The 12-day war of aggression waged principally by Israel against Iran has been fascinating for its starkness on multiple fronts. Much like Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians, on open display yet unstoppable, the falsehood and illegality of both Israeli and American words and actions continued unabated throughout the war.

It was, in every way, a no-holds-barred affair: the facts, the rhetoric, the deceit. And this wasn’t about domestic politics or some marginal policy issue. This was about taking nations to war. It was about planning to tear down a country, deploying weapons and unloading tons upon tons of missiles. It was about flaunting cutting-edge technology, including 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker buster bombs, to be dropped by the B-2 bombers – the most expensive planes ever built, worth $2.2 billion each. The logistics story was made captivating, numbing the mind to more critical questions – such as what these 30,000-pounders could achieve when targeting material located more than a kilometre beneath the earth. Reports were sent out dutifully about the unprecedented 'heroic' 37-hour-long missions of the B-2 bomber pilots, who would drop fourteen of these bombs, guaranteeing annihilation and destruction at three sites.

The power-wielding architects of this dramatically worded bombing mission spread their ‘faith’ with conviction. The shrill messaging around this unprecedented, colossal task was delivered in fascistic simplicity: that the ‘noble’ objective was to rid the world of the 'most dangerous threat' to global security. The mission, they claimed, would demolish Iran’s nuclear programme once and for all. Israel had been making the claim for over two decades – and was now seconded by US President Donald Trump – that Iran was just months away from producing nuclear weapons for what they called the world’s most dangerous and dreaded regime.

Thus, the shrill rhetoric proliferated globally. Digital and legacy media buzzed with talk of the mission, of bombers and bombs, of Top Gun-style pilots in Tom Cruise mode who had rehearsed every step of ‘Mission Annihilate'. All the rest was drowned out. Questions about the impact on areas and people surrounding the........

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