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When human societies enter a systemic, or breakdown crisis, they produce moments which seem to live in two “worlds” at the same time—worlds which are mutually contradictory or, more precisely, incommensurable. There is the equivalent of a mathematical discontinuity between them. They are what Lyndon LaRouche referred to frequently as “singularities,” unique moments of transition between two mutually irreconcilable conditions of the system.The fall of the Berlin Wall was one such moment in recent history. Another was the beginning of the French Revolution, that “great moment [that] has found a little people,” as Schiller wrote. Afghanistan represents precisely that kind of an opportunity/danger today, which is why Helga Zepp-LaRouche insists: “I compared [the Afghan pullout] to the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the German reunification and the end of the Soviet Union… In a certain sense, it’s different in scale, maybe, but not in terms of essential quality, because the end of the Soviet system was the end of a historical phase, the end of a system. And what the Afghanistan withdrawal signifies, it’s also the end of a system of endless wars.” The alternatives now facing that region (and the world) are to either descend fully into the hell of drugs, terrorism, an uncontrolled pandemic, and economic collapse; or to enter a new paradigm of win-win relations with the Belt and Road Initiative. Zepp-LaRouche stated: “The development and integration of Afghanistan is in the interests of the Afghani people, it is in the interests of their neighbors, in the interest of the entire Eurasian continent. So I’m quite optimistic that it can happen, but the crucial question is, will the United States cooperate with Russia and China?” Everything hangs in the balance. The danger of British-promoted confrontation between the U.S. and Russia is escalating (as are U.S.-China tensions), to the point that the Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday held a board meeting chaired by Sergey Lavrov, which issued a sharply-worded statement that “bilateral relations [with the U.S.] had approached a dangerous confrontational threshold through the fault of Washington, who have provoked an unprecedented escalation between our states over the recent years.” This, they note, despite the potential for strategic dialogue signalled by the June 16 summit between Biden and Putin. What, then, is the nature of moments of singularity such as today’s, and how are we to act upon them? The outcome of such transitional moments is not foreordained, but is subject to Man’s willful intervention. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in an October 1987 writing “On the Sweetness of Truth,” written to celebrate the 65th birthday of her husband, the late Lyndon LaRouche, discussed Nicholas of Cusa’s work “The Vision of God”: “The universe consists of negentropically growing manifolds of ever higher orderings, whose microcosm is human Reason. If the person now recognizes this divine order of creation, at each singularity, that is to say, at the transition from one manifold into the next higher, by his creative efforts he will determine the ‘terminus specie’ which enables further development … It is at this moment, that creating and being created coincide also for human beings, since the actualization of infinity in one point (terminus specie),— in a singularity — means, that the knowledge upon which he bases his creation, must be adequate, that is to say, it must represent the greatest possible approximation to Truth at that time. Through the creative act, the human being extends anew the lawfulness of the universe in a lawful way.” [emphasis added—ed.] In his October 1995 “Riemann Refutes Euler: Background to a Breakthrough,” LaRouche addressed the same concept in terms of music and classical composition: “The singularity in question is generated by the difference in direction of time-sense—backwards versus forwards—of the two, interacting ideas respecting the poem or musical composition in mid-performance… The character of these ideas as singularities arises from the way in which their existence is generated subjectively: by the same kind of processes underlying the reading and composition of a valid Classical strophic poem. The quality of ‘singularity,’ and the associated form of mathematical discontinuity, arises from the opposing senses of time associated with the interplay of perfected ideas with the process of their development.” [emphasis added—ed.] The Afghan singularity, and its creative resolution, will be the subject of a Schiller Institute international seminar on Saturday, July 31. And it will come into proper focus as such, located between the Saturday, July 24, Schiller Institute webcast on the fraud of climate change and the coming blackouts; and the Saturday, Aug. 14 seminar sponsored by the LaRouche Legacy Foundation, “On the 50th Anniversary of LaRouche’s Stunning Forecast of August 15, 1971.”

