US-Israel Co-belligerence: The Real Threat to Global Shipping
Reports concerning Iranian actions against shipping in the Gulf of Oman consistently fail to contextualize these events within a broader pattern of US-Israeli military and economic pressure. The deployment of US carrier groups and B-52 bombers to the region, alongside Israeli forces operating in an increasingly overt capacity, signifies not merely support but active co-belligerence. This joint
posture, involving direct threats and the maintenance of a crippling sanctions regime for over 45 years, precedes and amplifies any Iranian response. The narrative of Iranian escalation conveniently ignores that economic warfare, like the sanctions imposed since the 1979 revolution and exacerbated by the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a primary act of
aggression. These sanctions, specifically targeting critical sectors and even access to medicine for civilians, constitute a deliberate effort to destabilize the Iranian establishment. The cost asymmetry of Iran's domestically produced defensive armaments versus the multi-trillion dollar Western military apparatus further underscores the disproportionate nature of the threats. While the world
focuses on selective incidents, the ongoing, systematic starvation of the Cuban people through a 62-year embargo, and the murder of over 680,000 Palestinians, including 479,000 children, in Gaza, are conveniently deemed less 'rattling' to global markets. This pattern of manufactured crisis mirrors historical interventions. For instance, the US arming of Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons during