Gaza Genocide and the US-Israeli War on Iran signal the collapse of the “international rules-based order”

We are witnessing a repeat of the 1930s, where the League of Nations collapsed because it could not—or would not—restrain the aggression of its powerful members.

 

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this can be found on Substack.

For nearly eight decades, the global community has been lectured on the sanctity of the “international rules-based order.” We were told that the post-World War Two framework—built upon the wreckage of the Holocaust and codified through the Geneva Conventions, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Genocide Conventions—was a shield for the vulnerable and a leash for the powerful. This order was founded on the promise of “Never Again,” a solemn vow that the industrial-scale extermination of a people would never be permitted to recur.

 

However, as we enter the 31st month of Israel’s genocide on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip—with a so-called ceasefire proving illusory and the slaughter continuing unabated—that shield has been revealed as a sieve, and the vow as a hollow ethno-specific mantra. Compounding this betrayal is the US-Israeli illegal war of aggression launched against Iran on February 28, 2026. In both instances, the two nations have flagrantly violated the aforementioned treaties and conventions, and the fundamental norms of international law. Together, these atrocities signal the effective collapse of the international rules-based order and the myth of universal human rights.

The discrepancy between the “official” reality and the truth on the ground in Gaza is the first indication of this collapse. As of January 2026, mainstream Western outlets cautiously cite a Palestinian death toll topping 75,000. Yet rigorous academic and epidemiological analyses reveal a far more harrowing reality. Peer-reviewed studies and models, including those by Australian scholars Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, Israeli academic Yaakov Garb’s analysis published by Harvard, and The Lancet’s projections, demonstrate that when accounting for bodies buried under millions of tons of rubble, indirect deaths from the total collapse of healthcare, starvation, and untreated disease, the true toll exceeds 680,000 lives—primarily women and children—as of April 2025, with the figure climbing further into 2026 as the Israeli assault continues.

If we accept the figures from these studies—derived from the same scientific methodologies used in other global conflicts—the scale of the slaughter rivals or exceeds the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Yet unlike Rwanda, which the West later lamented as a failure of intervention, the Gaza genocide is a willful failure to intervene in the most transparent genocide in human history. The “rules-based order” is not failing because it’s weak. It is failing because its architects are the primary financiers of the carnage being inflicted on the Middle-East.

The United States has funnelled over $21 billion in military aid to Israel since October 2023, with billions more arriving from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Canada. These nations, which frequently invoke international law to sanction adversaries, have simultaneously provided the diplomatic cover and the weapons required to systematically level 80% of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure. By weaponizing international law against the powerless while suspending it for their allies, the Western alliance has exposed the “order” as a criminal cabal that prioritizes geopolitical hegemony over human life.

This betrayal is rooted in a profound, institutionalized anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia that permeates Western institutions and discourse. The systematic dehumanization of Palestinians—who have endured more than a century of occupation, dispossession, and Zionist settler-colonialism—has been crucial in sustaining Western silence and complicity amid the ongoing horrors in Gaza.

A stark illustration of this double standard emerged in the immediate aftermath of October 7, 2023. The killing of 1,195 people during the Hamas-led attacks triggered swift, intense moral outrage across the Western world, with leaders and media outlets universally condemning the violence as an atrocity. Yet as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed to ten, fifty, and eventually hundreds of times that number—reaching catastrophic scales through relentless bombardment—the same Western leaders responded with only tepid, “measured” appeals for restraint, even as they continued supplying Israel with massive quantities of bombs, missiles and other munitions.

Investigations, including reports from Israeli sources like Ha’aretz and international bodies such as the UN Commission of Inquiry, have since revealed that the October 7 death toll included casualties from Israeli forces’ application of the controversial Hannibal Directive in multiple locations. This procedure, aimed at preventing captures of Israeli Jews at all costs (even if it risked or caused the deaths of Israelis), was invoked during the chaos, leading to incidents that killed hundreds of civilians and potentially endangered others. Despite these complexities and the acknowledgement in some accounts that not all deaths were solely attributable to Hamas, the Western reaction remained one-sided--unqualified horror at Palestinian-perpetrated violence contrasted sharply with muted or enabling responses to Israel’s far deadlier genocidal campaign.

This selective outrage underscores how deeply entrenched biases allow the West to rationalize or overlook massive Palestinian suffering while amplifying lesser-scale violence against Israelis, perpetuating a hierarchy of human worth that has enabled the ongoing catastrophe.

The moral abyss is further deepened by the “visibility” of this genocide. Unlike the Holocaust, which the Nazi regime attempted to hide in isolated camps like Auschwitz, the annihilation of Gaza is the first live-streamed genocide in human history. We see the emaciated frames of starving children and the obliteration of entire families in high definition on our smartphones. We see Israeli soldiers filming their own war crimes for social media, mocking the ruins of schools and mosques. The world watches in real-time as a population of approximately 2 million is squeezed into “safe zones” that are then systematically bombarded.

