EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR THURSDAY OCTOBER 27, 2022

Schiller Institute Conference for World Peace Convenes To Stop the Danger of Nuclear War

Oct. 26, 2022 (EIRNS)—Former and currently serving elected officials and citizen leaders from the Americas and Europe will convene today in the Congress of Mexico in Mexico City and via Zoom videoconference, from 10:00 am to 1:00 p.m. EDT, to rally citizens across every continent to join them in bringing the world back from the brink of nuclear war. They are acting on the principle that the cause of humanity is one and the same for all, that of securing an international order in which every nation, and all people, can live in peace and growing prosperity. Both security and economic development are indivisible.

The decision to organize today’s Schiller Institute conference was made only three weeks earlier, by the group of six former and prospective legislators from the Americas who participated with Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Oct. 7, in a dialogue on how legislators from Latin America and the Caribbean could take leadership in stopping world war. The legislators insisted at the end of their discussion, that their dialogue must be followed by more such dialogues, between more people, from more countries. They urged, in particular, for Europeans to step forward and join them.

Today, three weeks later, the 15 legislators and citizen leaders who will participate in this dialogue with Zepp-LaRouche—double the number from three weeks ago—includes prominent European participation.

These Schiller Institute dialogues exemplify a change in attitude which is gaining force across the Western world. Legislators and citizen leaders are beginning to realize that there is no hope of survival if we sit around begging Western governments and their controllers in the City of London and Wall Street to defend people from war, poverty and disease. With the reality dawning that NATO’s unipolar war drive has brought us to the point of nuclear war, local leaders are realizing either they step up, or we all may die.

Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar exemplifies this change in attitude, taking it upon himself to offer to host peace negotiations between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy in Phoenix, Arizona, a place “far enough away from the conflict, and away from the entities that are currently urging more war, to be a productive location.”

“If there is not one leader in our politics or our military who will attempt to end this war without unthinkable global death and destruction, then I must,” he wrote in releasing a joint letter he had sent both of those two Presidents. “Global political and military leadership refuse to even attempt to deescalate the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Instead of engaging in peace talks, warmongers, neocons, and the Biden Regime seem hellbent on bringing a potential nuclear World War upon all of humanity. Let us de-escalate nuclear tensions, terminate this war, and end the death and destruction plaguing both nations. Peace must prevail,” he declared.

The importance of Gosar’s initiative is not whether it will work as proffered, but in his assertion through action that “going along to get along” with “the ways things are” will get us killed. Peace must prevail, and individuals have to take responsibility to ensure that happens. His action may rally others in the Republican Party, in particular, to act; it certainly adds to public loathing for such pathetic slaves to the warmongers as the members of the Democratic Party’s Progressive Caucus in the U.S. Congress just proved themselves to be.

Fear of nuclear war is creating fissures in all institutions in the West. Case in point: the attempt to black out Diane Sare’s independent candidacy for U.S. Senator from New York is cracking, as demonstrated by Ballot Access News, which covered the scandalous attempt by Spectrum News cable network to exclude legitimate candidate Sare from its New York U.S. Senate debate—and called out the rigging by the polls being used to do so.

Another case in point: The Franco-German alliance around which Europe has been organized in the post-war era has collapsed; President Macron and Chancellor Scholz met on Oct. 26 to keep up the image of a unified Europe, but could not even hold a joint press conference afterward.

And another from Europe: The Prime Minister of NATO member Norway, Jonas Gahr Støre, told his nation’s parliament on Oct. 25 that “there is nothing good in isolating Russia. It is alarming that today there is so little contact and direct communication with Russia. It weakens the possibility of finding a negotiated end to the war,” at a time when “we are now in the most demanding security policy situation since World War II.”

For any who think we exaggerate about the nuclear war danger, we recommend they read the response given by Russia’s Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov to Newsweek about reports that 101st Airborne Division commanders camped out on the Romanian border with Ukraine are itching to move in:

“We do not intend to put up with the situation when military threats increase on the Russian borders,” Ambassador Anatoly Antonov stated. “The direct involvement of the U.S. military in combat will lead to catastrophic consequences. I am convinced that further escalation of the situation is not in Washington’s best interests.

“Let me remind you that 60 years ago, at the most acute phase of the Caribbean crisis, our countries approached the ‘threshold’ of a devastating conflict, but at the last moment they managed to take a step back. Russian-American relations have hit the bottom again. It would be insane to push the relations between the major nuclear powers further down.”