In this issue:

Zepp-LaRouche's Schiller Tribute Echoed by German President

German President Says 'a Bit of Schiller' Is Good

Cynicism About Iraq War Is Tangible in British Isles

Bush Not Welcome in Britain

U.S. Neo-con Richard Perle Threatens Germany

Italy Hit by Political Firestorm After Nassiriya Bombing

Leading Italian Daily: Does U.S. Have Iraq Exit Plan?

France's Stand on Iraq No Longer Taboo in Washington

Germany, France Consider New Prospects on Cooperation

German Chancellor Pays Tribute to Key Advisor

From Volume 2, Issue Number 46 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Nov. 18, 2003

Western European News Digest

Zepp-LaRouche's Schiller Tribute Echoed by German President

On Nov. 8-9, in Berlin and Wiesbaden, Germany, the Schiller Institute held its annual Schillerfest events celebrating the Nov. 10 birthday of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), the Poet of Freedom and of the American Revolution. The events continue the tradition begun in 1984, when Helga Zepp-LaRouche founded the Schiller Institute, as an international organization of statecraft, culture, and dedicated to building a new renaissance. In Wiesbaden, 120 people attended; parallel events held in Berlin and other cities, were attended by many members and contacts of the LaRouche Youth Movement.

Zepp-LaRouche has long insisted that Friedrich Schiller can uniquely provide the insights needed to defend a true republic, and that it is especially relevant today, in the face of the U.S. unilateral war in Iraq. Right after Zepp-LaRouche's event, German President Johannes Rau, perhaps reflecting how far the international crisis has gone, on Nov. 10, for the first time, took up exactly this issue of Schiller. Apart from being the first speech on Schiller by a leading German politician in decades, Rau's Marbach speech (see next item) also reflects the massive impact which the LaRouche movement and the Schiller Institute, have had on the issue of the German Classics. And some of Rau's remarks sounded as if copied from the Institute's celebration events in Berlin, Wiesbaden, and other cities, during the days before.

The unique presentation, in which Zepp-LaRouche provided selections of drama, poems, and the essays and letters of Schiller, through narration, mostly by youth, "brought every aspect of Schiller's work to life for today," reported one member of the audience, especially because of the LYM members, who moved the audience by demonstrating "how deeply they all had captured the complex Schiller thoughts."

The full presentation by Zepp-LaRouche will appear in an upcoming issue of EIW as a feature.

German President Says 'a Bit of Schiller' Is Good

President Johannes Rau, in a speech delivered Nov. 10 at Marbach, the birthplace of Friedrich Schiller, recalled the Schiller celebrations in 1955, but even more those of 1905 and 1859, as showing an adoration of Schiller throughout the nation, which is difficult to understand today, when the great poet seems almost forgotten. The first big celebrations in 1859 showed Schiller as a positive idol of the middle class and educated people; the celebrations of 1905 also showed Schiller as an idol of the working classes—all 89 Social Democratic journals and newspapers had articles on Schiller, he said.

But even in 1955, Schiller's reputation as the great poet of freedom was indicated by the fact that an audience of several thousand attended the central ceremony in Berlin. Goethe's statement after Schiller's death that "he was ours," was an appropriate description of how much appreciation there was for Schiller, in former times.

Today, people are running after all kinds of idols, none of them of the greatness of Schiller, most of them not even knowing about him, Rau said, but adding, that the previous support for Schiller is gone forever, cannot be revived anymore. But "a bit of Schiller" would be good for contemporary Germany.

Cynicism About Iraq War Is Tangible in British Isles

A Scottish journalist told EIR Nov. 11, that the depth and breadth of cynicism about the Iraq war is growing by the day. There is "extreme cynicism about the rationale" for the war. This comes out in casual conversations with people, as well as in political discussions.

On the fights within the Labour Party, he said that the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown rift has been "patched up a bit," but it is uncertain how long this will last. Blair realizes that he cannot afford to move Brown out of the Treasury position at this time: "It would spook the markets." Brown has been responsible for the "stability" of the British economy since new Labour came to power in May 1997, the journalist noted. "This is not the time to be axing your Chancellor."

