International Peace Coalition

‘Geopolitics is a Mental Disease,
It Should Be Eradicated’

by EIR staff

[Print version of this article]

Dec. 27—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, kicked off the 82nd weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) today, wishing everyone a good New Year, “especially a whole New Year, because that is not yet certain.” She reviewed the various zones of military conflict, noting the United States is setting up a new military base in Damascus, Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently said that Russia has received encouraging signals from the pending administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, but it remains to be seen whether they are supported with facts.

Zepp-LaRouche assessed the appointments of the incoming Trump administration, saying they “are very, very mixed.” The first two hopeful strategic signs: the Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya visited Beijing and the two nations made a number of constructive agreements, including to foster each other’s classical traditions. Secondly, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after meeting with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, agreed to Slovakia as a potential venue for peace talks with Ukraine.

In Southwest Asia, the new Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leaders in Syria were all founding members of al-Nusra and related terror organizations. The situation there is a powder keg, with an assortment of factions and states vying for control. The danger is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “may feel that the wind is in his sails,” and be emboldened to take ever more provocative actions, including against Iran. Israel continues its unspeakable genocide against the children of Gaza, and now has bombed Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa, nearly killing the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Zepp-LaRouche concluded, “Geopolitics is a mental disease; it should be eradicated.”

Lack of Empathy and Wahnsinn

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), said that Zepp-LaRouche really should be briefing the incoming President of the United States. With the recent revelations by Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding his 2021 meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, when Biden tried to convince Putin that China was a threat to Russia’s security, McGovern said “These guys really don’t get it,” adding that the word that comes to his mind is the German “Wahnsinn,” an expression which is “stronger than just crazy,” and perfectly describes NATO’s delusions. NATO, he said, combines Wahnsinn with sociopathy, having no empathy. For example, the late Madeleine Albright, in 1996 while serving as U.S. Secretary of State, when asked in a CBS 60 Minutes interview about the deaths of half a million children in Iraq, replied, “I think that it is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.” McGovern concluded, “We’re at a liminal point here.” Hopefully, we will be able to breathe a lot easier in three weeks.

Larry Johnson, retired CIA official and a co-founder of the VIPS, began with “the mess that is Syria,” suggesting that the nation most likely to wind up in control is Türkiye. Turkish President Erdoğan has “climbed into bed with Israel.” HTS leader and former head-chopper al-Jolani is being presented as “Mahatma Gandhi with a beard.” But HTS is not in control and not able to make the state function for its inhabitants. There is now a civil war. Israel has been fighting Hamas, a lightly armed guerilla force, for 14 months and can’t beat it. Yet Israel wants to control part of Syria? The more they extend themselves, the faster they will weaken themselves.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche agreed with McGovern on the topic of Wahnsinn, and with Johnson that a current in Türkiye wants an empire. When she and her husband Lyndon LaRouche met with Turkish President Turgut Özal in the 1980s, she was astonished at the degree to which “Greater Turkey” was on his mind. Johnson replied, “The vanity of Erdoğan is clouding his judgment.” He believes that he’s in a position to restore the Ottoman Empire.

Ray McGovern discussed the delusions that arise when a group of people believe that they are “exceptional.” During the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry dreamt of “aligning the forces in Syria.” Helga Zepp-LaRouche agreed, asserting that exceptionalism leads to geopolitics, “like Germany 80 years ago.” McGovern soberly added, “Chosen people, indispensable people … each case leads to disaster.”

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed reported on the podcast in the U.S., where an advisor turned critic of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovych gave an interview contrasting the “official view” on Putin, that Putin had launched a military aggression against Ukraine, to his own, unofficial view: that Putin is the most pro-Western Russian official in memory. Putin proposed to join NATO, create a joint missile defense, and provided a base for U.S. forces during the initial stage of their war against Afghanistan. Zepp-LaRouche replied that this “unofficial view” is “totally in cohesion with what I have observed over the years.”

Dr. Nidal Jboor, co-founder of Doctors Against Genocide, announced that Kamal Adwan, the last remaining hospital in Gaza, has been burnt, and all doctors arrested. His organization will hold a live-stream this Sunday with colleagues in Gaza, urging IPC participants to attend.

Larry Johnson said that the last 10 years have convinced even the most pro-Western people in Russia that the West cannot be trusted; they are “like a ravenous locust that wants to consume everything.” McGovern said that “Putin has a long record of reaching out and speaking to the deaf and dumb.”

The balance of power between the USSR and the West used to be more or less even. Now Russia and China work together, and Russia has technical advantages that they never enjoyed before. Johnson added that thanks to social media, we have a video record of new missile technology in action. In addition, offensive drones are a game-changer.

Cooperate for Global Development

Helga Zepp-LaRouche reiterated: The only hope she can see, is for the West to say, let’s stop geopolitics and move from confrontation to cooperation. There are huge swaths of territory in the U.S. which are underpopulated. Clearly it should shift its emphasis from seeking hegemony, to developing its tattered economy. This is the road to solving the migrant problem and bringing peace.

French Solidarité et Progrès leader Jacques Cheminade suggested that the interests of Israel and Türkiye will no longer coincide. This raises the question of what will happen with Iran. Will Russia keep its bases in Syria?

Finally, there was a discussion of the role of churches, and the Pope’s recent call for peace. Joe Biden, who identifies as a Catholic, will shortly visit the Pope; McGovern mused, “I don’t know how a practicing Catholic can enable genocide, it’s beyond me.” He said wryly that Biden has a lot to confess.

About Trump’s recent statements on annexing Panama, Canada, and Greenland, Larry Johnson called these “the most bizarre statements I have seen.” There are hardly any U.S. ships going through the Panama Canal. “Trump likes torturing Trudeau…. I must say, I can’t blame him.”

Zepp-LaRouche concluded that “der Wahnsinn is increasing” in Germany. It is being said that “the Bundeswehr should get ready to fight right now,” and this is insane. There is an explosion of voices coming out in alternative media saying that there is “no longer a coincidence of interests between Europe and the United States.” She reminded the participants of the summits of culture represented by Schiller and Beethoven. Discussion of a humanist image of man should give us the strength to intervene.