After decades of military campaigns framed as democracy-building, you’d think we would have learned: You can’t build democracy from bomber aircraft at 30,000 feet.
And yet, here we are again.
From Afghanistan to Iraq, Libya to now Iran, the pattern is depressingly familiar: Drop explosives, declare ‘mission accomplished’, then leave a political vacuum filled by chaos, extremism, or civil war.
Oh – and turn away the refugees fleeing the devastation we helped create.
This isn’t hindsight. It’s a loop we’ve been stuck in for a generation.
Western intervention – even when dressed up as liberation – often destroys more than it stabilises. And now, with the latest US-led airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, we’re watching the same story unfold again.
Donald Trump wants you to believe Operation Midnight Hammer was a show of strength.
The precision. The stealth bombers. The bunker-busters. All very impressive – if you’re watching from a safe distance. But tactical success isn’t the same as strategic stability.
The strikes may have damaged Iran’s infrastructure (although a leaked Pentagon report suggests to a lesser degree than Trump declared) but they’ve done nothing to resolve the deep regional grievances, power struggles, and factional violence that will only grow in the aftermath.
And what’s the plan for the days after? As usual, I can’t see that there is one.
I’m imagining it will go something like this: The White House declares victory. Iran’s nuclear scientists go underground. Its proxies retaliate in Yemen and Syria. And another generation of angry, disenfranchised civilians watches Western missiles fall with impunity.
We know what happens next. We’ve lived it.
And what about the UK? We’re being pulled in again – expected to nod along, lend diplomatic cover, open our military bases, share intelligence, and defend the moral logic of an operation we didn’t start, can’t control, and shouldn’t be part of.
What’s in it for us? Security? Stability? We’ve heard that before.
In truth, there’s little British interest served by this escalation. And yet here comes the familiar choreography: Downing Street treads carefully to protect the ‘special relationship’, while British voters rightly grow ever more sceptical of these endless entanglements.
We’ve learned – or should have – that foreign policy done at the whim of Washington rarely ends well. Especially not when it’s being shaped by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Follow Metro on WhatsApp to be the first to get all the latest news
Metro’s on Whatsapp! Join our community for breaking news and juicy stories.
And let’s talk about Trump’s boasts of the ceasefire – which lasted about as long as an episode of Corrie – between Israel and Iran. He’s calling it a peace breakthrough.
But if Trump really has the power to end wars with a simple phone call, why hasn’t he done it for Ukraine? The illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is as clear-cut a conflict as any in modern history.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry says at least 74 people have died and another 391 have been wounded in the last 24 hours of Israel’s bombardment.
Sign up to Metro’s politics newsletter, Alright Gov?
Craig Munro breaks down Westminster chaos into easy to follow insight, walking you through what the latest policies mean to you. Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.
Instead, we seem doomed to double down on the mistakes of the past.
Desperate to convince ourselves that this time is different, that we are not mistaking military might for moral clarity.
But fear is overruling judgment again. Not just for those killed in airstrikes or families displaced, but for the thousands who flee only to be turned away at the borders of the countries that helped destroy their homes.
Britain isn’t just complicit in these wars. Too often, we’re complicit in abandoning their victims.
When will we learn? We’ve tried to bomb our way to democracy. It doesn’t work – because it can’t work.
What we need now is not more firepower, but a foreign policy grounded in restraint, diplomacy, and realism.
That means saying no when we need to. That means remembering the lessons of the last 20 years.
And that means refusing to be dragged into another war we have no business being part of – especially one made in Washington, and outsourced to us.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Share your views in the comments below.
