On: Forever at war? US, Iran trade blows as Israel pushes deeper into Lebanon

They are at it again, the same old dance of death. The Pentagon promised a four-week campaign, but what does that mean? Four weeks of more bodies in the dirt, more villages levelled, more children with their faces blown off. They call it a ceasefire, but it is a farce. The Iranians lob a few missiles, the Americans answer with drones, and the newspapers yawn. So often has the ceasefire been violated that it has become a joke, a sick one.

They say “trade blows,” but what they mean is they trade corpses. The Israelis push deeper into Lebanon, and the Lebanese villages pay the price. The Pentagon speaks of precision, but the precision is for the cameras. The real precision is in the targeting of homes, of schools, of hospitals. They call it “military necessity,” but necessity for whom? Not for the mothers cradling their dead children in the rubble.

The Americans and the Iranians play their game of brinkmanship, and the rest of us watch, numb. The shrugs in the streets are the real tragedy. We have seen this before, again and again. The words “forever at war” are not a prediction; they are a confession. They do not want peace. They want the perpetual motion of war, the endless cycle of violence that keeps the contractors rich and the politicians in power.

The Pentagon’s four-week campaign is a lie. It is not a campaign; it is a charnel house. And the shrugs? Those are the real bullets. They kill the soul before the body.