The comments from Moscow this morning took the high ground of principle, in responding to the U.S. late-Feb. 25 bombing of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, which the U.S. described as a ‘proportional’ retaliation for terrorist hits on U.S. forces in Iraq last week, accusing them as having come from Iran-sponsored militia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the United States should, “Stop trying to settle scores through geopolitics.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that U.S. mil-to-mil authorities gave Russia advance notice of a bare few minutes before the strike.The U.S. action all around is in the crazed tradition of neo-con Michael Pompeo, as well as his replacement neo-lib Antony Blinken, and both are in the tradition of Mother Britain’s geopolitical gamesmanship of perpetual strife—constantly playing off each against the other. The opposite policy of mutual-interest development, as the means for peace is urgent to understand and initiate. The Southwest Asia region especially is bleeding. On March 1, World Food Program Director David Beasley will speak at an event titled “Silent Emergency,” hosted by Sweden and Switzerland, to raise funding for aid to Yemeni children. The suffering and permanent damage to a whole generation in the Arabian Peninsula must be stopped. The greater Southwest Asian region is urgently in need of the “Land-Bridge” policy approach put forward over decades by statesman-economist Lyndon LaRouche, with its programs of development corridors, the “Oasis Plan” for plentiful water, and other beautiful realistic visions. Already on the ground in Syria and Iraq there are precious potential initiatives. In Iran, for example, rail lines are going ahead, despite the pandemic and foreign relations crises. Further, the entire world is in need of the same development approach—as is embodied in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, given the impact of the pandemic and famine. In 2020, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche convened a Committee of the Coincidence of Opposites—named after the concept of Nicholas of Cusa, for common interest action, especially for health and food security, and for mutual cultural respect and hope for youth and the future. Look at two basic aspects of the reality of the physical economic down-spiral, accelerating in the absence of deliberate pro-development collaboration and concrete action. Electricity. On Jan. 8, the entire European power grid came within minutes of blackout, saved only by rapid, selected shedding of power usage. On Feb. 15, the Texas-centered central North American grid did fail, giving Texans long outages, and also involving days of scheduled, rolling blackouts in at least 14 U.S. and 26 Mexican states. What happens next month? In Africa, half of the population of the continent has no electricity at all. Food. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s monthly reporting shows that basic staples have been rising in price—especially grain (wheat, rice, corn), for eight months straight, and grain supplies are heading into a “tight” condition—polite jargon for shortage. The world already had too little food for over 800 million people, and now 270 million at least are in a desperate state. Many factors are hitting at the same time, not surprising in a pandemic. For example, there is the potential impact of Winterkill from recent frigid weather in the U.S. Wheat Belt. Corn prices as of last month were over 40% higher than the price level in January the year earlier. Even in these fast-worsening times, collaboration and reason can save the day. Look at the very sane decision this week from French authorities to approve a 10-year extension on its national fleet of 32 nuclear power reactors, many of which were built in the 1980s for a 40-year service life, but are very safe to continue for the next decade. The obstacle and enemy in all this is the green onslaught, which asserts, through fake science, the fake narrative that human economic activity must be cut back to save the planet, and save “nature.” An ugly example is today’s international online conference hosted by the UN, “To Boost ‘Nature-Positive’” agriculture, which states that the environment comes first, eating comes second. This is part of the countdown to a September UN Summit on “New World Food Systems,” convened by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres last year, in the drive for the Great Reset. It is a must to read and circulate the EIR Special Report, “The Great Leap Backward: LaRouche Exposes the Green New Deal.” In the section, “A Disaster for the United States,” author Paul Gallagher begins with the key principle involved. He quotes Lyndon LaRouche saying, “Man, unlike the beasts, is able to change his population density by development.” So beware of the opposite. Gallagher writes, “The human species is, we must realize, also tragically able to decrease its population density by great masses of unnecessary deaths, either by war, or by intentionally reversing development, forcing into reverse the advance of mankind’s scientific and technological capability.” We can make all the difference in preventing this reversal. Spread the word on the second in the series of Schiller Institute Virtual Roundtable Forums taking place Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern. It is titled, “Winter Storm Smashes Green New Deal Utopia—Great Power Cooperation Instead of War.”
