EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY JULY 3, 2023

NATO Preparing for Global War—BRICS and the Global South Prepare for Peace and Development

July 2, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—The Anglo-Americans are preparing for their NATO Summit next week, with the intention to save the disintegrating war against Russia in Ukraine while expanding the “North Atlantic” treaty into Asia. With the world buzzing with reports on the failure of Ukraine’s much-heralded “counter-offensive,” an open discussion of a nuclear conflict between the U.S. and Russia is replacing the happy-talk about Ukraine “winning” the un-winnable war.

NATO is holding a Summit in Lithuania on July 11-12, where they hope to bring Ukraine (and Sweden) into the nuclear club against Russia and China, while expanding the “Global NATO” concept by bringing Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand into their NATO-linked conflict with China. The leaders of these four Asian countries are attending the Summit and plan to expand their relations with the war machine.

But the rest of the world is ridiculing the former colonial powers for their ranting about climate change and war mongering, demanding real development if they want to maintain any sense of respectability from the Global South. At the misnamed “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact” in France last week, where the Western leaders wanted agreement on a global tax to raise $1 trillion for climate change (!), the African leaders made it clear that they need development. Brazilian President Lula put it clearly: “If we don’t discuss this issue of inequality, and if we don’t give it as much priority as the climate issue, we can have a very good climate and people will continue to die of hunger in many countries of the world.”

South African President Ramaphosa lectured French President Macron and his fellow NATO war-lords that there would be no reason for Africans to attend these forums, where empty promises are never fulfilled, unless the West provided the resources to build the Grand Inga Dam on the Congo River, which would provide electricity for most of the 600 million Africans who now lack electricity completely.

The Global South leaders are speaking out to a great extent because they know the former colonial powers are no longer the only alternative, as the BRICS nations now represent a new pole in the world, offering real development as well as friendship. The ongoing 3rd China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha is hosting exhibits from 29 countries, signing 120 projects worth over $10 billion, adding to the Belt and Road Initiative already actively developing infrastructure across Africa.

At the end of July, Russia is sponsoring the 2nd Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum for Peace, Security and Development in Moscow, where all African countries are expected to be represented. This gives the lie to the oft-repeated line from Secretary of State Tony Blinken, CIA Chief William Burns and others that Russia is “isolated” in the world and collapsing internally.

This week America is celebrating the 247th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. If Americans would take the time to read that Declaration it would serve as a wake-up call that the nation has gone far astray. Reading the “Declaration of the Inalienable Rights of Man,” a Schiller Institute founding document, which is an international expression of the principles contained in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, would serve the same purpose. The same is true of the famous speech by President John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963, soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly sparked a nuclear war, and soon before he was assassinated by the war party for daring to assert that the U.S. and Russia (then the Soviet Union) must work together to prevent a nuclear war and establish peace and development for mankind.

One must ask, is the American population literate enough to read these historic documents, or have they become so “dumbed down” that such principled concepts are no longer intelligible? Each and every citizen must examine their own thinking at this moment of existential crisis of civilization. Can we think like “world citizens,” or are we so acculturated to tribalism, to British ideological “one against all,” that we will allow the descent into Hell?

Reading Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture is a solid basis for answering that question in your own mind.