Islamabad Talks: A Step In The Right Direction |
War is hell. Only the dead have seen the end of it.
This war in the Middle East has killed thousands, including senior political and military leaders and high-ranking nuclear scientists of Iran. The dead included over 300 children, as reported by UNICEF. Some 180 young children perished in the first specific and intense airstrikes of the USA and Israel on a school in Minab. For them, the war was over the moment they were hit and killed. Iran was subjected to grief, pain, loss and infrastructural destruction.
Earlier, the 12-day war with Iran in June last year wreaked havoc in terms of human lives. However, the Persian nation stood like an unshakeable and unbreakable rock, demonstrating an indomitable national resolve for survival. This took the world by surprise and drove its adversaries to frustration and impotent anger.
The war shook the USA out of delusion and confronted it with the bitter reality that it was no longer the gun-wielding superpower masquerading as the global policeman, bullying, intimidating and forcing small nations to follow its dictates. The world has moved beyond the balance of power that underscored the Cold War, or the subsequent unilateralism after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This new era is underpinned by evolving multilateralism with new geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics. The USA leadership was shocked to see its close allies in Europe and the Middle East distance themselves from the war. The enormous reputational damage, in terms of military power and political outreach, suffered by the USA as a global leader weighs heavily in any review of the regional and global consequences of the war.
Prime Minister Netanyahu chose the war to implement his longstanding dream of a Greater Israel controlling the territories and economic resources of Arab lands from the........