In West Asia, a futile war that serves no ends

The Strait of Hormuz is only closed to US and Israeli ships ... there are still many tankers and ships that are passing through it

- Shashi Shekhar

Sometimes, hunters end up being the hunted. The adage aptly fits the US and Israel today. US President Donald Trump trumpeting victory in the war on Iran every other day conveniently bypasses queries about why the war is still on if he has “won” it? Evidence suggests that neither did he have any justification to start the war nor does he have a concrete plan to wriggle out of it.

Iran has amply proved the point that 5,000-year-old civilisations don’t fold up in a few days of bombing. On the war's opening day, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, was killed along with 44 of the regime's top leaders. The US and Israel thought that, like Iraq, people would come out on the streets in big numbers to overthrow the regime.

But the reverse happened.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to mourn his death. Then, Iran retaliated against the US, West Asian nations and Israel with its drones and missiles. It happened because with Khamenei's demise, the administrative command got decentralised. Now, every area commander is free to make independent decisions according to their assessment of the situation on the ground. A visibly irritated US and Israel increased the intensity of their bombing barrage. It was done in such an irresponsible manner that on February 28, two missiles were fired at a girls’ school in south Iran, killing 170 students and 14 teachers.