The war on Iran has not only ended in a humiliating defeat for the United
States, but resulted in a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the Middle
East and the Global South.͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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The Rise of the Global South
The war on Iran has not only ended in a humiliating defeat for the United
States, but resulted in a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the Middle
East and the Global South.
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| Chris Hedges |
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| May 28 |
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Hubris Gargantua - by Mr. Fish
The humiliating defeat of Israel and the United States in their war on Iran,
along with the savagery of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, are ushering in a new
world order. This order is one where voices of reason and stability emanate not
from the West — which spent tens of billions of dollars sustaining Israel’s
genocide — but from the Global South, including China. It is an order where
alliances are being rapidly reconfigured to protect countries from a rogue
American state that lashes out like a wounded beast, as it spirals toward
terminal decline.
The end of the U.S. Empire, led by an impetuous and clueless Donald Trump, is
irreversible. The U.S. has lost its sixth war in the Middle East in 25 years.
Iran’s power has been enhanced not only because it — along with Oman — controls
the Strait of Hormuz — where roughly 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil and
20 percent of the world’s seaborne liquified natural gas pass through — but
because it has delivered a stark message, with its drones and missiles, to U.S.
allies and bases in the region, while sending the global economy into a
tailspin.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who reportedly lured
Trump into the war with Alice-in-Wonderland visions of easy regime change in
Iran following the decapitation strikes against the country on February 28,
2026, which included the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and other political and military figures, along with 168 school
children and their teachers — may strike Iran again. They are desperate. But a
renewed bombing of Iran will not work. Iran’s mosaic defense strategy ensures
all political and military commanders are easily replaced.
Iran can strangle the world economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz. It can
accelerate the pain by getting its Yemeni allies — Ansar Allah — to close the
Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, just as they did to Israel-bound ships
when defending Palestinians after October 7. This could result in a complete
blockade. Saudi Arabia, with the Bab el-Mandeb Strait open, is able to bypass
the Strait of Hormuz and export five million barrels a day through its pipeline
to tankers in the Red Sea port of Yanbu.
If a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is not reached soon, the global
economy will crash, perhaps within weeks. The U.S. and its allies, such as
Japan, have released some of their extensive strategic oil reserves, however
they will not be able to cushion markets indefinitely. Stockpiles in America’s
Strategic Petroleum Reserve are near their lowest in more than 40 years. Once
these reserves are depleted, the price of fuel will skyrocket. If a barrel of
oil shoots up to $200, the price at the pump could climb as high as $10 per
gallon. This, coupled with shortages of other petroleum-based products, along
with nitrogen fertilizer, aluminum, and helium — an indispensable element in
the production of MRI machines and semiconductors — are already shutting down
vital industries and driving up prices on basic commodities.
The World Bank projects a 31 percent increase in the cost of nitrogen
fertilizers alone — which are produced in the Persian Gulf and transit through
the Strait of Hormuz — if the war continues. This will mean a steep rise in the
price of food.
Trump is like a dog being pushed unwillingly into a crate. When it appears a
deal with Iran is close, he snarls and barks, sabotaging the proposed
30-to-60-day ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu’s apoplectic fits about any
agreement that would halt Israeli attacks against Lebanon, along with the
potential release of some of Iran’s estimated $100 billion in frozen assets,
spurs Trump’s momentary defiance.
But the clock is ticking. There is little time left. And the longer Trump
waits, the worse it will get. Neither Trump, nor Netanyahu, are the masters of
this game. Iran holds the cards.
Israel’s dream of formalizing its hegemony over the Middle East, codified in
the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term — which normalized relations
between Israel and regional states — is dead. This war and the genocide in Gaza
killed it.
Trump is attempting to revive them by inserting them into a deal to end the war
on Iran. He has demanded states previously uninvolved with the Abraham Accords,
such as Pakistan and eventually, Iran, sign up to normalize relations with
Israel. Pakistan — the only state to publicly respond — rejected the invitation
due to what it called a clash with the country’s “fundamental ideologies.”
Every other state Trump appealed to reacted with bewildered silence.
Iran demands the removal of sanctions and an end to the naval blockade — which
the Central Intelligence Agency concluded Iran can endure for months before it
experiences severe economic hardship — in exchange for reopening the Strait of
Hormuz. The proposed agreement makes no mention of Iran’s ballistic missile
arsenal, which U.S. military and intelligence officials believe remains at 70
percent pre-war levels, according to The New York Times.
Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar — a lead negotiator with Hamas — are the new
powerbrokers in the region.
Pakistan not only signed a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia in 2025, it
deployed troops, jets and air defense systems to the Gulf dictatorship in
April. It has also been hosting ceasefire talks between Trump’s Dumb and Dumber
duo of lead negotiators — his feckless son-in-law Jared Kushner and fellow real
estate developer and golfing partner, Steve Witkoff.
The war has enhanced the prestige and power of China, which compared to
Washington is seen globally as embodying rational, prudent and stable
leadership. Iran, in a sign of the new global order, permits Chinese and
Pakistani tankers, along with other ships not allied with Israel and the U.S.,
to travel through the Strait.
Israel, unable to convince the U.S. to do its dirty work of bombing Iran into a
failed state, will, I expect, strike out with renewed fury against Gaza,
perhaps occupying the remaining 30 percent of what is left of the besieged
territory. It will continue its Gaza-like policy of turning every structure
south of Lebanon’s Litani River into rubble, which it bombs daily despite Iran
stating that attacks on Lebanon violate the current ceasefire agreement.
Trump’s savagery and bluster – he threatened to “blow up” Oman if it fails to
“behave” after reports of Oman jointly charging tolls with Iran for ships
passing through the Strait of Hormuz – cannot mask the impotence of the U.S.
The refusal by America’s allies to heed Trump’s call to help him reopen the
Strait, along with the economic misery visited on nations struggling to cope
with shortages and the rising costs of energy and fertilizer supplies, are
stark evidence of Washington’s pariah status.
Empires, blinded by the myth of their own omnipotence and military superiority,
blunder at the final stages into conflicts with little understanding of where
they are headed. They alienate their allies. They stumble from one military
fiasco to the next, as the U.S. has done for over two decades in the Middle
East.
The British Empire in 1956, already in precipitous decline, was humiliated when
it conspired with France and Israel to seize the Suez Canal, which Gamal Abdel
Nasser had nationalized. The U.S. forced all three countries to halt the
invasion. Britain’s pound sterling gave way to the petrodollar. It signaled the
last chapter of the British Empire.
The war on Iran is Washington’s Suez Crisis.
This may not be the end of the American Empire, but it is the beginning of the
end.
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