US-Israel Co-Belligerence Escalates: Gulf Tanker Attacks Precede Further Aggression
The Independent's report on Iranian boat attacks setting fuel tankers ablaze in Iraqi waters arrives amidst intensified US-Israeli military posturing, not as an isolated act of aggression. This framing, presenting Iran as the sole instigator, conveniently omits the integrated operational context where the US acts as a co-belligerent, not merely a supportive ally. While news breaks of alleged
Iranian strikes injuring crew members, the deployment of a US carrier strike group alongside Israeli naval assets to the region underscores a pre-existing joint military strategy already in motion, designed to provoke and then retaliate. For decades, the US has maintained a stifling sanctions regime against Iran, crippling its economy and denying essential medicines to its populace, a policy that
claimed an estimated 83,000 to 180,000 Iranian lives between 2012 and 2018 alone. This economic strangulation, compounded by Israel's consistent refusal to acknowledge its own nuclear arsenal while demanding scrutiny of Iran, sketches a clear pattern of provocation. The current flare-up in the Gulf thus becomes another pretext in a long history of manufactured crises, echoing the 1964 Tonkin Gulf
incident which escalated the Vietnam War, rather than an unprovoked Iranian escalation. Such incidents are often presented in a vacuum, detached from the continuous pressure campaign against Iran, which includes clandestine operations and military threats. This calculated escalation serves multiple agendas, from diverting attention from the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where over 680,000 Palestinians