Opinion: Nothing lasts forever
The world before the US and Israel wiped out the Iranian leadership was very different from the world after the smoke cleared and supreme deaths were announced, and the world today will be nowhere near the world in which the last bomb has been dropped and last missile launched.
What an upheaval one week can create. The airstrikes did not just uproot the powers-that-be in Iran. They are also upending the global status quo, causing drastic changes everywhere on earth as we speak.
“Nothing will ever be the same” is a cliché. But there is no other way to put it. When the war is over, we all will be living in a totally-new world. It’s as simple as that.
Ever since the dawn of mankind, wars and their preludes change and shape public opinions. Only nothing could counter official narratives of the winners in the past.
That is not the case nowadays. Therefore, it does not matter much who prevails in the end. The triumphant ones will no longer be able to write history at will.
That’s why we all will be living in a world we don’t know before. It will be a world where every major part of history is reviewed, where doubts are omnipresent as to who the heroes and bad guys are, and where old international alliances or partnerships crumble or barely exist, and new ones are full of knives behind the backs.
America’s and Israel’s biggest task is not finishing off Iran. While that is hard, restoring images is a lot harder. Yet rebuilding trust is even harder still.
As some say, to create some kind of a long-lasting yet untrue image, all you have to do is make far-reaching media talk about it loud enough and long enough to drown out voices of disagreement. In the new world, ones don’t need the conventional media to do that. Everything is equally far-reaching, loud and long.
The US and Israeli governments have had a shared narrative on World War II, where the other side was a monster who came so close to conquering the world. Now, when facts can be distorted or downplayed while billions are watching today with far greater clarity than in the past, imagine what it could be like in the immediate aftermath of Hitler, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
There was a documentary on YouTube in 2014 dealing with World War II and “what historians failed to tell us.” It was taken down weeks after it was uploaded, just like many other clips seeking to dispute official narratives on key moments in history.
If America and Israel were instrumental in creating the “history” of global politics, it will be ironic that it’s them who are forcing the rest of the world to recheck what it has learned from Day One. Make no mistake, suspicion grew long before the strikes on Iran, but that very military action just sealed the deal.
NATO will never be the same, if it still exists in the near future. Check out what Spain is saying about the war in Iraq and the campaign to eliminate Saddam Hussein. Look at Donald Trump’s reaction. England’s attitude is intriguing as well.
The massive military alliance is founded upon national security concern and mutual trust and agreement to defend some kind of values, whether they are misguided or not. When “principles” are replaced by vested interest, and when distrust that wasn’t there before creeps in, such large-scale partnership will be in jeopardy.
This does not mean that if the West loses its might and credibility, its replacement will definitely offer a new hope. We all know history can be forged, but we have learned probably one truth: Every empire is tempted to do the very same things.
The new world will be ruled by fear, which will edge out respect, considering what happened to Venezuela. Diplomacy will be scorned, considering what happened to Iran. Important world leaders will live in bunkers. Security at summits will increase ten folds.
Human rights advocates will have unprecedented struggles against charges of hypocrisy. Economic systems as we know them will be in turmoil or simply disappear. As for entertainment, anything romanticising “noble conducts” of the old world will be questioned.
Nations’ military spending will go off the charts. Disarmament talks will be laughed at. The United Nations will long for the day it was called a “paper tiger” because at least that mockery had the word “tiger” in it. Politicians, academics and students everywhere will fight over which part of history is true.
In America, changes will be gargantuan, constant and yet unpredictable. When any politician says “So much for over-extension in foreign wars that do not concern us”, people will boo. Yet the biggest issue or question mark must have to do with elections, the fundamental aspect of “democracy” that might end Donald Trump’s aspirations which he can die protecting.
Remember, all of the above will happen no matter who eventually comes out on top in the Middle East. Over the past few years, the world has had a trust issue, but what comes next will be the rudest awakening and most total revamp everyone will have experienced.
The point of no return has been passed.