The fact that this transparency has prompted no meaningful intervention from the powers that defeated the Nazis is a devastating indictment of those nations and our era. It suggests that the “international community” is not a collective of nations bound by law, but a hierarchy of human value where Palestinian blood is deemed “lesser” than that of those within the Western sphere of influence.

The invocation of “Never Again” has been particularly perverted. Originally intended as a universal promise to protect all of humanity from the “crime of crimes,” it has been narrowed into a tool of Jewish exceptionalism. Every year, Western leaders hypocritically stand at Holocaust memorials and pledge to uphold justice, even as they provide the white phosphorus and intelligence used to displace 99% of Gaza’s population. This victim-perpetrator inversion, where the state committing genocide is shielded from accountability by the memory of a previous genocide, is a moral perversity that the international legal system cannot survive.

We are witnessing a repeat of the 1930s, where the League of Nations collapsed because it could not—or would not—restrain the aggression of its powerful members. Today, the United Nations and the International Court of Justice are being rendered obsolete not by their own design, but by the brazen defiance of the United States and its allies. When the ICC seeks warrants for war crimes, it is threatened with sanctions by Washington. When the UN General Assembly votes for a ceasefire, it is ignored.

The betrayal extends directly to the US-Israeli war against Iran. On February 28, under President Donald Trump and in coordination with Israel, the United States launched unprovoked strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, military infrastructure, and leadership—including the assassinating Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and members of his family. A girls’ elementary school in Minab was deliberately hit, killing at least 165 children, alongside strikes on hospitals and civilian areas with no military value. These actions constitute a blatant and criminal war of aggression with no UN Security Council authorization and no valid claim of imminent self-defence under the UN Charter. Additionally, diplomatic talks with Iran were making significant progress hours before the strikes, and leaks from within the US intelligence establishment confirmed no imminent Iranian threat or nuclear warhead capability.

Under the Geneva Conventions, the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects qualifies as war crimes. Israeli and American hypocrisy is blatant and staggering in this regard when compared to the war in Ukraine. The same nations that imposed sanctions on Russia for its 2022 invasion of that nation and condemned it for bombing schools and hospitals, offered complicity, muted criticism, or outright endorsement for identical violations against Iran. This selective enforcement—condemning aggression when committed by adversaries but exempting allies—lays bare the double standards that have defined the international order from its inception in the late 1940s.

Both the Gaza genocide and the aggression against Iran directly contravene the foundational principles established by the Judgment at Nuremberg (1945-1946), the bedrock of all international law created after World War Two. The Nuremberg Tribunal declared that “to initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” It established individual accountability for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity—principles that directly birthed the UN Charter (prohibiting aggression), the 1948 Genocide Convention (acts with intent to destroy a group in whole or in part, as Israel’s systematic killings, starvation policies, and destruction of life conditions in Gaza fulfill), the Geneva Conventions (civilian protections violated in both Gaza’s bombardment and Iran’s school and hospital strikes), and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By committing these crimes with impunity, the US and Israel have not merely violated these instruments, they have demolished the post-war legal order built explicitly on Nuremberg’s vow to prevent such atrocities from recurring.

In his special address at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 20, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney invoked Thucydides’ dictum that “the strong can do what they can, and the weak must suffer what they must.” He declared that the rules-based international order was “fading,” a “fiction,” an “illusion,” and no longer functioning “as advertised.” He acknowledged that nations like Canada had prospered under it for decades, but “we knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false—that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient.”

Carney urged middle powers to accept the reality—a system of intensifying great power rivalry where the most powerful pursue their interests using economic and military might as a weapon of coercion. This speech inadvertently confirms the core truth—that the order Carney described was never universal or impartial. It primarily benefitted the West and aligned powers—delivering prosperity and security to Canada, the US, and Europe—while adversaries and the Global South were its perpetual victims, subjected to occupation, sanctions, regime-change wars, economic colonialism, and now live-streamed genocide and unprovoked aggression.

Carney’s own actions and those of his government powerfully illustrate the selective nature of the rules-based order he described in Davos—one that privileges Western powers and their allies while leaving others to bear the consequences of the actions of the powerful. In the immediate aftermath of the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, Carney quickly voiced support for the actions, framing them as necessary to prevent Iran from completing construction of nuclear weapons and to curb threats to regional stability, even as the UN and international law experts condemned the illegality of the actions. He has similarly refused to issue any outright condemnation of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has been condemned as such by genocide and Holocaust experts, and respected human rights organizations.

