Nations go to war for the same reason individuals destroy their own relationships, and the instinct is to locate the source of that pain outside oneself. The resource explanation for the US-Iran confrontation is the most persistent alibi and the most easily dismantled. The question that does not get asked is simpler and more dangerous: who is the one fighting? The ego that requires enemies to sustain its own sense of coherence does not disappear when the missiles stop.
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Originally published in The Pioneer on 7 mar '26
There is a question that goes unasked every time the world erupts in war, and its absence is more revealing than anything the analysts say. The question is not about which side is right, or which grievance is legitimate, or which alliance has been betrayed. Those questions get asked at great length, with great sophistication, by very worldly, credentialed people. The question that does not get asked is simpler and more dangerous: who is the one fighting? Not which nation, not which ideology, not which scripture, but who, actually, is doing this, what does this person want, and why does the wanting never stop?
That question is dangerous because it turns the lens around. All the other questions look outward, at the adversary, at the system, at the historical injustice. This one looks at the looker. And the looker, it turns out, has a very strong interest in not being looked at.
