This statement appears in the April 11, 2003 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

The War Must Be Stopped Now!
Remove Rumsfeld, Cheney and Co.!

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

This is the text of a leaflet distributed beginning April 3, 2003 across Europe by the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity (BüSo) party in Germany, and allied parties and the Schiller Institute Europe-wide.

The war of aggression against Iraq must be ended immediately. Already there exists the clear danger that there will be no "after the Iraq war"; rather, it is threatening to spread into a global war, in the course of which the U.S.A. will implement its new military doctrine of "preventive" first-use of nuclear weapons. Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell have already mentioned "consequences" for Syria and Iran. The Iraq war has already triggered a clear aggravation of the situation around North Korea, and the Japanese Defense Minister warned of a possible "pre-emptive" war against the North Korean nuclear arms potential. If we want to prevent a world catastrophe, this war must be stopped now.

This is possible only if the war party—the so-called "Chicken-hawks," Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Feith, Perle, Shulsky and Co.—is thrown out of the Bush Administration immediately. And this is not impossible, since:

1. The war is not the "cakewalk" that Rumsfeld promised, but rather is about to turn into a new Vietnam. The "cheap" blitzkrieg, with predominant deployment of aerial bombardments and limited ground troops, has shown itself to be a fantasy of the utopian military faction. Now it has come out that Rumsfeld rejected the highly developed Pentagon document for war planning (TPFDL: time-phased and force deployment list), and with it any centralized military planning, as well as the advice of traditional military professionals. Rumsfeld's military incompetence is obvious.
   
   
2. The entire war has been built on lies. The intelligence department of the Pentagon, newly installed by Wolfowitz, under Abram Shulsky, systematically circulated disinformation, in order to construct the basis for war. For example, the alleged facts about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, in the "White Papers" which were published in Britain and the United States in September 2002. For example, the forged documents purporting to show that Iraq tried to import uranium from Niger, and the alleged proof that Iraq had links to al-Qaeda. All these lies created the basis for Powell's speech before the UN on Feb. 5 of this year.
   
   
3. It has come to light that an astonishing number of members of the war party are not only followers of the philosophical fascists Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom, but are also lining their pockets with money, as a result of the war. Richard Perle ("Mr. Regime-Change-in-Germany"), has already had to resign as chairman of the Defense Policy Board; and Democratic Congressman John Conyers has opened an investigation into Perle's conflict of interest, whereby he used a public office for private gain. Perle, through his company, Trireme, reportedly attempted to extort $100 million from Saudi princes, in exchange for stopping the attacks against Saudi Arabia as a sponsor of terrorism—attacks Perle himself had initiated! Perle is also involved in a scandal around the sale of Global Crossing.

Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Elizabeth Cheney are involved in a scandal around the firm Halliburton, which, among other things, has already won bids for contracts for reconstruction of Iraq. Former CIA chief James Woolsey is an advisor to the firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which in 2002 received Pentagon contracts worth $688 million. He is also linked to a firm which has contracts for Ashcroft's homeland defense.

The danger is enormous, that this war, built on lies, incompetently planned, and in flagrant violation of international law, may lead to a dangerous escalation.

'Uniting for Peace' Resolution

Therefore, it is urgent that a session of the United Nations General Assembly be convoked, to decide on the immediate end of the war. A precedent for the convening of the UNGA is Resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace," which the UN adopted in 1950 during the Korean War, and which can be activated—in the event a Security Council action is blocked by a veto—by a simple majority of the member nations, or the vote of seven members of the UN Security Council.

The League of Arab States, the Non-Aligned Movement, Russia, and China have already called for the General Assembly to meet. But many of these countries believe that they can resist the pressure of the United States, which has designated such a General Assembly as an unfriendly act, only if Germany and France join those calling for its convocation. When it is a question of war or peace, a question of the danger of a new horrible world war, which would thrust mankind into a new dark age, then world public opinion must be established by which it is powerfully demonstrated, that the absolute majority of people in the world are opposed to this war! This General Assembly of the UN must take place at the level of heads of state.

Therefore: Germany and France must immediately support the call for the UN General Assembly!

The current Iraq war crisis also makes clear, that things cannot continue with the current world economic order. People in most parts of the world are suffering cruel injustice, through hunger, poverty, and disease, which cut short their lives. A financial and economic world order in which tens of thousands of children starve daily, and one-third of humanity goes hungry—when this could be prevented—is not acceptable. This world financial system has reached the final phase of its collapse, and herein lies the real source of the war dynamic.

The demand of the leading opposition political figure in the United States, and Democratic pre-candidate for the Presidential elections, Lyndon LaRouche, for a new financial system—a New Bretton Woods—must be implemented urgently by the governments of Eurasia. Only when the systemic financial and economic crisis is overcome, can the war danger be permanently eliminated. The construction of the Eurasian Land-Bridge—that is, the infrastructural and economic integration of Eurasia—is the only way that unemployment in our countries can be overcome, and an upswing accomplished which overshadows the Rooseveltian New Deal and the 1945 Marshall Plan. Peace through development!