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........

© The Express Tribune