Letters & Opinion

Tit-for-Tat is not Butter-for-Fat!

Chronicles of a Chronic Caribbean Chronicler

By Earl Bousquet

If good sense prevailed last night, the Islamic State of Iran still exists today — and its 4,000 years of Persian Civilisation is also still intact.

But, be that as it may, there’s no doubting that Iran can still be attacked, yet-again, as Israel and the US continue their joint 47-year effort to reverse the 1979 Revolution that’s survived sanctions and military interventions for as-long as it’s existed.

The Iranian Revolution that US President Donald Trump expletively vowed on Easter Sunday to bomb Back to the Stone Age is as old as the Grenada and Nicaragua revolutions – and Saint Lucia’s Independence.

Any slight peep into Persia’s long history will reveal Iran’s not just the largest territory in the Middle East, spanning the Arab and Gulf regions, but also – like China in its 6,000+ years of civilization – never launched military interventions against any country.

To the contrary, not even Alexander the Great was able to conquer Persia, which stands at the centre of global value and supply chains and always a gateway and passage for international trade.

The Islamic Republic has survived 47 years of US-led international sanctions and non-stop Israeli attacks.

With 47 years’ experience preparing for what’s happening today, Tehran has shown it has what it takes to keep the US and Israel at bay as it defends itself in an existential war imposed on it while discussing peace at a negotiating table.

Twice in succession – in June 2025 and February 2026 — Israel and the US walked away from peace talks in Oman to bomb Iran.

Twice bitten and thrice shy, Iran was left no choice but to activate the defence mechanisms it’s been developing since 1979, when the US launched a failed attempt to rescue Americans held in Tehran.

Its back against a small wall and with the US attacking from bases in neighbouring Gulf States, Iran resorted to using its main(but not only) trump card: closing the Strait of Hurmuz, through which 20% of the world’s energy supplies and almost 40% of fertilizer pass, from the US’ strategic allies in the Gulf States.

Despite the US hitting 13,000 targets inside Iran in 39 says, Iran has survived four long months of daily bombardment, with close to 3,500 lives lost and way-over 26,000 citizens injured.

Iran has demonstrated it can respond tit-for-tat, hitting the US facilities in bordering nations being used to attack it, while also hitting Israel like no-one ever imagined.

Never mind it’s religious, political and military leadership being beheaded by bombs almost daily, Iran has retained its Islamic State and its people are paying the supreme price of the unleashed aggression.

The world continues watching in amazing silence as Washington’s allies close their eyes to the ultimate costs to Iranian citizens, instead only interested in the consequences of the growing global energy crisis that’s seeing oil and gas prices surpass US $100 per barrel.

If – as expected — Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen also close the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait that allows for Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea, oil prices can faster gush to US $200 per barrel.

This is already by-far the world’s costliest war, expenditure in its first month already surpassing US $200 Billion — and with Washington seeking an additional US $1.5 Trillion for the next US Defence budget (US $500 Billion more than the last).

The US Congress has also been asked to provide an additional US $2200 Billion to arm Washington’s Gulf States allies.

There’s a loud conspiracy of silence about the fact that Iran is being attacked from US bases in neighbouring states, which are unfairly accusing Iran of attacking them innocently.

The world is calling on President Trump to respect US and international law, when it’s quite clear he doesn’t seem to care a hoot about what any law says anywhere.

Worse, a US administration that’s launched wars against Venezuela and Iran without consulting Congress is demanding that Tehran comply with international maritime rules governing access to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has started a fifth week demonstrating it can depend on its ‘Axis of Resistance’ allies – Houthis and Hezbollah in Yemen and Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza – which have been penetrating Israel’s fabled Iron Dome and forcing over-a-million Israelis to seek near-permanent emergency shelter.

With elections on the cards later this year – due in Israel in October and mid-term US elections in November — the joint war on Iran is also dearly costing the US and Israel politically.

Israeli support for Netanyahu’s approach is declining and President Trump’s Republicans face the economic backlash at fuel pumps and resulting price rises from the evolving global energy crisis.

The US President is clearly frustrated and demonstrably angry that his European Union (EU) and NATO allies (including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK) have refused to join his military campaign against Iran and/or to forcefully open the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump continues fanning war flames while talking peace, demanding a ceasefire while threatening total destruction, threatening to erase Iran’s civilization (‘Never to be brought back again…’), while, in the same breath, ending the threat saying: ‘God Bless the People of Iran.’

The American President, always uncensored and now declared ‘unhinged’ by friends and enemies alike, has erased diplomacy and replaced it with pursuit of ‘Peace Through Strength’ like no predecessor has done.

And while the US continues pursuing World War III, the world it waiting for it to be so declare –, even belatedly, like the recent UN resolution finally (and correctly) describing Trans-Atlantic Slavery as The Worst Crime Against Humanity’.

But, in all of my 50 years covering world wars from a far distance, one has never – ever – had to go to bed (like last night) uncertain about whether an entire civilization would be destroyed before I awoke this morning, just because a US president refuses to accept that an Islamic State can go tit-for-tit with the world’s most-powerful military force.

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