1. The ongoing war of aggression against Iraq must not only be condemned as completely illegal and as an assault against international law -- it needs to be stopped! It must be stopped because it opens an era of anarchy and relapse into the rule of "Faustrecht" (right of the strongest), but under the conditions of modern weaponry with the killing-power equivalent to nuclear weapons. As Iraq is only the first target of such illegal imperial preemptive wars, this unfolding "Clash of Civilizations" has to be brought to a halt, now!

2. We are presently experiencing the end phase of a systemic collapse, financially and otherwise, in which the post-war institutions, for example, the IMF, NATO and the European Union, are breaking apart. Thus, let us create new institutions, which better serve the interests of peoples and the nations of the world. Specifically, all those governments in the United Nations which have spoken out against the Iraq war should come together now and call for an emergency conference to urgently reorganize the global financial system according to the guidelines for a "New Bretton Woods," which have been outlined by Lyndon LaRouche.

3. The "Eurasian Union" that has emerged as an ad hoc alliance against the Anglo-American unilateral war has to move on to implement the needed alternative: The Eurasian Landbridge infrastructure program must become the locomotive for world development. Based on the principles of physical economy, these long-term infrastructure projects of 25 years duration, and financed by credit generated by sovereign nation-state governments, can overcome depression and mass unemployment. The Eurasian Landbridge is not limited to Europe and Asian, but is designed to extend through the Middle East into Africa and across the Bering Straits to the Americas.

4. In order to stop this "Clash of Civilizations," leaders of nations from around the world must intervene to change the policies of the United States of America. One lever for doing this is the U.S. Presidential election campaign and here above all candidacy of Lyndon LaRouche. A pre-candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. President, Lyndon LaRouche is devoting all his energy to bringing the U.S. into this process of peaceful world reconstruction. This process spearheaded by Lyndon LaRouche, and not imperial war, is the true interest of America.

5. We can only succeed in achieving peace and constructing a better world if we consciously create a new Renaissance. The best way of doing this is with a dialogue of civilizations among all nations participating in the great Eurasian Landbridge development project. This dialogue should focus on the universal image of Man as a cognitive being endowed with the gift of creative reason, which is unique to human beings, and therefore, the very basis for the notion of human dignity.

6. The crisis in the United Nations Security Council over the Iraq war has revealed the need to enhance the currently inadequate concept of international law by grounding it more deeply and rigorously in the concept of natural law. The relations among nations, as among individuals, must be in harmony with the laws of the universal creation.

7. Mankind has probably never been in an existential crisis like this. Every human being has to grow morally to take responsibility for the outcome of this historical moment. Ordinary men and women are called upon to take leadership. In an extraordinary moment like this, you can not defer the responsibility to existing institutions, which either contributed to the current tragedy, or didn't prevent it. All people of good will, but especially the youth of the world, must produce the leadership, necessary to guide the world to safety.

Physical Geometry As Strategy
by Lyndon LaRouche
March 21, 2003
Keynote address to the Bad Schwalbach International Conference, 

The Global Background

LEESBURG, Va., March 24 (EIRNS) -- 

TOP OFFICIALS OF RUSSIA, INDIA, CHINA, SAUDI ARABIA, AND PAKISTAN CALL TO STOP WAR.

RUSSIA AND INDIA warned on March 23, ``If such strong bombings with enormous destructive power continue, they will inevitably soon bring on a humanitarian and ecological catstrophe that could affect the whole region.'' Following phone talks between Russia's Igor Ivanov and India's Yashwant Sinha, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry also said, as reported in the daily {The Dawn} of Pakistan, ``The international community cannot allow this. Russia and India want the regulation of the Iraqi problem brought back to the Security Council and they strongly called for this.'' The two foreign ministers ``expressed their profound concern over military operations undertaken against Iraq by the United States and Britain, bypassing the UN Security Council.''