As to the woes of the royals, there is a "big popular cynicism about the Windsors, especially in places like Scotland, where there are strong republican sympathies," he said. The revelations by Paul Burrell and others, have not done the worst damage, he noted. Some two-three years ago, the Daily Telegraph—the "heart of the establishment"—brought out a series by Graham Turner about the Windsors. This "friendly fire" was most damaging, and that is when the rot really set in. Since then, it has been "drip, drip, drip," and you wonder how much longer this can go on.

Bush Not Welcome in Britain

Huge demonstrations are planned for George W. Bush's Nov. 20. visit to Great Britain, the first official visit by a U.S. President since Ronald Reagan in 1982, and the first-ever "State" visit (meaning his hostess is the Queen). This is causing enormous tension for Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Stop the War Coalition" and the Muslim Association of Britain, who organized the huge pre-war protests, expect 100,000 people to rally in central London; in response, U.S. authorities are getting very nervous, and demanding that a big "exclusion zone" be set up wherever the President goes, in effect banning demonstrations in Trafalgar Square and Westminster, the seat of the British government.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is insisting that demonstrators be free to stage their protests against the war. The Metropolitan police are cancelling all leave, but Londoners are demanding that the national government, not the city, pay for all the security costs.

"It is an outrage that the most unwelcome guest this country has ever received will be given the freedom of the streets while a movement that represents majority opinion is denied the right to protest in ... the heart of government," said a spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition.

U.S. Neo-con Richard Perle Threatens Germany

Addressing the annual Welt am Sonntag (Sunday World newspaper) forum in Berlin Oct. 31, top Cheneyac neo-con Richard Perle declared: "There are common values that we have to defend, there are apparently common interests which should be utilized for their protection. But one concept does not fit in: namely, the idea of a Europe as a counterweight to the U.S.A. We should not fool ourselves: there are members in our [NATO] alliance that really believe that Europe should be positioned as counterweight to the U.S. Chirac, for example; Dominique de Villepin, for example. And others in Europe think alike, too, it seems. That has to be clarified in Europe. Europe has to decide whether it wants to become a counterweight or remain an ally. These two exclude each other.

"If Germany supports the French concept, it is the end of NATO. If, however, Germany realizes that Europe should not be a counterweight to the U.S., that the community of interests and values is so important that a European counterweight were the last thing we would want, it would be the beginning of a new NATO.

"Too many in Europe, too many Germans, too many French and others believe that the Franco-German relationship is crucial for peace. And that the essence of that relationship is agreements between governments, in the last instance. I think that is a misinterpretation of history. Peace on this continent is not secured by talks between Chirac and Schroeder, not by agreements between these two either, but by millions of Germans electing their government in a democratic way. That is the key to peace and security in Europe, rather than pure diplomacy."

Italy Hit by Political Firestorm After Nassiriya Bombing

Italy's Defense Minister Martino declared the bombing of the Italian headquarters in Iraq, which killed 19, and injured more than 80, "our September 11," which is likely to trigger a political "seastorm" in Italy. Former Premier Giuliano Amato said in an interview with Corriere della Sera, Nov. 13, that even though the opposition praised Martino for his report to Parliament on the attack, the Corriere interviewer questioned whether the situation didn't "look very much like the lull before the storm.

"Maybe," Amato answered. "It is being reported ... that Saddam Hussein, from the beginning, decided to avoid an open battle against the U.S. and Great Britain. If that is true, it is clear that the army has disappeared, in order to appear again in the form of a guerrilla force. It is the same technique used by the Russians with Napoleon's armies two centuries ago, and with the Nazis during World War II."

While Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's official line was that Italy, the nation with the third-highest deployment of troops, at about 2,600, will not pull out, another reality may be setting in. After the Italian headquarters bombing, Japan informed the U.S. that it will not be sending troops, and South Korea is reportedly reducing its troops to 3,000, from the 5,000 pledged—and none of them will be combat troops.

