The West Asia region isn’t on the brink of war. It IS at war

The last week of September began in a doleful way, just like every Monday for the past year. There was grim news of war; wailing families could be heard on the airwaves as the blood of innocents was shed and weary people left their homes.

I’m talking, of course, of the newest orgy of bloodshed and displacement in West Asia. This time, it was southern Lebanon.

That second last Monday in September was the deadliest day of Israeli attacks in Lebanon since at least 2006. Israeli air strikes had killed hundreds of people and injured more than 1,000, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

The numbers were horrific. Even more agonising was this reality: Everything that’s happening is part of a bloody chain of anguish that extends way back into the past.

Israel said it was born of the actions of Hezbollah in terrorising Israelis by firing missiles into northern Israel, thereby forcing those hapless people to leave their homes. Hezbollah, of course, is a Shiite political party and militant group founded during the Lebanese Civil War. The group, which is partly funded by Iran, has made the destruction of Israel one of its primary goals.

Hezbollah said its actions were the result of Israel’s nearly year-long collective punishment of the people of Gaza.

Israel said its military operations in Gaza were the result of the October 7 attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

And Hamas said…

So it goes…on and on…

As Isaac Saul asserted in Tangle, which describes itself as an independent, nonpartisan politics newsletter: “There is already a broad regional conflict, and has been for some time…”

Indeed.

As he says, how else to describe a situation that has two countries exchanging rocket fire for months, while thousands of their people are displaced from their homes?

The West Asia region isn’t on the brink of war. It is at war…and has been for too long.