America and Israel bombed Iran while a peace deal was on the table. This is not a failure of diplomacy. It is what the monopoly of violence looks like in practice.
Very thorough analysis. Our western governments have most definitely now stopped caring about bringing us along with what they do. I assume they think they don't need to anymore, as in the end we are all going to be expendable. And I don't think they much care about general destabilisation through war. It is likely part of the plan.
There’s definitely truth in that. The destabilisation caused by war is often treated as an externality - something policymakers don’t have to account for once the bombs stop falling. But wars don’t end neatly at the battlefield. They fracture states, collapse economies, and push millions of people to flee. Many of those people end up seeking safety in Europe, including the UK.
What’s striking is how rarely that connection is acknowledged in public debate. Sections of the right-wing press are often among the loudest voices calling for military intervention abroad, yet the same outlets then run endless campaigns about “stopping the boats” when the human consequences of those conflicts reach Europe’s shores. The two issues are constantly discussed as if they’re unrelated, when in reality they are part of the same chain of events.
If governments and media were more honest about that relationship, the public conversation about both war and migration would look very different.
Very thorough analysis. Our western governments have most definitely now stopped caring about bringing us along with what they do. I assume they think they don't need to anymore, as in the end we are all going to be expendable. And I don't think they much care about general destabilisation through war. It is likely part of the plan.
There’s definitely truth in that. The destabilisation caused by war is often treated as an externality - something policymakers don’t have to account for once the bombs stop falling. But wars don’t end neatly at the battlefield. They fracture states, collapse economies, and push millions of people to flee. Many of those people end up seeking safety in Europe, including the UK.
What’s striking is how rarely that connection is acknowledged in public debate. Sections of the right-wing press are often among the loudest voices calling for military intervention abroad, yet the same outlets then run endless campaigns about “stopping the boats” when the human consequences of those conflicts reach Europe’s shores. The two issues are constantly discussed as if they’re unrelated, when in reality they are part of the same chain of events.
If governments and media were more honest about that relationship, the public conversation about both war and migration would look very different.