In CHINA, newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing called for an end to the war in Iraq during a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Igor Ivanov, China's Xinhua news agency reported on March 23. Li called for ``an early stop to the ongoing military actions against Iraq launched by the United States and Britain.''

PAKISTAN Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has arrived in Beijing today. It is expected that joint statements by China and Pakistan against the Iraq war will emerge soon. Prime Minister Jamali has called off his trip to the United States scheduled to begin on March 26. In addition, Pakistani Ambassador to Russia Sheikh Iftikhar Murshed told Radio Moscow that the UN must be given a chance to play its role for the resolution of Iraq conflict, and that all the UN members should raise efforts to stop military operations against Iraq immediately.

SAUDI ARABIA: Foreign Minoster Prince Saud al-Faisal on March 22 urged the U.S. to pause in the invasion, to ``have a breather after what we have seen of the destruction.'' He called on the UNSC to immediately take up the issue again. He condemned the effort to destroy the Iraqi govt as ``outside the framework of international legality.'' 

[Source: Composite European, Russian news wires, March 24]

THE ARAB LEAGUE, NON-ALIGNED MOVEMENT, AND RUSSIA URGED CONVENING A SPECIAL SESSION OF THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL, TO DEBATE THE ILLEGALITY OF THE IRAQ WAR, AND TAKE OTHER ACTIONS.

One decisive intervention was the nearly unanimous vote of the Arab League (with only Kuwait expressing ``reservations'') on March 24, for a resolution that calls for immediate withdrawal of the U.S. and British forces from Iraq, and condemns the ``aggression'' against Iraq. Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa of Egypt also said the League will be calling for ``an emergency session of the UN Security Council to consider demanding an end to the war.'' Note that Arab League member Syria is a rotating member of the UN Security Council.

Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov's statements are reported in an accompanying slug. The Russian State Duma three days ago called for a ``special session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the aggression of the U.S., Great Britain and their allies, against Iraq, a sovereign state and member of the UN.'' The Duma also recommended UN blue helmets to separate the two war parties, enforce a cease-fire and restore a peaceful process.

Also going beyond the Security Council perspective, French President Jacques Chirac already on March 21, sent a special letter to Pope John Paul II, thanking him for his personal engagement for peace, and calling for the Pontiff's support for an emergency international conference to stop the war, and for establishment of a ``dialogue of nations.'' 

MOSCOW PRESS CONFERENCES SOUND ALARM THAT AMERICANS MAY USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS. 

Reiterating warnings made on March 23, Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Abbas Khalaf told another press conference this morning (March 24) that the fact that Iraqi troops still control the crucial Faw Peninsula and other sites, is good news. It is also good news that the U.S. forces seemed to be retreating from Faw Peninsual, after meeting strong Iraqi resistance and suffering casualties. The bad news, Khalaf said, is that the more trouble the invading forces get into, the earlier the U.S. might consider using nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction against Iraq, to improve their position.

Similar warnings were issued this morning by Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, also at a Moscow press conference: As the U.S. forces went into this war on the basis of propaganda rather than of real preparedness for the kind of combat they are faced with, now, their situation in Iraq will worsen. Winning this war being a matter of saving face, the Americans could be tempted to use small nuclear weapons, then, Ivashov warned. Commenting on the acute problems the U.S. troops face in Um Qasr and Naseriyah, Ivashov said that the Americans do not know really what storming a city implies. The fact that they were not welcomed as liberators but met strong Iraqi resistance, has sent a deep shock into them. 

[Source:Ha'aretz, Mar. 24,2003]

THIS SO-CALLED "SHOCK AND AWE" COULD LEAD DIRECTLY TO THE USE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS, hints Israeli military commentator Amir Oren, in today's issue of the daily, Ha'aretz: 

"The idea of `awe and shock,' [sic] developed by the National Defense Institute in Washington in 1996, specifically referred to the fanaticism of imperial Japan, a fanaticism that could only be shocked out of the Japanese by the atomic bomb. American military doctrine rules out the use of nuclear weapons, so the U.S. is making do with precision bombing of the Iraqi leadership without harming innocents. But fostering the image of the Iraqi as bloodthirsty aids implementation of the awe and shock doctrine."

