Why is it that human civilization is closer to the brink of nuclear war than ever before—the Cuban Missile Crisis included—a danger now being discussed openly in mainstream and alternative media alike, and yet we continue to sail ever-closer to that unthinkable, suicidal end? Why is no one stopping what could end in what all qualified experts agree would be the annihilation of human civilization?
Who would be so insane as to advocate a nuclear war?
“London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace,” the Russian embassy in London wrote in a statement on August 17, pointing to reports of British-supplied drones sent to carry out strikes deep into Russian territory. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put a fine point on the matter in an August 18 interview:
“We…have the right to view the proudly announced direct participation of British missile forces in strikes against the Russian Federation as participation in the war, with all the consequences that follow.”
“It reflects a policy of certain…imperialist oligarchical layers in the West,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche said of Britain’s leading role in stoking war against Russia. Pointing to the bankruptcy of the City of London-centered financial system, and the awareness that that system is ready to blow out in a systemic crisis, she noted that, “some circles think that the only way to avoid that is by going to war. But that will lead to a catastrophe….”
This risk is not limited to the conflict centered in Ukraine—either geographically or in scope. To illustrate, take the case of the Pentagon’s Elbridge Colby, who is not only a primary advocate of U.S. use of tactical nuclear weapons, but whose Teddy Roosevelt-style “Big Stick” promotion of the expulsion of Russia and China from the Western Hemisphere would have the U.S. seize control of the region’s assets on behalf of the City of London and Wall Street parasites. Not surprising, considering that Colby’s wife, Brazilian economist Susana Cordeiro Guerra, is a protégé of Friedmanite monetarist Paulo Guedes, part of the “Chicago Boy” gaggle that looted Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship.
The financial system and the war system are one and the same.
What can take the nuclear button out of the hands of those insane enough to use it? We must awaken world to the immediate danger of nuclear war, Zepp-LaRouche urged in her webcast of August 19.
To that end, the Schiller Institute and others are supporting an open letter to Pope Leo XIV, “Appeal to Pope Leo XIV to Organize a Global Leaders Summit to Address the Questions of Peace and Nuclear Disarmament,” signed by many prominent leaders and activists, which urges,
“A papal appeal for an emergency summit to end the current wars and reverse the growing dependence on nuclear weapons and warfighting might give global leaders the chance to select a new course of action and get us off the current drive toward planet-destroying nuclear war. We urge you, Pope Leo, to use your unique moral authority to convene such a meeting of the world’s leaders, including the heads of state of the three principal nuclear powers, to meet and respond to the pleas of humanity to take our world in a fundamentally different direction before it is too late.”
Zepp-LaRouche has called on all people who wish for humanity to have a future to mobilize around the open letter, to gather signatures, and to “please help us in this campaign, and make sure it becomes the strongest message to the world that the world population does not want World War III and does not want to be eliminated.”
And the detonation of the financial system? “Now is the time [Lyndon LaRouche’s] solutions have to be implemented,” Zepp-LaRouche said, pointing to his “Four Laws,” which begin by putting the parasitical financial system through bankruptcy reorganization and restoring sovereign credit systems under a national bank—an economic system for the development of humankind. Development is the new name for peace.