Afghanistan can become stable, and its enormous potential for growth can be leveraged to the benefit of Afghans and the world at large, through helping to shape a new paradigm on this planet.But even after two decades of U.S.-led warfare, attempts to destabilize the nation and region continue. The U.S. government has frozen the nearly $9.5 billion in assets of the Afghan central bank and halted shipments of cash to the nation. The International Monetary Fund has suspended Afghanistan’s access to IMF resources, including $440 million worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) reserves. A cash shortage is developing in Afghanistan, where it is used for most purchases. Germany has announced a halt to all financial aid to the country, which will affect ongoing infrastructure projects. FaceBook-owned WhatsApp has shut down a Taliban help hotline, as well as other Taliban-linked channels, in a decision attacked by aid workers as “absurd.” Are these decisions temporary, due to uncertainty of who runs the country? Or are they being used to foster ongoing chaos in a nation already suffering decades of warfare, a nation lying at a strategic crossroads — bordering or closely concerning Iran, China, Pakistan, Russia, and three of the Central Asian republics? As has been the case for over a century, the British game of geopolitics seeks to ensure that there is no world rival to their dominance, exerted today through the “special relationship” with the United States. A new “Northern Alliance” has announced its emergence in Afghanistan, seeking Western military support. What will it receive? The Belt and Road Initiative, which is overturning the world’s economic and strategic chessboard through a paradigm of infrastructure development and productivity growth, achieving, at China’s initiative, a policy that parallels the World Land-Bridge concept developed by Lyndon LaRouche, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and their collaborators. Into this dynamic Afghanistan can be integrated, with results that would be stunning in terms of how rapidly they could transform the region, which can hardly be said to have benefited significantly from the over $1 trillion spent on military adventures there. The antidote to chaos — in addition to identifying its origin — is growth! This Saturday, the Schiller Institute, founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, will convene an urgent international seminar to pursue the solution of peace through development. The seminar will continue the prescient discussion held by the Schiller Institute on July 31, with many of the same panelists, as well as new ones. Zepp-LaRouche explained on Wednesday: “I do not agree with the hysteria of the Western media that this is the end of the world. … I think it is, on the contrary, the real chance to integrate Afghanistan into a regional economic development perspective, which is basically defined by the Belt and Road Initiative of China. There is a very clear agreement of Russia and China to cooperate in dealing with this situation. The interest of the Central Asian republics is to make sure there is stability and economic development; and there is the possibility to extend the CPEC, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, into Afghanistan, into Central Asia. So, I think it’s a real opportunity, but it does require a complete change in approach.” Expressing her view of the proper role of the United States, Zepp-LaRouche said, “John Quincy Adams said that the United States should have alliances of perfectly sovereign republics, and this is now the moment to really do that. The idea is to not oppose China linking Afghanistan into the Belt and Road Initiative, but rather see it as an opportunity to cooperate, and stop this geopolitical confrontation which can only lead to catastrophe. … That’s the kind of discussion which we have to catalyze.” The event will be this Saturday at noon EDT (6pm CEST), available at schillerinstitute.com

“Anybody who does not have geopolitical spectacles on their nose can see that, unless the two largest economies in the world—the U.S. and China—work together to tackle problems such as the pandemic, poverty, and famine, the world will be a miserable place,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche asserted in her weekly international webcast today. “And therefore some of these military doctrines which declare Russia and China to be the enemy are really stupid… The end result can only lead to war.”Zepp-LaRouche referred specifically to the recent Dr. Strangelove-type rampage of Adm. Philip Davidson, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, who defined China as the leading strategic threat to the United States. But the dangerous policy outlook originates in imperial London and extends deep into both the Republican and Democratic parties—and also into an all-too-gullible American population. The simple fact of the matter, as Lyndon LaRouche stressed repeatedly, is that we are in the throes of a systemic breakdown crisis of the entire trans-Atlantic system, characterized by both a bankrupt financial system and plunging real living standards of most of the world’s population, which has unleashed pandemics, famine, and cruel poverty. And solving that crisis, LaRouche also insisted, requires mustering the combined physical economic capabilities of China and the United States, in a science-driven global infrastructure program such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Whether London’s ideologues like it or not, China cannot be absent from the real-world solution to these problems. It not only launched the BRI and made it available to all nations, regardless of ideology; China has also succeeded in lifting 850 million Chinese out of extreme poverty over the last 40 years—the single, greatest contribution to the growth of physical-economic productivity worldwide, emphatically including real productivity inside the U.S. Consider the plight of Yemen, where millions—including children—are facing mass starvation, in what World Food Program director David Beasley painfully described, after a visit to that country this week, as “Hell; it’s the worst place on earth. And it’s entirely man-made.” So too with the explosion of new strains of COVID across the Americas, centered in Brazil, where the Bolsonaro government’s policy of arrogant inaction has encouraged the spread of the disease to crisis proportions. The new P1 Brazilian strain of the coronavirus is apparently twice as contagious as the original strain; and it is reportedly capable of re-infecting those who had COVID in anywhere from 25-60% of cases. Brazil, with its 211 million population, one-quarter of whom live in abject poverty, shares borders with 10 out of South America’s 12 countries. Do you really think this can be contained within Brazil? But just as the crisis is man-made, so too is its solution: the accelerated development of Southwest Asia, Africa, Ibero-America, and elsewhere, based on the extension of high-tech BRI corridors throughout these regions, in which China and the U.S. must play the keystone roles. The upcoming Schiller Institute/ICLC conference will present a detailed blueprint for such an approach. China, and Russia, are also both natural allies of those in the United States and Europe who rightly view the Green New Deal as a threat to economic development and human existence itself. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated in her webcast: “Behind all of this so-called ‘climate’ and anti-nuclear question, there are quite different motives: namely to reduce the population, and that is what is not being accepted by Russia and China. This self destruction of the West by deindustrializing, by reversing the level of industry and agriculture to pre-industrial times, means that the west is weakening itself drastically. And naturally, this increases the war danger, because Russia and China have no intention to do likewise.”

