London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Opinion: Your Government Doesn't Care About Middle Eastern Lives

Opinion: Your Government Doesn't Care About Middle Eastern Lives

The people of the Middle East live in a world where no one in power cares if they live or die. That's why they're angry.
Many breathed a sigh of relief this week when it became clear there were no casualties caused by Iranian missile strikes on Iraqi military bases housing US troops. Some applauded Donald Trump’s "success" in carrying out the targeted killing of a key Iranian military leader without experiencing immediate deadly retaliation. Pundit, professor, and president of the Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer tweeted it is “impossible not to call this a win” for Trump. In Iran, state media boasted of what it described as the stunning success of the country’s retaliation against America.

But the 176 people killed on Ukraine Airlines flight 752 that took off from Tehran on the night of the attacks — shot down by an Iranian missile - are casualties of these reckless escalations. These “wins.” A debate has been raging about who is more responsible. Was it Iran, who accidentally downed the plane, or the US for setting this latest round of escalation off with an assassination? On some level, it doesn’t matter, because Iranian officials and their American counterparts both behave in a way that suggests a lack of any serious concern for the lives of the people who will die as a result of their posturing and machinations. And throughout the Middle East, ruling elites and their foreign backers place zero value on the lives of everyday people as they play their deadly games of Risk.

If you’d like to know why so many people in this region are angry, it’s this. It’s because they live in a world in which seemingly no one in power cares if they live or die - nevermind whether they live with dignity.

The US and Iran use Iraq as a battlefield for their long-standing rivalry with no regard for the cost to Iraqis. Trump assassinated one of Iran’s top generals, Qassem Soleimani, ignoring the potential human cost of further destabilizing an entire country. For their part, Iranian officials have killed their own people in efforts to suppress massive protests. In other proxy fights, Soleimani was instrumental in Iran’s campaign to support Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s brutal struggle to hold onto power, involving an array of war crimes leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians and the displacement of millions. Meanwhile, in the war against ISIS, the US has leveled cities in Iraq and Syria. The US has also provided logistical support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, which has committed an array of war crimes and brought about what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Support for the war in Yemen began under Barack Obama. Many seem to forget this, but the world was awful before Trump became president.

It isn’t just the US and Iran who are responsible. In Libya, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan we find countries transformed into deadly playgrounds for competing powers, large and small. Aside from those already mentioned, the countries intervening either directly or by backing forces on the ground include the UAE, Russia, Qatar, Turkey, France, UK, Italy, and Egypt. Moreover, in most countries throughout the region, local authorities themselves imprison, torture and even kill their own citizens if they choose to criticize or mobilize against them. This past year Iraqi security forces shot military grade tear gas canisters directly into the skulls of protestors. In 2013, Egyptian security forces massacred roughly 800 protesters in a single day. In 2018, Saudi Arabia murdered a journalist just for writing critical op-eds from abroad. In 2011, Bahraini security forces arrested and tortured doctors treating wounded protestors.

The common link that binds most powers in the Middle East is a comfort with this kind of brutality being inflicted on ordinary people - be it their own citizens or somebody else’s. One result is the contempt many ordinary people have for their rulers; in 2019, an array of protests kicked off across the region, with those taking to the streets consistently condemning both their rulers and the foreign powers interfering in their affairs.

The public sees through their governments’ past efforts to focus their anger on foreign entities or sectarian divisions. While they haven’t lost sight of external actors violating their sovereignty, they also know the people sitting in their presidential palaces and parliaments are central to the problem. They know what many are uncomfortable admitting: no one in power cares about them. Neither the rulers of countries intervening in their homelands, either directly or through proxies, nor their own officials. To many in power, the lives of the people who inhabit this corner of the world are mere pawns in their strategic machinations, posturing, and game theory experiments.

There are many countries peddling absurd myths about this, myths that insult the intelligence of their audience. While the EU talks about human rights and solidarity, its efforts to externalize its border have led it to fund Libyan militias that have captured, imprisoned and, at times, sold into slavery migrants trying to reach Europe. Saudi Arabia has been broadcasting its new drive to modernize and improve its record on women’s rights while it imprisons and tortures Saudi women’s rights activists, like Loujain al-Hathloul. Russia has insisted its forces in Syria are at the invitation of the “legitimate” government, but even if one were to untenably accept a mass murderer as legitimate, Russia is also backing Khalifa Haftar in Libya who has no comparable legal legitimacy. Even Canada, which "courageously" tweeted criticism of Saudi Arabia’s rights record, simultaneously sold armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, the country responsible for the crisis Yemen.

Adding insult to injury is the gross incompetence of these nudist emperors. None of them are winning. Saudi Arabia has been humiliated in Yemen despite all of its advantages. The US is negotiating its withdrawal from Afghanistan with none other than the Taliban, and may be on the verge of getting expelled from Iraq. Assad may come to rule over the scorched, divided and emptied remains of Syria - almost certainly permanently beholden to second rate foreign powers who can’t afford to rebuild the country. From Lebanon to Iraq, protestors, including Shia protestors, are demanding an end to Iran’s interference. In Egypt, President Sisi’s regime believes itself to be so fragile that it went apoplectic over some viral videos on Facebook in which a B-grade actor living in self-imposed exile in Spain condemned corruption and called on Egyptians to protest.

Many of the region’s governments fail to show even a basic interest in their people’s well-being, and neither do the foreign governments who intervene, often with untenable claims of doing so in the interests of peace and stability. Yet, despite all this -perhaps because of it -the people of this region continue to risk everything and fight to live in a better and more just society.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
×