For a blog called International Thinking, I haven’t done much of it recently, most of my thoughts being about the goings-on on my little island instead of the world at large. And it’s not for a lack of interest, let me tell you.
You can’t have missed that the world has become an altogether more batshit insane place to live in recent years. I surmise a multitude of factors that have led to this rapid slide into madness we’ve all been strapped to, but the main ones, I’m sure you’ll agree, are relatively obvious.
The first and most obvious starts with a T, and ends with a rump. As most things do…
I no longer spend more than £20 when filling up my car these days, and drive around with my fuel light blinking at me most of the time as a result. Due to a series of decisions my Government had no say over and played no part in, life has not only become far more expensive for me and most all of my countrymen here in Britain, but also far more dangerous for millions all over the world.
The war in Iran has been ongoing for exactly 8 months as I type this. Thousands have been killed, thousands more have been wounded, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have had economic pressure, and often ruin, foisted upon them, all for the pretence of preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon. And it is pretence only.
I’ve never had much of a head for military strategy, so I’m not ashamed to say I have absolutely no idea what Trump and Netanyahu are trying to achieve with this war. And I don’t think you do, either.
Netanyahu has been trying to convince the world of Iran’s imminent achievement of a nuclear weapon for his entire political career, having said they were “weeks away” from a nuclear bomb first in the 90s. If they haven’t made one these 30 years hence, forgive me if I’m hesitant to believe him this time. Not that I’d ever believe a word that came slithering from his genocidal face.
Whilst it may have been the Israelis who started this war (as they are in the habit of doing), it has been the full-throated backing of Donald Trump and his military and state apparatus that have ensured its continuance. The thoughtless committal of American lives (26 dead, by the current independent estimate) for no material gain has further shattered American prowess internationally, and alienated the US further from its traditional allies in the West and beyond.
73 Israelis have also been killed in this war, not to mention 3,375 Iranians, over 4,000 Lebanese, over 1,000 Yemeni, and hundreds of others across dozens of other nations, totalling between 8,000 and 10,000 dead so far.
The only nation with whom Trump can claim to have improved relations is Israel, as if US-Israel relations were not already at a high point before Operation Epic Fury (vomit emoji) killed Ayatollah Khamenei in February.
That action has precipitated crises galore; an intensification of the Yemeni civil war with new Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia, a crisis in the Bab al-Mandab straits, a renewal of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon, Iranian strikes on previously secure Gulf states (including on Dubai in the UAE, where I have family living), not to mention the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused my aforementioned prudence on petrol expenditure, as I’m sure you’ve also experienced, dear reader.
Untold gallons of crude oil have failed to make their way out of the straits thanks to this utterly stupid war, with global shipping routes compromised, leading to huge increases in fuel prices everywhere. Higher fuel prices have increased the cost of transport, electricity, manufacturing, spiking inflation the world over and placing additional pressure on households, businesses, and governments like mine. Those in developing countries are bearing the brunt, as always, relying on imported fuel, food and fertilisers that are either drying up or becoming unaffordable.
And what has been gained from all this? What has been the benefit to the American or Israeli people of their governments’ perpetration of this war?
That’s not rhetorical. I genuinely want to know why the ever-loving fuck they’ve done this. It’s losing me sleep.
I have an inkling that the answer is a purely political one. For Netanyahu, he’s a politician whose entire reason for existing is to bring war and death to those he sees as his enemies. Without a war or an imagined existential threat to rally his nation against, he is bereft of political capital. He is a primeval conqueror operating in a modern geopolitical landscape, Genghis Khan in a suit and kippah. The difference is that Genghis Khan did not have a rules-based international system he purported to respect, or votes to win from an electorate.
The genocide in Gaza is ongoing, as is the genocide in the West Bank and the apartheid of Arabs in Israel proper. These apparently have not generated enough blood for Netanyahu’s hands to remain fully coated. Israel has just had an election in which his Likud party have emerged with the most votes, although with no overall control. This, I suspect, means Netanyahu’s warmongering has not borne quite the fruit he desired.
For Trump, God alone knows. Perhaps it’s another distraction from the ever-rumbling storm of the Epstein files. Perhaps it’s his tiny manhood whispering to him that killing more Iranians might cure his crippling impotence. Perhaps it’s his and his meat-headed crypto-fascist Defence Secretary’s attempt at larping as successful and puissant military leaders.
It certainly isn’t an attempt to win popularity; the November midterms are widely expected to be a Republican bloodbath, in part due to rising fuel prices. It isn’t a serious attempt to rid Iran of its nuclear weapon programme; the most success on this front was enjoyed by President Obama’s JCPOA (Iran Nuclear Deal), before Trump dismantled it in his first term. If Trump seriously wanted to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, he’d make similar overtures, if his brain was able to produce any such nuance or rational thought.
I feel like Trump is starting to realise the futility of this war. He’s not backing down from the fight, incapable as he is of admitting a mistake, but he sees how toxic his brand is becoming even among previous MAGA loyalists, in large part thanks to this war.
But instead of calling for a ceasefire to release oil from the Gulf, he’s gone even further to prove to the world that he is the geopolitical equivalent of a massive steamy dump. He’s gone cap in hand to Russia to buy up diesel for import to the US.
Treachery is not a strong enough word. The man is the Arch-traitor, the most despicable and disgustingly craven leader of any Western nation in living memory. In the feeblest attempt to win votes from brainwashed redneck idiots in the midterms, he’s provided fiscal headroom for Vladimir Putin to continue the fight for despotism and oligarchy, to further Russia’s campaign of destabilisation of democratic nations and American allies, and the slaughter of Ukrainian men, women, and children.
As cowardly and sickening as this decision is, it’s not surprising. I’ve said on this blog before that actions like this from Trump are entirely predictable, but nonetheless revolting. He’s so deep inside Putin’s arse it’s a wonder he still draws breath. Whatever dirt Putin surely has on Trump, it’s the single most valuable file of kompromat in the modern world.
The most depressing and simultaneously hilarious thing is, it hasn’t fucking worked, has it? American gas prices are still historically high, and Republican chances at the midterms are still deathly bleak. Trump is heading for an ineffective second half of his last term, with a Democrat-controlled Congress plaguing him with enquiry and impeachment every step of his way into eventual political obscurity.
This abject failure of Trump’s betrayal of his own country proves in my mind, beyond doubt, he is the worst President in US history. He can’t even do treason right. He’s still a military failure, the Epstein conversation has gone precisely nowhere, and his manhood is still small to the point of medical fascination.
The best any of us can hope for at this point is that Trump finally has a massive aneurism. Short of that, his upcoming lame duck years will restrict his ability to act with political impunity and will rein in his and Hegseth’s warmongering, and we’ll only need to grit teeth against two more years before it’s finally over.
In Israel, the recent election results have not revealed an overall majority, with the smaller Arab parties increasing their votes handsomely to become the prospective kingmakers in upcoming coalition-forming debates. Netanyahu has ruled out any coalition with Arab parties, and this bigoted pride will likely lead to those parties entering coalition with the second-largest party post-election, Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party.
Eisenkot is an IOF veteran, and opposes a two-state solution, as does the majority of Israeli society, but he is far less hardline than Netanyahu, and therefore the least bad option of the two men. If he gains power in coalition with Arab parties, he’s likely to demilitarise Gaza and wind down military operations in Iran. Not in the interests of preserving non-Israeli life or for respect of Palestinian sovereignty, of course, but for restoring Israeli relations with their traditional allies and easing the financial burden on the state and its citizens.
I hope you can appreciate how thoroughly depressing this article was for me to write. I hope it wasn’t too depressing for you to read.
stay safe
/e