World Order — exceptionalism, aggression, brazen hypocrisy
The writer heads the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad. He is currently a visiting Research Fellow at Fudan University, Shanghai
Listen to article
Israel's ongoing reaction to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and the current ungrounded aggression against Iran only reinforced a bitter reality of the world today — the post-9/11 order rests on brazen aggression and high-handedness of the mighty ones who have arrogated to themselves the right to define conflict, self-defense, evil, terrorism and victimhood.
The world order today knows no values, no morality. Nor any consideration for national or international law. Notions such as rule of law and democracy have meanwhile been reduced to fiction. We still hear a lot of western pontification on extremism and terrorism but it's pretty ironic that they don't apply the same yardstick to Israeli actions against women and children in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. On the contrary, all leaders defended this as "Israel's right to self-defence".
Donald Trump — as it turns out — simply lied when he vowed to "end wars" and uttered his contempt for the deep state. He had vowed to reform the justice department which he described as "department of injustice" immediately after his reelection.
Bit by bit, the G-7 nations have scornfully pulled down the very values they championed for decades by inventing a self-serving exceptionalism in their own favour (read in Israel's favour). Today, they condemn attacks on Israel as criminal but hail the killing of nearly 60,000 Palestinians as self-defence.
All G-7 leaders dub Iran as the source of instability but are literally blind to — in fact complicit with - the Israeli actions of first killing Palestinians and now recklessly bombarding Iran to neutralise their nuclear weapons, although a US report, according to CNN, says Iran is far away from making a nuclear bomb. But all that seems just an excuse for crippling Iran and brining about a regime change.
On the sidelines of the recent G-7 summit in Alberta, Canada, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spelt out this backhanded approach by the Israel apologists - a virtual endorsement of Israeli actions to date.
"This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us — this mullah regime [in Iran] has brought death and destruction to the world," Merz said in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster. In a separate interview with Welt TV, Merz also suggested Israel's attacks on Iran could lead to the demise of the Islamic republic's leadership.
"To be honest, I can hardly imagine the mullah regime returning to its old functions," he added, in a glaring display of hypocrisy born off cold-blooded geopolitics.
The G-7 essentially endorsed the Israel position on Iran. This way they themselves undercut the very themes they touted for decades as the West's unique selling point (USP) i.e. democracy, rule of law and human rights with the United Nations watching on as a silent, literally irrelevant spectator. Its predecessor — the League of Nations — had ceased to exist on April 20, 1946, largely due to its inability to prevent major global conflicts, particularly World War II. Will the United Nations meet the same fate and drown in irrelevance? For all practical reasons, the UN has been reduced to a debating club of the elite that thrives off the funding from member countries.
Israel today is doing what Rudolf Hitler did first against neighbouring European countries and then against Russia. Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 triggered reaction from America, Russia, Britain and France, with the last two mentioned countries declaring war on Germany on September 3, and so began the World War II.
Will the murder of nearly 60,000 Palestinians and hundreds of Iranians as well as the potential Chinese and Russian reaction lead to the undoing of the United Nations that has been irrelevant at least since October 2023?
Blind exceptionalism — basically another synonym for hypocrisy — is causing a major shift in global politics. Battle lines have further deepened with willful demonisation of Iran and its major supporters thus far i.e. China and Russia.
This exceptionalism is stinkingly obnoxious, evident also from a recent article in The Wall Street Journal.
"The US, Israel and India blundered by allowing Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons. Repeating the blunder with Iran would be far worse," says an oped by Sadanand Dhume in the Journal's June 18, 2025 issue.
Once again, this extremely self-serving argument — as if it were the benevolence of these countries and not relentless efforts of Pakistani scientists and engineers — exposes the exceptionalism being peddled in western official corridors and media houses.
Nobody speaks of how Israelis and Indians got hold of nuclear weapons. Neither of them has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but continues to demonise Pakistan's nuclear capability like a crime committed. For the G-7 nations crimes, it seems, against hapless Palestinian women and relentless attacks on Iran are self-defence, while Pakistan's nuclear capability and Iran's nuclear pursuits are an unacceptable offence.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
2 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Trump extends date of TikTok sale for third time
President Donald Trump announced Thursday he had given social media platform TikTok another 90 days to find a non-Chinese buyer or be banned in the United States, reported AFP. "I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025)," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok's sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump's January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app. "I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. "If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension." TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump's decision. "We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users," the platform said in a statement. Digital Cold War? Motivated by a belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor. TikTok "has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control," said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain. Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform -- which boasts almost two billion global users -- after coming to believe it helped him win young voters' support in the November election. The president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19. He said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance "a lot of money" for the video-clip-sharing sensation's US operations. Trump knows that TikTok is "wildly popular" in the United States, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday, when asked about the latest extension. "He also wants to protect Americans' data and privacy concerns on this app, and he believes we can do both things at the same time." The president is "just not motivated to do anything about TikTok," said independent analyst Rob Enderle. "Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape." Tariff turmoil Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing. ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be "subject to approval under Chinese law." Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance's share in the new TikTok. Much of TikTok's US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company's chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok's valuable algorithm. "TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand - it's simply not as powerful," said Kelsey Chickering, principal analyst at Forrester. Despite the turmoil, TikTok has been continuing with business as usual. The platform on Monday introduced a new "Symphony" suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.
