The US and Israeli war against Iran is going from bad to worse, as the United States’ Epstein Administration has teamed up with a new brand of religious fundamentalists to drag the planet into catastrophe. The war continues to spread, with new attacks reported in Azerbaijan and Turkey, though the origin of the strikes remains unclear. Then there is the increasing crisis around the Strait of Hormuz, where a significant amount of the world’s oil and gas transits. Despite desperate attempts and promises by the Trump administration to keep the Strait open, Iran has effectively brought all traffic to a standstill, with all the pending financial panic that that entails.
At the same time, the American and Israeli forces have plummeted to a new low in morality that gives an entirely new meaning to the term barbaric. News has come out that the nearly 170 young girls who were killed in a school in southern Iran were victims of a so-called “double-tap” strike—an international war crime. Further, it turns out that the Iranian frigate that was torpedoed by the U.S. a few days later was on its way back from the peaceful International Fleet Review in India, where it participated alongside 73 other nations. The U.S. left all 130 soldiers to drown, except for the few who were rescued by the Sri Lankan Navy. As Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth said March 4, “This was never meant to be a fair fight... We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”
Despite the global crisis this has created, the U.S. Congress failed to check the President’s unconstitutional seizing of power. Both the Senate and the House voted down war powers resolutions this week which sought to defend Congress’ sole authority to declare war, therefore freeing Trump to continue unabated in Iran. But Congress’ obliviousness is not consistent with the actual results on the ground, as the administration scrambles to not only deal with the enormous opposition to its war but also with growing shortfalls of ammunition, logistics, and planning. It is showcasing its brutality—and incompetence—to the world.
However, the real substance of this crisis must be sought in a different location. As EIR has documented and will continue to elaborate in the coming period, Iran is a crucial part in the Eurasian transport connections between China and Europe, as well as between Russia’s northern sea ports and the Indian Ocean as a gateway to Asia. It plays a central role in both the Belt and Road Initiative and the International North-South Transport Corridor, and as such, Iran has been actively expanding its physical-economic integration with its neighbors and beyond. In other words, Iran has been increasing the density of its economic activity as well as increasing the development of the entire region. Understanding Iran’s role in this dynamic gives an insight into who and what this seemingly irrational war is actually targeting, namely, the BRICS, China, and any alternative to the Western-dominated unipolar order.
Nonetheless, it is from this type of mutually-beneficial perspective that peace and stability are actually secured, as opposed to the delusional and evil view that peace will come once enough bombs are dropped on the “bad guys.” Expressing this same, proper view of mankind and its “win-win” relationship others, Cardinal Pietro Parolin gave an exceptional interview to Vatican News on March 4. Parolin warned that the erosion of international law is leading to a world where “justice has given way to force,” and defended the vital importance of diplomacy as the only method to resolve disputes in the world today. The Cardinal then pointed out what is lost by those who are blinded by this barbaric outlook: “What is lost is the awareness that the common good truly benefits everyone—that is, the good of the other is also a good for me, and therefore justice, prosperity, and security, are achieved insofar as all can benefit from them.”
The unfolding war in Iran today is only one part in the global and historical process underway, and the resolution of it will only come by acting from the standpoint of the true nature of the oneness of mankind. Choose that as your principle, and get active.