The study Oren is referring to is "Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance," written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade.

Oren, whose commentary basically is to say that the U.S. will have no problems in winning, points out that "everything that happened Sunday, including the downing of the Tornado with a Patriot and the erroneous navigation by soldiers in a foreign land that led them into captivity, has happened to the Israeli Defense Forces during the war of attrition and Lebanon, among other wars." As all Israelis remember, Israel got bogged down in Lebanon, and the so-called war of attrition with Egypt was followed by the 1973 war, when Egypt gave Israel a very bloody nose.

The sense of emergency to end war is echoed as far away as Nairobi, Africa

BUSH ADMINISTRATION POSES A NAZI-LIKE THREAT TO THE WORLD,

 SAYS EDITORIAL IN THE {SUNDAY NATION} OF NAIROBI, KENYA. Excerpts follow from the March 23 editorial entitled, "Where is Bush heading to?" in Nairobi's {Sunday Nation}.

"...It is inescapable that Iraq will be a smoldering ruin in a matter of days,... This is made certain by the promise of the allies that there will be no let up in the bombardment....

"...Citizens of the world have little choice but to revisit the fundamental question: Is it right for a handful of powerful nations, in defiance of the UN and with no strong basis in international law, to destroy another country in this way?...

"The strong feelings against the war and the deep unease in the hearts of many around the world... is, to us, proof that the world has in a small way learnt the lesson of Martin Niemoeller, the German cleric and church leader.

"Mr. Niemoeller, who was jailed for his opposition to Nazism, taught the world the self-defeating folly of apathy in the face of injustice and tyranny. He said: `In Germany, the Nazis came for the communists and I didn't speak up because I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I was a protestant, so I didn't speak up. Then they came for me... By that time, there was no one to speak up for anyone.'...

"Now that Mr. Bush has tasted the blood of unilateral war, will he stop with Iraq? Or will he go after the entire `Axis of Evil,' every dissenting nation and every society that has chosen a path different from that of America?

"Will there be anyone left to speak up when he comes for us?"

LaRouche At Schiller Institute Conference:
"We Must Stop This War!"
March 24, 2003

100,000 children under the age of five are at risk.

Kofi Annan calls for urgent relief for Basra
Source CBC news, Mon, 24 Mar 2003

UNITED NATIONS - Areas of southern Iraq are on the verge of a humanitarian crisis, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the United Nations, Annan said he has heard from the International Red Cross that people in Basra don't have fresh water or electricity.

"A city that size cannot afford to go without electricity or water for long," he said. "Apart from the water aspect, you can imagine what it does to sanitation. I think urgent measures should be taken."

[Source U.N.  Mon, 24 Mar 2003]

24 March – Local employees of United Nations relief agencies fanned out inside Iraq and around its borders today to bring aid to the civilian population, with particular concern focused on the country's second city, Basra, where lack of water has raised the spectre of disease for its 1.7 millions residents, especially 100,000 children under the age of five.

"There must now be a threat of disease as tens of thousands of people in their homes, hospitals and care institutions attempt to cope and find what water they can from the river and other sources," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) spokesman Geoffrey Keele told a briefing in Amman, Jordan, on the UN's relief activities. "Unfortunately, the river is also where sewage is dumped."

Noting UNICEF's role as the lead agency for water in the emergency and that this was the third day Basra was reported to be without water because of frequent power cuts, he said: "As UNICEF has warned, bad water costs lives, especially among the most vulnerable. And the children of Iraq are some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

"Not only are they suffering from high rates of malnutrition, in Basra there is the very real possibility now of child deaths, not only from the conflict, but from the additional effects of diarrhoea and dehydration. We estimate that at least 100,000 children under the age of five are at risk."