China’s international news agency, China Global Television Network (CGTN), produced a six minute video of excerpts from the keynote speech by Helga Zepp-LaRouche at the July 31 Schiller Institute Conference, “Afghanistan: A Turning Point in History After the Failed Regime-Change Era.” The CGTN video is titled: “Afghanistan: The Bright Future for the Coming Cooperation of the Great Powers.” It is certain that leading circles within the U.S., including within the Biden Administration, are watching closely as prominent figures from Russia and China speak at Schiller Institute conferences, and present LaRouche’s ideas in their media and institutional websites.They are watching, and some are listening and learning. Others are chewing the rug, and working with the U.K. to prevent what they see as the greatest danger to their Empire—the United States coming together with Russia and China to address the world’s existential crisis in all its facets—the danger of nuclear war; the pandemic; famine in multiple locations; the cultural decay across the Western world; and the financial bubble threatening to either explode or break out in an even more destructive hyperinflation. The ending of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, then, is not a disaster, as portrayed in the Western press. It is an opportunity for a great change in the course of human history. Mrs. LaRouche says in the video: “It should be obvious, even to the most incurable warmongers on the planet, that in Afghanistan, no military solution can succeed. In that sense, there must be a recognition that all such endless wars, like in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and so forth, belong to a paradigm of geopolitical thinking that has utterly failed. That means that the geopolitics of the British Empire, of the ‘Great Game,’ of the Arc of Crisis of Bernard Lewis and Zbigniew Brzezinski—must be outlawed forever. And there should be an agreement among all neighbors of Afghanistan that geopolitical manipulation must be ended and replaced by the application of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.” Zepp-LaRouche also points to the fact that even Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who generally sounds as mad as Mike Pompeo on all things Chinese, “during his recent trip to India stated that the U.S. government sees a positive role for China in the economic development of Afghanistan.” She pointed to the statement by the Afghan Ambassador to China, “who recently said that Afghanistan is the one place where the United States and China can actually cooperate, since they have common interests such as the suppression of terrorism and the elimination of opium production.” Zepp-LaRouche concludes: “In this sense, Afghanistan is at a crossroad. Not only for Eurasian integration, but also at a crossroad for universal history where we all can leave the age of immature adolescence behind us, and enter an era of adulthood, in which we concentrate on the common aims of mankind.” Recall that Biden held a high profile summit with President Putin, and spoke for hours on the phone with President Xi Jinping. Recall also the Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman held extensive discussion with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Deputy Minister responsible for U.S.-China Relations, then chaired a major summit with top military and diplomatic leaders from Russia and the U.S. Afghanistan was a leading item on the agenda at both meetings.These leaders are abundantly aware that the ideas expressed by Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche, and the wealth of ideas in the voluminous writings of Lyndon LaRouche which have been translated into Chinese and Russian, are ideas taken extremely seriously in Moscow and Beijing, as they are increasingly around the world. What direction will the U.S. take at this turning point in human history? The American people are finally beginning to throw off their delusions, their smug confidence that life as usual will go on no matter what they do. As their economy unravels under the Malthusian “Green New Deal”; as the reckless printing of trillions of dollars to bail out the bankrupt financial system without any real economic growth begins to drive inflation to the point of explosion; as their children are being offered legalized drugs and encouraged to change their sex; and as they contemplate the very real threat of nuclear war from the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese hysterics in both political parties—a real resistance is mounting, and is increasingly turning to LaRouche. Afghanistan is at peace—for now. The Taliban today, unlike the Taliban of the 1990s, is working in close cooperation with Russia, China, Iran, Pakistan and others in the region. Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in addition to pledging no retaliation and for women to continue working and studying in schools, also told CGTN that “the people of Afghanistan need help of other countries. They should come forward and help in the health sector and also infrastructure and education. They can come to explore our natural resources. This is a general invitation to all countries, and we appreciate any country that they help us at this crucial time of our history.” Will the U.S. and Europe accept this offer, to work with China’s Belt and Road to build the country they have destroyed, the country President Ashraf Ghani admitted suffered from a 90% poverty rate? Will this approach serve as a model for rebuilding Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen? Join the Schiller institute on Saturday, Aug. 21 at noon EDT for a follow-up conference to the July 31 event, under the title: “Now More Urgent than Ever: Afghanistan Is an Opportunity for a New Epoch for Mankind,” at this link.

