High price of brinksmanship
The tragedy of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 reminds us what the real cost of brinksmanship can be. After insisting for two days that the plane coincidentally crashed due to ‘technical error’ hours after it had launched retaliatory strikes against US military facilities in Iraq, Iran acquiesced that its forces had indeed shot it down. But even as they apologised for the ‘unforgivable mistake’, they attempted to place the blame for the incident on America’s doorstep.
‘US adventurism’, Iran’s foreign minister Javed Zarif claimed, “led to human error at a time of crisis” – days earlier, a missile strike launched on Trump’s orders killed a top Iranian general in what was the first time since the Second World War that the US had targeted a senior military official. Zarif’s attempt, it appears, has not been enough to placate his intended audience in Iran, which has, if reports are to be believed, taken to the streets calling for the regime’s ouster.
The Trump administration, on the other hand, far from learning any sobering lesson from the sordid episode that still threatens to spiral out of control, has instead sniffed an opportunity in the protests to further ratchet up pressure on the Iranian regime. The move was seemingly answered in mere hours as Iran launched a fresh rocket salvo at an Iraqi base housing US personnel.
If the past few days have proved anything, it is that neither regime seems interested in anything more than appearing strong to itself. As they engage in a fresh round of ‘No, you!’ and upping the ante, one wonders if either of them have the courage to tell the families of Flight 752 victims what they died for.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 13th, 2020.
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