No New War Against Iran!
Withdraw from Afghanistan!
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche
On Aug. 12, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the Chancellor candidate of Germany's Civil Rights Solidarity Movement (BüSo) party, issued this statement, which is also being circulated as a mass leaflet. The full title is "A New War Against Iran? Immediate Orderly Withdrawal of the German Army From Afghanistan!"
There is unfortunately little doubt, that the government of Cheney and Bush is energetically preparing a military attack against Iran, for which a new terrorist attack on the U.S.A. is supposed to provide the pretext. In the American Conservative magazine, the former CIA officer Philip Giraldi wrote, that U.S. Vice President Cheney has directed the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), to draw up an attack plan against Iran for such a case, in which conventional and tactical nuclear weapons, so-called "mini-nukes," should be used. At the same time, the Washington Post reported that the Pentagon is preparing the deployment of the U.S. military in the U.S.A. itself for "homeland defense," which under the prevailing circumstances evokes the danger of a military dictatorship.
Cheney's war plans have nothing to do with the decision of Iran to resume the reprocessing of nuclear fuel at the facility in Isfahan. Iran is completely justified to do this according to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the more so as this facility is supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In addition: The National Intelligence Council (NIC), the umbrella organization of the U.S. security services, has just affirmed—in clear opposition to the White House—that Iran is at least ten years away from the technical capacity to be able to produce nuclear weapons, and that that nation is also not pursuing a secret military nuclear program. And, as in the case of Iraq, naturally the planned attack also does not depend on whether Iran actually participated in a terrorist attack on the U.S.A.
In his war plans, Cheney—President Bush is on vacation, as is so often the case—is not proceeding from a position of strength. Domestically, he has his back to the wall: In the U.S. Senate and in the House of Representatives, preparations are being made at full speed for impeachment proceedings, despite the Summer recess. The indictment of persons from the immediate circle of Cheney, for exposing the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, is expected any day. Mrs. Plame is the wife of former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who exposed some of the lies which led to the Iraq War.
But above all, the imminent collapse of the U.S. real estate market, as the possible trigger to a worldwide financial crash, determines the dynamic for war. The neo-conservative financial forces fear the collapse of the global financial system. A new war against another "Outpost of Tyranny," as U.S. Secretary of State Rice has called Iran, could subject the world once again to the logic of war.
But a war against Iran would not be a re-enactment of the Iraq War. The use of "mini-nukes" against Iran—the first time atomic weapons would be used since Hiroshima—would not only lead to massive counterattacks against U.S. facilities in the Near and Middle East, but also to an asymmetric war on a world scale. Such a war would mean the descent of mankind into a New Dark Age.
This danger can only be stopped in the U.S.A. itself. The mobilization of the Democratic Party by Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche Youth Movement is the most important factor in accomplishing this.
What Can Germany Do in This Situation?
We may not allow ourselves to participate in "ultimata" towards Iran, and thus to contribute to providing the Cheney/Bush Administration with a pretext to bring the Iran question before the UN Security Council. There, Mr. Bolton would then demand sanctions against Iran, which Russia and China would reject with a veto, whereby the U.S.A. would then "unfortunately" once again be forced to launch a unilateral attack—as against Iraq.
At all events, we must set into motion an immediate, orderly withdrawal of the German Army from Afghanistan, which, in the case of an emergency, would be trapped in Afghanistan. Already the mandate of the German Army, to guarantee protection for the economic and governmental reconstruction of the nation, has collapsed. Since the economic reconstruction has stopped, the drug barons control 80% of the territory of Afghanistan, but now the U.S.A. wants to take action against the cultivation of drugs with military means. The sentiment in Afghanistan is turning increasingly against the German Army, which until now was treated in a friendly manner, or neutrally. The security of Germany is not defended in Hindu Kush!
But the war danger will only be permanently eliminated, if its more profound cause, the global financial and economic crisis, is overcome. Only if we place on the agenda a new Financial Architecture—a New Bretton Woods System in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal, can the danger be averted.
Actively support my candidacy for Chancellor and the election campaign of the BüSo, the only party, which brings the "existential themes" to the table. Have you ever asked yourself why the media have apparently agreed not to cover us? Exactly for this reason! Help us to make Germany a sovereign Republic!
Yours,
Helga Zepp-LaRouche
