Bye-bye Peace?

We live in the times of war – military, economic, and environmental – created and nurtured by blind capitalism and power-drunken politicians. The war, analogous to a tri-headed beast, threatens to devour all of us. It is existential for some, and preferential for some. Some fight out of greed and some out of need. For some, it is a matter of choice; for some, however, it is a matter of existence. We fight ourselves, our own species with 99.9% common DNA, and undermine our existence, as fools. Who says humans are better than the predatory four-legged beasts?

Peace looks whimsical and, perhaps, delusional, just like the megalomaniacs, whom we have elected through corrupted democratic processes and compromised institutions, to rule over us as demigods on Earth, with impunity, and unquestionably steer our human world perilously towards a state of confusion, anarchy and, possibly, oblivion. We have become blind to reality and so have our demigods. Our collective conscience and ability to think is fast dwindling; we have been reduced to the herd level, led by the blind and dumb. We have lost our voice against injustice, inhumanity and immorality.

Welcome to a post-truth world, an unsustainable world of subjective truth, where nothing but might is right, and bigger fish take pride in shamelessly devouring the smaller fish, where empathy and compassion are laughed at as signs of weakness, where the accountability of those at the helm wears thin with each passing day. We constantly undo the good work by our earlier generations and, thereby, undermine our brief human civilisation (200,000 years). Our future existence looks impossible.

Humans carry an unfathomable, complex mind, with confusing, intertwined, ever-shifting shades of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Demons and angles, both, reside in our shrinking little hearts, some consume our minds and some our conscience. Our sophistication is paper-thin, misleading; a predatory barbarian devil lurks within our cosmetic exteriors. Who are we?

“Some humans are moral, some humans exist without conscience; some humans stand for war, some humans strive for peace.

Devils too claim to be humans, angels never make such a claim; warmongers kill others and cause plunder but never take the blame.

Some humans calmly remain busy, healing the wounded lives; some humans breathe fire and constantly torch many innocent lives.

Heart is torn, caught between the war in the west and love in the east; but hope lives on that peace will return one day, and humans give their best.”

Verily, our insatiable material greed and bizarre personal ambitions, on individual and collective levels, drive our imprudent and irresponsible behaviours, rendering our existence on Earth unsustainable. All our so-called Superpowers – The United States (‘US’), Russia and China – are currently fighting or preparing for a global war.

On surface, the US wants to remove Iran’s sovereignty and take control of its oil and uranium.  But, in essence, it is also fighting Iran for and behalf of Israel, who wants to destroy and remove Iran as the main impediment to its expansionist designs against Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. On one side, therefore, it is the two militaries of the US and Israel, and their current leaderships, both jittery and uncertain in their domestic politics; on the other side, however, it is the common people of Iran ready to sacrifice their lives for saving the sovereignty of their country and a more than 6,000-year-old civilization.

By some reports, around 53 to 58-percent Americans and 18-percent Israelis are opposed to war, however, the actual percentages could be higher. On the other side, 100-percent Iranians (living in Iran, including women) are understood to be battle-ready to defend their country against a possible ground invasion from the US and Israel.

Iran is fighting an existential war, it has no other choice but to stand and fight a war that was imposed on it. However, Israel and the US are fighting a war of their choice, to fulfill their respective material ambitions. Logically speaking, Israel started this war and the US joined it, but their respective objectives have not been met so far. To make the matters worse for them, both leaders have lost a significant ground in their domestic politics, but will they go away quietly? Their best chance to recover their losses in their domestic political ground lies in the decimation of Iran, by hook or by crook, which is practically impossible. Who wins? None! Who loses? All of us!

With every new attack by Israel or the US, Iran’s resolve — to break free from its own self-imposed moratorium and declaring itself a nuclear power — may be getting strengthened, with sole aim to achieve a much-needed deterrence from any such attacks in the future and protecting its sovereignty. Any self-respecting nation will do that. Shouldn’t Israel and the US be blamed for pushing Iran in that direction?

It started as a ‘David and Goliath’ contest but then turned into a dangerous ‘cat and mouse’ game. Both Iran and the US currently hold on to their respective positions, with no endgame in sight. Logically, there is never going to be peace in West Asia before the conclusion of a looming global war (WW3). Iran is never going to compromise on its control of the Strait of Hormuz, or wind down or relinquish its nuclear program for peaceful purposes. If it does, it ceases to exist as a sovereign nation.  Notably, its former Supreme Leader imposed embargo on his country regarding the development of any nuclear weapons, declaring them inhuman.

Following the ongoing military attacks on its infrastructure and the people, will Iran, a signatory of the NPT, ever trust the US, a nuclear power with more than 5,000 nuclear weapons, or Israel, which never signed the NPT but is known to have around 100 nuclear weapons in its arsenal.