This pattern of selective outrage extended further when Canada joined European allies in condemning Iran’s actions in blocking or threatening the Strait of Hormuz—actions that disrupted global oil shipments—while remaining conspicuously silent on the longstanding and intensified US economic measures against Cuba, including an effective oil blockade that has exacerbated humanitarian hardships on the island without comparable international push back. Such inconsistencies reveal the hypocrisy Carney himself stated in his Davos remarks.

Palestinians and Iranians, positioned as non-Western and comparatively “weak” actors in this hierarchy, were always intended to endure the system’s double standards. Exemptions granted to the powerful—through sustained US arms shipments to Israel, repeated vetoes of accountability at the UN, selective enforcement of international norms, and diplomatic or rhetorical endorsement of aggressive actions like the Iran strikes—have ensured that the order was intended to serve Western hegemony rather than universal principles of humanity or equity. The unfolding realities in Gaza and Iran stand as irrefutable evidence. What was once presented as a principled global framework was, in practice, a mechanism of power that the dominant nations of the world discard or bend whenever it suits their interests.

The evidence that the rules-based order is now non-existent is overwhelming. After 30 months of ongoing genocide in Gaza, the most powerful nations of the world (primarily the US and NATO nations) have done nothing to stop Israel’s slaughter, which continues despite a so-called ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025. Billions in military aid flowed uninterrupted, International Court of Justice orders were defied, and UN resolutions vetoed. The same superpower that frequently lectured the world on abiding by international law enabled the carnage in Gaza, and then pivoted to fresh aggression against Iran without justification and without consequence.

The Gaza genocide and the US-Israeli war against Iran have shattered the illusion of a global conscience and of the international “rules based order.” They have shown that “Western humanity” is a bedtime fable, a “sick joke” told to citizens who want to believe their governments are the “good guys.” In reality, the “rules” only apply when they serve the interests of the powerful. For the Palestinian and Iranian people, the international order has not been a protector, but a jailer, an executioner, and a propagator of narratives of hate.

As the ruins of Gaza continue to smoulder and the skies over Iran fill with the smoke of an illegal war of aggression, these scenes stand as stark monuments to the end of the post-World War II era. We can no longer speak of “universal human rights” with any credibility while the world’s most powerful nations actively underwrite the systematic erasure of entire peoples. The so-called international rules-based order did not fade away gradually or die of natural causes—it was deliberately murdered in the streets of Gaza and the cities of Iran, with the full knowledge, material support, and diplomatic cover provided by the very nations that once positioned themselves as its chief guardians and moral exemplars.

Any hope for a genuine future of global justice cannot be rebuilt on the shattered, hypocritical foundations of this broken system. The mass graves in Gaza and the fresh rubble across Iran hold far more than the hundreds of thousands of victims claimed by US- and Israeli-led crimes; they also entomb the long-standing pretenses of Western moral authority. The comforting fairy tale—that a system of international laws applies equally to all nations—has been exposed as a dangerous illusion. We now confront a harsh moral abyss, thrust upon the world by the very powers that long preached restraint and accountability. In this new reality, the United States and Israel operate like unchecked gunslingers in a lawless frontier, casting themselves as the corrupt sheriffs determined to “clean up” the Middle East on their own terms, regardless of the human cost or the wreckage left behind.

© The View From Here. © Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

The Iran war is negatively impacting national economies, and will have severe impacts on real estate

Beyond higher interest rates and inflation, wars cause jobs to dry up, slow construction, and increase unemployment. 

By Fareed Khan 

A version of this can be found on Substack.

Regional wars that break out far from Canada can still send strong ripples through the economy and impact every sector in the economy, particularly real estate and housing. The current war on Iran instigated by the United States and Israel, which started on February 28, shows exactly how this happens. Rising oil prices, higher everyday living costs and the Bank of Canada keeping interest rates elevated all make it tougher for average families to buy homes, slow down sales and push house prices lower. The longer these conflicts last, the more damage they do.

Canada’s real estate sector stands out as one of the largest parts of the national economy, accounting for roughly 13.2% of GDP – the biggest single slice of the national economic pie. This covers the value of people living in their own homes, rental properties, commercial leasing and the work of real estate agents and brokers. It also accounts for jobs in construction, banking and related services, which fuels much of the consumer spending that keeps the economy moving. When this sector takes a hit, the pain spreads quickly, touching everything from the more than one million mortgage renewals due in 2026, to plans for the construction of new homes and condos across the country.

The way these economic shocks reach Canada's shores is straightforward—and it plays out the same way with every major global conflict. Wars in the Middle East hit particularly hard because the region produces a substantial share of the world's oil supply; under normal conditions, countries there (including key Gulf producers) account for roughly 30 per cent of global output, and critical routes like the Strait of Hormuz carry about one-fifth of seaborne crude trade.

