March 21—The 94th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) was opened by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, who reported that March 18 was a “fateful day” due to two events:

1. The conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which represents a return to diplomacy. “Any sane person should be highly happy about this event,” she said, but the Europeans are not happy.

2. The historic vote in the German parliament to loosen the “debt brake,” not for productive purposes, but to “open the sluices” for a military buildup. They used “parliamentarian trickery” by scheduling the vote in a lame duck session of the Bundestag, knowing that the incoming session would not vote to approve.

Zepp-LaRouche went on to debunk various neocon narratives: One narrative is that “Putin” is preparing to attack Europe. But, according to military experts, Russia can only mobilize 1.5 million troops, not enough to attack Europe (if that were in fact Russia’s intention). Regarding the fiction that Russia’s entry into Ukraine was “unprovoked,” she cited eyewitness reports, including by Jack Matlock, who, as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, was one of many who called attention to the broken promise of no NATO expansion.

She reported that Israel has renewed its genocide campaign. This can lead to a blowback. We are “sitting on a time bomb, which is the pending financial collapse.” In a war with Iran, the U.S. would lose, not for military reasons, but because it would trigger the financial collapse.

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), reminded viewers that NATO was originally set up to “keep Russia out, America in, and Germany down.” Regarding the German plan to re-arm in order to take on Russia, Russians have “been there, done that.” The U.S. and Russia have a mutual interest in not letting this get out of hand.

McGovern addressed the issue of trust between nations. Putin pulled U.S. President Barack Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire after the 2013 false flag chemical-weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria. But trust plummeted after the 2014 Maidan coup and the bogus Minsk Agreements in Ukraine. McGovern displayed his Putin-Versteher button, noting that being a “Putin understander” is no longer completely pejorative.

Dennis Fritz, director of the Eisenhower Media Network and Command Chief Master Sergeant (ret., U.S. Air Force), responding to McGovern on the question of trust, and Zepp-LaRouche on the role of Jack Matlock, he described an ad published by the Eisenhower Media Network, entitled “The U.S. Should Be a Force for Peace in the World.” He added that the Schiller Institute and social media have begun to counteract the devastating impact of pro-Israel propaganda in the U.S.

Water for Peace

Two Palestinian experts addressed the crucial issue of reconstruction for Gaza. A video was presented of H.E. Ambassador Prof. Dr. Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian Authority Ambassador to Denmark, interviewed by EIR’s Tim Rush March 19 in Washington, DC. He emphasized that there is no military solution to this conflict, and we need to search for common ground in economic solutions to overcome political jingoism. He said that the reconstruction plan of the Palestinian Authority is compatible with the Egyptian plan, but strongly endorsed Lyndon LaRouche’s Oasis Plan as a step further in the right direction.

Fernando Garzón, executive director of the Ecuadorian-Palestinian Union, a professor at Universities in Ecuador, and consultant on development and land use planning for international organizations, added to the Ambassador’s comments, saying that reconstruction cannot be done outside of regional development (as best seen in the Oasis Plan), and requires a sovereign government for Palestine, recognized by the UN.

Garzón reported that the UN has provided information as to the extent of the destruction in Gaza. More than 73% of structures have been destroyed, 68% of roads are impassable, 92% of all housing units are gone. This represents not only genocide, but terracide, the destruction of nature and the land itself. 95% of the water is not potable, and 90% is controlled by an Israeli private company. Billions of dollars in identified natural gas reserves belong to the Palestinians, and this will be essential for reconstruction. The BRICS New Development Bank should play a role, not the anti-development IMF. Trump’s “Riviera” proposal is “an offense to common sense.”

Marcia Merry Baker, who serves on the editorial board of Executive Intelligence Review, gave an illustrated presentation on economic-geographic factors relevant to reconstruction in Gaza, beginning with a map showing the desert stretching from North Africa into China. Egypt is constructing the “New Delta Project,” west of the Nile Delta, bringing water to transform desert into farmland. They built the largest wastewater treatment complex in the world near Alexandria. She also reported on “precision agriculture” in Tunisia, successful despite lack of water, and on terraforming arid land in the Aral Sea Basin. Afghanistan is building the 285 km Qush Tepa Canal, despite the economic warfare against it. China has developed the concept of the Shelter Belt, made of trees and grassland, to defend against desertification. They have developed plant varieties that can tolerate desert climates. Over the last 40 years, an area nearly the size of Portugal has been planted with trees. All of society, including the military, has been involved. Her presentation and graphics, including the IPC interchanges, will be published in next week’s EIR.

We Don’t Have To Kill Each Other

Zepp-LaRouche commented that Merry Baker’s presentation shows the possibility of a positive role for the military. She contrasted the neocons’ imperial conception of the military as a killing machine, typified by Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State, versus the ideas of Gerhard von Scharnhorst and the Prussian Reformers. We must transform the military-industrial complex for peaceful reconstruction purposes, and establish a purely defensive role for the military, moving away from “this crazy world where people think they have to kill each other.”

The role of water development in building peace was explored in the discussion session. IPC co-moderator Dennis Small presented a report from Mexico, on how a large gathering of hydraulic engineering students heard a presentation on Schiller Institute water proposals for conflict zones around the world. This may be seen as a prelude to the upcoming Schiller Institute conference in May.

Garzón added that planning requires taking into account national borders, but also ecosystem borders.

Marcia Merry Baker answered two questions which came in on this topic:

1. Why is solar energy not included in the Oasis Plan? Solar is good for remote regions where there is insufficient infrastructure to support energy-dense sources. However, for real development, energy-dense sources are indispensable.

2. What about Muammar Gaddafi’s water plan for Libya, and Egypt’s Aswan Dam? Merry Baker gave these endeavors her hearty endorsement.

IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed recalled Lyndon LaRouche’s accurate warning that unless there was an immediate move to get “shovels in the ground,” the 1993 Oslo Accords for peace between Israel and Palestine would fail.

New York congressional candidate Jose Vega said that he sees both sides in the conflict between Ethiopia and Egypt over how to exploit the water of the Nile. Merry Baker intervened to say that border disputes over water are never justified; there will always be plenty with proper development. She recalled the Jonglei Canal project for the White Nile in Sudan, which was suppressed by environmentalists.

Conclusion

Zepp-LaRouche closed on a philosophical note: “The big challenge in front of humanity at this conjuncture is how do we use aesthetic education to get more and more people to take the side of humanity.” We must stop going through the world as if everything were self-evident, and look at things with fresh eyes. In the Stone Age, we were using a stone to kill our neighbor to get his food. Now we look at the stone and see iron ore or rare earths. Artificial intelligence, for example, could be used for evil, or to free humanity for life-long learning “instead of having to labor like a mule.” Every individual discovery enriches all of humanity; “we will not be miserable forever.”