Tuesday June 24, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC
Political analysis by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Declaring the recent high-drama, high-stakes incident between Iran, Israel and the United States as ‘the 12-day war’ puts a nice tidy framework around the international tension of recent days
Iran had plenty of missile fire-power to direct at the US Army Base in Qatar yesterday in response to the US military attack on Iranian nuclear enrichment sites but the missiles (all but one) were handily intercepted.
Dismissing the missiles from Iran onto the US base at Qatar has been painted as a US-sanctioned tit-for-tat. In other words, of course you’ll want to retaliate but make it quick and keep it clean. That produces an off-ramp from major tensions felt around the globe in recent weeks. We can all go back to a slow simmer over the possibility of escalated danger in the world.
Next phase:
There is no certainty that enriched uranium and other supplies or equipment hadn’t been relocated by Iran from their three main nuclear enrichment sites in the days ahead of the June 21 targeted attack by the US military.
The last 12 days have taken political and military tensions to a peak but the politics that led to the 12-day war are still there to fester.
What comes next is hopefully the possibility of diplomacy to help contain hostilities by Iran, a country — or more precisely its leadership regime — that is by all accounts of democratic nations likely still not on board for a ceasefire let alone peace. Israel has no reason to believe that suddenly Iran’s regime has changed its determination to destroy Israel. And the US won’t know the true success of their military efforts until inspectors can get into the mountain sides to confirm the damage of key infrastructure there.
There’s not much if anything that most the rest of the world can do but stand by and watch as the flow of major events shifts a sense of world safety. But if the actions of the past few weeks that led up to the firepower of June 21 allows for Iranian regime change, then Israel could find themselves an off-ramp. Today US Vice-President JD Vance insisted that the June 21 attack on Iran’s nuclear sites was about taking out the nuclear not the regime. That work now seems left to diplomatic processes, with Israel still on full alert.
What we know:
What we know for sure is that US military might has for now won the day in the Middle East with a broader message to other countries of ‘don’t mess with us’.
What we know for sure is that Israel is pleased with having had such steadfast support from the United States.
What we see is a high-profile political win for US President Donald Trump, and another example of just how much power he or anyone can wield by decree from the White House.
What we see is how much older Trump suddenly looks. The tensions of the past few weeks in making the decisions he made would take a toll on anyone.
What we hope is that the 12-days war leveled not only a few mountain sides but also prepared a more level playing field for diplomatic negotiations to continue by Iran, Israel and the United States.
What we anticipate is that Trump will revel in the outward success of his decision to put Iran in its place. What most people hope is that Trump’s propensity for a big show will continue to be put to good use toward containment of further overt hostility in the Middle East. Politics aside, people are finding themselves having to put faith in this man at the top.
Canada’s moves:
Canada is far removed from the battle zones of the Middle East. But most of the world’s economy depends on oil from the region and it’s in Canada’s best interest to be as self-sufficient as possible, Allies other than the US will be helpful, in fact are required.
Canadians see our new prime minister cozying-up fast to European nations toward shared goals of economic strength and strategic security.
That includes aspects of addressing two other major sources of socioeconomic threat — climate change and digital transformation which was clear at the EU-Canada Summit in Belgium yesterday but also last week at the G7 Leaders’ Summit last week in Alberta.
===== RELATED:
- Canada fosters strengthened partnership with European Union (June 23, 2025)
- Trump announces U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites (June 21, 2025)
- NEWS SECTIONS: CANADA-USA | USA-GLOBAL