EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY MARCH 10, 2023

AUKUS Warhawks Circle the Pacific, as ‘World Citizens’ Movement Grows

March 9, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—On Monday, March 13, the leaders of the U.S., the U.K., and Australia meet in San Diego to confer as the “AUKUS Partnership” on “security in the Pacific,” meaning belligerence against China and Russia. High on the San Diego agenda is nuclear submarines—building and deploying many more in the Pacific.

AUKUS—Australia, U.K., and U.S.—is the Pacific franchise of Global NATO, which, on the other side of the globe, is perpetuating the Ukraine proxy war against Russia, grinding up Ukraine, destroying Europe, and threatening World War III in the process.

The latest instance of this insanity comes from an informal meeting March 7-8 of European Union defense ministers discussing how to requisition €2 billion worth in more artillery ammunition for Ukraine, when their national economies are falling apart. Ukraine is running out of ammunition. The EU ministers’ scheme is to have 15 armament firms produce the ammunition, while EU member states supply them from their stockpiles, no matter about anything else. EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell, infamous for his remarks from another planet, advised that nations should empty their stockpiles for Ukraine, and fill them up in the future. Afterall, he said, EU “member states, happily for them, they are not at war, so they can wait [for supplies of new munitions].... I don’t see the danger. Why is it dangerous?” He advised the EU national representatives to maintain “a war mentality,” and then they will find a way to produce.

In the real world, millions are in the streets over the economic breakdown in Europe. In France, more than 3 million demonstrated on March 7, many continue, and March 11 will be another mass-strike day. In Greece, mass protests have continued in major cities and throughout the country, over the wreckage of their nation, manifested in the deadly train crash on Feb. 28. In the Netherlands, a farmer demonstration intends to bring 5,000 tractors to The Hague, on March 11, demanding the government stop its agriculture shutdown policies. Note: The mayor of The Hague is threatening to bring in the military if even two tractors show up.

In these circumstances, leadership initiatives are critical to end the NATO regime—including its attempted “war economy”—and to launch measures to restore production and the conditions for development. This was the sense of mission among those attending the live international discussion which took place yesterday in the new-format weekly briefings on March 8 by Schiller Institute founder and leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in which hundreds participated from many countries.

One action in the United States, with direct international impact, is the galvanizing effect of putting members of the House of Representatives on the spot, with insistence that U.S. forces must be pulled out of Syria. On March 8, H.Con.Res.21, a reassertion of Congress’s jurisdiction over the power of war, received 103 affirmative votes, and 321 against. Though the measure failed, the voting record of each legislator is now clear, so this is the beginning, not the end of the matter. The lead sponsor of the resolution, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), told the Intercept, today: “Syria is my lead-off hitter. We’re going to take a trip around the globe. We may go to Yemen. We may have stops in Niger. We may have stops in Sudan. Maybe ultimately, we’ll end in Ukraine.”

Co-sponsors of the Feb. 19 “Rage Against the War Machine” Washington and sister rallies announced today that they are commencing “Operation Warhawk Removal.”

Zepp-LaRouche spoke in this week’s dialogue about many features of the world situation, including the economic breakdown, and danger of nuclear holocaust. She said, “We have to have a discussion of how we get out of this. I have proposed since the Ukraine war started in February—we had conferences of the Schiller Institute since April—that we urgently need to have a new international security architecture and development architecture, which takes into account the interest of every single country on the planet. I have proposed Ten Principles for how such a new architecture could be organized. And I think it is extremely urgent that we get an international discussion: Is the human species capable of avoiding World War III—which this time would be nuclear and nobody would survive it—and can we give ourselves an order which allows for the survival and well-being of all nations on this planet?”

The invitation is now out for the next Schiller Institute international conference, on April 15, “Without the Development of All Nations, There Can Be No Lasting Peace for the Planet.”