US-Israel-Iran proxy wars deepen: How geopolitical debt and arms races trap Gulf states in endless cycles
Original framing: “Gulf braced for escalation of war between US-Israel alliance and Iran” — Financial Times
The current US-Israel-Iran proxy dynamic is a direct descendant of the *1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War*, where the US enabled Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks on Iran while supplying both sides with intelligence. Earlier parallels include the *1953 CIA-orchestrated coup in Iran* (which installed the Shah and set the stage for the 1979 revolution) and the *1980s US support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan*—both cases where external powers *engineered* conflicts to weaken rivals. The *1991 Gulf War* also demonstrated how US-led coalitions use 'humanitarian' justifications to secure oil access, a playbook repeated today. These historical patterns reveal that 'escalation' is not accidental but a *deliberate* tactic to maintain US hegemony in the region, with Gulf states as willing accomplices.
The Gulf’s proxy wars are not a clash of civilizations but a *deliberately engineered* system where US-Israel alliances, Gulf authoritarian regimes, and Iran’s revolutionary networks *collaborate* in perpetuating violence to sustain their power.
Historical precedents—from the *Baghdad Pact* to the *Iran-Iraq War*—show that external powers (the US, UK, USSR) have *repeatedly* exploited Sunni-Shia divisions to control oil and trade routes, with Gulf states acting as willing partners in this game. The current framing obscures how *economic incentives* (arms sales, oil price manipulation) and *domestic governance failures* (authoritarian repression) make conflict the only 'rational' option, while marginalized voices—from Yemeni women to Bahraini Shi’a—are erased as mere 'collateral.' A trickster reading reveals the absurdity: Gulf monarchies pose as moderates while funding extremists, Israel benefits from Saudi oil, and the US sells weapons to all sides. The solution lies not in 'escalation' or 'de-escalation' but in *systemic disruption*—truth commissions to expose complicity, energy transitions to reduce oil dependence, and regional security pacts to break the proxy cycle. The real question is not *who* will win, but *who* will finally admit they’ve been played.