A sitting Member of the European Parliament warns that the U.S.-Israel war on Iran could prove a catastrophic strategic blunder, with victory far from certain, and Europe being left to pay the consequences long after the Americans have gone home. His article is published under the title “Gateway to Hell: How the War Against Iran Will Harm the West.”
Michael von der Schulenburg, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General with field experience in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan, draws a parallel to Iraq 2003: a war launched on false pretenses and supposed to be completed quickly, instead produced chaos, mass death, and the Islamic State. Iran, he argues, is a harder target in every dimension. It has twice the population, a more resilient political system, and backing from Russia and China through BRICS.
The regime-change plan has already failed, he assesses. Despite many killings, Iran’s leadership structure has not collapsed. Its missiles keep punching through Israel’s layered air defenses. Gulf states are questioning whether U.S. security guarantees mean anything. And Trump, facing midterms in November, is running out of time while Tehran is not.
Von der Schulenburg points out that the attack came hours after Iranian negotiators had made substantial concessions in Geneva. Were the talks ever meant to succeed, or were they cover for a war already planned?