UNICEF is looking at ways to provide emergency water supplies as soon as conditions allow and is also at work in Baghdad focusing on the urgent need for clean water in the capital's hospitals, Mr. Keele said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) added its voice to the concern, warning that the health situation could deteriorate quickly. It said teams from the International Committee of the Red Cross had managed to restore service for some 40 per cent of the population but that would only partially and temporarily cover needs.

Re-hydration is one of the most efficient and cost-effective measures against diarrhoea-related diseases, the second cause of mortality among children under the age of five, WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib said, but the use of re-hydration salts requires clean water. In similar past situations in Iraq, diarrhoea diseases have accounted for 25 to 40 per cent of deaths during the acute phase of the emergency, with 80 per cent of deaths in under-two-year olds. Women and children will be the most affected group, she added.

U.S. REQUESTS 62 NATIONS BREAK RELATIONS WITH IRAQ,

 including closing Iraqi embassies, expelling diplomats, and freezing all Iraqi assets and property on their territories....

U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow launched what he called a "worldwide hunt for blood money ... [with the freezing] of all assets of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi regime, and their agents pursuant to established international obligations." Treasury officials said that these funds would be used "for the benefit of the Iraqi people," but other sources reported that the United States would withhold $302 million to pay the legal claims of U.S. citizens, and that there were considerations in the United States to seize all $40 billion in the oil-for-food program to help pay for the war.

Speaking at the Pentagon on Tuesday, Bush said he had asked Congress for $74.7 billion for the first part of the war against Iraq.

Complex questions

ABC News reported on March 25, 2003 that the 3rd Infantry Division killed 500 Iraqi soldiers in the last two days; that Iraqi forces, especially the Fedayeen militia, are "terrorizing neighborhoods" and using civilians as human shields; and that there was a time in 2000, when human rights groups cited witness accounts of public executions of women in the streets of Baghdad and the southern port city of Basra, who were publicly beheaded outside their homes in 2000 and 2001 by Fedayeen death squads - called a "cleanup" of "prostitutes."

In all these cases we look at the murdering of human beings as a means to achieve an ideological objective. The objectives may vary, but the end result is always the same. Except we don't want to look at the end results which lie outside the ideological sphere that has become the center. Thus, we tend to look at a basically simple problem with a veiled approach that focuses on peripheral things. This veiled approach turns simple issues into cases of virtually irresolvable complexities. The simple issue is, that the murdering of a single human being is an infinite crime, a crime against humanity itself. This background makes war irrational in any context.

Yes, Saddam is a brutal man, and who knows how many thousands of people have fallen victim to his brutality. But are we any better? The combined will of the nations of the world, that includes all of us, expressed through the United Nations Organization, has imposed murderous sanctions on an already brutalized people. Under this cover we have murdered upwards to one and a half million people, many of them children. Naturally, this escalating inhumanity, carried out for long periods, in turn, breads more brutalization.

We are told that this war is to free the people of Iraq, and the war thereafter is to be fought to 'free' the people of Syria, Iran, North Korea, even China. But in real terms, it all means, 'extending evermore the infinite' crime.

In 1648, after eighty years of war, the infinite crime could be extended no further without the total destruction of civilization itself, which had nearly been achieved. The Treaty of Westphalia was created to draw the line against the infinite crime, to create peace, to stop the slaughter, the retributions. All atrocities were forgiven, even financial debts were forgiven, and all nations were regarded as sovereign, irrespective of their size and might. 

All of this was accomplished by raising the image of the human being to a higher level, by creating a new basis for looking at one another. This new basis represented a faint recognition of the principles of universal love and universal sovereignty. Why should we not be able to do the same today and take this movement towards peace still further? Why should we wait until the total destruction of our civilization has been achieved, which is much more readily achieved today, than it was in the 1600s? 

Rolf Witzsche

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