Iran, Empire, and the Return of Endless War

This most recent US intervention is as disastrous as all its others. And there is no justification for it, literally. It took well over a week for Trump to manufacture consent for this illegal war, and, even now, most of the world is not buying it. And for the love of journalism, when are his brazenly false accusations going to be confronted? The world seems perpetually aghast and in awe of what the President is going to utter next, as if he’s some oracle of sense. True, Trump’s words matter: markets swing, innocent people die. But Iran was going to have nuclear weapons in two weeks? Provide the evidence, please.

Iranian society indeed faces innumerable challenges imposed by its long-standing authoritarian leaders. Many in the Iranian diaspora talk of the horrors of life under the Ayatollah, and many around the world took to the streets in jubilation after the US-assassination of the head of state. Iran holds some of the worst human rights records on the planet and a systematically unjust legal system, which repeatedly persecutes minorities and activists. Most recently in the December protests late last year, the government opened fire on tens of thousands of protestors, enacting one of the darkest and most rapid massacres by a state on its own people in living memory. By humanitarian standards, Iran’s lack of personal liberty thwarts it from winning any moral debate.

However, Iran is a sovereign state. For that reason, despite the smears and denunciations, it has the same right to self-defence as any other nation under attack. For fifty years, since America’s backing of the Shah monarchy led to resentment and revolution, generations have grown up with a North Korea-like repulsion to the USA and Israel. Sadly, fears of outside attack embedded in the Iranian psyche have proven not to be baseless paranoia. Although the Iranian regime lacks a democratic mandate, within its supporter base, the increased economic sanctions and war will certainly not change hearts and minds. Historically, bombs falling from the sky tend to increase nationalism rather than destroy it.

There’s an irony in the Western pundits who refute Iran’s use of the Strait of Hormuz as a legitimate weapon of war. Firstly, they virtually all defend (or at least reluctantly condemn) America’s unchecked aggression, as though it is a God-given right. But many also suggest that because it is an economic weapon which “unfairly” implicates the rest of the world, it is unacceptable. So, what of America’s multi-decade sanction package designed to cripple the Iranian economy and harm innocent workingclass Iranian families? Or what of the deliberate contribution to the crashing of the country’s currency, the rial, in December last year, leaving millions unable to buy essentials, leaving shops closing and regular power outages across Iran’s major cities, essentially providing a seed to the widespread protests that cannot be overlooked. But if this war were on American soil, and the shipping lane was in the Gulf of Mexico, do you believe these same pundits would push back against Washington controlling its surrounding waters, particularly if it had a degraded military and faced threats of its civilisation being wiped out?

Because of disastrous messaging, spiralling global implications and an inability to walk away, Israel and the US are losing the battle of the narrative. Unlike Iraq, which saw the largest antiwar protests in history across Europe and America, the Iran war lacks any credible justification at all. China, the second global superpower, has kept remarkably calm despite Trump’s erratic and tumultuous actions, which directly threaten the supply chains of China and its regional allies. Although domestic consent can be painted on the walls of American TVs through its media empires, the distinct lack of allied support has left the US and Israel remarkably isolated. For Israel, this war is another blow to its already crippled international reputation, after its abominable genocide against the Palestinians and recent simultaneous invasion of Southern Lebanon. I believe we must go further in condemning this most recent action of the US empire. It is not a ‘miscalculation’, it is a decision which costs the lives of thousands of people and leaves the world far more tribal and unsafe.