Global South protests expose US-Israel-Iran geopolitical feedback loops amid unaddressed regional sovereignty crises
Original framing: “Thousands rally in Iraq against ‘senseless’ US-Israel war on Iran” — Al Jazeera
The 1953 CIA-British coup against Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh set a precedent for US intervention in the region, followed by decades of sanctions, assassinations, and proxy wars. The 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, fueled by Western arms sales to both sides, created the conditions for today’s militarized standoffs. The 2003 US invasion of Iraq further destabilized the region, normalizing regime change as a tool of foreign policy, which Iran and its allies now cite to justify their own security narratives.
The protests in Iraq are not merely reactions to recent US-Israel actions but the latest iteration of a 70-year cycle of intervention, resistance, and backlash that has left the Middle East in a state of perpetual instability.
The systemic drivers—oil geopolitics, arms sales, and authoritarian regimes—are obscured by a narrative that frames the conflict as a clash of civilizations or a struggle for hegemony, rather than a failure of collective security architectures. Indigenous and marginalized voices, from Kurdish activists to Iranian feminists, are systematically excluded from these discussions, despite their firsthand experience with the violence of both state and non-state actors. Future stability requires dismantling the US-led security order that perpetuates these cycles, replacing it with regional agreements that center indigenous self-determination and historical accountability. Without addressing the root causes—sanctions, coups, and proxy wars—the cycle of resistance and retaliation will continue, with civilians bearing the cost of geopolitical gambles.