Stop World War III!
LaRouche Doctrine for Southwest Asia
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche is the chairwoman of the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity party (BüSo) in Germany. She released this statement on July 31, and it is being circulated as a mass petition, gathering signatures of support. The BüSo is currently campaigning in the city elections in Berlin on Sept. 17, with a slate of candidates headed by mayoral contender Daniel Buchmann, a member of the LaRouche Youth Movement. For more information, see www.bueso.de.
The world is on the verge of plunging into a third world war, and this war threatens to be of a much more fearsome character than even the previous two. This time, it would be a global asymmetrical war, which would be carried out with weapons of mass destruction and methods of irregular warfare. Neither the leading global institutions nor the world economy would be able to cope with the results of such an escalation, and so a collapse of mankind into a new Dark Age would ensue.
It is high time that governments summon up courage and intervene. They must make it clear to President Bush, that his transparent game of supporting the war against Lebanon, has brought Israel onto a suicidal course. A spiral of violence will be put into motion, which, if it continues, can only end in Hell.
The most intelligent thing that Israel could do now, would be the immediate, unconditional withdrawal from Lebanon. Don't forget that Hezbollah came into being as a reaction to the Israeli invasion of 1982. Therefore, it's not a question of waiting around for cease-fire negotiations, but rather to stop the acts of war immediately, and then to place on the agenda the development of a comprehensive peace plan, which would include recognizing the existence of Israel and Palestine as two equal states. The Palestinian state must be politically and economically viable and not conceived as a new "bantustan."
The sources of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and Israel and Syria, must be cleared up: that is, the territory occupied by Israel (Shebaa Farms, the Golan Heights) must be given back; and a just solution for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees must be found. Without this resolution of the historic sources of conflict, there can be no solution.
The LaRouche Doctrine
Back in April 2004, the American opposition politician Lyndon LaRouche had put forward a plan, which alone offers a realistic perspective for a lasting peace in Southwest Asia.[*] Since then, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan has grown catastrophically worse: In Iraq, the attacks on the hated foreign troops have escalated, while civil war is smoldering; and in Afghanistan, a massive counteroffensive by the Taliban is taking place, which, among other things, makes the situation of the German Army, the Bundeswehr, increasingly untenable. Thus this plan for the region as a whole is today more urgent than ever before. The LaRouche Doctrine contains the following programmatic points:
- A comprehensive peace plan must be built on the principles of the Treaty of Westphalia, which, in 1648, ended the 150-year period of religious wars that had culminated in the Thirty Years' War. This peace treaty was introduced on the basis of the notable principle, that any foreign policy must be governed by "the Advantage of the Other," and based in international law.
- For the Near and Middle East, this means concretely, that the region encompassing Central Asia, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Gulf States, Syria, Turkey, Israel, and Palestine must be treated as one common region, for which a common plan for economic development must be worked out.
- All foreign troops must immediately be withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan. The United Nations must help the Iraqi and Afghan people to put sovereign governments in place. Particuarly in the case of Iraq, its neighbors must be involved—Iran, Syria, Turkey—and with a special role for Egypt as well, since many of the tensions in Iraq have a character that transcends national borders. The goal must be to create a region of stability for all. Such a perspective will only be credible in the Arab world, if the international community seriously guarantees a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.
- The unconditional requirement for the success of this plan is economic development of the entire region that will benefit all. Anyone who has flown over these states knows, that you can fly for hours and see nothing but desert. Water resources are much too scarce. The chief task, therefore, is the production of potable water by desalination, to make possible vast new irrigation facilities. Therefore, the inherently safe high-temperature reactor, which has been developed by Professor Schulten in Jülich, and is today being built in China and South Africa, is the optimal solution.
Since the neo-con administration in Washington has brought the U.S.A. to an historical nadir in prestige, it is indispensable that this Southwest Asia Plan be linked with the name LaRouche. In the text itself, it states: "... no such policy proferred by the U.S., even if it followed to the letter what has been said here, would be accepted among the peoples of the region, unless the U.S. government were to identify such a declaration as the adoption, by name, of this as a 'LaRouche Doctrine.' No other notable political figure of the U.S. would be capable of enjoying the trust of the Arab and related parts of the world, for this purpose, at this time."
Since the global financial system is also on the verge of a total collapse, it is all the more crucial that the question of reconstruction of the economy be placed on the agenda. The implementation of the LaRouche Doctrine is part of that.
The governments of the world must demand that the U.S.A. stop its policy of supporting Israel's suicidal course. And they must finally draw the conclusions, that the Iraq War was based on lies—and the Israeli government has evidently also swallowed lies, if it believed that Hezbollah would be defeated in five days. In Washington, there have been rumors circulating for a while, that the White House is putting pressure on Israel to prepare a so-called "October Surprise." According to this plan, shortly before the U.S. Congressional elections in November, "Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" would be "discovered" in Syria, which would then provide the pretext for a military attack against Syria. Governments, including the Federal government in Berlin, had better not first disccover such lies, when "the child has already drowned in the well."
In the U.S.A. itself, there are voices criticizing the present policy of the Bush Administration, such as the Democratic Congressman Murtha, the Republican Senator Hagel, or the former National Security Advisor of Presidents Ford and the senior Bush, Brent Scowcroft.
In a commentary in the Washington Post, the Scowcroft recently wrote: "This latest in a seemingly endless series of conflagrations in the region may just present a unique opportunity to change the situation in the Middle East for the better for all time. Let us not shrink from the task." Scowcroft's conclusion is important, that the source of the current crisis is not Hezbollah, but "the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948."
If all sides stick to the principle of retaliation, there will be no way out, and the spiral to global asymmetrical war will escalate. And also, while the horror and anger in the Arab world is completely understandable, over the death in Qana of children and women who were refugees seeking shelter in this village, so must military action be stopped for the good of all the children in the region. Children are always innocent.
Naturally, only a change in the policy of the U.S.A. can restore peace. That does not mean, however, that in Europe or Southwest Asia there is nothing that can be done to advance this process. The best way, is to bring the LaRouche Doctrine into the widest possible public discussion, and thereby make clear to the whole world, that an alternative does exist to a third world war.
[*] See EIR, April 30, 2004.