When fighting disrupts production, threatens tankers or blocks key shipping lanes—as has happened dramatically since the current conflict escalated—oil prices surge quickly. That higher cost flows straight into everyday expenses—gasoline at the pump gets pricier, home heating bills climb, and even the price of fruits and vegetables rises because so much modern farming relies on oil-based fertilizers and fuel for transport. Even though Canada is a net exporter of oil and produces more than it consumes domestically, the country isn't shielded from these international swings. When global oil prices jump, the cost of living rises for everyone, no matter where they live, pushing up inflation and pressuring central banks to respond.

To stop prices from spiralling out of control, the Bank of Canada holds off on cutting interest rates or raises them if needed, thus making mortgages more expensive, especially the variable-rate ones many households carry. According to the International Monetary Fund Canadians already carry some of the heaviest household debt in the world relative to their income, consistently ranking at or near the top among developed nations. As of the fourth quarter of 2025, Canadians held approximately $1.77 in credit market debt for every dollar of disposable income, according to Statistics Canada data released in March 2026.

In the current market, with housing affordability already a major problem, and households struggling under these heavy debt burdens, even modest rate increases make buying a home feel out of reach for many. In such a scenario, many owners would likely decide to stay put rather than sell and take on a costlier new mortgage, while first-time buyers find entering the market even more difficult. 

This pressure has been building for years.  Since 2021, consumer insolvencies—including bankruptcies—have risen annually, with 2025 recording the second-highest annual volume on record since tracking began in 1987, a 16-year high. Consumer bankruptcies specifically increased by 4.3% compared to 2024, driven largely by persistent inflation, higher debt servicing costs from elevated interest rates, and growing debt loads, particularly on credit cards.

These trends leave families more vulnerable when external shocks like rising energy prices from a distant war push borrowing costs higher, turning what might be a temporary squeeze into longer-term financial strain that further cools the real estate market.

Building new homes becomes noticeably more expensive too, because oil plays a central role in producing many construction materials—asphalt for roads and roofing, plastics for pipes and wiring, paints, and insulation—while also raising the price of trucking those supplies across vast distances to building sites. At the same time, when wars disrupt global supply chains and sows widespread uncertainty about the economy, people considering entering the housing market or moving to a bigger home, along with investors eyeing properties, often choose to pause and wait for a more stable situation. That collective hesitation quickly becomes visible in the market as fewer homes sell, activity slows sharply, and house prices flatten or begin to trend downward. 

If a conflict ends quickly, things can usually return to normal fairly soon once oil supplies stabilize and interest rates come down. But when the fighting drags on—as appears increasingly likely in the current US-Israel operations against Iran, now in its third week with no immediate end in sight—the elevated costs take root as the new everyday reality.  Borrowing remains expensive for an extended period, and the harm to home values grows deeper and more persistent, affecting markets nationwide from high-rise condos in Vancouver and Toronto to single-family houses in Halifax and communities in between.

During the six long years of the Second World War, Canadian factories turned almost entirely to producing weapons, vehicles, and other military supplies, left civilian construction—including new homes—severely limited. With building materials rationed and labour redirected to the war effort, the number of homes added to the market was far below what was needed. As the conflict dragged on, cities swelled with workers drawn to wartime jobs and, later, with returning soldiers eager to start new lives. The result was a sharp housing shortage that left families crammed into overcrowded apartments, shared homes, or whatever shelter they could find.

Because the disruption lasted so many years, the housing market could not begin to recover until well after the fighting ended in 1945. Only then, with the help of government programs such as those run by the newly created Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation, did large-scale home building finally take off and ease the pressure. Even though Canada was never bombed or occupied, the long diversion of resources and attention to the war effort still created a deep and lasting housing crunch for ordinary families across the country.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War and the oil embargo that followed also brought years of rising prices and economic pain to Canada. Fuel costs quadrupled, pushing up the price of almost everything. To fight the surge in living costs, the Bank of Canada pushed rates higher, eventually topping 20% by the early 1980s. Mortgage payments became crushing for many families, sales slowed dramatically and home prices stagnated or fell when measured against inflation. The effects lasted well into the 1980s because the oil shock did not fade quickly, showing how a distant conflict can keep housing under pressure for years even when Canada was not directly involved.

The 1990-1991 Gulf War lasted only months but still helped trigger a recession that weighed on Canadian real estate+ for several years afterward. Oil prices spiked at first, inflation rose and consumer confidence cratered. The Bank of Canada eventually cut rates, but the damage had already been done as sales weakened, new building slowed and average house prices dropped noticeably in many parts of the country. The short duration of the war allowed an eventual rebound, yet it proved that even brief regional wars can create extended drags on the market through higher costs and lost confidence.

