{"id":119272,"date":"2026-08-17T10:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/blog\/2026\/08\/17\/u-s-war-machine-is-overextended-but-the-empire-won%ca%bct-go-quietly\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T14:44:13","slug":"u-s-war-machine-is-overextended-but-the-empire-won%ca%bct-go-quietly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/blog\/2026\/08\/17\/u-s-war-machine-is-overextended-but-the-empire-won%ca%bct-go-quietly\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. War Machine Is Overextended, but the Empire Won\u02bct Go Quietly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Report on International Peace Coalition, Week 167<\/p>\n<p>by EIR Staff<\/p>\n<p>Aug. 14\u2014The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1BIC2nWDIgY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">167th consecutive weekly meeting<\/a> of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche,\u00a0Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She warned that the idea is unrealistic that the Anglophile Empire, and with it the United States, will peacefully go out of business, as the Soviet Union did. The Iran war \u201cis lost for the United States\u201d; it did not achieve its goal of regime change, and it has depleted its stockpile of weapons. U.S. President Donald Trump does not seem to have found a face-saving way out. The new \u201cMecca Alliance\u201d of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and T\u00fcrkiye is significant, because the constituent nations are all formerly close partners of the United States. The regional situation remains very complex, and \u201cstill has the potential of expanding into a global nuclear war.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Create the Conditions for Security\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1BIC2nWDIgY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The Ukraine war continues to be \u201ca situation of utmost tension,\u201d where the barbarism becomes worse by the day. In Panama, the United States proclaimed its dominance of the Western Hemisphere, in a clear violation of the intent of the Monroe Doctrine. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her hope that China\u2019s Global Governance Initiative will be discussed next month in the United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Richard Anderson Falk<\/strong> is\u00a0professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor\u2019s chairman of the board of trustees, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories (2008 to 2014). He said he wished to emphasize a point raised by Zepp-LaRouche, the difference between the way the USSR went peacefully out of business, and the bellicose thrashing of the Anglo-Americans. He pointed out that the genocide in Gaza has been very profitable for the U.S. arms industry, and the private sector is putting pressure on the U.S. government with \u201cexaggerated security threats and security interests.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also called attention to the \u201cera of finance capital,\u201d in which profits take precedence over production and the national interest, and asserted that this is fueling the bellicose foreign policy of the United States. \u201cThe Western efforts to wage colonial wars \u2026 have not produced a political victory; the weaker side, militarily, has been prevailing.\u201d \u201cThe encouraging obsolescence of military power\u201d is being challenged by the private sector which makes money regardless of whether wars are won, or lost.<\/p>\n<p>The Iranians have learned that \u201ctrust doesn\u2019t work with the West,\u201d after the United States launched a war of choice, twice, in the midst of diplomatic negotiations. The inability of the U.S. to stop this madness is only partially explicable by the \u201cpersonality and style of Trump\u201d; we must also look at the deeper, structural issues. Referring to the Mecca Alliance, he said that if it goes forward, and engages more countries, we will soon be talking of \u201cWest Asia\u201d rather than the \u201cMiddle East,\u201d explaining that the latter is a European-oriented term, whereas the former is how the Global South and Asian countries think of the region.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Neo-Feudalism: The New Stage of Imperialism<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that the concept of \u201ccapitalism or imperialism\u201d has reached a new stage. \u201cThe concept of the sovereign state is practically annulled\u201d; the billionaire class is now calling the shots, and we now have \u201cneo-feudalism.\u201d Nations which have attempted to negotiate in good faith with the United States are now concluding that the U.S. cannot be trusted.<\/p>\n<p>Co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Falk to comment on the \u201cprivatization of war,\u201d and the claims of one British academic that we have returned to the \u201cPalmerston era,\u201d referring to mid-19th-Century British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston. In response, Falk observed that today\u2019s situation is different, due to technological changes. Also, with the founding of the UN, there was an effort to move away from the Hobbesian anarchy of \u201cmight makes right\u201d and toward a Westphalian world order, but the effort was flawed and allowed the dominant players to put their thumbs on the scales. Consequently, the UN Security Council today has enabled the crimes of the neocons against Gaza and Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Zepp-LaRouche said that efforts to remedy this situation are hindered by mainstream media, which present \u201ca narrative which is completely counter to reality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ulf Sandmark<\/strong>,\u00a0president of the Schiller Institute in Sweden, reported on weekly demonstrations there with which they have \u201cattempted to break the spell\u201d of making a taboo of advocacy of diplomatic solutions instead of war. In Sweden, the political parties are squeezing out antiwar politicians, who are also excluded from media coverage. The Schiller Institute is including these politicians in its demonstrations and giving them a voice.