THE MORAL COURAGE TO BE SOVEREIGN AND GOOD

At a moment which Helga Zepp-LaRouche characterized as “clearly spinning out of control,” the question of whether humanity can muster the moral fitness to survive hangs over all our heads. If the answer is yes, it will be because the principles of sovereignty and international law will have won out over the frantic fantasies of “might makes right” lately shouted (or grunted) from the halls of power by the puff-chested imitators of the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt.

Responding to the blustering threat of U.S. President Trump to slap 25% tariffs on anyone doing business with Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in a January 14 press conference, “I do not believe that any third party can alter the fundamental nature of the relations between Moscow and Tehran. This nature is grounded in the agreements reached between the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. It serves the interests of both states and both peoples.”

China was similarly unimpressed with the threats. A statement from the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, reads, “China’s position against the indiscriminate imposition of tariffs is consistent and clear. Tariff wars and trade wars have no winners, and coercion and pressure cannot solve problems.” China’s Foreign Ministry reminds anyone who is too short-sighted to realize it, that “The friendly exchanges between China and Iran date back to the 2nd century B.C.… Since then, the peoples of China and Iran have maintained exchanges.”

Since 2024, Iran has been a member of the BRICS; it has more than 140 nations as trading partners, China and India being in the top five, and is a member of the Ancient Civilizations Forum, with a rich culture stretching back thousands of years. It is a key nation in the Belt and Road Initiative, with its Chabahar Port in southern Iran a keystone international project of the North-South Transport Corridor.

The idea of a U.S. strike on Iran—an idea which reportedly has met with opposition from within the Trump White House and Pentagon—is not only insane, but it’s not about Iran, just as the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Maduro was not about Venezuela.

The target of both of these operations (and more besides) is the formation of a new, post-colonial world system which would take away the hegemony so enjoyed by the Western elites; it is a last gasp to assert the imperial principle of might makes right, exemplified by the Thrasymachus of Plato’s Republic, over the principle of sovereignty rooted in natural law.

“Who is the sovereign of a country? It’s not the President, it’s not the Congress, it’s not the parliament—It is the people! The people are the sovereign,” Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche declared in her international webcast of January 14. “Now, the reason why this present system has not functioned is because citizens have become too complacent. They have forgotten that a republic only functions when you have state citizens…. This is not something you get by turning on your video game or TV or playing the internet or whatever. This is something you have to act on, you have to learn, you have to be qualified. We have almost collapsed into a Dark Age. People have given up their right as sovereign citizens, because they say, ‘Oh, there is nothing one can do anyway. These people up there are so powerful.’ But it is that mindset which makes it possible for us to get into this crisis.”

There is no problem in the world right now that could not be solved if the United States stopped acting as the embodiment of empire, which it fought its 1776 revolution against, and resumed an identity coherent with its founding principles, joining hands with the nations of the Global Majority to end the neocolonial system for good.

The critical, first task in the effort, Zepp-LaRouche urged, is to establish a new, international security and development architecture. This was, in part, the topic of the extraordinary roundtable discussion, The Attack on Venezuela and How to Bring the World Back from the Brink, sponsored by EIR on January 12, which will be followed up in the 137th meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, January 16.

Reclaim your right as a sovereign citizen and join the fight.