Early yesterday, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes against Iran, hitting multiple targets. Nuclear control talks were still ongoing a day before, but had to be halted abruptly moments before the strikes began. President Donald Trump showed little appetite for the talks, and has insisted that the strikes be conducted to pave way for regime change in Iran. He sought no authorisation from Congress for his latest war, just as he sought no authorisation for the many attacks he had ordered in the past few months. Iran may be no match for the US in combination with Israel, but this wholly unjustified and reckless attack will certainly reset international politics, change the face of the Middle East for generations, and lead to crippling and uncertain economic and social consequences for the rest of the world, beginning from the Gulf States.
In his last State of the Nation address last week, Mr Trump showed himself a tyrant, bully and nihilist. He was intemperate and uncouth, and his gestures bizarre. A week or so earlier, he had berated the US Supreme Court after it ruled his indiscriminate tariffs illegal; but he went on to re-impose tariffs in defiance of the court and its ruling. The US is now clearly in the hands of a demented dictator and warmonger, and the consequences of his actions will reverberate through American history for decades to come in the same way Adolf Hitler took Germany through a hellish inferno.
The Iranian response has so far been desultory. But it has managed to attack Israel and American allies in the Gulf and crippled economic activities in the region. Some escalation should be expected in the coming days. Whether a regime change will occur is also not certain, but regime changes inspired by American attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past neither boded well for the US nor predisposed those countries or regions to peace. Yesterday witnessed the opening salvoes; it remains to be seen how the war will fare, or whether there would be no consequences for the presidency of Mr Trump and the prime ministership of Benjamin Netanyahu, regardless of the outcome of this utterly needless war.
