Early on February 28, US and Israeli missiles struck Tehran even as negotiations between Iran and the United States were still underway, with the next round of talks scheduled for March 2 in Geneva. Launching a military assault while maintaining the façade of diplomacy was nothing less than a calculated act of deception. The attack blatantly violated international law, diplomatic norms and the sovereignty of an independent state. The United States has increasingly come to function as a global war machine, while Zionist forces exert decisive influence over the American state, using its military power to strike other nations at will.
Ayatollah Khomeini established a brutal religious fascism in Iran, and resistance against that regime had also been growing among the Iranian people. However, the external military assault on Iran by the United States and Israel — and the killing of Khomeini for their own geopolitical objectives — is utterly condemnable.
This is not merely a military strike on a single country; it is a direct assault on the moral foundations of the international order. If powerful states can attack rival nations and assassinate their leaders at will, then institutions such as the United Nations, international law and diplomacy lose all meaning. What remains, then, of the ideals of modern civilisation? In practice, the United States and Israel have come to resemble international marauders, displaying open contempt for law, norms and basic ethical restraint. Across the world they have bombed countries, overthrown governments, assassinated leaders and carried out kidnappings — acts justified only by power and enforced through impunity.
Bangladesh’s official response to the attack on Iran has been deeply disappointing. In its initial reaction, the government confined itself to criticising Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US bases in neighbouring countries. In its subsequent statement, although it formally condemned the attack on Iran, it conspicuously avoided naming the aggressor states — the United States and Israel. Such evasiveness reflects not merely diplomatic caution but a troubling moral abdication. An independent state must be willing to take a principled stand in defence of international law and sovereignty.
Instead, Bangladesh’s foreign policy appears increasingly submissive to American pressure. Even before leaving office, the government of Dr Yunus rushed to sign a Bangladesh–US trade agreement that runs counter to the country’s national interests and risks undermining its economic and strategic autonomy. Taken together, these actions suggest a foreign policy drifting away from independence toward quiet capitulation.
Western powers, including Europe, have sunk deep into moral hypocrisy through their glaring double standards — one rule for themselves and another for the rest of the world. They preach human rights, democracy and peace, yet violate international law whenever it serves their interests, resorting to assassinations, regime change and military aggression. On questions of security, Europe largely functions as a subordinate partner to American power. With Washington’s backing, Israel has carried out a genocide in Gaza. Iraq was invaded under the fabricated pretext of weapons of mass destruction. In Libya, NATO’s intervention culminated in the brutal killing of Muammar Gaddafi. Syria was ravaged by years of foreign intervention, and power there has increasingly been shaped by actors linked to extremist networks. Syrian airspace is now reportedly being used as a corridor for attacks on Iran.
Meanwhile, the United States has abducted the Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, transporting to the United States after a military raid — an operation widely criticised as a violation of international law. Even before the chapter on Iran has concluded, voices in Washington are already speaking of new confrontations, including threats directed at Cuba.
The politics of the Middle East have only deepened the crisis. US-allied states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait — have either actively or tacitly backed actions against Iran. The reality of the so-called Muslim Ummah has never been clearer. Petro-dollars from Middle Eastern oil flow into the US Federal Reserve, sustaining the dollar’s domination on the global economy. Without de-dollarisation, challenging American power remains a distant hope.
At the heart of American military adventurism lies a permanent war economy. Since the end of the Second World War, military spending has been a central pillar of the US economy. A powerful alliance binds the Pentagon, defence contractors, corporate interests, research institutions and political leadership — the notorious military-industrial complex. With roughly 800 military bases worldwide and an annual budget exceeding $800 billion, the system rewards a handful of defence giants. The logic is simple: the more wars and military tensions, the fatter their profits.
Marxist economists Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy argued that American imperialism has transformed into a permanent war economy. War is no longer incidental — it is a tool to manage stagnation, resolve crises of capitalism, and stimulate economic growth. David Harvey emphasises that modern capitalism does not generate wealth solely through production; it often expands by dispossessing others and seizing their resources. As Vladimir Lenin demonstrated long ago, powerful capitalist states inevitably turn to war in the relentless pursuit of new markets and plunderable resources.
In contemporary world, national security and war are not just matters of military confrontation — they are carefully crafted ideological tools, designed to convince the public that endless military spending is indispensable. The United States and other Western powers routinely manufacture narratives of threat to justify aggression against other states. Enemies are constructed, fear is orchestrated, and wars are legitimised through illusion. Yesterday it was communism, then Islam, the ‘Eastern civilisation,’ or China; today it is Iran — its threat recast at will, whether through the spectre of nuclear weapons or claims of weapons of mass destruction, depending on political convenience.
The escalating rivalry between the United States and China, the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, and ongoing instability in the Middle East are set to squeeze Bangladesh’s diplomacy and economy, placing the country under mounting geopolitical pressure. India has already joined the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at countering China. Days before the attack on Iran, India’s hardline Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed Israel as their ‘fatherland’ in a speech to the Israeli parliament, signalling Israel’s growing influence in South Asia.
Though Bangladesh lies on the periphery of the global war economy, it cannot escape its repercussions. In an interconnected world, no economy exists in isolation. Early signs are already visible: petroleum shortages are looming, migrant workers face threats to their livelihoods and lives, remittance flows are at risk, and rising fuel prices are driving up the cost of living. Any intensification of conflict in the Middle East will hit Bangladesh hard, economically and socially.
In today’s world, war is no longer just a military clash — it is a sprawling apparatus of economics, politics and ideology. Ordinary people in Bangladesh and across the globe are the ones who ultimately pay the price. Now more than ever, taking a clear and uncompromising stand for international justice and peace — against unjust wars, killings, massacres and abductions by any power, including the United States — is an urgent moral imperative.
Dr Akhter Sobhan Masroor is a writer and researcher.