Business Recorder
5 hours ago
- Business Recorder
Trump says Europe will not be able to help much with Iran-Israel war
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Europe would not be able to help much in the war between Iran and Israel. 'Europe is not going to be able to help with this one,' Trump said. European powers urge Iran to continue US nuclear talks European foreign ministers urged Iran on Friday to engage with Washington over its nuclear program after talks in Geneva aimed at opening negotiations for a new nuclear deal ended with little sign of progress.
Express Tribune
5 hours ago
- Express Tribune
World Order — exceptionalism, aggression, brazen hypocrisy
The writer heads the independent Centre for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad. He is currently a visiting Research Fellow at Fudan University, Shanghai Listen to article Israel's ongoing reaction to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and the current ungrounded aggression against Iran only reinforced a bitter reality of the world today — the post-9/11 order rests on brazen aggression and high-handedness of the mighty ones who have arrogated to themselves the right to define conflict, self-defense, evil, terrorism and victimhood. The world order today knows no values, no morality. Nor any consideration for national or international law. Notions such as rule of law and democracy have meanwhile been reduced to fiction. We still hear a lot of western pontification on extremism and terrorism but it's pretty ironic that they don't apply the same yardstick to Israeli actions against women and children in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. On the contrary, all leaders defended this as "Israel's right to self-defence". Donald Trump — as it turns out — simply lied when he vowed to "end wars" and uttered his contempt for the deep state. He had vowed to reform the justice department which he described as "department of injustice" immediately after his reelection. Bit by bit, the G-7 nations have scornfully pulled down the very values they championed for decades by inventing a self-serving exceptionalism in their own favour (read in Israel's favour). Today, they condemn attacks on Israel as criminal but hail the killing of nearly 60,000 Palestinians as self-defence. All G-7 leaders dub Iran as the source of instability but are literally blind to — in fact complicit with - the Israeli actions of first killing Palestinians and now recklessly bombarding Iran to neutralise their nuclear weapons, although a US report, according to CNN, says Iran is far away from making a nuclear bomb. But all that seems just an excuse for crippling Iran and brining about a regime change. On the sidelines of the recent G-7 summit in Alberta, Canada, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spelt out this backhanded approach by the Israel apologists - a virtual endorsement of Israeli actions to date. "This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us — this mullah regime [in Iran] has brought death and destruction to the world," Merz said in an interview with the ZDF broadcaster. In a separate interview with Welt TV, Merz also suggested Israel's attacks on Iran could lead to the demise of the Islamic republic's leadership. "To be honest, I can hardly imagine the mullah regime returning to its old functions," he added, in a glaring display of hypocrisy born off cold-blooded geopolitics. The G-7 essentially endorsed the Israel position on Iran. This way they themselves undercut the very themes they touted for decades as the West's unique selling point (USP) i.e. democracy, rule of law and human rights with the United Nations watching on as a silent, literally irrelevant spectator. Its predecessor — the League of Nations — had ceased to exist on April 20, 1946, largely due to its inability to prevent major global conflicts, particularly World War II. Will the United Nations meet the same fate and drown in irrelevance? For all practical reasons, the UN has been reduced to a debating club of the elite that thrives off the funding from member countries. Israel today is doing what Rudolf Hitler did first against neighbouring European countries and then against Russia. Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 triggered reaction from America, Russia, Britain and France, with the last two mentioned countries declaring war on Germany on September 3, and so began the World War II. Will the murder of nearly 60,000 Palestinians and hundreds of Iranians as well as the potential Chinese and Russian reaction lead to the undoing of the United Nations that has been irrelevant at least since October 2023? Blind exceptionalism — basically another synonym for hypocrisy — is causing a major shift in global politics. Battle lines have further deepened with willful demonisation of Iran and its major supporters thus far i.e. China and Russia. This exceptionalism is stinkingly obnoxious, evident also from a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. "The US, Israel and India blundered by allowing Pakistan to acquire nuclear weapons. Repeating the blunder with Iran would be far worse," says an oped by Sadanand Dhume in the Journal's June 18, 2025 issue. Once again, this extremely self-serving argument — as if it were the benevolence of these countries and not relentless efforts of Pakistani scientists and engineers — exposes the exceptionalism being peddled in western official corridors and media houses. Nobody speaks of how Israelis and Indians got hold of nuclear weapons. Neither of them has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but continues to demonise Pakistan's nuclear capability like a crime committed. For the G-7 nations crimes, it seems, against hapless Palestinian women and relentless attacks on Iran are self-defence, while Pakistan's nuclear capability and Iran's nuclear pursuits are an unacceptable offence.
