The New World Order
Ruthless Cosmopolitan
By Ari Paul
In Russia’s outrageous invasion of Ukraine, a war that is still ongoing, few locations stand out more than Mariupol.
The once thriving cultural centre is now nearly gone. Activists have documented, turning it into a monument to both Vladimir Putin’s brutality and the West’s failure to negotiate peace.
“War transformed the city into something unrecognisable: a tangled mess of crumpled buildings and a place of shallow graves,” Human Rights Watch said. “Thousands of civilians were killed during the fighting or died from other causes. Mariupol has suffered some of the worst destruction in war-scarred Ukraine.”
Forbes noted that “over the course of the 85-day offensive on Mariupol (February to May 20, 2022), pro-Russian forces systematically attacked objects indispensable to the survival (OIS) of the civilian population, including energy, water, food and distribution points, and healthcare infrastructure. Russian forces indiscriminately bombed food distribution points, medical facilities, and agreed-upon humanitarian corridors”.
The Ukrainian flag once waved outside homes or was slapped on car bumpers all across the United States: a signal that, from across the political spectrum, international order was maintained through transnational governance, not through brutal military force.
Ok, sure. Maybe Russia has a valid concern about the need for a buffer zone with the West, but paranoia about a hypothetical foreign invasion in the future shouldn’t justify an onslaught against a much smaller country by a nuclear power.
The US and Israeli war against Iran, and to a lesser extent Lebanon, is still ongoing, and already the damage caused to the population is relegating Mariupol to the bottom drawer of history.
Here’s a taste:
The New York Times: “Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, accused the United States of attacking a desalination plant on Qeshm Island, affecting the water supply for 30 villages.”
CNN: “Thick black clouds and oil‑saturated rain are shrouding Iran’s capital this morning after major airstrikes hit refineries and storage sites south and west of the city.”
The Washington Post: “Satellite images, expert analysis, a U.S. official and public information released by the U.S. and Israeli militaries suggest an explosion that killed scores of Iranian students at a school was likely caused by U.S. airstrikes.”
Anadolu Ajansı: “Over 1,330 civilians, including around 300 children, have been killed in Iran amid continuing attacks by the US and Israel, while damage to infrastructure across the country is also rising rapidly, Iran’s ambassador to the UN said.”
UNHCR: “In Lebanon, more than 96,000 people who were forced to flee their homes are sheltering in over 440 collective sites, the Lebanese Government reports.”
The Guardian: “At least 13 hospitals and other health facilities have been hit during the US-Israel attacks on Iran, global health chiefs have said.”
Wall Street Journal: “The U.S.-Israeli targeting of Iran’s vast energy infrastructure has caused massive fires that are frightening spectacles, recalling the scenes of Kuwaiti oil fields burning after the U.S. invasion in 1991.”
The Independent: “[A] new wave of price increases has pushed many families to the brink of hunger and cast a heavy shadow over daily life. Many people say they can no longer afford even basic necessities or to set aside a small supply of food for emergencies. Their daily purchases have increasingly come to resemble an old Persian expression that ‘relief comes from one pillar to the next’. Essentially, living day to day in the hope that circumstances will improve.”
Scripps: “[President Donald Trump said] that Iran would face more severe consequences as the conflict between Tehran, the United States and Israel continues to escalate. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran will be hit ‘very hard,’ noting the country is under ‘serious consideration for complete destruction for certain death.’”
Al Jazeera: “New videos show destruction across Iran after US and Israeli air strikes, including damage to government buildings, residential neighbourhoods and Iran’s main sports stadium.”
Supporters of the Israeli-American war effort, Western hegemonists and Zionist Atlanticists, all of whom waved the Ukrainian flag at some point, stand proudly by all of this.
The war was preemptive. The regime is awful, and it has already fueled terrorism across the world. Restraint and negotiations are for sissies–only Western violence, not the popular will of the people, can bring Iran back from theocratic rule.
Voices in the mainstream Jewish press, especially, have provided Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu with valuable public relations.
At the New York City-based Algemeiner, Pini Dunner said, “Israel — and under President Trump, the United States as well — realised something fundamental: you cannot coexist with movements or regimes whose very purpose is your destruction. The rules of the game have changed. The new doctrine is simple: if terrorists and radicals are running for their lives, they cannot threaten yours. When those plotting your destruction are forced onto the defensive, their ability to act collapses.”
Nothing has been more telling than this editorial at the UK’s far-right Jewish Chronicle: “For too long, many European leaders have behaved as if military conflict were a relic of the past and all inter-state disagreements could be adjudicated away in international courts. That presumes a world in which all actors voluntarily accept the so-called rules-based order. But regimes such as those in Tehran or in Moscow do not. Even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered illusions about the permanence of peace on the European continent – and reimposed the necessity of hard-power realism – reflexive calls for de-escalation persist, nowhere more so than when Israel is involved.”
In other words, the pro-Netanyahu press has greeted the invasion of Ukraine as a necessary step to dismantling the world of cooperation and moving back to the doctrine of might makes right.
International relations wonks might still daydream about endless Geneva summits and white SUVs maintaining order. But for now, Washington and Jerusalem can remake the map militarily.
Does that echo the travesty of the invasion of Ukraine? Sure, but unlike with Russia, who on earth can sanction the US?
Photograph courtesy of Joel Schalit. All rights reserved.