The escalating US-Israel and Iran war that began on 28 February 2026 is becoming an unpalatable broth as more and more cooks are being sucked into, voluntarily or otherwise, disrupting global peace and economy. This war has dealt a systemic shock that transcended regional borders to impact the entire world through multiple, interconnected channels. While in Gulf countries, it caused a humanitarian emergency with wide-reaching impact on vulnerable populations, it led to war-driven volatility, creating instability in financial and energy markets due to the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for global oil and gas supply.
As the multiple cooks have their own recipes (read distinct agendas and strategies) with contradictory goals, a permanent peace in West Asia looks an impossibility as the war drifts into a stalemate with no exit options in sight, à la the Ukraine-Russian conflict that is going on for over 4 years now!
Why do countries go to war? As I understand, it is primarily for three reasons: i) territorial expansion, ii) resource acquisition, and iii) ideological or religious differences. There is a fourth reason that is reserved only for a global hegemon, exercising unparalleled influence through military, economic, technological, and cultural power, often describing itself as a sole superpower since 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union. No prizes for guessing. Of course, it is our own Uncle Sam, the United States of America.
The ongoing war is essentially an Israel-Iran war for historic reasons of hatred between the Jews and the Arab world (read the Muslim world). Contrary to the beliefs, Israelis love Iranians ever since Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire in 549 BCE, freed the Jews from the Babylonian captivity and permitted their return to Jerusalem to rebuild their temple. The Cyrus administration is remembered for its innovative governance that includes the establishment of postal services, the introduction of coinage, in addition to his humanitarian principles and legacy of cultural integration and respect for diverse traditions. The best example one can think of is that of Ratan Tata, whose ancestors migrated to India from Persia (modern-day Iran) to escape Islamic persecution around the 8th century CE.
Israel-Iran relations turned from friendly to intensely hostile after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The new regime, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, severed all ties, viewing Israel as an illegal occupier of the Palestinian land and an enemy of Islam. The hostility was fuelled by Iran’s support for regional proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Houthis in Yemen to attack Israel. This angered Israelis and the Jewish people in the world, and the influential Israel lobbies and Christian evangelicals in the US pressured politicians and lawmakers to adopt a very hard stance against Iran.
The Islamic Revolution of Iran built its whole identity on “Death to America, Death to Israel” rhetoric. They practiced it for 47 years and got close to getting nukes to obliterate their sworn enemies. In fact, Iran’s supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution , Ruhollah Khomeini, called the US as the “Great Satan” and Israel the “Little Satan”. Since then, Israel and US are targeting the nuclear program of Iran and destroying any facility that will likely lead to the making of a nuclear bomb that Iran intends to use against them.
So, for Israel, it is an existential war, a do-or-die situation. Last year in June 2025, Israel struck Iran’s nuclear sites at Natanz, Esfahan, and Arak and convinced President Trump to strike a few of these sites using B52 bombers, which he did and then stopped. Earlier, Israel attacked Iranian centrifuges during a cyber operation using the Stuxnet computer virus in 2010. But Israel, being a small country surrounded by the Muslim Arab world, has its own limitations despite having high-tech military and defence systems. It can maintain a long-term, low-intensity war of attrition with Iran without direct US support, utilizing its superior air power and technology, but it would face severe difficulties in achieving a decisive victory or handling a sustained regional assault alone. Israel relies heavily on the US support for its air power replenishment and diplomatic cover during an intense, long-term, full-fledged war.
For the US it’s more about the arrogance of a greedy superpower that can be manipulated and dragged into war at the drop of a hat. It has exercised political hegemony and has walked away from international treaties and organizations, and has always put its domestic law above international law. Trump’s tariffs and kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from its capital city of Caracas are the most recent examples. The United States has constantly sought expansion by force since its independence in 1776: slaughtered native Indians, invaded Canada, waged a war against Mexico, instigated the American Spanish War, and annexed Hawaii. It was involved in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, the Libyan War and the Syrian War after World War II. As recently as in 2025 President Trump even threatened to make Canada its 51st state and annex Greenland.
The ongoing US, Israel, and Iran war reminds me of a Panchatantra tale that I read in my childhood. A cruel, arrogant, and tyrannical lion named Bhasuraka demands a daily animal sacrifice. A clever hare, tasked with being the meal, arrives late, tricking the lion by claiming a rival lion is in the forest. Leading the angry lion to a deep well, the hare shows him his own reflection, causing the lion to jump in and drown. I leave it to the wisdom of readers to relate the characters in the tale to the players of the present-day war.
There are a few takeaways from this war: i) The first is the US losing its status as the sole superpower underpinned by petrodollars as the world moves towards a more multilateral world with the emergence of China and India as economic and military powerhouses in Asia, ii) The Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman being on the side of US are being targeted by Iranian retaliation, entrapping in a war they did not initiate. Their false sense of safety under the US umbrella is shattered, iii) The European and other NATO allies like the UK, France, Germany and Italy have wisely kept themselves away from the war, sobered by the treatment meted out to them earlier, by President Trump during Ukraine-Russian war and iv) The failed diplomacy of the international actors like EU and UN, with their own diplomatic tracks, sanctions policies, military strategies and lack of cohesion mirroring the dilemma of “too many cooks” producing an unpalatable broth.
I hope that better sense will prevail soon, and the warring sides will end hostilities. Recent conflicts tell us that in today’s warfare, there are no clear winners, even if it is an asymmetrical war. My advice to global leaders is that war is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
