We may not be in the midst of a world war (at least not yet); however, ours is certainly a world at war. More specifically, ours is a world on fire owing to the imperialist actions of the United States, which has made clear that it is a threat to both people and planet in its quest for imperial control.

Some people, both in the US and outside it, had the mistaken belief that “America First” meant American isolation. What we understand now is that it meant US primacy — to be the primary global economic and military power on our planet.

The war against Iran, launched by the US and Israel, is an illegal war. It is a war of aggression, a war of choice. It is, in itself, a war crime. It doesn’t matter what you may think about the Iranian regime, this is an illegal war and the US and Israel are “the bad guys”. There are really no ifs and buts about that.

On top of the illegality of the war itself, we have also seen actions that are, at best, dishonourable, and, at worst, clear war crimes. Taboos upon taboos have been broken, and we are increasingly confronted by the reality that we live in a post-international law world.

The assassination of the Iranian head of state is one such taboo. This sets a precedent that we will no doubt see in the future, with other leaders being assassinated. That the war was unleashed by the US in the midst of active negotiations with Iran is another taboo. In fact, this is the second time that the US has used the cover of negotiations to attack Iran — it did the identical thing less than a year ago.

The consequence of this is that Iran will no longer trust the US in any future negotiations, and will likely refuse to participate in them. Additionally, it has sent a message to every other country in the world that the US simply cannot be trusted — why should anyone rationally enter into negotiations with the US now? This applies more immediately in our region to Cuba, but will also apply to Ukraine and other countries.

That US forces have no qualms about breaking international law was made clear last year when they began their murders of Caribbean people. This campaign of murder continues to this day, and has expanded to the Pacific. On January 3, we saw US soldiers actively break international law with their assault on Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro. Today, Venezuela is a puppet state, dictated to by the Trump regime.

We have seen “USraeli” forces commit atrocity after atrocity in this new illegal war. In addition to the assassination of the Iranian head of state in the opening hours, we also saw the double-tap strike on a girls’ elementary that same day (Saturday is a working and school day in Iran), killing at least 168 people, mostly students, girls between the age of 7 and 12. Cruelly, the second strike killed many of the survivors who had gathered in a prayer hall to wait for their parents.

Then we have the sinking of the IRIS Dena (Dena means “faith” in Iranian), a naval frigate that had been participating in a fleet review as a guest of India. The ship was unarmed, as per the instructions of the exercise. The US Navy was also invited to participate, although it pulled out at the last minute — however, it would have known the requirements of the exercise, and so have known that the Dena was unarmed. All the same, the US decided to sink the ship with a torpedo fired from one of its most advanced nuclear submarines, the USS Charlotte. Trump later joked that they could have captured the ship, but that it was more fun to sink it.

We have seen the USraeli forces attack civilian infrastructure, including desalination plants and healthcare centres. As I write this, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that there have been 18 attacks on healthcare sites in Iran, and 25 attacks on healthcare sites in Lebanon.

On International Women’s Day (March 8) USraeli forces attacked the Shahran oil refinery in Tehran — a city of 14 million people — leading to apocalyptic scenes, with whole neighbourhoods on fire. The attack unleashed a wave of toxic gases, as well as dark smoke, engulfing the city. This was, de facto, a form of chemical warfare. In the days following this ecocidal attack, acid rain fell on the people of Tehran.

USraeli strikes have also targeted sporting arenas, other schools and Unesco world heritage sites. As I write, most of the dead in Iran are civilians, and hundreds of thousands of people in both Iran and Lebanon have been displaced.

On top of the illegality and brutality of this war, we are confronted by the sadism of the Trump regime. We see Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, enthusiastic about the death and destruction USraeli forces are inflicting on the Iranian people.

And while there are different factors involved, I feel this is an important point. Shortly after Trump’s re-election, certain aspects of his MAGA movement went viral with the statement “your body, my choice” — a clear statement of intent to roll back the rights of women and minorities, as well as to brutalise immigrants. It is a slogan that is inherently one of domination and inescapably a rapist mentality.

And we see it writ large on the stage of geopolitics, with US military power being used, in Venezuela, the Caribbean and West Asia, to make the point “your country, our choice”. I think it is important to note also the number of key persons in the Trump regime who have a documented history of sexual assault and have advocated a rapist mentality — including Trump himself as well as Hegseth (whose own mother has lambasted him as an abuser of women).

We teach our youth to be good people. To not bully. To not steal. To not abuse. To not use violence. To not rape. To not dominate. To use our words and not our fists. To be honest. To protect those who need protection. To stand up to, and to call out abusers. To respect others and the environment.

These are the principles we tell ourselves our society should live by. These are good principles. And I think that we should practise what we preach and call out this illegal war, the atrocities being committed, and the abusive nature of US power we see on display today.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley, speaking on March 6 to the Barbadian parliament concerning recent US actions in the Caribbean said: “But what matters to us is principles. And I have said over and over that principles only mean something when it is inconvenient to stand by it.”

I hope we have the courage of our convictions to stick to our principles, without fear or favour.

• Jonathan Starling is a socialist writer with an MSc in Ecological Economics from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from Heriot-Watt University