The Israeli strike on Qatar was not simply another spasm of violence in a region that has grown numb to paradoxical irony. It was a parable, a grotesque morality play in which every actor revealed his true character. Netanyahu, the war criminal at large, staggered across the stage with the vulgar confidence of a man who knows he will never face the dock. Washington, the empire in decline, sat like a rented guard dog, fat, fed, and wagging its tail, while its supposed “ally” was beaten blue and silly in broad daylight. And the Arab rulers, those obedient scalawags, performed their usual role: that of extras, bowing and scraping, reciting lines written in another capital, waiting for applause that never comes. The scene would be comic if it weren’t tragic. But perhaps it is both, for what is tragedy if not comedy that has lasted too long?
Qatar thought itself clever. With one hand, it built Al-Udeid Air Base into the crown jewel of American forward deployments, a fortress of runways and command centres that were supposed to serve as its shield. On the other hand, it polished its reputation through AlJazeera, football sponand glittering skylines that dazzled outsiders into mistaking wealth for security. The calculation was simple: buy protection from Washington, buy legitimacy from the world, and float safely above the turmoil that consumes neighbours. But the calculation was childish. Criminal Netanyahu’s jets did not pause at the sight of the American base. The Pentagon, for all its boasts about deterrence, did not twitch a finger. Washington’s “security umbrella” turned out to be an umbrella made of tissue paper, collapsing at the first drop of rain.
This is not a one-off humiliation. It is the lived fate of every client regime that mistakes subservience for strategy. Ask Saddam Hussein. For years, he was America’s favourite thug, showered with weapons and intelligence to fight Iran. When his usefulness waned, he was discarded and then hanged like a stray dog. Ask Hosni Mubarak. For three decades, he was the model client, signing peace with Israel, repressing his pand cashing Washington’s checks. When Egyptians rose against him, Washington abandoned him within hours, and he spent his last years in a cage. Ask Muammar Gaddafi. He disarmed at Washington’s urging, opened his oil fields, and shook hands with Western leaders. They repaid him by bombing his convoys and live streaming his death on YouTube. The lesson is so clear it should be written on every palace wall in the Gulf: the empire does not have friends, it has clients. Clients are used, then discarded.
Yet the rulers of the Gulf, blind or willfully stupid, or both, continue to play their part. They pour billions into weapons they will never operate. They parade their F-15s and Eurofighters like children showing off toys they do not understand. Their missile defenses beep and flash only when American contractors push the buttons. Their soldiers march in immaculate uniforms but take orders from Washington and Tel Aviv. In Orwell’s world, this would be described as “security through dependency,” which is to say, no security at all. It is the theatre of strength masking the reality of weakness.
Contrast this with Iran, and the difference is obscene. Isolated, sanctioned, demonized, Iran had no choice but to rely on itself. After all, you never know how strong you are, up and untill being stron remains the only available option. It could not buy protection, so it built it. It could not purchase weapons freely, so it developed them. Its engineers turned scrap into drones that terrify Western generals. Its scientists launched satellites while neighbouring princes toured Paris tent rougue. Its missile stockpiles are not for parades but for deterrence. And so, when it was attacked, it responded — not with press releases, not with pleas for “international law,” but with missiles and drones that left its enemies reeling. Washington and Tel Aviv curse Iran loudly in public, but in private? They tread carefully because they know Iran can hit back.
There is a grim irony here. Sanctions, meant to cripple Iran, forced it into self-reliance. Oil wealth, meant to secure the Gulf, shackled it into dependency. Iran, poorer, is stronger. Qatar, richer, is weaker. History is cruel that way.
The economics of this charade are as grotesque as its politics. The Gulf states recycle their petro-dollars not into development but into the American military-industrial complex. It is the modern version of colonial tribute. They export crude oil, they import crude weapons, and in exchange, they get neither sovereignty nor respect. American defence contractors laugh all the way to the bank. Every missile fired in anger means a new contract signed in Riyadh or Doha. Every Israeli provocation means another arms show in Abu Dhabi. The rulers sauntered like sovereigns, but in reality, their nations are show rooms for Lockheed Martin.
Iran, excluded from this racket, built its own industry. Its factories may creak, its economy may stumble, but its sovereignty is intact. It is not reduced to begging Washington for protection against a neighbour. It is not humiliated by seeing its sky violated while its “ally” watches silently. The Iranian model is costly, but it works. The Arab model is comfortable, but it collapses when tested.
Criminal Netanyahu’s motives are clear. A man drowning in scandal charges needs distractions. A gangster despised by half his own people needs enemies to unite them. He is the pyromaniac firefighter, setting blazes to justify his own survival. That he can bomb a state hosting America’s largest base without consequence is not proof of his genius but of his impunity. He knows that Washington will scold him in public and rearm him in private. He knows that Arab rulers will whine in microphones but never withdraw their obedience. He knows that the empire needs his thuggery more than it values its clients’ dignity. And so he struts, he bombs, he survives.
The empire itself is not blind. It knows exactly what it is doing. Insecurity is not a failure of the system. It is the system. If the Gulf could defend itself, there would be no reason to keep buying American weapons. If Israel stopped provoking wars, there would be no justification for American bases. If Arab rulers were secure, Washington would lose leverage. The architecture of the Middle East is designed for perpetual fragility: Israel as the bully, US the “bodyguard,” and Arab states the paying clients. It is a circus, with Washington as the ringmaster, Israel the whip, and Arab monarchs the animals, dressed in costumes, jumping through hoops, hoping the audience applauds.
But the problem is that the audiences are changing. The Global South is watching this circus with growing contempt. They see the hypocrisy: Israel may bomb a state under American protection, but Iran can not defend itself without being condemned as a rogue. They see the double standard: U.S. allies may repress, normalize, and beg, but only those who resist are punished. They see the farce of the “rules-based order,” a phrase repeated so often it has become the modern equivalent of Orwell’s “war is peace.” And they are quietly recalibrating. China offers loans without sermons. Russia offers arms without lectures. Iran offers defiance as an with solloloquising lullaby. None are perfect, but all reveal Washington’s bargain as a scam.
Empires collapse not when their weapons rust but when their words rot. Washington still has weapons, but its words are rotting faster than meat in a sewage. Each act of hypocrisy, each betrayal, each discarded client accelerates the decay. Mubarak, Gaddafi, Saddam, each thought himself indispensable. Each discovered otherwise. The Gulf monarchs will discover it too, though by then it will be too late.
“To have peace, prepare for war. To have freedom, stand against the bully.” It is brutal advice, but reality is brutal. Qatar’s humiliation is a proof. Iran’s survival is another proof. The Arab rulers who continue to believe that being the yours obedient servants of gangsters in fancy suits is a strategy are turkeys congratulating the farmer for feeding them, blind to the axe hanging on the wall. History has no patience for turkeys. It devours them.
The message could not be louder. If you want peace, arm yourself. If you want freedom, stop bowing. Iran has understood this. Israel, in its own monstrous way, has understood this. Only the Arab rulers, draped in silk and guarded by foreign mercenaries, pretend otherwise. They will learn the hard way that obedience buys nothing but the privilege of being betrayed later rather than sooner.
And when they are gone, their people will remember. They will remember the bombs that fell while their leaders begged. They will remember the promises of protection that turned to ash. They will remember that dignity belongs to those who resist, not those who rent their sovereignty. They will remember, and they will not forgive.