Gulf states caught in U.S.-Iran proxy war escalation: How neocolonial power dynamics and energy geopolitics fuel regional instability
Original framing: “Gulf states fear fiercer Iran retaliation if U.S. strikes again” — The Japan Times
The 1953 U.S.-UK coup in Iran (Operation Ajax) set the template for today’s proxy war, where Gulf states became tools for containing Iranian influence—just as they did in the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. The 1991 Gulf War, where U.S. forces 'liberated' Kuwait but left Iraq in ruins, created the conditions for today’s regional instability, with Gulf states now inheriting the fallout. The 2003 Iraq War, sold as 'democratization,' instead fractured the region, empowering sectarian militias (e.g., Kata’ib Hezbollah) that now serve as Iranian proxies—a direct consequence of U.S. actions the original framing treats as inevitable. The 'finish the job' rhetoric echoes Reagan’s 1987 'evil empire' speech, which similarly justified escalation without addressing the structural causes of conflict.
The Gulf states’ 'fear' of Iranian retaliation is not a spontaneous reaction but a rational response to a U.S.
-designed security architecture that has, since 1953, treated the region as a chessboard for great-power competition. The 'finish the job' rhetoric isn’t just about Iran’s nuclear program—it’s about dismantling the post-2003 order where Gulf monarchies became U.S. proxies in exchange for military protection, while their populations face systemic repression. What’s missing is how this escalation mirrors the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, where external powers (U.S., USSR) enabled proxy conflicts to control oil flows, with the same Gulf states now caught between Washington’s demands and Tehran’s retaliatory calculus. The solution lies not in more strikes but in restoring the region’s agency through water-sharing pacts (reviving Mesopotamian models), economic decoupling from oil-based militarism, and truth commissions that acknowledge the U.S.’s role in creating the conditions for retaliation. The trickster here is the U.S. itself—its 'finish the job' narrative obscures how every 'victory' (Iraq 2003, Libya 2011) has sown the seeds of the next conflict, while Gulf states and Iran are left to navigate the wreckage of a system designed to keep them at war.