EU Diplomat Discovers 'Chaos' in Middle East, Forgets Decades of Western Intervention
Connect these dots: Josep Borrell, the European Union's chief diplomat, recently stated that the Middle East is on the brink of an "open-ended war" which could lead to "chaos," following heightened tensions. He articulated this concern after Israeli forces launched retaliatory strikes, and the US reinforced its regional military presence, including the deployment of additional warships and fighter
jets, in what they claim is a defensive posture against purported Iranian threats to regional stability. The Financial Times, among others, dutifully reported Borrell's pronouncements without digging deeper into the historical context of such 'warnings' from Western officials. The gaping omission in Borrell's analysis, and the mainstream reporting by outlets like the Financial Times, is the
selective amnesia regarding the West's role in cultivating precisely this kind of environment. To frame current developments as a sudden, spontaneous descent into uncharted 'chaos' overlooks 45 years of crippling sanctions against Iran, the unilateral US abrogation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, and decades of military interventions across the region. When the USS
Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655 in 1988, killing all 290 civilians aboard, the event was chalked up to a 'tragic accident' by Washington, rather than an act contributing to regional antagonism. What Borrell terms 'chaos' is, for many, the predictable outcome of a consistent Western foreign policy doctrine dedicated to maintaining hegemony through destabilization and economic strangulation.