The US-Israel war on Iran is a colossal blunder of world historical proportions. As clear an act of aggression as one can imagine, the war is blatantly illegal, continuing the death blow to international law and norms that began (most recently) with Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.

The war has also been launched with magnificently poor planning, as the United States seems shocked by and unprepared for how Iran uses every means at its disposal to restrict shipping in the strait of Hormuz. And with the massive disruption to the international supply of energy and certain necessary commodities, the global economy is teetering on collapse, with the United States and Israel mortgaging the futures of many poorer nations around the world – especially in Asia and Africa – for their own imperial adventurism.

Now, in what could be a sign of significant escalation after a month of this needless and immoral war, the Pentagon is poised to move thousands of ground troops into the region and readying itself for “weeks” of possible ground operations, according to reports.

Why is this happening again? Have we learned nothing from the past?

More than two decades ago, on 7 February 2003, US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld told American troops in Europe that any invasion of Iraq would be brief. “It is not knowable how long that conflict would last,” Rumsfeld said. “It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.” With his signature aphoristic speaking style, Rumsfeld might have sounded like a poet to some, but it turns out he was a pretty lousy military planner.

That illegal US-led war began on 20........

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