LYNDON LAROUCHE:
From SDI to SDE: Mankind's
Mastery of the Solar System
[PDF version of this transcript]
We thought that it was improper that I not have something to say on this occasion. I think that what has been said so far shows progress in the intention of this body, at this meeting now. And I think I can put a connection between where we were, with this address you just heard [from Jeffrey Steinberg], and where we're going next.
What I should emphasize is this: We've got to understand that this is not merely a matter of accommodating to conditions, in the Solar System and so forth, that we're familiar with from past and current experience. We're on the verge of a time where we not only have military threats and that sort of thing, but now we have threats from within the Solar System itself.
And what has been put underway, as you will hear from others who are going to speak on these subjects today, is that mankind has got to realize that we're not simply sending people out to visit neighboring planets or rubble out there in this area: Mankind now has to actually take over the Solar System. It will be some time before we can say we can take over the entire Solar System; but within the range of Mars and a few spots beyond that, mankind must now necessarily be committed to a kind of colonization of nearby solar space, which does not entail many people going out there to Mars or places like that, but it does mean you're going to have to develop systems, such as those already being placed on Mars, which will enable us to build up systems throughout the nearby parts of the Solar System and beyond, which will enable us to organize defense against the kinds of threats which mankind has never really seen clearly before.
So, while we are, at the same moment, trying to bring an end to the thermonuclear warfare process, at the same time we have an urgent mission to perform, not merely to look at objects like Mars, and say, "Oh! There are more things up there on Mars." Mars is going to be a very important part of organizing a system of defense against missiles in the Solar System. And without that defense, we would be in grave jeopardy.
So the point is, we have a transition, to not only clean up the unfinished business of getting a peace, a world peace—because we can no longer have a major war on this planet; it would mean the extinction of mankind. There is no winning of a war, a nuclear war: There's only nuclear extinction, and it could be total!
So therefore, that's what we've got to secure, now. But that's not the end of it. There's always a challenge for mankind ahead, and the challenge now is, we've got to get out, not by putting people on Mars—Mars is not ready to greet us yet, as visitors—but we can put apparatuses, controlled from Earth, which are operating on Mars, and in other locations within the nearby parts of the Solar System, which can organize effective defense, against, not conscious enemies, but reckless rocks and things like that, which are coming in on us more frequently right now. Thank you.