Iran has shown amazing resilience, tenacity and defiance despite suffering from debilitating economic sanctions from the US over the last 47 years and constant negative propaganda by the mainstream world media. It has unexpectedly emerged as a unified, monolithic force of 91-million strong, inspired nationalists, ready to defend their nation, which is not good news for its adversaries. The martyrdom of their former Supreme Leader, without a parallel in bravery, is evident from his Grand Funeral which is attended by millions of people and mourners from Iran and across the world, including representatives from more than 70 nations (perhaps 100). Not many world leaders are known to have shown such fearless bravery and embrace death, knowing that they will be targeted.

On 4th July 2026, the US celebrated 250 years of its independence from British while, on that day, Iran grieved and mourned its greatest loss at the hands of the US. How proud must have the founding fathers of the US felt about the current state of their nation and its current leadership, the assassination of the former Supreme Leader of a 6,000-year Iran (formerly, Persia), along with his family members, on 28 February 2026, for no justified reason. For humanitarian reasons, the Supreme Leader was known to be against nuclear weapons and followed as the ‘highest spiritual’ leader (a step below a Prophet) by the global Shia Muslim community.

Will Iran or the global Shia Muslim community ever forget the martyrdom of their beloved former Supreme Leader or forgive the US for what it did to them? To add insult to the injury of the Iranians and make the matters worse for the future generations of the Iranians and the Americans, the US military disrespectfully also bombed Iran amid the Grand Funeral.

If only President Trump believed in science and the ongoing Climate Change, geopolitics would not be in the dire straits.  Despite undeniable scientific evidence and common observations of frequent occurrences of erratic weather patterns across the world, President Trump’s disregard for the Climate Change and Global Warming has pulled him away from much-needed Climate actions required urgently for developing and promoting Green Energy, to restore environmental health and sustainability, without which human life will not survive. It is his paranoia for controlling oil in other countries that made him to first kidnap the Venezuelan president and then undertake an unwarranted war on Iran.

We’ll all pay for the current war in West Asia, and our xenophobic, sinister, divisive, petty domestic politics will fade into relative insignificance. This war has taken the shape of a game of deception on one side, and defiance on the other side, seemingly an unending war between one’s sovereignty and other’s greed.

It is also true that the US will never trust Iran or give it any dignity or rest or return its money or unfreeze its frozen assets. If it does, it risks losing face as a so-called Superpower. The redlines of both countries are mutually conflicting. To the matters worse, Israel will lose the motivation to do anything, and may become directionless and redundant, with nothing much to do, if it stops its aggression within / around the region, particularly, against Iran. Interestingly, Israel has reportedly claimed it has the support of 1.4 billion Indians in its war against Iran, a claim that India (the so-called largest democracy in the world) has not challenged. However, it will be 91 million Iranians versus the Israeli army, supported by the current governments of the US and India, with implied moral support from around 20 to 25-percent right-wing Indian and the US populations.

Are ‘flawed’ democracies highjacked? Iran, a so-called ‘authoritarian theocracy’, is resolutely defending itself (to survive) against unwarranted military aggressions (and constant military threats) from two so-called democracies, Israel and the US, both in the ‘flawed’ category of democracy. It is a civilizational war. Which one is peaceful — ‘flawed’ democracy or ‘authoritarian’ theocracy?

While we are fixated with an annoying ‘cat and mouse’ war in West Asia, yo-yoing oil prices and the prospects of trade through the Strait of Hormuz, we must not take our eyes or ears from the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, which may be reaching its endgame after more than 12 years of its start, which includes more than four (4) years of its current phase. In a conventional warfare, whilst Ukraine is reported to inflict some serious damages on a much formidable Russia, it may also be suffering some significant losses in return. It could be only a matter of sometime more before it breaches Russia’s ultimate redline and potentially attracts unimaginable consequences due to its incessant provocations of that Superpower. Who’ll take the blame for sacrificing Ukraine? Europe, NATO or the US?

In conclusion, business-minded people should never be given the reins of a country (or an army), as they tend to strive for short-term monetary gains and, eventually, end up ruining everything in their country. They can also get exploited and compromised by cunning politicians. Senseless provocations of Iran and Russia — without proper due diligence or a full understanding of their respective military strengths and weaknesses and, importantly, their territorial sensitivities — potentially cause much more harm to the US than its two powerful adversaries. Alarmingly, with a half-baked geopolitical approach, it also risks a global catastrophe. Notably, Russia seems to be losing its patience with Ukraine and some European countries in the NATO, while Iran remans defiant and battle-ready. Both these countries seem to have lost faith in an unbelievably undealable and unreliable US diplomacy.

What lies next, nobody knows …

Bill K Koul (9 July 2026, Perth, Western Australia)

Copyright Bill K Koul