Flopped war could lead to chaos
THE White House imposed a ‘media blackout’ as President Donald Trump was closeted with his national security team late on Friday, after a day of shocking losses for the US which saw several aerial assets hit in the Persian Gulf and raised a question mark over Secretary of War (Crimes) Pete Hegseth’s claim that the US and Israel own the skies over Iran.
The meeting came with an F-15 shot down over Iranian territory, and an A-10, with its titanium-reinforced armoured structure for low-flying ground support missions brought down over the Gulf; an F-16 was hit too but was able to limp back to its base in a Gulf state.
Two Black Hawk helicopters were hit by small arms fire injuring the crew and damaging the engines, though managing to stay airborne long enough to make it to Kuwait for an emergency landing.
Of particular concern to the Americans would be the fate of one of the two-man crew of the F-15 shot down over western Iran as, till the writing of these lines, he was missing while the other was rescued by a US Combat Search and Rescue special operations team. The team’s two helicopters were hit and landed in Kuwait.
Whether the rescue teams were able to pluck the missing airman to safety or the Iranians captured him is an issue that may dictate some of America’s next decisions — either further escalation including ground operations or a sudden de-escalation where the US cuts its losses and backs off.
Given the hold the apartheid state of Israel enjoys over Trump, the first scenario appears more likely.
As Gen Keane, a military analyst of Fox News, which works hand-in-glove with the Israelis, said: “All the generals around President Trump are telling him they need more time to finish the job. Netanyahu is asking for three and [Centcom commander) Admiral Brad Cooper for two more weeks.” Yes, he counted Netanyahu among Trump’s generals.
One wonders how many more Iranians the psychopath who heads the genocidal state of Israel will need to kill to satiate his bloodlust.
One wonders how many more Iranians the psychopath at the head of the genocidal apartheid state will need to kill to satiate his bloodlust. If he prevails and the escalation further sucks the Gulf Arab states into the war, then the destruction and chaos across the Middle East may help him attain his Greater Israel dream as his may remain the only viable, effective military power in the region post-war.
I bet he is still hoping for an uprising in Iran, fanned and armed by Mossad, so that the goal of the collapse of central authority can still be realised, even as he has so far failed miserably to engineer that.
Pakistan has valiantly stuck to the task of trying to facilitate a peace dialogue between the US and Iran, despite the likely cost. I think Israel’s continued murders of Iran’s leaders who had the authority within their governing set-up to be able to agree to terms for peace has set back the efforts of Pakistan and other states. Iran has been betrayed twice and attacked in the midst of peace negotiations. Nobody can blame their leaders for being suspicious of any new move.
Iran has successfully resisted two formidable military powers and is now hitting back with force at US and Israeli assets, proving that the Trump-penned obituaries of Iran’s military were premature and optimistic in the extreme. CNN’s latest report has rubbished claims of the decimation of Iran’s military might and suggests that at least 50 per cent of Tehran’s missile assets and production capacity is intact.
Whether Trump will keep throwing good money after bad is a question only he can answer. With the hold Netanyahu seems to have over Trump, it appears he will sacrifice his majority in the two Houses in the midterm November elections as this war is very unpopular in the US. This may translate into sacrificing the efficacy of his own office.
When you more or less dominate the skies over a country and when your targeting is so immoral, illegal and unethical that even schools, hospitals, homes, bridges and other civilian infrastructure are seen as fair game, it is one thing. Fighting on the ground with highly motivated fighters resisting you is a different ballgame altogether. Especially since the Americans are said to be acutely averse to body bags returning home from war theatres.
Among the initial war objectives were regime change, the destruction of missile production and launch capabilities and cutting ties with allies such as Hezbollah and Ansarullah in Yemen. An add-on was the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Not a single one of these have been achieved. In fact, even France and Japan have joined those cutting deals with Iran.
If ever there was a flopped war, this is it, particularly with ‘now we have decimated Iran’s nuclear programme and now we have not’!
My final column
Fifteen years ago, Dawn’s op-ed editor asked me to write for this paper. A reporter and editor I was, but never saw myself as a columnist. But backed by the editor, the op-ed editor persuaded me.
Over the past decade and a half, my editors have given me complete freedom to write on topics of my own choosing and never once quibbled with content. Where there has been pressure, they have taken it and let me get on with it. I have so enjoyed the freedom that I have never once missed a week of writing for which I am grateful to them. Profound gratitude to my readers who have not only read my submissions but have also given me invaluable feedback over the years.
Finally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my wife Carmen and our two daughters Alia and Elena for their support and patience in letting me eat away into their weekend plans, while I devoted the first half of Saturdays to writing, particularly after my good friend Cyril Almeida’s exit whose slot I moved into from my placement a day earlier. Even on holiday in remote locations such as the Pyrenees, Carmen made sure her laptop was connected to the phone and I was able send what I’d written.
Like most good things (at least for me), my column too is coming to an end. As any keen reader would be able to tell, there are very few ads in the paper. Those at the helm have not only banned government ads in the paper but also coerced corporate private advertisers into staying away from it. Dawn has been made to pay a price for exercising its editorial independence.
I live abroad. With the financial crunch, the cost of foreign exchange payments is a cost the paper can’t bear anymore. It breaks my heart to see Dawn facing an existential crisis. Columnists come and go. Dawn must continue to herald every morning.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2026