The Russia-Ukraine war, now entering its fourth year, offers a recent warning of how drawn-out fighting keeps hurting economies far away. Energy and food prices jumped as a direct result of the Russian incursion into Ukraine, forcing the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates within a week after the invasion began, driven by fears of runaway inflation and soaring commodity prices. Housing sales volumes cooled, affordability worsened and price growth slowed across the country even in strong markets like Toronto and Vancouver. The conflict’s length has prevented a full recovery, leaving higher borrowing costs and uncertainty in place far longer than a quick resolution would have allowed.

The current situation with Iran is already showing early signs of the same pressures. Since the strikes began in late February, oil prices have climbed to more than US$100 per barrel, with gas prices topping $2.00 per litre in British Columbia, approaching $1.70 per litre in Ontario and Quebec, and reaching $1.80 per litre in Atlantic Canada. Bond yields have moved higher because investors worry about lasting inflation, making mortgage rates firmer just as hundreds of thousands of Canadian families face renewals. Economists note that if the conflict stretches on, the Bank of Canada may have to increase rates and keep them elevated longer, delaying the relief many home buyers were counting on for the spring market.

Wars create extra layers of harm beyond higher interest rates. Construction jobs dry up when building slows because of costly materials and hesitant buyers, leaving tradespeople out of work, and more families are forced to sell homes quickly—sometimes at a loss—to cover bills. This extra supply on the market pushes prices down even further in already soft conditions.

Overseas investors who once saw Canadian real estate as a safe place to park money are also likely reassess their investing and with many of them looking at investment opportunities in other countries. With uncertainty rising, capital will flow elsewhere, cutting demand sharply in cities where foreign buyers play a large role in the market—cities like Toronto and Vancouver—and will cause noticeable price drops in certain neighbourhoods. The simple fear of what might happen next will freeze the market in place, as families put off buying their first home or moving up, while sellers who can afford to wait hold off until the market improves. Fewer deals mean that prices will drift lower as the lack of activity itself signals trouble to everyone watching.

Looking back at past conflicts makes the pattern clear. During the early 1990s slowdown linked to the Gulf War, Canadian real estate took a particularly heavy hit, with property values declining sharply in many rmarkets once lending tightened and confidence vanished. The 1973 oil crisis produced similar years of flat or falling prices once inflation was taken into account. These repeated drops show how deeply wars can wound the housing market even in a peaceful country like Canada.

Notable is that the economic damage does not stop when the shooting ends. It often takes years for confidence to return fully, for rates to settle and for large numbers of buyers to feel secure enough to jump back in. During that slow recovery period, many families watch their biggest asset—their home—lose ground or fail to grow, eating into retirement equity and overall wealth that most Canadians count on. This long-lasting drag is why experts stress that extended wars are especially dangerous for the housing sector.

Real estate’s large role in the Canadian economy makes these blows land harder. It not only drives a big share of GDP but also supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and lets families tap into home equity for everything from children's education to daily spending. When wars disrupt that foundation through higher interest rates, increased costs, fewer sales and lower values, the effects reach far beyond individual homeowners to slow growth across the national economy.

Taken together, history and the present situation prove the point clearly. Regional wars send shocks through energy prices and interest rates that reach Canada regardless of any direct involvement. Short conflicts may cause only brief dips, but longer ones—like the multi-year oil crises of the 1970s, the lingering effects of the Gulf War recession or Ukraine’s ongoing drag—embed higher costs, greater uncertainty, and sustained pressure on real estate prices.

The new Iran conflict, with its potential to push oil prices to new record highs, and keep inflation elevated, risks repeating the worst of those patterns if it continues. Mortgage payments could stay at painful levels, new construction could remain stalled, and buyer confidence could remain shaky, leading to clear declines in real estate values nationwide. The longer such wars go on, the more severely Canadian real estate and housing values suffer—a reminder of how connected even a peaceful country’s biggest asset class is to distant conflicts.

© The View From Here.  © Fareed Khan.  All Rights Reserved.

US-Israeli attack on Iran shows West’s hypocrisy, erodes our humanity, and opens Pandora’s Box

By assassinating a sovereign nation’s leader without provocation, the US and Israel have opened Pandora’s Box. What prevents other nations from doing the same against leaders they see as threats? 

 

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this can be found on Substack. 

On February 28th the world witnessed a brazen act of aggression as the United States and Israel launched a coordinated assault on Iran, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, members of his family, and the bombing of a girls’ elementary school where 165 innocent children perished amid the rubble. This unprovoked strike, cloaked in vague claims of pre-emptive self-defence, exemplifies the depths of Western evil and hypocrisy. While the West preaches human rights, international law, and the sanctity of life, it unleashes devastation on non-Western nations with impunity, revealing a profound lack of humanity that prioritizes geopolitical dominance over innocent lives. Not only should the US and Israel be condemned for their actions, but also for their unfounded justifications for the attack, as should the shameful complicity of allies like Canada and certain European nations, whose support for this act of war expose the hollowness of their moral posturing.

