EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2021
No Development, No Peace: Start with Afghanistan
Aug. 12, 2021 (EIRNS)—The August 13, 2021 issue of EIR weekly, out today, has its cover story, “No Development, No Peace: Start with Afghanistan,” which message applies very strongly to the intense negotiations underway this week in Doha, Qatar, and for which there is only a limited window of opportunity. Events are happening rapidly. Central to the Doha talks, which have taken place Aug. 10 through today, is the Troika Plus—China, Russia, the United States, plus Pakistan—as well as the representatives of Afghanistan and the Taliban, added to which are sessions involving other nations, in differing configurations.
Meantime, within Afghanistan, the Taliban as of today claims control over the capital cities of 10 of the nation’s 34 provinces, and today seized Ghazni, known as the “gateway to Kabul,” 150 km southwest of the capital, on the road from Kandahar to Kabul. The Pentagon announced this afternoon that it will send in thousands of additional forces to assist in evacuating the U.S. Embassy and other sites in Kabul.
The preliminary reports from the Doha talks show little or no result, but the process itself counts greatly. China’s special representative on Afghanistan Yue Xiaoyong, made the point to Doha News agency yesterday, that this is only the beginning, and the process must have different countries working together. The Russian envoy Zamir Kabulov is reported to have made a three-point proposal: 1) respect a ceasefire; 2) commit to an inclusive, intra-Afghanistan dialogue; and 3) establish an interim, shared-power government, with elections to occur in two years. The Afghanistan government proposal, unconfirmed but widely reported at present, is for creating a shared-power government.
Among the participants in today’s talks, in addition to the Troika Plus, are representatives from India, Turkey, and Indonesia. Also on hand are Norway and the U.K., and the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC). On Aug. 10 in Doha, envoys met from the EU, U.K., and the United States.
The only concept to make any plan work, is for a perspective and action on development, and agreement among major powers to carry it through. A variation on the truth that without development, there can be no peace, is that there can be no future at all without development.
The process of reverse development—namely “green” destruction of the living conditions which people need to exist and be creative, the basis for advances in continuing productivity—is seen in another classic case of electricity blackout, like the February Texas Freeze, or the January European Near-Crash of the electric grid. This time, it was Down Under.
On Aug. 9, thousands of people in New Zealand suddenly were in the dark, when the national electricity generation capacity could not meet demand, and the load-shedding system led to sudden, chaotic outages. Power is back on for most consumers, but politicians are shrieking about whom to blame. In fact, New Zealand was regarded as world leader in low-CO2 emissions, because it has over 80% of its electricity supply from “renewables,” which meant mostly hydro-power for its small population of 4.8 million people. But when the green smarties started adding wind, whose 17 installations now reach 6% share of national supply, plus adding a spot market for wholesale electricity speculation, and other hallmark green swindles, the stage was set for blackouts.
In Germany this week, two major publications are putting out warnings against going too far and too fast, with green ecologism. The weekly Die Zeit called for extending the life of the remaining six German nuclear power plants. Today, an op-ed, “Nein Danke,” in the major daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung lists how everyone wants renewable power—just, please, not in my backyard: “biofuel means tank instead of teller, biogas stinks, get rid of it. Power lines destroy the landscape, we don't want that. And then there’s wind power: birds are shredded, in the sea the whales hit the pedestal, on land the low-frequency noise drives people crazy.”
These are only rearguard quibbles, but indicative that reality is finally beginning to set in.
This Saturday is the opportunity to go to core principles about what defines a successful economic approach, as presented so powerfully and historically by statesman-economist Lyndon LaRouche, in particular, 50 years ago, at the turning point of August 15, 1971, when the Nixon administration initiated floating currency rates. The Aug. 14 conference, sponsored by the LaRouche Legacy Foundation, is titled, “So, Are You Finally Willing To Learn Economics?” Helga Zepp-LaRouche announced in her strategic weekly webcast yesterday, “This will be an Earth-shattering event, and I’m not promising too much!”