Join us for a preview of this weekend's Schiller Institute international conference. Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in a webcast on April 28, underscored the extreme urgency of the forthcoming May 8 Conference: "I think it is actually horrifying how few people are aware of the acute danger in which civilization finds itself. There are only a few voices that are warning of nuclear war. One of them, Tulsi Gabbard (former Congresswoman, combat veteran, and Presidential candidate), about two weeks ago, in a show with Tucker Carlson, pointed to the fact that if there would be an outbreak of war, it would turn nuclear, it would reach the territory of the United States,...and nobody would remain alive.” Rising tensions between Russia and the United States, and China and the United States, all thermonuclear powers, can provoke “the unthinkable.” The folly of playing “superpower nuclear chicken-game” as discussed in US military doctrines like “Prompt Global Strike,” is comparable to lighting a match in an apartment building filled with gas. The first moments of such a conflict, will also be the last moments of the conflict.

Helga Zepp-Larouche gave this important strategic briefing on December 29th, 2020, in a discussion with associates. The world urgently needs the intervention of our organization, because it’s very clear that while the receptiveness for our ideas exists, we are absolutely needed as the binding force to put together the different elements which are already all driving in the direction of centrifugal division on the one side, but confrontation on the other. So, what we have to do, and we should not relax and say we are in a seasonal period, and [will pick up things] after the New Year period is over, because we are right now in the most important period, where still something can be done. And I would say, especially in the period between now and January 6 is a period where certain policies have to be put on the agenda.And I would like the entire international organization to really focus on that as a package: What Trump still could do—I mean, first of all on Jan. 6, there will be a meeting in the Congress certifying the result of the Electoral College or not. In the United States, we are mobilizing on the one side to get state legislators to take seriously the fact that the most enormous vote fraud ever in the history of the United States has taken place, to not certify the result, but to reopen the investigation into the vote fraud. That is obviously extremely important, because if the United States is being de facto being turned into a banana republic, where the principles of the republic are eliminated, then this has strategic implications for the whole world. Obviously, that is a question which only people from the U.S. can do, but there are a lot of things which are international issues, which should be also worked on and mobilized around. One thing, given the fact that the anti-China, anti-Russia campaigns in the United States are escalating in a very dangerous way, and all the signs are that if Biden comes in with the present policies and teams which are visible, you can expect a very dramatic escalation in the direction of war with these two countries. So therefore, what Trump could do, and that is not just a question of the internal situation in the United States, but of strategic importance concerning everybody, Trump could turn the tables: He could absolutely not go by the profile which was designed for him by British intelligence, since 2015, but especially then, with Russiagate and especially the design of the policy to blame China for the COVID pandemic: He could immediately turn the tables and respond to Putin’s proposal to conduct a P5 summit on the basis of the different emergencies, the need to cooperate together on fighting the pandemic, to fight the world famine of “biblical dimensions,” but to also permanently get at the roots of the apparatus which was behind Russiagate by pardoning Assange and Snowden, by appointing a special prosecutor, and that way, if he would go with this package as a totality, he could do a lot! He could turn the tables even at this very late moment in history. So therefore, we should make that an issue in the organizing everywhere, not just in the United States, but in Europe, and everybody else we’re talking to. Because how the different players of this strategic situation behave and what they regard as options, is absolutely not a matter of internal U.S. politics, and from that standpoint, one of the most important developments in the last period was, for sure, what we did yesterday with the event in commemoration of the Alexandrov Ensemble, where we had for the fourth time, an annual at the Teardrop Memorial [in Bayonne, New Jersey overlooking New York harbor], where, despite the COVID restriction and therefore a limited number of people could be there, took place. We had the Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Chumakov; Capt. Donald Haiber of the Bayonne, N.J. Fire Department and naturally we had Diane Sare and John Sigerson speaking on behalf of the Schiller Institute, and this was an extremely important event. Now, especially if you listen to what Mr. Chumakov said, who after all, is the number two in rank in the Russian United Nations mission, and therefore continuing