The recent aggression by Israel and the United States against Iran appears as yet another acceleration in the headlong rush that
defines current Western policy. Maintaining control of the imperialistic narrative requires an incremental sequence of shocking, confusing, and overwhelming events. And they must grow exponentially before they can be analyzed and, above all, judged.
The percussion of bombing across the Middle East now joins this bloody symphony. A deafening noise that barely leaves room to hear about the investigations into the Epstein case, the concentration camps being built by ICE, the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the genocide in Gaza together with the expanding occupation of the West Bank, the threats over Greenland, the forced increase in NATO military spending, and so many other red lines that have been crossed. Not even a moment of peace can be allowed to talk about the material conditions of the population, and much less about climate change, increasingly present in people’s lives.
But this accelerating rhythm is not sustainable, and this war could become the turning point. The United States’ military system was
designed to win the Cold War, not to fight an open war on distant lands; Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan serve as clear examples of the results we can expect. If this military campaign has begun in an improvised manner for the United States, dragged along by Israel as seems to be the case, its development may follow an equally shoddy dynamic.
Iran, for its part, has spent two decades preparing for this scenario, and its military response, apparently improbable after its main leaders were assassinated at the beginning of the conflict, is already causing long-term damage within just a few days. First, it has deployed low-cost weapons to undermine the expensive and complex technological systems of the attacking armies. In addition, it has decided to strike at Western capitalism by disrupting the production, refining, and distribution of the oil that fuels its army, aware that this could push the economies of the Global North into an unsustainable situation. If the Gulf states cannot maintain the petrodollar cycle, the speculative bubble that is the U.S. economy is at risk.
The European Union is being dragged into a second war and appears disoriented and incapable of maintaining its sovereignty. Meanwhile, China sells modern and inexpensive weaponry to Iran while presenting itself as an enforcer of diplomacy, trade, and stability, all the while observing how the United States continues committing violations of international law that it will one day have to pay for.
Until now, when describing political decisions, terms such as machiavellian, Orwellian, or Dantean would come to mind… implying
that someone benefits in one way or another. But now, since no one can benefit from this conflict, analysts have to bite their tongues to avoid saying the obvious: the word that defines current Western policy is stupid.
We had already realized it; we knew what was coming. There had already been mobilizations, calls for boycotts, and for direct action. But now we are presented with the possibility of changing the narrative, of persuading in order to prevail, to convince those who until now have paid him homage or believed his lies that Trump is exactly who he claimed to be: a fascist. Only by forcefully exercising democracy and our rights will we be able to stop this war: from shaking up polls and elections to sabotaging the machinery of propaganda, firmly and decisively blocking any movement of the far right.
If this situation is not a turning point, it is our duty to make it one. They have no ammunition left; this is our opportunity
