the Philippines, to Taiwan, and trying to encourage, and trying to encourage them to start a proxy war.
In the United States, we have learned since we withdrew from Afghanistan, it’s much better to go get others to do the actual fighting for us, and we just provide the wherewithal, the arms and the military weapons. But I want to point out to the American public that if the United States has successfully provoked a firefight between China and the Philippines, or between China and Taiwan, the P.R.C. government fully recognizes who’s actually behind such conflict. And I predict, and I feel the first thing that will happen, if such conflict were to start, the first thing they would do, would be to take out all the U.S. naval vessels in the Pacific, so that, whether it’s the Taiwan people or the Filipino people, they can see that China is fully capable of destroying the military backing, and that will cause them to think twice.
Ray McGovern: [former CIA analyst, co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)] The next year, President Kennedy—actually less than a year later—in his speech to American University on June 10, 1963, warned: Look, the thing we have to remember is not to give another nuclear power a choice, between humiliating defeat and using nuclear weapons.
Now: Why do I mention that? Well, there is going to be a humiliating defeat in Ukraine. The Russians are not even going to have to consider using nuclear weapons, but the acolytes and the sophomores that are advising Biden, might just say to the President, “Look, you know, we only have several months before the election. We’re going to lose, it’s going to be a humiliating defeat in Ukraine. Technically, if we don’t get that $80 billion more from Speaker Mike Johnson, we’ve got these other weapons—why don’t we try these mini-nukes? That would show ‘em, that would show the Russians, and that would last us, maybe, right to the election.”
Now: Am I imagining something? No! These people have done the unimaginable, time after time after time.
Congressman Benjamín Robles Montoya: [incumbent Member of Congress, Mexico] [addressing the Mexican Congress, translation from Spanish] Today, the threat of nuclear war is again looming— with the United States sending weapons to Ukraine and Israel, where what is happening is an atrocious genocide. And meddling in the China-Taiwan conflict, with Russia pulling out of strategic arms reduction treaties, and nuclear test bans.
Colleagues, we have reached the very precipice of nuclear war, and it is imperative that all nations raise their voices—not the voice of one nation, nor of several nations, but of all of humanity—for peace and against nuclear war. Let all the citizens of the world also unite in pursuit of a new international security and development architecture that guarantees the right to welfare and economic development of the people of the planet. Achieving peace through development, that is the path.
That is all, Madame President.
