“We should assassinate any leader that has a negotiation stance different from what we want.”— American Marc Thiessen, columnist for The Washington Post, now owned by Jeff Bezos

“The US absolutely needs the oil that comes through the Strait of Hormuz. Without it we cannot produce enough gas or aviation fuel … this was an attack on the global south.”— Larry Johnson, former CIA analyst

“This administration is determined to destroy the world order … This war is not in service to that global order because Trump does not believe in it … ”— Robert Kagan on the The World podcast hosted by Richard Engel

Kagan, another big fan of American imperialism, also had this revelation for the listeners to the The World podcast: “It’s hard to think of a time when the United States suffered a total defeat in a conflict. A setback so decisive that the strategic loss could neither be repaired nor ignored … ”

This war in West Asia was a major strategic win for Iran and its allies, and an unmitigated loss for the US and its cobelligerent, Israel. It marked a defeat for the US and Israel, who insisted on waging what I believe history will record as an illegal war of aggression. This was an unprovoked war of choice as stated that literally threatens even today the stability of the world itself.

This is why Iran, Russia and China are determined to establish a new security and financial architecture for Eurasia that will be extended eventually to other regions such as the global south. We also ignore the fact that this was also a war against the global south.

The aim though is not to replace the current financial architecture, which has the US dollar at the centre of it as the reserve currency, but to establish an alternative. To take on the tyranny of a system that undergirds imperialism and global hegemony. To make this expanded trading zone a dollar-free one.

Thanks to the weaponisation of the US-dominated global financial system via sanctions, they have been the chief rise and catalyst of the multipolar world. Where are 15 per cent of Venezuela’s gold reserves kept? They were seized by the Bank of England at the behest of the US and its sanction regime.

The British refuse to return those reserves although the current Venezuelan vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez, has recently demanded their return to fund disaster relief. The recent earthquake killed thousands in Venezuela and left thousands homeless.

Who controls Syria’s oil? The US.

Let’s not forget that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that which the senator Lindsay Graham did only recently, which is that the US must control or monopolise the world’s trade in oil.

Venezuela, Russia and Iran represent a very big chunk of that roughly 33 per cent combined of the world’s proven reserves. Venezuela is No 1 at just under 18 per cent. Was that worth conducting the heist of the century by the US, which today acts as a rogue state?

Some have characterised its behaviour as that of a mafia state.

Venezuela’s cardinal sin? Selling its oil in the Chinese currency, yuan, and others. It was also accepting billions in Chinese investment in the rebuilding of its oil facilities. Democracy? No, that was the false narrative for the middle-class credulous types in the US. It bore no resemblance to geopolitical reality at all.

Do you know where Venezuela’s oil revenues are deposited? In accounts in Miami. Or Iraq’s? In accounts at the US Treasury. Both need US permission to withdraw their own money. Tyranny? If it walks like it or talks like it … well I think you get the point. Sovereignty and independence for you but not for them.

All of the above in an effort to preserve the shrinking dollar-dominated system and the exorbitant privilege it conveys to America.

The price we pay though, especially in the global south and Africa, comes with endless wars and unfair trade practices, mostly against the global majority.

Western hypocrisy is not an oxymoron …

Iran has said no. It has committed itself for decades to resist Anglo-American, and Israel’s regional, hegemony. Do we call what the US is doing tribute or extortion — while murdering its way to global domination once more? What we are seeing now is the end of the Western colonial order, according to Michael Hudson, the American economist.

Has not Donald Trump himself said that the US (ie, Trump) wants to control the Strait of Hormuz and share in the spoils of war initially in partnership with Iran some months ago. He actually declared that publicly and recently declared he would control the strait and apply a fee to compensate the US for the multibillion-dollar cost of this illegal and unnecessary war that he and Binyamin Netanyahu unleashed that resulted in the closure of the strait in the first place. The major Western media houses conveniently went silent on that one by design. Tolls for us but not for you?

Western hypocrisy is not an oxymoron … increasingly Western virtue is.

Hebrew University poll: “ … 92 per cent of Israelis believe Iran emerged as winner after the war and deal with the US … ”

• Rolfe Commissiong is the former MP for Pembroke South East (Constituency 21)