in the tradition which was set especially throughout this year by Mr. Dmitry Polyanskiy before, by stressing—he said: “Ladies and Gentlemen: Today is the fourth time we get together to honor the memory of the victims of a plane crash that took place in the skies over Sochi on 25 December 2016. Back then we lost almost all members of Alexandrov Ensemble….” And then he said, "I would like to express our deep appreciation to the Schiller Institute and the Fire Department of Bayonne. Annual meetings like this one have become our good tradition, which makes them all the more significant. We commend the efforts of American community to preserve the memory of those outstanding Russian musicians and luminaries in the United States. This year even the coronavirus pandemic could not stop us from gathering here. “Solidarity and mutual help are especially needed today, when the humanity has faced an unprecedented threat—COVID-19 pandemic. For the sake of our common future, peoples and states of the world need to erase all dividing lines, and channel their creative forces to articulating a joint response to this global challenge. “Russia and the United States, as two Permanent Members of the Security Council, bear special responsibility for sustaining global peace and security. In this context, it is of principal importance that the people of our two countries maintain most cordial relations and promote inter-state ties at the civil society level. “This is why it widely resonates in our hearts that American people empathize with our loss and grieve along with us. “May the memory of the deceased heroes live forever. The hope and the light that they conveyed to the world will perpetuate in the souls of those who admired their talent and dedication both in Russia and in the United States.” [https://russiaun.ru/en/news/alexandrovchoir28122020] Now, this is very important, because in a situation where the McCarthyite witchhunt in the United States has reached unprecedented pitch levels, it is extremely important that such an event is taking place, because it still is the only road how to go back from the confrontation which can only lead in a complete disaster. Now, therefore, our pushing the summit, despite the unlikelihood of it in the eyes of many is not going to be happening, it is all the more important that we do that, because if you want to have a way out of the present dilemma, then, here it is. The Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, in an interview Dec. 28 with Rossiiskaya Gazeta basically warned of the “Western increased military multiplexing near the Russian border, which may have far-reaching consequences.” And he said, “In 2020, the activity of the air and naval forces [of NATO] has increased significantly, and situations that can lead to serious incidents are increasingly emerging,” Fomin said, “These actions were openly provocative. The incidents were avoided only thanks to the high level of professional training of Russian pilots and sailors.” [https://www.rt.com/russia/510901-nato-activity-borders-moscow-defense/] Now, here you have it, and that’s what I said several months ago repeatedly, that if world peace depends on the flight techniques of a pilot, it gives you a sense in what grave danger we are. The other major confrontation with China, it’s already clear that Biden is making that, holding China accountable an absolute priority of his foreign policy. He met with Kamala Harris and the national security review team, and gave the press afterwards a prepared statement, and walking out before any questions could be asked. He basically said that the priorities of his administration will be 1) Climate change; 2) COVID; and 3) the daunting threat of China. And he said, “we will hold China’s government accountable for its abuses on trade, technology, human rights, and other fronts, and we will build coalitions of like-minded partners and allies” to basically face the strategic challenge from both Russia and China. So this is a continuation of this—as a matter of fact, you can be sure it will be an escalation, and therefore it is extremely important that we push the idea of a new paradigm, the absolute need to have a meeting on the level of the summits of presidents, and that we counter this in the strongest possible way. There has been an interview with Chas Freeman with Global Times [https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202012/1211082.shtml]. You know Chas Freeman who spoke at our Schiller Conference in Berlin in 2016 and who was the translator for Nixon when Nixon went to China in 1972. And he has been ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and other countries. He is asked by Global Times, that “Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently said on several occasions that China’s door for dialogue is open any time,” and what is your response and what do you think the U.S. will do? And he basically said that: Yes, the two countries must talk seriously, the challenges, what might be done about it in parallel or together. And then as he is asked that “Former vice foreign minister of China Fu Ying in a column for the New York Times proposes China and the U.S. develop a relationship of cooperative competition.” And he said, this is exactly his view that the two countries must deal with each other pragmatically [and] he thinks this idea of Fu Ying is important. [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/opinion/china-us-biden.html] And Fu Ying, if you remember, not only praised the World Land-Bridge publicly at conferences, but also at the Munich Security Conference gave several very reasonable speeches. So she is definitely a voice of dialogue and trying to find a way of solving things in China. I think this strategic situation is what we should really focus on, and the time between now and no matter what happens on Jan. 20th, it could very well be that the tables can still be turned—we will see—but obviously the forces trying to scratch such a possibility are quite in an uproar and they’re escalating by the day, anti-China, anti-Russia, trying to creating havoc, and for sure, box Trump in by having some of the pro-Trump forces being the most vicious anti-China elements, completely trying to box Trump in. So our mobilization internationally is of the utmost importance. Now, the situation overall is that the push by the Davos crowd and Soros and the Great Reset which they have planned now for a virtual conference for Jan. 25-29, this is a complete disaster, and we should absolutely escalate our mobilization against that. We will feature what would be the Great Reset, which we have done in several articles already, but we will escalate that, because the whole thing is based on a fraud, on fraudulent science, on a wrong premise of why climate change is taking place, that it’s manmade, and it is a swindle. And even the fact that there seems to be a very far-reaching agreement, especially with Biden potentially coming in, and Ursula von der Leyen, that doesn’t mean that their view of the “science” of the whole thing has anything to do with reality. So we should absolutely escalate that campaign as well. Because, don’t kid yourself: We are still heading for a major collapse of the economy which will only be worsened with the Green agenda: Look at Commerzbank, they may cut 10,000 jobs in the next period. Rather than rebuilding the health system, it now turns out two-thirds of the German clinics are now threatened with insolvency, they’re planning to close down many of the small hospitals; they’re not rebuilding the health system is the way it would be necessary, and I think the fact that Dr. Tedros from the World Health Organization said that he is completely shocked about the behavior of governments in this respect, because it is very clear that COVID will not be the last pandemic, that the reaction of the governments is “dangerously short-sighted” with their cycle of throwing cash at outbreaks, but doing nothing to prepare for the next one. That “we throw money at the outbreak and when it’s over, we forget about it, and nothing is done to prevent the next one. This is dangerously short-sighted and frankly difficult to understand.” And then he calls for a permanent building of a modern health system worldwide, because unless that is accomplished, there is no safety, and the next pandemics will, for sure, come. While one should note that the present pandemic is clearly out of control in many places; in Europe, in several countries, they don’t get the infection rates down, there is talk about a lockdown into April in Germany; and in the United States is very clearly out of control in southern California, in central California, but also several other states. So this policy is clearly—the elites absolutely refuse to take the lessons from Asia, and instead, they keep doing their privatization of the health sector. Now, to the extent that China has managed to not only contain the pandemic, but also as a result get the economy back into shape, while the West is still looking for the worst to come—these are the words of Dr. Fauci, for example,—the anti-China campaign is escalating to the degree that China is coping with COVID and getting its economy going, and they are just trying to escalate against China’s rise, instead of learning the lessons of why this happened. Now I find this quite interesting that in the last meeting in the UN Security Council, where the German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen—a notorious warhawk and Atlanticist—asked Beijing for the release of two Canadians who are in jails. He said, “Christmas is the right moment for such a gesture.” And then the Chinese Ambassador Geng Shuang said, “Now, I wish to say out of the bottom of my heart: Good riddance, Ambassador Heusgen.” That shows you a certain healthy self-consciousness on the part of the Chinese before these provocations. [Ed. Note-for the full transcript of the answer of Ambassador Geng Shuang on the case of Canadian Michael Kovrig, see the following link] [http://chnun.chinamission.org.cn/eng/hyyfy/t1842159.htm] As I said, the worst is still to come and the solution absolutely has to be what we have said the whole time: We need a modern health system in every single country, and you need to remedy the reasons why these pandemics can rage in the way that they do, which is the underdevelopment of the developing countries. This is why the work of the Committee of the Coincidence of Opposites is so important, which is actually active, and will act in a decisive way in the next days. So, I think this covers the most important developments and locates where we stand strategically.

