– Mahboob A. Khawaja, PhD.
Western Political Morality Lost its Values
Leaders universally hated and feared are actively engaged to wage an unwarranted war against humanity as if it was the new normal. Netanyahu’s obsession of Iran being a few weeks away for having a nuclear bomb is nothing else except a suspicious and vengeful act of aggression intrinsically supported by false narrative of self-defense. The same rhetoric is echoed by President Trump as if both are on the same page of ignorance and arrogance.
Ironically, seeing violations of international law and peaceful resolution of disputes, global leaders turned a deafening silence to the moral, intellectual and political imperatives of the systems of governance. Israel violating all the civilized norms of international systems attacked Iran pretending to be in “self-defense”, while Iran was engaged in dialogue with the US to resolve the issue of nuclear enrichment.
We are witnessing a new world of perpetuated ignorance, dishonesty and warmongering to preserve the aggressive expansionist aims of Israel after 20 months of war against innocent people of Gaza. Egoistic leaders appear powerless to use tyranny as means to ambitious conquests. How do you define, condemn or cure the pernicious consequences of unilateral actions of transgression? Are there any role models of moral and responsible leadership in the contemporary world? President Trump demands “unconditional surrender” from Iran although America is not a declared party to the current war.
PM Netanyahu claims, ‘Israel has full control over the Iranian airspace.’ The emerging conflict has caused catastrophic casualties both in Iran and Israel. Where do you draw a balancing act between insanity and humanity? Are we living in an era of false truth, feigned piety and alternate transient facts of human affairs?
Stephen M. Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, claims that “Israel Can’t Be a Hegemon-The Israeli government is making a bid for regional dominance that’s unlikely to succeed.” https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/16/israel-iran-war-middle-east-hegemon/?
Emboldened by the US chaotic leadership, Israel’s long awaited wish comes to reality and Iran’s nuclear sites and public are attacked under a false pretext of “preemptive strike” in self -defense. Over three decades, PM Netanyahu campaigned alleging Iran of making nuclear bombs in days and weeks. Rafel Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA clarified (Al Jazeera interview: 6/19/25), “There is no evidence that Iran has active plan to make nuclear weapons.”
Israel spared no time to target the public sectors in Iran, national TV station, oil refineries, hospitals and assassinated its top military leaders and nuclear scientists. This war unfolds multiple aims beyond the nuclear capability, a regime change and destruction of Iran as a people and an ancient civilization.
Also Read: Yet Another Attack on Islamic Iran, Yet Another Failure Destined for America and Israel
While the US and European leaders – the so-called gatekeepers of law, order and peace, contrary to the facts of the case aligned with Israel’s irresistible necessity of fallacy and ignored the principles of international law and truth of the Iranian’s uranium enrichment program for peaceful purposes. The facts speak loud and clear, Iran is a signatory to the NPT (Nuclear Non -Proliferation Treaty), Israel is not; Iran has not developed any nuclear arsenals, Israel possesses approximately 50-90 nuclear bombs. Rational persons could only assess performance when it is performed, not otherwise. Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, a Professor of international law and history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (“Israel Is Out of Control. A Terrorist Government that Endangers International Peace” Global Research: 6/18/25) spells out the facts: https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-out-control-alfred-de-zayas/5891459
Also Read: Iran Should Win This War, Because…?
Israel’s unprovoked aggression against Iran raises fundamental issues about the authority and credibility of the United Nations and more generally about the continued validity of international law and an international order based on the prohibition of the threat and the use of force….
He further noted: Once again, Israel, the United States and their supporters are flouting international law and participating in a conflict that could lead to nuclear disaster…. On 17 June 2025 the Geneva International Peace Research Institute issued this call to the United Nations and to all men and women of good will. “By bombing Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu has violated Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter and Article 5 of the Rome Statute. This act of unprovoked aggression cannot be excused by reference to a non-existent doctrine of ‘pre-emptive attack’, which George W. Bush had invoked to attack Iraq, and does not fall within the meaning of Article 51 on the UN Charter, which allows for self-defence.
Should Leaders be Mindful of their Wrong Thinking and Wrong Actions?
If President Trump follows the George W. Bush lead of a false genocidal act against Iraq in 2023 for the WMD and repeats the killing of three million Iraqi for his experiment without any accountability, where would the global community go to find safety and protection from terror and tyranny. The masses in the Arabian Peninsula are already victims of the pains, horrors and devastation of the Israeli war on Palestine. If there is no global vigilance and mechanism for accountability, Netanyahu and Trump could destroy humanity with a “mother bomb” on Iran.
The Chris Hedges Report (“War Deja Vau”: 06/19/25), tells more: The lies told to ignite the war with Iraq have been resurrected to ignite a war with Iran. The assessments of intelligence agencies and international bodies are dismissed, replaced by hallucinations…. Forget the intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment that “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003,” something reiterated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi this week.
Watching dreadful apparatus of fire and brimstone, We, the People are horrified by the threat of aggressive war by few warlords. Both leaders lack the moral, intellectual and legal capacity to understand the consequences of their wrong thinking and unjust war against Iran. Leadership is an art and it could be improved and changed for the good of humanity.
Do intelligent leaders listen to voices of reason and make a navigational change when facts of life warrant an urgent change in attitudes, policies and behavior? The Divine Revelations (the Quran: 40: 21) offer a stern warning to conscientious leaders and nations:
Do they not travel through the earth and see
What was the End of those before them. They were even superior to them in strength
And in the traces they have left on the earth. But God did call them to account for their sins
And none had they to defend them against God.
[Dr. Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international affairs-global security, peace and conflict resolution and has spent several academic years across the Russian-Ukrainian and Central Asian regions knowing the people, diverse cultures of thinking and political governance and a keen interest in Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of several publications including: Global Humanity and Remaking of Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution for the 21st Century and Beyond, Barnes and Noble Press, USA, 2025 and We, The People in Search of Global Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution. KDP-Amazon.com, 05/2025]
