| Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday’s firing of more than 200 drones and missiles by Iran towards Israel has changed the dynamics in the Middle East. For the first time in the 76-year-old conflict, Iran has joined the Muslim-Arab forces against Israel and its American-British-and-French backers.
By launching aerial attacks on Israel, Iran proves that the Jewish state is vulnerable by air. Israel cannot prevent all incoming missiles and drones — even with American and British assistance — from hitting or exploding in Israel. Or at least in the skies of Israel.
Iran also proves that it is not Hamas, which does not have the human and technical resources (aside from needed finances) to match Israel drone by drone, missile by missile.
Even if Israeli military interceptor missiles can knock down an incoming missile containing a nuclear bomb, it may simply detonate the payload. And cause radioactive debris to rain down literally across the Middle East. Radioactive precipitation will accompany it as “deadly raindrops” (pun intended).
It is heartening to note that President Joe Biden has taken the role of a peacemaker. He told yesterday the national leadership in a telephone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States would disapprove and not support any Israeli “offensive” retaliation against Iran. Mr. Biden has demonstrated the maturity of a statesman cum peacemaker.
Americans and people worldwide should support Biden’s proposal for peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
The ironclad guarantee that the United States (and presumably that of the United Kingdom and France) will come to the defense of Israel will not apply in an Armageddon-like situation. Or even World War III. The extinction of humanity may result if a retaliatory strike against Iran by Israel fails to destroy Iran’s nuclear-bomb capability and infrastructures.
It is remarkable that perhaps President Biden shares the view of some journalists of Filipino descent that it may be best to assume that Iran already has a so-called “dirty (atomic) bomb.” Or worse, it could have bought even a couple of ready-to-launch nuclear bombs from a rouge country like North Korea (that depends on Iranian crude oil for its petroleum-product needs).
The world cannot gamble when it comes to a nuclear nightmare. It may be best to assume that Iran has already joined Israel as a member of the world’s “Nuclear Club.” An exchange of nuclear weapons of mass destruction between the two countries may prompt more countries to use “battlefield atom bombs” in Ukraine, Taiwan, or both. And World War III. Thus, it can cause, within weeks, if not months, the dreaded “Nuclear Winter.”
The Philippine Daily Mirror has featured this columnist’s suggestions for achieving permanent peace in the Middle East by fielding the first United Nations peacemakers (initially from Azerbaijan and the Philippines). Then, we proceed to do socioeconomic development on multiethnic and interfaith modes as public-private partnerships. More funding may be provided by the U. S. Export and Import Bank (EXIMBANK) and its European Union, Japan, and other counterparts from developed countries.
As the saying goes, “it is better (and cheaper) to make love than war.”