Today the Schiller Institute brought together in a five-hour intense discussion at an international virtual conference, diplomats and experts from many nations, including Afghanistan, Russia, China, Pakistan, the United States, Italy and others, on the theme: “Afghanistan: A Turning Point in History After the Failed Regime-Change Era.”Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), President and founder of the Schiller Institute, who has been leading a process of institutional and informal dialogue for the past 18 months, said at the conclusion of today’s event, that we now “have a perspective of where to go.” The priority is “to put development on the table, which will be difficult to refuse” by anyone, and give all the support possible to make it happen. The last speaker of the day, Hussein Askary (Sweden), Southwest Asia Coordinator for the Schiller Institute, put it forcefully, that we must “make development the first item” in any talks, not the last. He warned, “Keep the warlords and the British out!” Askary’s presentation, which covered concrete aspects of development, was titled, “Put Afghanistan on the Belt and Road to Peace.” The event was opened by Moderator Dennis Speed (USA), who said that the deliberations would change the usual conception of war or peace, to partake of the diplomacy of formulating policies for mutual understanding and development. He introduced a short 1985 video by statesman-economist Lyndon LaRouche making the point, with reference to President Abraham Lincoln’s record, that the power of infrastructure transforms an economy. Zepp-LaRouche’s opening remarks stressed that we are at a special moment in history, where geopolitical confrontation must be ended, and a new paradigm begun—not only for Eurasian integration and prosperity, but for universal history. She showed the beautiful “Golden Mask” artifact, to make the point of the 5,000 year history of the Central Asian region. Playing a lead role in the discussion from beginning to end was Professor Pino Arlacchi (Italy), who participated from Italy. Currently Sociology Professor at the Sassari University, he was Executive Director of the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (1997-2002) and former European Parliament Rapporteur on Afghanistan. He spoke on, “Eradicate Opium in Afghanistan, Develop Modern Agriculture, Build the Nation, Now.” He described his original plan which by 2001 had nearly eliminated opium poppy growing in Afghanistan, which then was reversed under the ensuing years from 2001 of U.S. and NATO military operations. Arlacchi again proposed a plan in 2010, which was thwarted by the EU, Britain and the U.S. Today, Afghanistan is the source of over 80% of the world’s opium drugs. Arlacchi laid out what can and must be done today. The needed approach uses alternative agriculture—supporting farmers to switch to other crops, and similar realistic methods. Arlacchi stressed how relatively inexpensive this is, given the huge leverage by the drug cartels. Farmers in Afghanistan might get $300 to 350 million for their opium crop, which then is worth $20 billion to organized crime in Europe. There are many alternative crops of great use and value, for example saffron. The diplomats presented a sweeping picture of the present situation. Ambassador Hassan Shoroosh (Afghanistan), Afghanistan’s ambassador to Canada, spoke from Ottawa, saying that there is a “new chapter of partnership” ahead, which must be worked out. His talk was, “The Way Forward for Afghanistan.” He said that his country is “positioned to serve as a land-bridge” in Eurasia, and reviewed in detail various transportation corridors, from the Lapis Lazuli Corridor, to the Five Nations Railway route. Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva (Russia) spoke from New York City, where she is Deputy Permanent Representative at the Mission of the Russian Federation to the UN. Her presentation was titled, “Russia’s Outlook for Afghanistan and Eurasia.” She stressed that the goal is stability, and there is no military solution. There are important frameworks among the neighbors in the region, including the CSTO and SCO and bilateral relations. There is a special role for the “extended troika,” which has been in place for many years. There are meetings coming up in the near future. Transport and infrastructure are of great significance. Dr. Wang Jin (China), Fellow at The Charhar Institute, spoke on the topic, “Afghanistan and the Belt and Road Initiative.” He presented four key aspects of China’s concerns: 1) that there are no “spillover” impacts of instability; 2) that there is a future of advancement for Afghanistan; 3) that extremism and terrorism do not gain ground; and 4) that China and Afghanistan have positive ties. From Pakistan, Mr. Hassan Daud spoke. He is the CEO of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province Board of Investment & Trade. He pointed out that Afghanistan is one of “the least integrated” economically in the Central and South Asian region, after these decades of strife. He spoke of the great “economic spillover” that will ensue, with Pakistan leveraging its position and resources to become a logistical hub, and extending benefits to Afghanistan through the Belt and Road flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the BRI. We must have “the spirit of the ancient Silk Road” again. He called for more seminars on this, involving scholars, chambers of commerce and others. From the United States, Ray McGovern spoke. He is a former analyst at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and cofounder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Addressing the topic, “The Real Interest of the United States in Asia,” he made many strong points, including that there must be “accountability” for the string of commanders who lied about what the U.S. was doing in Afghanistan, also in Iraq and elsewhere. He dramatically pointed out that there weren’t even competent “situation estimates” that should have been done, about terrain, weather, LOCS—lines of communications and supplies, and other standard assessments of what the U.S. is doing in places. In 2010, the U.S. Navy logistics was paying $400 a gallon to put gas in the tanks of military vehicles in Afghanistan! He hit hard at the racism involved in presuming you can do anything, anywhere; he quoted Kipling. Many others were involved in the two question and answer discussions, with important exchanges over key topics. For example, Earl Rasmussen, Vice President of the Eurasian Society, raised the point of the necessity to build trust. Dr. Stephen Fischer, an American physician, reported on a year he spent in public health in Afghanistan, working with a provincial reconstruction team. Zepp-LaRouche stressed many times, that in the context of the prolonged pandemic, it is imperative that we move in Afghanistan, and everywhere, for public health and modern medical care infrastructure. Dr. Walter Faggett and Maj. Gen. Peter Clegg (ret.), both with the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites were able to join the first Q&A discussion. Alaha Ahrar, CEO of Kindness Sharing Project called in from Virginia to ask what would happen to the gains women had made in Afghanistan, if the Taliban should take power? Ambassador Anna Evstigneeva made a concluding point, that it is “important to rise above geopolitics.” She said that in Russia, “at all levels, Including President Putin,” we are ready for cooperation." Helga Zepp-LaRouche called on the panelists, and anyone in the viewing audience, to contribute to the development program perspective under discussion, and mobilize. Professor Arlacchi, who has a new book out, Against Fear: Violence Is Diminishing, The True Threats to World Peace (in Italian) gave parting words that, “peace is stronger than war. Let’s be more courageous. Not a victim of huge deceptions.” The full conference is archived for viewing (a partial transcript appears in this briefing). Now is the time to join the Schiller Institute.

How is it that ideologues in the U.S. and Europe are driving the world, step by deliberate step, down the path of extinction by nuclear war and hardly anyone in those countries has bothered to object? On the other hand, all of the ingredients for a new paradigm are there, as seen in the policies proposed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche for decades, solutions involving cooperation among nations for the common interests of all humanity: a new global health system to end the threat of future pandemics, a mobilization to double world food production and end the famine, agreements to build the World Land-Bridge of development corridors to end poverty for good, science driver missions for fusion power and space colonization, and a new financial architecture to support humanity’s interests—rather than that of financial swindlers.With those solutions available, why is there such a knee-jerk reaction from the political classes in the other direction—toward war and famine? And why does the population tolerate it? Why are we still barbarians? Consider the deadly weapon of sanctions: The “Caesar Sanctions” deployed against Syria are warfare by economic means, destroying the lives of people in Syria. Likewise the new sanctions against Russia, as is made explicit: the stated goal is to increase the velocity of debt distress in Russia, to increase borrowing costs, to slow down economic growth, to cause inflation. It is impossible to pretend that economic sanctions are not a part of military warfare. When somebody dies of suicide because they lost their job and can no longer support their family, or of starvation because there isn’t enough food—that is a death just as surely as when somebody is killed by a missile or a bomb in Yemen or in Syria. It is a death as surely as if there were military conflict between the United States and Russia directly. These sanctions are warfare—they are murder. People of the United States must stand up and end the killing that is being committed in their name. In a statement earlier this week, Helga Zepp-LaRouche demanded, “This must stop and the Caesar Sanctions must be lifted. And all the members of the U.S. Congress who do not lift these sanctions make themselves complicit in every death that occurs in the region.” She further stated that all sanctions should be banned as a violation of human rights. Unless the ideology of geopolitics—of viewing Russia’s independence and China’s growth as a threat—is overturned, we run the risk of sparking what will become the war that ends humanity. Americans, in particular, have a critical role to play in changing U.S. policy, to prevent it from blowing up the world. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche has stressed, what we face now is not a collection of separate events, but a profound civilizational crisis. This is our test: Do we, as a civilization, have the moral fitness to survive? “This has reached the point where either the world wakes up and we start to remedy this, or we will not survive, because of our own moral failure as a human species. I call on you: Work with the Schiller Institute.” The Schiller Institute’s May 8th Conference will be a crucial inflection point in turning these policies around, and our organizing between now and then—including recruiting many new members to the Schiller Institute—will be indispensable in ensuring that we are alive and in one piece, as a world, by that time.