Before the ill-fated war between Iran and the US-Israeli coalition, Iran’s economy was in tatters. Years of sanctions had imposed a severe burden on the country.

It is obvious that whatever money flowed to Iranian coffers was used to prop up its proxies in the Middle East — Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen — and to make the ruling elites, their cronies, and their families comfortable. The life of the ordinary Iranian was made very hard and impoverished. Any attempt to defy the oppressive regime was met with brutality, and in the last attempt to throw off the tyranny, thousands of Iranians were killed.

The present war has not only increased the hardship of Iranians, but rendered the country almost inoperable by the extent to which its infrastructure has been destroyed by the US and Israel. Military bases and weapons infrastructure have been hit repeatedly. Civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools, has been destroyed and people — including many children — killed. There has been widespread destruction of homes with attendant civilian deaths.

It is not just in Iran that extensive damage has occurred. Israel’s relentless pounding of southern Lebanon to contain Hezbollah has resulted in the destruction of residential areas, clinics, roads, and other local government infrastructure.

Despite all this carnage wrought by America and Israel, the present consensus from respected military intelligence sources is that we are now in a war of attrition. No clear victor has been declared. Iran has leveraged its control over the Strait of Hormuz through which 20 per cent of the world’s energy needs — along with other vital commodities that the world needs — pass.

It is clear that the Iranian leadership believes it has nothing to lose after leading personalities in its Government, including Ayatollah Khamenei, have been killed, and its military, commercial, and civilian infrastructure destroyed. Iran is a broken country with an indomitable spirit fuelled and upheld by the resilience of its 7,000-year-old civilisation. It will not cave easily and will use all the leverage at its command to keep going. This is what the American negotiators for peace do not understand. They also do not understand that however weak an enemy is, never take him or her for granted.

America and Israel have used up a lot of their military resources as well, so while they might have degraded Iranian military capability, their own stock of weapons has been depleted and will need to be replaced to the tune of billions of dollars. So not only are billions being spent in fighting this war, the US Treasury will be under tremendous pressure to replace what has been lost.

This means that billions of dollars that should be directed towards civilian needs — health care and education — and addressing the affordability crisis in the country are being used to fight a war that never had to be. To date, the war has not achieved the purported objectives as we are no nearer stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The closing of the Strait of Hormuz, which should have been anticipated in any military conflict with Iran, has given it a sizeable advantage, almost to the point of being able to fight a war of attrition against its enemies.

Most importantly, America and Israel are squandering whatever goodwill their respective nations have in the world. It is not only their military capability that is being depleted, but whatever goodwill they may have enjoyed with the world citizenry. It is fair to say that they are slowly turning their respective countries into pariah states. Ever since the war in Gaza, this has been the case with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel. Its wholesale and indiscriminate destruction of the Gazans’ way of life has led many, including this writer, to conclude that genocide has occurred on that strip of land. Netanyahu has himself been declared a war criminal by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for this expressed reason.

If anti-Semitism is defined as hateful stereotypes directed at the Jewish people as a religious and ethnic group or simply because they are Jewish, then it is not far-fetched to suggest that by his actions in Gaza and his assault on Iran and Lebanon, Netanyahu may yet be the greatest proponent of anti-Semitism in the world. Because of what Hamas did in attacking Israel and killing and capturing many Israeli citizens, the world was with it when it responded. But as the attack continued and laid bare the indiscriminate destruction of Gaza, it became clear that the response had become disproportional to that which was necessary. Its actions certainly have not got Israel many friends around the world, neither has its foray into Lebanon, West Bank, and other areas of the Middle East.

As for the USA, respect for America around the world has been vastly diminished by this conflict. The Donald Trump Administration neither sought the permission of the American people through the Congress nor had any respect for international protocol through the United Nations. Instead, he went in on a frolic of his own, buttressed by the hubristic understanding that Iran would be a pushover. Now that he finds himself in a real cul-de-sac, his response is to threaten the destruction of Iranian civilisation while at the same time pretending to be talking peace with them.

But the tactic is not working and is not likely to work. The war, for good reasons, is very unpopular with the American people as it is with our international partners who refuse to be drawn into a conflict they believe never should have happened. It may change the geopolitical ecosystem for good as America is increasingly seen as a country with which the world cannot do business.

What Trump and Netanyahu do not understand is that you cannot bomb your way into people’s hearts. What has made Israel great and admired in the world is being stolen from them by a fanatical Government that believes that creating enemies by destroying people’s way of life is the only way forward. I have news for such. My prophetic intelligence tells me that the generational seeds of hatred that are being sown in the present conflict will one day germinate, grow into trees, and bear fruits with which successive generations of Israelis will have to contend.

Those who believe in the theory that might is right and having powerful militaries can get you whatever you want, whenever you want are living an illusion which is hurting a lot of people as I write.

Those who believe in a vaunted sense of self, as Trump and Netanyahu clearly do, do not have time for the patience which diplomacy requires. They are blinded to the wanton destruction of life and property occasioned by their wars and fought on the whims of tyrants who believe that might is right.

As they bow to the hubris which is at the epicentre of this war, many more lives will be lost and properties destroyed. This gay abandon of killing and destroying will continue to chip away at any stock of goodwill that both nations have painstakingly built up over the years. This not only makes their countries pariah states, but puts the lives of their own citizens at risk. This is not something that these citizens should be silent on. Their own security, whether they want to acknowledge it or not, is being jeopardised and put at serious risk.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He also hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Donald Trump (Photo: AFP)

Benjamin Netanyahu (AP Photo)

Raulston Nembhard