 

The assault’s unfounded nature is glaring. Iran posed no imminent threat to the US or Israel at the time of the strike. There were no credible intelligence reports of an impending Iranian attack, no evidence of nuclear weaponization beyond speculative rhetoric, and no active aggression against Western interests. Instead, the operation appears rooted in long-standing animosities, exaggerated fears of Iran’s regional influence, and a desire to decapitate its leadership under the guise of “strategic necessity.” This mirrors historical patterns where Western powers fabricate threats to justify invasions or assassinations, such as the US killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in 2020, which escalated tensions without resolving underlying issues. By framing Iran as an existential danger, the US and Israel ignored diplomatic avenues, opting for violence that has destabilized the Middle East further. Such actions are not defence but imperialism, echoing colonial-era interventions where might makes right.

The human cost is staggering and unforgivable. The bombing of the girls’ school in Minab, a civilian target with no military value, resulted in the deaths of 165 children, alongside scores of other innocents. This is not collateral damage.  It is a deliberate disregard for life, reminiscent of repeated Israeli strikes on schools in Gaza, where thousands of Palestinian children have been killed in similar assaults labeled as “precision” operations.

Reports from the scene depict rescuers pulling charred bodies from the debris, a scene of horror that underscores the barbarism at play. Western leaders often decry child casualties in conflicts involving their adversaries—think of the outrage over Russian strikes in Ukraine—but here, the response is muted, if not defensive. This selective empathy reveals a dehumanizing bias, one where Muslim and Middle Eastern lives are expendable, mere statistics in the ledger of power politics. The lack of humanity is profound, seeing as it treats entire populations as disposable to advance Western agendas, eroding the very principles of universal human rights that the West claims to champion.

Compounding the evil inherent in US and Israeli actions is the hypocrisy of Western support for the attack. Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, offered full-throated endorsement, framing it as necessary to prevent Iran from threatening international peace. This stance is shameful, given Canada’s self-proclaimed image as a defender of multilateralism and human rights. Unlike in 2003 when Canadian PM Jean Chretien refused to support the illegal American invasion of Iraq and endorse the international rule of law instead, Carney has chosen the opposite path for Canada—endorsing illegal acts that further shred international law.

Similarly, European nations like France, Germany, and the UK issued statements urging restraint but stopped short of outright condemnation, emphasizing Iran’s “destabilizing” role while ignoring the unilateral and illegal actions of the aggressors. These countries, part of the E3 group, have long criticized Iran’s nuclear program and regional activities but turn a blind eye to Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal and aggressive policies. Their complicity exposes a double standard.  When Russia invaded Ukraine, Europe mobilized sanctions and aid. Yet when the US and Israel bomb Iran, they call for “negotiated solutions” without calling for accountability for the two nations’ criminal acts. This hypocrisy fractures global trust, as non-Western nations see the “rules-based order” as a tool for Western dominance, not justice. 

The attack’s broader implications are equally chilling. By assassinating a sovereign nation’s leader without provocation, the US and Israel have set a dangerous precedent that undermines international norms. If such actions are justifiable based on perceived threats—real or imagined—then what prevents other nations from taking similar action against the leaders of nations they see as threats?

Consider a hypothetical. If a Middle Eastern country viewed Israel’s leadership as a genuine threat to regional peace, given its history of unprovoked attacks on neighbouring nations and decades long occupation of Palestinian lands, could it not invoke the same logic to target Israeli officials? Or, extending the thought, if China perceived US policies as a threat to its security, might it rationalize assassinating American leaders?

This is not an endorsement of violence but a stark illustration of the anarchy that would ensue when powerful states act as judge, jury, and executioner. The world would descend into chaos, with assassinations becoming the norm and declarations of war being issued, eroding sovereignty and inviting endless retaliation. As odious as aspects of Iran’s regime may be—its human rights abuses and suppression of women’s rights—murdering its leaders will achieve nothing but cycles of vengeance. If the West’s rationale holds, then rogue actors everywhere gain legitimacy, opening Pandora’s Box and lighting a global inferno. 

In condemning this unjustifiable and barbaric attack, we are forced to confront the profound moral decay rotting at the heart of Western foreign policy. The actions of the United States and Israel, shamefully backed by Canada and key European enablers, are not mere aberrations but glaring symptoms of a global system that ruthlessly prioritizes hegemonic control over the sanctity of human life. As rescue workers continue to sift through the rubble of the girls' elementary school in Minab where at least 165 innocent children have been confirmed dead amid conflicting early reports of rising tolls, history will indelibly judge this not as a triumph over tyranny but as an eternal stain on the fabric of civilization—a grotesque tableau where the blood of the young fuels the insatiable fires of Western hypocrisy.

