Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Apply The Principles Of Westphalia To Central Asia

“We are at a very precious moment of history in Afghanistan, and actually in terms of universal history”, said Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche at the July 29 webinar (see above). “There are long periods where states and people just continue a trend, they sort of muddle through, they find patterns. And then, there are what is called in German Sternstunden der Menschheit—magic moments in history—where it is possible to change the paradigm completely, and where it depends on the quality of the leading individuals in a position of power, and on ideas whether the potential is wasted and the events end up in tragedy, or whether such a moment is used, and a bright and fruitful future can be initiated.

“I believe that with the troop withdrawal of the United States and NATO, there is such a situation in Afghanistan. It is apparent to everybody that the long wars in Asia are not winnable, as Douglas MacArthur told Kennedy. When that President was in conflict with his advisers on what to do in Vietnam, MacArthur told him: “Never fight a land war in Asia.” And it should be obvious even to the most incurable warmongers on the planet that in Afghanistan, no military solution can succeed. In that sense, there must be a recognition that all such endless wars, like in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and so forth, belong to a paradigm of geopolitical thinking that has utterly failed. That means that the geopolitics of the British Empire, of the Great Game, of the Arc of Crisis of Bernard Lewis and Zbigniew Brzezinski, must be outlawed forever. And there should be an agreement among all neighbors of Afghanistan that geopolitical manipulation must be ended and replaced by the application of the five principles of peaceful coexistence. (…)

“In the history of all recent major conflicts, and many debates under the UN auspices, there was always one major misunderstanding. Namely, the idea that one must have peace first, and only then can there be development. My late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, was emphatic that the opposite approach must be taken. That there needs to be a clear economic development perspective first, and that there must be “shovels in the ground”, as he put it, and land-moving machines working building railroads, water systems, and hospitals, so that the different factions and the population at large can actually see the improvements in their living standards and can have hope for a better future. That the willingness for building a mutual trust in the process of national dialogue can be accomplished.

“Contrary to the views of Henry Kissinger, who argued that the principles of the Peace of Westphalia are not applicable to the Middle East and Central Asia, they are, indeed, applicable. (…) The most important of these was the idea that first, for the sake of peace, from now on, all policy and foreign policy must be based on love and taking the interest of the other into account. And second, for the sake of peace, all crimes which have been committed in the course of the war by the one or the other side, must be forgotten. And third, that in the reconstruction of the countries, the state must take a leading role; a conception which gave birth to the economic method of cameralistics.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche further stressed that Central Asian civilizations have 5,000 years of history, and very little is known in the west about it. To explore that past, and unearth the memory of that great civilization could be one of the great joint tasks leading to a dialogue of the best traditions and contributions of all civilizations.