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Larry Johnson<\/strong>,\u00a0former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), noted that Russia has moved from conducting its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, to all-out war. One manifestation of this has been the total shutdown of maritime activity in the Black Sea, which will be devastating for Ukraine. He listed numerous other developments in Russia\u2019s conduct of the war, and compared it to the war in Iran, stating that both wars highlight the \u201cdelusional nature\u201d of U.S. policy. Trump proclaims that the Strait of Hormuz is open and \u201cunder our control.\u201d If that is the case, why are we running a blockade? The painful economic consequences of the war are completely divorced from the fantasy world of Wall Street, which can make money regardless.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. military is in trouble, on two fronts: It does not have access to the rare earths and other raw materials required to replenish depleted stocks of armaments; China has almost monopolistic control over those rare earths. Secondly, \u201cthe military across the board is in a mental health crisis.\u201d There has been a wave of suicides and other deaths related to deteriorating morale and psychological stress among military personnel. The reports of deaths aboard the USS <em>Abraham Lincoln<\/em> have significantly underestimated the number of casualties. There will be a political response from the angry parents of the affected servicemen.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A \u2018Crony Capitalist Monster\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Johnson said that the U.S. military is not the greatest or most powerful military in the world, but it is the most expensive. He cited the astronomical costs of U.S. aircraft and drones, many of which have been destroyed in the war with Iran. He commented on the \u201cprofit collaboration\u201d between the military and the private sector. Although \u201cfascism\u201d is a term perhaps too \u201cemotionally charged\u201d to describe it, he characterized this collaboration as a \u201ccrony capitalist monster.\u201d Russia and China, operating on military budgets which are tiny in comparison, have achieved greater technical results.<\/p>\n<p>Zepp-LaRouche returned to what Pope Leo XIV calls a \u201cnew Tower of Babel.\u201d Peter Thiel, founder of the Silicon Valley tech firm Palantir Technologies, said that members of the billionaire class should not be shy about flaunting their wealth and power. The privation endured by U.S. military personnel stands out by comparison.<\/p>\n<p>Co-moderator Dennis Small reminded the participants that the \u201cmilitary-industrial complex\u201d should be called the \u201cmilitary-industrial-financial complex,\u201d because, as <a href=\"https:\/\/larouchepub.com\/eiw\/public\/2023\/eirv50n50-20231222\/eirv50n50-20231222_009-turn_the_military_industrial_com.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">EIR has shown<\/a>, the largest arms manufacturers in the United States are owned by the leading financial speculators. This, he said, is the Achilles\u2019 heel of the war machine.<\/p>\n<p>Numerous speakers referred to the recent manic activity by so-called \u201cU.S. Deputy Secretary of War\u201d Elbridge Andrew Colby, who has been making the rounds and issuing public comments about U.S. dominance in Asia and the Western Hemisphere, in addition to promoting the use of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n<p>Daisuke Kotegawa,&nbsp;former official in the Japanese Ministry of Finance, former Japanese executive director at the IMF, and research director at the Canon Institute in Tokyo, submitted a video on the topic of immigration, which he said became a problem for Europe only after the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the sabotage of development plans for Africa. He also noted that the population of Ukraine has declined from 40 to 30 million due to the war there.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In response to a question from an African participant, Zepp-LaRouche asserted that colonialism still exists, although typically Europeans are in denial. She said that the IMF exemplifies the new structures of colonialism.<\/p>\n<p>Another participant posed a question about the <a href=\"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/the-oasis-plan-the-larouche-solution-for-southwest-asia\/\">Oasis Plan<\/a>, which has been discussed on a regular basis at IPC meetings. Zepp-LaRouche replied that the only thing required would be a commitment by a number of Southwest Asian nations. She speculated that the new Mecca Alliance might be a prospect for this. A \u201cdevil\u2019s advocate\u201d asked her whether it was time to reevaluate the tenth of her <a href=\"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/blog\/2022\/11\/30\/ten-principles-of-a-new-international-security-and-development-architecture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ten Principles<\/a>, the assertion that humans are fundamentally good. Her response was an emphatic <em>no<\/em>; the current degraded culture cannot be seen as the last word on human nature. We have a long history to consider, and the net improvements in the human condition teach us that humans are essentially good. A dark age can always be overcome by a new renaissance.<\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report on International Peace Coalition, Week 167 by EIR Staff Aug. 14\u2014The 167th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche,\u00a0Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She warned that the idea is unrealistic that the Anglophile Empire, and&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":119476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[798],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-119272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-peace-coalition","tag-lang-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}