EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR SATURDAY OCTOBER 29, 2022

Defeat the Nuclear War Danger, Create a ‘Symphony of Human Civilization’

Oct. 28, 2022 (EIRNS)—Four outstanding international events this past week provide platforms for ongoing momentum for development and peace, but the danger of the nuclear war threat remains severe.

The nature of the four events, described below, furthers the world mobilization needed to defeat the evil insanity behind the war brinkmanship. But it is dramatic and horrifying how the Global NATO crowd continues their war-making and nuclear threat policies, even as all around them the Transatlantic economies—their home base, are in breakdown, especially clear in the energy chaos.

On the warhawk front, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin briefed the media at the Pentagon yesterday, on the new U.S. defense policy documents released this week, stressing that China and Russia must be contained. In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said outright that NATO insists Russia be defeated. “We cannot allow President Putin to win.” Furthermore, Stoltenberg told an interviewer that, in effect, U.S. voters better not mess up Nov. 8. He said, “I’m confident that also after midterms, there will still be a clear majority in the Congress—in the House and Senate—for continued significant support to Ukraine.”

Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $275 million weapons package for Ukraine, “the twenty-fourth drawdown of U.S. arms and equipment for Ukraine since 2021. This drawdown will bring the total U.S. military assistance for Ukraine to an unprecedented level of more than $18.5 billion since the beginning of the Administration.”

Now, look at the latest snapshot of economic breakdown in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. Besides manufacturing contracting and shutting down from energy hyperinflation, the absolute lack of reliable fuel and electricity at any cost is showing up. There is a diesel shortage, for example. The U.S. has a reported maximum of 25 days supply. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem declared an official State of Emergency Oct. 26, to permit energy truck drivers (gasoline, heating oil, diesel, etc.) to drive overtime, to keep scarce supplies going around the state. In Texas, various factors (deficient refining capacity, lack of storage, demand collapse) created the circumstances for the gas market price to go negative this past week.

In Europe, there are now regional shortages of diesel, jet fuel and heating oil. The LNG situation is in chaos, with LNG tankers still waiting offshore in Spain, for example, for lack of terminal regasification and storage capacity, or else just waiting the price to go up even higher. Moreover, the purist anti-Russian EU/ NATO/U.S.A. warhawks presided over the process of filling up European gas storage for winter, by buying more Russian LNG than ever! Crazy and dangerous go hand in hand, “The Endless Farce” is the headline of Money magazine’s report on Western energy.

On the front of pushing for sanity and mutual-benefit for development and peace, these four events stand out.

Oct. 27 Schiller Institute International Conference, “For World Peace: Stop the Danger of Nuclear War; the Second Seminar of Current and Former Elected Officials of the World,” online and at meeting site at the Federal Congress in Mexico City. From three continents, 15 elected leaders spoke. The co-host, María de los Angeles Huerta, a former Mexican Congresswoman, called people into action, for a world day of debate and reflection to be a “determining influence” in the world, to stop the war drive, and create beneficial conditions. Helga Zepp-LaRouche also spoke at the opening of the deliberations, from which Nov. 22 is now set as the next date for a conference, in the course of rapidly expanding the activation worldwide.

Over Oct. 25-26 National Committee on BRICS Research hosted “International Scientific and Practical Conference: Scientific-Technological and Innovative Cooperation of BRICS Countries,” online and in Moscow. Among the dozens of speakers and participants, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche spoke on the first day, beginning with focusing on “preparations for a new credit system” for scientific advance and economic growth. Schiller Institute UN representative Richard A. Black reported on prospects and benefits for fusion power.

Oct. 27-28 Special Session of the 15th Verona Eurasian Economic Forum, “The New Reality of Commodity and Energy Markets,” in Baku, Azerbaijan. Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, in his keynote, spoke of the gas and oil supplies from the far northern Vostok Oil project, and gave a thorough picture of the insane green transition destruction of energy in the West, including their anti-Russian sanctions. To stress the stupidity of Europe going along with the U.S. on this, he used a painting of the classical story from Ovid, and called his presentation, “The Flood on the Energy Markets: The Second Rape of Europa!”

Oct. 24-27 Valdai Discussion Club, 19th annual meeting: “A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone,” at Moscow. Some 111 experts spoke, coming from 41 countries; more than half the speakers were from foreign countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the keynote at the concluding plenary, including answering questions for nearly three hours. The full video (with English interpretation) and a partial transcript is posted to the Kremlin website.

President Putin presented a lengthy situation report on the world, noting near the end of his remarks that our

“historical period of boundless Western domination in world affairs is coming to an end. The unipolar world is being relegated into the past. We are an historical crossroads. We are in for probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and at the same time most important decade since the end of World War II. The West is unable to rule humanity single-handedly, and the majority of nations no longer want to put up with this. This is the main contradiction of the new era. To cite a classic, this is a revolutionary situation to some extent—the elites cannot, and the people do not want to live like that any longer.”

Of Eurasia, he said,

“the successful performance of the Eurasian Economic Union, the fast growth and authority and prestige of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the large-scale One Belt, One Road initiatives, plans for multilateral cooperation in building the North-South transport corridor and many other projects, are the beginning of a new era, new stage in the development of Eurasia....

“Europe, the Western extremity of the Greater Eurasia could also become its natural part. But many of its leaders are hampered by the conviction that the Europeans are superior to others, that it is beneath them to take part as equals in undertakings with others. This arrogance prevents them from seeing that they have themselves become a foreign periphery and actually turned into vassals, often without the right to vote....”

Putin spoke of “a change of eras” underway, which is painful, but “a future world arrangement is taking shape before our eyes.” His conclusion was an echo of the same outlook strongly expressed the same day at the Schiller Institute event based in Mexico City, and he issued the same imperative, that all must now be involved, and take responsibility—with respect for “every nation, society, culture and every system of world outlook, ideas and religious concepts, without imposing a single truth on anyone. Only on this foundation, understanding our responsibility for the destinies of nations and our planet, shall we create a symphony of human civilization.”