US-Israel’s war of aggression – Epic Fury or Epic Screw-up?

Asia Pacific Report — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 12:15:04 +0000

COMMENTARY: By Eugene Doyle

Western countries, including Australia and New Zealand, were quick to line up to support Operation Epic Fury, the US-Israeli blitzkrieg on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

They were effectively throwing international law into a cauldron of blood and mayhem. These same Western powers — and the Gulf Arab states that stand with them — may soon live to regret it.

In an article on February 21, I wrote, “A precision strike on Qatar’s Ras Laffan liquefaction trains (that purify, cool, and compress the gas), for example, would drop a bomb into the world’s gas market.”

Should the Iranian state survive the terrifying onslaught, it has vowed to strike back in ways that could crash the global economy.

Early signs point to a long war
Two early signs of their potential to do so are the closure of all the civilian airports in the Gulf and the effective closure by Iran of the Strait of Hormuz.

The first one stops the daily movement of 500,000 international passengers through Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other airports, the second cuts off the shipment of 21 million barrels of oil and gas a day (20 percent of global daily requirements).

The knock-on effects of a prolonged war are almost incalculable but as I pointed out in a recent article if Iran manages to resist the most powerful military in the world, the shockwaves will soon transfer to our own economies.

I thought that would be a measure of last resort but Iran struck the site with drones on March 3 and — should they choose — could destroy the facility entirely which would take years to rebuild.

Qatar immediately shut down Ras Laffan, the source of 20 percent of the world’s LNG. UK wholesale gas prices immediately jumped 50 percent.

Countries like Australia and New Zealand may end up on the losing end of a bidding war for oil, LNG and agricultural petrochemicals if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

One should remember that Iran has many thousands of short range missiles and countless mines sprinkled along its coastline which will be all-but-impossible to suppress.

“One should remember that Iran has many thousands of short range missiles and countless mines sprinkled along its coastline which will be all-but-impossible to suppress.” Image: www.solidarity.co.nz

Nuclear propaganda and mischaracterisations
For the moment, the assassination of the Supreme Leader may see champagne corks popping in Western capitals but, as I warned recently, a decapitation strike could lead a furious or desperate Iran to lash out, sinking a US aircraft carrier by using their hypersonic missiles.

There is also a non-trivial risk that the US and Israel could use nuclear weapons if things go sideways.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” the US president gloated on his Truth Social.

Ironically, Ayatollah Khamenei is in reality the man who has done the most to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa (religious decree) against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons in 2003.

Along with President Masoud Pezeshkian (who campaigned successfully on a platform on lowering tensions with the US) Khamenei was the target of a barrage of missiles this weekend. One Peace President trying to kill another Peace President.

So mendacious and incoherent is the Western empire that Trump can tout the total destruction of Iran’s nuclear programme one week and the next (on February 21) his negotiator Steve Witkoff can tell the world that Iran is “one week from the bomb”. Ponder that: for the past 20 years (more than 1000 weeks) Netanyahu has been pointing at his little bomb diagram.

I am in the camp of those who say this was never about nuclear weapons and most ludicrously nothing to do with democracy. 150 dead Iranian schoolgirls is a grim testament to that.

Advancing women’s rights or imperial ambitions?
The movements in Iran for women’s rights and political pluralism will be in no way advanced by this criminal attack by states currently committing genocide in Palestine. This is a forever war against a powerful sovereign Iran that acts as a major regional player capable of being a counter-balance to a supremacist Israel and the USA.

Arab leaders appear to have had second thoughts about the benefits of destroying Iran. Last week they expressed outrage after US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he would be fine with Israel fulfilling both its Zionist project and its biblical promise (Genesis 15:18) of taking all the land stretching from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates, a land grab which would cover modern-day Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” the US Ambassador told Tucker Carlson. Not a single administration figure took him to task for the statement which he tried unconvincingly to rewind.

We should all fear victory by the US and Israel. Violent, tyrannical and expansionist, they will see victory over Iran as a stepping stone to yet more crimes against humanity. We truly are in the throes of a Thucydidean world where the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

Unilateral violence must not trump law.

