EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021

The Threat of War Will Not Just ‘Go Away’

April 27 , 2021 (EIRNS)—Until power is wrested from those currently exercising it over the United States and a new paradigm of economics, culture, and politics determines its policy, the threat of war will only escalate, until it becomes a deadly and irreversible reality.

This drive for war, driven by the oligarchy exerting control over the governments, institutions, and prevailing culture of the U.S. and U.K., arises from an absolute commitment to crush the independence and growth of Russia and China, to prevent any challenge to the post-Soviet unipolar order. The inherent contradiction between the oligarchical commitments to geopolitical, military control internationally and to financial control “domestically” cannot be resolved by simply growing and competing, but only by crushing.

The danger mounts, both with Russia and China.

Consider Russia’s response to the revelations of a foiled coup d’état in Belarus, that was to include the assassination of its President Aleksandr Lukashenko. During his April 21 speech before the Russian Federal Assembly, President Vladimir Putin referred to the escalation from sanctions to murder:

“Today, this practice is degenerating into something even more dangerous—I am referring to the recently exposed direct interference in Belarus in an attempt to orchestrate a coup d’état and assassinate the President of that country.... But the practice of staging coups d’état and planning political assassinations, including those of high-ranking officials—well, this goes too far. This is beyond any limits.” He warned the would-be perpetrators that “Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough.”

On April 25, Belarusian state TV station ONT released an “anti-fake” TV show, purporting to show secret video of the planning of the plotters, their confessions, and a response by the newscaster to the U.S. State Department’s denial of any involvement in an assassination plot: “We’ll tell you where Washington can look for the truth. In Washington itself! Biden’s advisor Michael Carpenter will tell you if he wants.”

Carpenter, Vice-President Biden’s foreign policy advisor, who co-authored a 2018 article with Biden entitled “How To Stand Up to the Kremlin,” was a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia and Ukraine, and today works at the Atlantic Council and the Penn Biden Center. Belarus, Russia’s staunch ally in Europe, has therefore, on state TV, directly accused a top U.S. official intimately connected to President Joe Biden, with the attempted assassination of its President. Where will that lead?

Asked about China’s response to U.S. sanctions and other moves against Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was sharp. Global Times asked:

“Recently, the U.S. has imposed large-scale sanctions on Russia, which includes expulsion of 10 Russian diplomats. ... In his latest State of the Union address, President Putin warned the West not to cross the red line, otherwise Moscow's response would make the culprits feel bitterly sorry for their action. Does China have any comment on this?”

Wang responded:

“China has all along maintained that differences should be properly resolved through consultation as equals on the basis of mutual respect. We reject the approach of wantonly resorting to unilateral sanctions or threats of sanctions. Such behavior constitutes power politics and hegemonic bullying, which gains no support and is increasingly rejected.... China and Russia are comprehensive strategic partners of coordination in the new era. We will continue to understand and support each other in safeguarding our respective sovereignty, security, and development interests.”

Americans in particular must resist the divisive and important nonsense that is promoted as dominating domestic political discussion, and instead recognize the extreme danger posed by the British-directed drive for war with Russia. The demand for war was just expressed anew in the latest lunatic demands from Chatham House/Royal Institute for International Affairs, this time based not on election tampering, utility hacking, ineffective poisonings, bounties, but on a 2014 explosion in the Czech Republic.

The drive for war will continue to invent new pretexts as often as needed, and will only stop by being defeated. Will you take up that challenge?

For starters, register to attend the Schiller Institute online conference on May 8: “The Moral Collapse of the Trans-Atlantic World Cries Out for a New Paradigm.”