Strait of Hormuz: Manufactured Crisis, Manufactured Famine
When the Strait of Hormuz is mentioned, the global North immediately envisions skyrocketing oil prices. Yet, as the latest narrative shift suggests, the new boogeyman is a global food crisis. This pivot is not altruistic concern for starvation but a strategic reframe designed to broaden public support for continued aggression against Iran. Suddenly, the threat isn't just about Western comfort it's
about the very sustenance of the world. How convenient that an alleged Iranian threat to a crucial shipping lane now affects everyone’s dinner plate. This narrative carefully omits four decades of crippling US-led sanctions against Iran, policies that have demonstrably impeded access to essential goods, including medicine and agricultural inputs, long before any perceived 'threat' to the Strait.
The US State Department documents over 100 different sanctions programs targeting Iran since 1979, creating a protracted humanitarian crisis, particularly for the most vulnerable. Now, instead of acknowledging their own role in regional instability and resource deprivation, the same Western powers spin a story of Iranian recalcitrance impacting world nutrition. It’s a classic double standard,
where Western actions are framed as defensive, while Iranian reactions to constant external pressure are painted as irrational and globally destructive. History offers a stark reminder of such manufactured crises. In 1918, during the final years of World War I, the British blockade of German ports, ostensibly to weaken the enemy, led to widespread famine in Germany, contributing significantly to