Leading Italian Daily: Does U.S. Have Iraq Exit Plan?

Senior commentator and former diplomat Sergio Romana raised sensitive questions about Iraq in his Nov. 13 column in Corriere della Sera. Theoretically, Romano posits, the only way out for the U.S. in Iraq would be "the solution adopted by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon in Vietnam in the Sixties." "This is possibly the solution which many members of the Bush Administration have in mind ... but in Vietnam, there was a southern government which could resist for a couple of years, and give the Americans the possibility to abandon the stage. In Iraq, there is nothing; and Iraq, after an American withdrawal, would immediately collapse into chaos." America's allies in Iraq are uneasy, Romano writes. "They cannot leave because it would be interpreted as a betrayal. But they start to ask the question whether their ally has, what in American political jargon is called, an 'exit strategy.' "

France's Stand on Iraq No Longer Taboo in Washington

Le Monde correspondent Patrick Jarreau, writing in the Nov. 13 edition, implies that a process of a change of mind is beginning in the U.S., toward the French stand before the Iraq war, due to the problems the U.S. has met on the ground. Jarreau points to Philip Gordon of the Brooking Institution, who has said, "since the Americans began to meet problems in Iraq, the French position is seen in another way."

Another indication of a change in tone is given in weekly National Journal, under the headline: "The French were right." According to the Journal, Chirac was right on three points: There was no immediate threat from weapons of mass destruction; the Americans were not welcomed as liberators; and the Muslim world sees this intervention as an agression.

Jarreau speaks of a "French Caucus" which was created by Republican Congressman Amory Houghton (N.Y.) at the end of October, during the visit of the chairman of France's National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee head, Eduard Balladur, in Washington. Members of the Senate's "French Caucus" are bipartisan: John Warner (R-Va), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb), Joe Biden (D-Del), and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif).

Germany, France Consider New Prospects on Cooperation

Following the publication of a prominent article in Le Monde on Nov. 13, headlined, "Paris and Berlin reflect on a common French-German Union," the paper carried a short interview with the former foreign-policy speaker of the German CDU/CSU faction Karl Lamers, in which Lamers definitively agrees that, "today, there exists a kind of French-German union," and that both countries have to present a "unified" political view, to "serve as a model for the type of European union which Jean Monnet had conceived of, as a contribution to a better world." This means that the two countries must be at the same time the "magnetic core for a big Europe."

Lamers sees the significance of this alliance as necessary for coordination and consultation on objectives in the domain of finance, defense, foreign, and European policy. Lamers proposes this could begin with closer coordination between high-level officials in the respective ministries of the two countries. For example, the National Assembly and the Bundestag could constitute a common parliamentary commission, composed of several representatives from different sectors, whose function is "to accompany the executive decision-making process."

The governments should likewise make regular reports on their political cooperation, and once or twice a year, report on the status of their cooperation before the plenum of the respective national assemblies in presence of the ministers of the other country. France and Germany should have a leading position in Europe, but not dominate it, says Lamers.

As for NATO, Lamers speaks of the need for a renewed alliance, which is neither vassalage for Europe, nor one in which the U.S. alone would make decisions.

German Chancellor Pays Tribute to Key Advisor

In numerous news dailies of Germany, Nov. 13, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder published an official obituary for Brigitte Sauzay (55), his chief adviser on relations with France for five years, who died in Paris, on Nov. 11.

The text stated: "Mrs. Sauzay has, as my adviser at the Chancellery for German-French relations, helped to shape cooperation between Germany and France to a special extent. The fact that our two countries—40 years after the signing of the Elysée Treaty—are close to each other as never before, is also owed to her."

Schroeder added that for Sauzay, the promotion of relations between Berlin and Paris also was, beyond her official duties, a "matter of the heart," and a deep personal commitment. Associates repeatedly pointed out that Sauzay helped prepare the historic Paris-Versailles Summit in January 2003, in her own way, for example, through ironic cultural-historical memos called "notes d'humeur," which gave insight into the sentiments on each side, and into ways of dealing with that.

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