Lions versus parrots
The Spanish Prime Minister slammed the US and Israeli strikes on Iran. “We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez wrote on X.

This marks Spain out as a rebel against a militant West that funds and fuels genocide, destroys country after country, kidnaps and kills leaders, kills negotiators in the midst of negotiations, and is the greatest killer of civilians — women, children, men and babies — in foreign lands in all the decades since the Second World War.

Cuba, itself undergoing a brutal blockade imposed by the Trump regime, made a valuable contribution: “President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the attacks, calling them “a flagrant violation of International Law and the UN Charter.”

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated: “Strict respect for the principles of international law and the UN Charter must prevail, in particular the sovereign equality of States, non-interference in their internal affairs, the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, and the peaceful settlement of disputes.”

The New York Times expressed surprise at the bellicose position Australia took: “Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the few leaders who did not publicly urge restraint.”

They quoted Albanese saying: “We support the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security.”

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, a Hollow Man if there ever was one, threw his copy of the UN Charter down the lavatory when he said: “We acknowledge that the actions taken overnight by the US and Israel were designed to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security.”

Compare those two quotes. Both PMs were clearly reading from cue cards supplied by Washington. Vassals.

We are truly living through Geopolitical Epsteinism: daily violations of the weak by a predatory axis headquartered in Washington. The West are behaving like tyrants on a rampage. We must be stopped.

Eugene Doyle is a community organiser based in Wellington, publisher of Solidarity and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report. His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam war. This article was first published by Solidarity on 3 March 2026.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Gaza: Empty rhetoric from New Zealand and other Western countries

Asia Pacific Report — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 07:20:21 +0000

In a joint statement, more than two dozen Western countries, including New Zealand, have called for an immediate end to the war on Gaza. But the statement is merely empty rhetoric that declines to take any concrete action against Israel, and which Israel will duly ignore.

AGAINST THE CURRENT: By Steven Cowan

The New Zealand government has joined 27 other countries calling for an “immediate end” to the war in Gaza. The joint statement says “the suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths”.

It goes on to say that the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.

But many of the countries that have signed this statement stand condemned for actively enabling Israel to pursue its genocidal assault on Gaza. Countries like Britain, Canada and Australia, continue to supply Israel with arms, have continued to trade with Israel, and have turned a blind eye to the atrocities and war crimes Israel continues to commit in Gaza.

It’s more than ironic that while Western countries like Britain and New Zealand are calling for an end to the war in Gaza, they continue to be hostile toward the anti-war protest movements in their own countries.

The British government recently classified the protest group Palestine Action as a “terrorist” group.

In New Zealand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, has denounced pro-Palestine protesters as “left wing fascists” and “communist, fascist and anti-democratic losers”. He has pushed back against the growing demands that the New Zealand government take direct action against Israel, including the cutting of all diplomatic ties.

The New Zealand government, which contains a number of Zionists within its cabinet, including Act leader David Seymour and co-leader Brooke van Velden, will be more than comfortable with a statement that proposes to do nothing.

‘Statement lacks leadership’
Its call for an end to the war is empty rhetoric, and which Israel will duly ignore — as it has ignored other calls for its genocidal war to end. As Amnesty International has said, ‘the statement lacks any resolve, leadership, or action to help end the genocide in Gaza.’

“This is cruelty – this is not a war,” says this young girl’s placard quoting the late Pope Francis in an Auckland march last Saturday . . . this featured in an earlier report. Image: Asia Pacific Report

New Zealand has declined to join The Hague Group alliance of countries that recently met in Colombia.

It announced six immediate steps it would be taking against Israel. But since The Hague Group has already been attacked by the United States, it’s never been likely that New Zealand would join it.

The National-led coalition government has surrendered New Zealand’s independent foreign policy in favour of supporting the interests of a declining American Empire.

Republished from Steven Cowan’s blog Against The Current with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Western bias – Evening Report

US-Israel’s war of aggression – Epic Fury or Epic Screw-up?

Gaza: Empty rhetoric from New Zealand and other Western countries