True peace can only be forged through unwavering accountability—impartial investigations under the auspices of international law, targeted sanctions against the aggressors, and a resolute recommitment to diplomacy rather than unjustifiable aggression. Anything less not only perpetuates the insidious evil that now indelibly scars Iran and imperils the world but condemns humanity to a future where the cries of slaughtered innocents echo unanswered, demanding that we rise as one to dismantle the machinery of imperial terror before it consumes us all.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

The US-Israeli attack on Iran is igniting a powder keg that will have global repercussions

The repercussions will be dire and far-reaching, affecting the people of the Middle East and populations worldwide . . . Proponents claim this will “decapitate” a rogue state but history teaches us otherwise.

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this can be found on Substack.

On February 28, 2026, the world awoke to the thunder of missiles and airstrikes in the Middle East as the United States and Israel launched a coordinated, unprovoked attack on Iran. Framed by President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a pre-emptive strike to halt Iran’s alleged imminent completion of a nuclear warhead, as well as to overthrow the regime, this assault marks a brazen violation of international law and the UN Charter.

Iran posed no imminent threat to either nation, and the justification for the attack echoes decades-old fear mongering that has repeatedly failed to materialize. This act of aggression is not merely a regional skirmish. It threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East, disrupt global energy supplies, and plunge the world into economic turmoil. Moreover, it exposes the hollow rhetoric of leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who advocated independence from American hegemony in Davos, but instead has revealed himself as little more than an American lapdog by supporting the US attack, forsaking an independent Canadian foreign policy.

The repercussions of this attack will be dire and far-reaching, affecting not just the people of the Middle East but populations worldwide. The region, already scarred by decades of conflict, instigated by the West and Israel, stands on the brink of unprecedented instability. Iran’s response—launching retaliatory strikes and mobilizing its proxies—has already escalated tensions with neighbouring Arab nations. The US-Israeli attack has targeted Iran’s military infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and leadership, potentially killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and crippling the regime’s command structure. While proponents claim this will “decapitate” a rogue state, history teaches us otherwise.

The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, justified by fabricated claims of weapons of mass destruction, did not bring stability to the region. It unleashed chaos, sectarian violence, and the rise of terrorist groups like ISIS. Similarly, this assault on Iran risks fracturing the country along ethnic and religious lines, empowering hardliners, and spawning new insurgencies that could spill over into Iraq, Syria, and beyond.

The potential human cost will be staggering. Millions of Iranians, already enduring economic hardship under years of US-led sanctions, now face the horrors of war—bombings, displacement, break down of civil society, and possibly famine. Neighbouring countries, home to refugees from past conflicts, will bear the brunt of any mass exodus, but the instability won’t stop at borders.

The Persian Gulf, through which the majority of Middle Eastern oil flows—accounting for about 20% of global crude oil consumption via the Strait of Hormuz—has become a flash point. Iranian forces have already telegraphed their intent to restrict shipping through the strait, and tanker traffic has slowed amid fears of blockade or sabotage. A prolonged disruption could spike oil prices to levels not seen the late 2000s when prices topped $140 per barrel, triggering inflation, recessions, and energy shortages worldwide. Europe, still dealing with the repercussions of the on-going Russia-Ukraine war, would be hit hard, as would developing economies in Asia and Africa dependent on stable and affordable oil prices. The global supply chain, already fragile, could unravel, exacerbating poverty and inequality. This is not hyperbole, it’s the predictable outcome of US military aggression destabilizing a region that fuels most of the world’s economy.

Compounding this folly is the abject failure of international diplomacy. The UN Charter explicitly prohibits the use of force except in self-defence or with Security Council approval—neither of which applies here. Iran, for all its deep flaws, was not on the verge of attacking anyone, contrary to the claims made by the US and Israel. Intelligence assessments from US allies have long dismissed Netanyahu’s perennial claims of an “imminent” Iranian nuclear bomb as exaggerated. These warnings date back to the 1990s, when Netanyahu, as a Knesset member, predicted Iran would have nuclear capabilities within three to five years—a timeline that has has been recycled ad nauseam without becoming reality. Previous US presidents, from both parties, resisted Israel’s pressure to attack Iran precisely because they understood the catastrophic blowback and its long lasting implications. However, Trump’s decision to green light this attack, in close coordination with Israel, reeks of election-year posturing, prioritizing geopolitical ambitions over any sincere efforts to seek long-term peace.

