Say no to war

Nuclear negotiations were active. Dialogue, however strained, was in motion. Then came the Israeli airstrikes. There was no trigger. No new attack from Iran. No provocation. Just a calculated decision by the Netanyahu government to escalate, knowing that Washington would eventually be forced to take sides.

Pakistan has seen this tactic before. We remember Pulwama in 2019. But the Pahalgam incident earlier this year is more relevant. Without evidence, Indian officials immediately blamed “Pakistan-based” actors. The ink wasn’t dry on the initial intelligence report before Indian forces launched air and drone strikes across the Line of Control. Civilian casualties followed.

The strategy is as old as modern warfare: pre-empt peace, provoke conflict, and pull in external actors before they can look too closely.

That is the risk Washington now faces. And it is one that President Trump, to his credit, warned Netanyahu about just weeks ago. Reports have confirmed that Israel’s leadership raised the prospect of decapitation strikes on Iran’s supreme leader. Trump said no. He understood the cost. But something changed. Israel moved ahead anyway. It bombed nuclear facilities and civilian centers while American diplomats were still in contact with Tehran.

This was not coordination. This was deliberate manipulation of a political vacuum in Washington. The risk now is that Iran retaliates against American personnel or allies in the region. That would make it easy for hawks in Washington to call for war. That is what Netanyahu wants. And that is what must be resisted.

The American people voted for Trump because he promised a different foreign policy. He ran on putting America first. That meant no more endless wars, no more regime change operations, and no more sending young Americans to die in foreign lands for causes that have nothing to do with US security.

If some in Washington want to involve the US in another Middle East war, they should be honest about what that means. It will not be their children sent into combat. It will be working-class families in places like Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania who pay the price, just as they have in every other war.

America is not under attack. Iran has not struck US soil. Israel is the aggressor. It chose this escalation during a window when diplomacy was still possible. That fact cannot be softened. It cannot be rebranded as self-defence.

Tucker Carlson said it plainly. Israel is at war because it made that choice. The US should not be pulled into a conflict that it did not start, and that it has every reason to avoid. The only responsible path for Washington is to stay out.

There is a lesson here for Pakistan and the broader Muslim world. Israel has learned that it can launch strikes and set the narrative before the facts arrive. India has used the same method. Both rely on information dominance, Western media amplification, and the assumption that their retaliation will be treated as justified.

The same script plays out every time. The aggressor sets the stage, the victim responds, and the international community calls for restraint on both sides. The difference is that one side receives weapons, funds and political cover, while the other receives warnings to ‘not escalate further’.

This is not a plea for balance. It is a call for honesty. Iran is no perfect actor. But facts matter. And in this case, Iran was in negotiations. The attack that followed was not retaliation. It was sabotage.

Pakistan should be paying close attention. Because the same powers that arm and enable Israel are those that back India’s hardline military approach in our region. They speak of restraint, but fund aggression. They urge peace, but sell arms that can only be used for war.

Pakistan has experience navigating these provocations. We did not escalate recklessly after Pahalgam. We responded proportionally, documented violations and took the case to international forums. We knew the stakes. And we knew the narrative would be tilted against us if we moved first.

The same is true now for Iran. But they are being pushed. And if a false flag occurs to trigger American intervention, the war that follows will be built on deception. Not unlike Iraq. Not unlike Libya.

America must resist this. It is not isolationist to say so. It is rational. It is strategic. It is consistent with any doctrine that places the interests of the American people above those of foreign governments. And for Pakistan, this is the time to stand firm. To call this what it is. Unprovoked aggression.

In the coming days, the pressure to choose sides will grow. But Pakistan should not forget where it stands. We are not neutral. We are pro-stability. Pro-sovereignty. And pro-truth. We have no interest in being drawn into a war manufactured by others, for goals that are not ours. And America should say the same.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this piece are the writer's own and don't necessarily reflect Geo.tv's editorial policy.

The writer is a non-resident fellow at the CISS. He posts/tweets @umarwrites