The Middle East, fraught with the debauchery of international politics, bristling with a humbling diversity of religious factions, tortured by the extremes of inequality of wealth, is a profound contemporary tragedy. Especially when seen through the lens of the current Israeli-Iranian/American conflict and impasse.
With Israel and America, together and alone, deciding that Iran was developing its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities beyond what they considered to be ‘appropriate,’ as Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented, saying that Iran was “actively seeking the military means – especially nuclear weapons – to bring the West to its knees”.
Now, few support terrorism, but to use third-party allegations as a justification for war? Well, Russia, China, and America all have much to answer for elsewhere in the world themselves, don’t they? It’s a pot-kettle-black thing, isn’t it? Alongside the military operations of February 28th, President Trump called upon the Iranian people to “rise up and overthrow the corrupt regime of Ayatollah Khamenei,” certain that their ‘shock and awe’ missiles and bombs would have the Iranian military waving the white flag, and the ‘oppressed citizens’ coming out waving American flags and singing ‘Hallelujah.’ Hegseth said that in “obliterating” the Iranian military, they had “won the war. However, nobody told the Iranians.
They had displayed shocking arrogance and hadn’t done their homework or studied their opponents. In ‘The Art of War,’ the greatest military mind of all time, Sun Tzu, wrote, "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer defeat.” The current impasse, with as much victorious perspective as the Vietnam conflict, I guess, is what you get when you have a realtor and a news anchor leading your armies.
Historically, the Iranian, or Persian, soldier is renowned for their bravery and resilience. Indeed, Persian history features the 10,000 ‘Immortals’ of the Achaemenid Period, the dynamic Parthians, the peerless Sassanian Cavalry, and even a militarist’s respect for today’s Artash, or conventional army. The Persians, despite Thermopylae, have proven disciplined, difficult and willing to lay down their lives dearly. Above all, both present and past, they are warriors, and nobody takes them lightly. Well, almost nobody.
Further, the much-vaunted Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is a brutal, ideologically inspired military force, well-trained, and resourced with an intelligence service that may be barbarous, insidious, and merciless, but is in control, and the population is deeply entrenched in fear, ingrained in the population, since the Shah was deposed in the Fall of 1979.
Given the extent of this Orwellian subservience, this was never going to be a war, or even a battle, won at the point of a gun, but by hearts and minds, and even the most optimistic of neutrals could see this as imprudent. Put simply, having lived under the jackboot for 50 years, the ordinary, average Iranian is scared witless of further confrontation with the hierarchy.
Finally, there is the Strait of Hormuz, which was always going to be the Iranian’s ‘trump card,’ and that itself is a delicious irony to those who oppose the ‘Americanization’ of the region. Yes, the straits are an international waterway, but in practical terms, this has only been so due to the unsteady peace within the region inspired by mutual interest and sustained through international goodwill towards the Sultanate of Oman, due to its ongoing efforts to maintain peace in the region and globally.
Now, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. “What are you going to do now, Israel, America?” You have cost your countries, and others, billions, forced your Gulf State allies into being your proxy targets, and driven Russia, China, and India towards closer relationships with Iran having little more than a bloody nose.
Don’t make the world, many of them your allies, pay the price for your foolhardy venture. Sort it, now!
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