In this grim scenario, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s response stands out as a particularly shameful capitulation to the Trump geopolitical agenda. At the World Economic Forum in Davos just weeks ago, Carney delivered a powerful speech railing against American coercion, touting Canada’s sovereignty, and vowing to “disconnect” from US dominance. He spoke of “elbows up” defiance, positioning himself as a bulwark against Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

Yet, when confronted with a blatant violation of international law by a president who has made a habit of ignoring international norms, Carney has parroted US talking points, offering adamant support for the Iran attack and framing them as necessary to counter a “regional threat.” This doesn’t demonstrate leadership but rather theatrical hypocrisy—bluster and bravado at home and abroad about how Canada would walk its own path masking a deeper subservience to the US, revealing Canada is still in lockstep with American imperialism when push comes to shove.

Contrast this with the stance of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in 2003. Faced with the US-led push to invade Iraq without UN sanction, Chrétien stood firm, condemning the action as a violation of international law and refusing to join the “coalition of the willing.” His decision, supported by an overwhelming majority of Canadians, preserved Canada’s moral standing and spared it from the quagmire that followed. Iraq’s destabilization not only cost the US trillions of dollars and resulted in the death of millions of Iraqis but birthed new terror networks that continue to haunt the world today.

Carney, by contrast, has shown no such courage in his response to the attack on Iran. His knee jerk support for the US and Israel aligns him with Trump—a leader who has disdain for the international rule of law, as evidenced by his attack on Venezuela, his efforts to bring down the Cuban government, and attempts to annex Greenland. Carney has railed against Trump for the benefit of domestic audiences, decrying tariffs and his bullying, but with the Iran attack has jumped to echo the US president’s war cries. This duplicitous duality exposes the emptiness of Carney’s nationalist rhetoric. His performative rebellion for Canadian voters while aligning with the actions of a fascist warmonger destabilizing the Middle East, shows a leader who should not be trusted. It seems when it comes to Iran and Middle East geopolitics Carney’s leash is held firmly by Washington.

European nations that have joined in supporting the strikes—blaming Iran despite its lack of imminent aggression—make a mockery of their professed commitment to international law. This hypocrisy underscores a dangerous double standard, one where Western powers flout rules they impose on the Global South, demanding submission, threatening their adversaries with military aggression or economic coercion if they don’t.

Admittedly Iran, a decidedly “vile government” that brutally violates its citizens’ rights, is no saint. But if human rights were the true motive for the US-Israeli attack, as they have stated is part of the justification for the military action, why not target China, Russia, or North Korea to free the people of those nations from tyranny? The answer is that neither the US, Israel, nor its allies truly care about protecting the human rights of oppressed peoples. Additionally, these nations possess something that Iran doesn’t—nuclear weapons. Their arsenals provide leverage against bullies like the US that Iran is lacking. Paradoxically, this attack may be a catalyst that accelerates nuclear proliferation worldwide, as vulnerable states conclude that nuclear weapons are the only shield against unprovoked assault by the super powers of this world.

History will judge the perpetrators harshly. The United States, once seen as a beacon of democracy, will be remembered as a rogue empire that squandered its advantage on endless wars and coups, from Vietnam to Latin America to Afghanistan to Iraq—and now Iran. Its actions have eroded global trust, fuelling anti-Americanism and empowering its adversaries. Israel will also be etched in history as one of the most evil regimes of the 20th and 21st centuries. For decades, Zionist influence has steered US foreign policy toward dismantling Middle Eastern powers supportive of Palestinian rights—Egypt and Jordan via peace deals, Iraq through lies about WMDs, Libya via NATO bombings, and now Iran as the final obstacle to Israel’s hegemonic ambitions in the region.

This attack isn’t about security as the US and Israel claim. It is about erasing opposition to expansionism, to an ethnic cleansing and genocide agenda targeting Palestinians, that began with the Nakba in 1948 and continues in Gaza and the West Bank today. It is also about controlling the flow of oil which powers the engine of US and Western imperialism and economic control.

Canada, too, will face condemnation in the history books. By endorsing this illegal, unjustified attack on Iran, Carney has further tarnished a nation that was once admired for peacekeeping and multilateralism. Future generations will view this as a betrayal, akin to complicity in colonial atrocities. The attack on Iran is just the opening salvo in regime-change efforts, but without addressing root causes—Western meddling and Israel’s territorial and genocidal ambitions. It will only sow more anti-American and anti-Israel hatred, and will further destabilize a region that plays a key role in the global economic engine.

This assault is a reckless gamble, in support of Israel’s regional agenda, that endangers the global community. It destabilizes a volatile region, threatens economic stability and hammers another nail into the coffin of the so-called “international order” that Western leaders often talk about. Leaders like Carney, who enable it through spineless alignment with the US agenda, must be held accountable. The world must demand de-escalation, UN mediation, and a return to diplomacy before this spark ignites a global inferno. History and basic humanity demands no less.

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