'No White Male Saviour, Please': Outlook Editor Writes On The Israel-Iran Conflict

“It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous (atomic) weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons… My own feeling was that in being first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard to the barbarians of the Dark Age. I was not taught to make war in that fashion and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”

—Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, chief of staff to US Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. From We Who Dared to Say No to War: American Antiwar Writing From 1812 to Now, by Murray Polner and Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

“There’s nothing further here for a warrior. We drive bargains. Old men’s work. Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men. Courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace. And the vices of peace are the vices of old men. Mistrust and caution. It must be so.”

—says Arab Prince Feisal, in Lawrence of Arabia, a 1962 film based on the story of T. E. Lawrence, the English officer who was sent to unify the Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.

There are times when we must look at history and propaganda and popular culture and correct narratives that seem to glorify the white male saviour who is to lead us to deliverance. The recent 12-day war with Iran and the other wars elsewhere, including in Afghanistan, hinge on this superiority complex that some cultures are superior and liberal than others and therefore, must liberate those who they think are barbaric.

This isn’t to say these regimes aren’t oppressive and have not tortured their people, especially women, but to impose a war on their country invoking the brutal regime and making a case for bombings is to undermine people’s ability to question and collectivise on their own. We know from history how many countries have been abandoned, like Afghanistan. A genocide is happening in Gaza in front of our eyes and no ceasefire ever happens there.

Democrat Zohran Mamdani’s successful run in the mayoral primary for New York is a little string of hope. He has stood for Palestine, for the poor, for the minorities, for those who are burdened with self-censorship. The theatre of the absurd plays out every day. American President Donald Trump gets nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The bizarre plays out every day. The tragic, too.

As I write this, I know that children are being killed in Gaza. Sometimes, I feel writing and reporting stories do not matter because who wants to read a story about people in a place getting shot at while they are in queue to get aid. The apathy of the world is a strange fact.

But we will continue to write what must be written. And hang on to hope that the colonial past of this world doesn’t cast its shadow on the future. And no wars can be justified in the name of women. Women can rise against the oppression and they always have.