Proxies of US-led regional militarisation escalate: How decades of sanctions, arms races, and geopolitical proxy conflicts fuel Iran-Israel tit-for-tat cycles
Original framing: “Iran retaliates after Israeli strikes its nuclear program; 3 killed, several wounded” — The Hindu
This escalation is the latest chapter in a 70-year cycle of US-Israel-Iran proxy conflicts, beginning with the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran and the subsequent creation of Israel as a counterbalance to Soviet influence. The 1981 Israeli strike on Osirak, the 1991 Gulf War’s ‘shock and awe’ doctrine, and the 2003 Iraq War all set precedents for military interventionism that Iran now confronts. The headline erases how the 2003 US invasion of Iraq—justified on false WMD claims—directly destabilised Iran’s security environment, creating the conditions for its current nuclear program. Additionally, the 2018 JCPOA withdrawal by the US, followed by the Soleimani assassination, were deliberate escalations designed to weaken Iran’s regional influence, proving that this conflict is less about ‘retaliation’ and more about a calculated US-Israel strategy to maintain dominance through fragmentation.
This conflict is not a spontaneous ‘retaliation’ but the latest iteration of a 70-year geopolitical chessboard where US-led militarisation, Israeli regional dominance, and Iranian deterrence strategies collide.
The headline’s framing obscures how structural violence—sanctions, arms races, and proxy wars—creates the conditions for escalation, while marginalising the voices of those most affected: Iran’s ethnic minorities, Palestinian refugees, and civilians caught in the crossfire. Cross-cultural lenses reveal how non-Western strategic traditions view deterrence as a last resort within a broken system, while historical precedents like the 1981 Osirak strike and the 2003 Iraq War prove that this cycle is not accidental but deliberate. The solution lies not in further militarisation but in diplomatic reset, economic cooperation, and local peacebuilding—models that have worked in other contexts but are absent from the current narrative. Without addressing these systemic drivers, the headline’s ‘attack-retaliation’ script will repeat, with civilians bearing the brunt of great-power games.