- The global community woke up to the news that the US and Israeli combined military forces started bombing Iran with all might and fury last week. What was being talked about for months about an impending assault on Iran eventually turned out to be true, with the latest attack that is already showing signs of not winding up any time soon. The targeted killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several top leaders in one swoop may have served the US-Israeli purpose in a limited manner. However, as any sovereign country would have behaved, Iran would not have simply folded up when such a monumental assault occurred without exercising the right to launch a counterattack on the enemy and other neighboring allies.
PC: BBC
- Note that the global community has witnessed irrational and unfounded war being perpetrated on alleged countries harbouring ambitions to build a nuclear arsenal. Some such wars were started on genuine and authentic information, but there are some started without any solid basis or confirmation. Thus, conflicts started on the basis of untruths almost always produce the most negative consequences. Agreed, war is sometimes necessary. Say, to defend people and their territory against uncalled-for aggression. Hence, the just war theory. Even just wars cause enormous all-around suffering. But wars that are manufactured by being economical with truth have no redemptive logic. Their unsaid logic is usually electoral, a staple of every politician.
PC: The Times of India
- The inherent assumption that some foreign conflict would take the voters’ focus off domestic shortcomings is utterly flawed. In this, Trump’s Iran war follows the script of Bush’s Iraq war. He has had major tariff and ICE setbacks, which are predicted to result in major reversals in the US midterm polls. That this is what’s driving him is indicated by all the holes in his case for the Iran war. Bush’s case for the Iraq war was built on the fiction that Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction and was also connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was spun across media, Congress, and the UN over two years. Operation Iraqi Freedom itself ultimately involved a coalition of the willing numbering 60 nations. Expectedly, Trump didn’t bother with all that.
PC: Channel4.com
- He announced Operation Epic Fury in an 8-minute video on Truth Social, accusing Iran of directly endangering America. All neutral experts disagree. The Pentagon has reportedly briefed Republicans and Democrats that there was no intelligence about Tehran attacking US forces first. As for Iran’s nuclear programme, didn’t Trump say last year that obliteration was the accurate term for what Operation Midnight Hammer had done to it? Most damningly, Oman’s foreign minister has underlined that Iran had just agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. And to never possess nuclear material for a bomb. Conflicts started on dodgy grounds don’t even offer the validation that just wars can offer. This latest war must have been avoided. Period.
