Op-Ed by Daniel Rose
We are facing a war that could “spiral beyond anyone’s control”, warned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 6th, as Russia and China today explore means of supporting Iran, while America’s previous allies reflect on their options. Many voices echo the comment of Germany’s Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbell, “This is not our war”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is in close contact with the current Iranian leadership, providing them with detailed military intelligence information on the location and movement of U.S. troops, ships and aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea, while China is preparing to provide Iran with necessary financial assistance, along with spare parts and components of deadly guided missiles that have proven effective in defense against American-supplied armaments.
The Chinese economy relies heavily on Iranian oil, and China has reportedly been pressing Iran to proclaim safe passage for all sea-going vessels using the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 25 % of the world’s sea-borne oil traffic passes.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters this week that President Trump believes that Russia and China “are not really a factor in our war with Iran”, but most observers disagree. Hegseth also said that President Trump is well aware of “who is talking to whom and about what”.
President Trump says today that no negotiated deal is possible with Iran without their “ unconditional surrender” and without his being involved in the choice of their incoming administration.
The U.N. reports that several nations have anonymously offered to play a role in efforts to relax tensions and to achieve a temporary detente, but President Trump has expressed no interest whatsoever in such discussions.
America’s goals in pursuing “Operation Epic Fury” (the in-house code name for our military actions in the Middle East) are, according to White House spokesmen, to achieve the “total obliteration of a terrorist regime that has threatened our country for nearly five decades”.
The White House said this week that big U.S. weapons manufacturers have agreed to raise production quotas of military munitions. When asked about “What comes next ?” The president has replied, “Forget about next”. Iran’s nuclear program is decimated for a ten-year period before they could bring it back.”
President Trump’s American MAGA supporters cheered his 2024 election campaign pledges to lower prices and to keep us out of foreign wars. The conflict with Iran is creating domestic challenges that Republican strategists did not contemplate in planning for the political battles for control of Congress in 2026. Gasoline prices are up and the stock market is down; inflationary price rises are stoking public anxiety that could dampen consumer spending, and traditional performance shows how higher diesel fuel costs are soon reflected in higher grocery prices.
All political commentators are closely following evolving public sentiments and how they may be reflected in governmental actions.
A profoundly important but little-discussed ramification of U.S. – Iran hostilities could be the reconsideration (and possible cancellation) of the trillions of dollars that the richest countries in the Persian Gulf have pledged to invest in the U.S. economy, in a clear bid to charm our president.
Before the outbreak of the war, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar were behind a surge in U.S. financial involvement. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, these three countries pledged nearly four trillion dollars of new U.S. investment. On March 5th, the Financial Times reported that at least three of the four largest Gulf economies have begun reconsideration of these commitments and of their possible cancellation (various sources report that spokesmen for those nations currently decline any public discussion of their plans).
Public opinion polls today portray world sentiment as opposed to continuing strife in the Middle East. Thoughtful individuals of all political persuasions should make themselves heard by their elected representatives, calling for immediate detente, with hostile adversaries exchanging ‘words’ rather than ‘explosives’.
Yes, private citizens need not be silent observers; we can, and should be, active participants in the continuing battles for the common good.
In his last recorded statement, Martin Luther King Jr. pleaded with us to seek “an alternative to war and human destruction”. Today, he would advocate that each of us work strenuously — and effectively — to demand, and achieve, the negotiations that can end the present violence in the Middle East.