It’s Their Territory

This was Donald Trump’s reasoning as why other nations should be helping the US with the Straight of Hormuz during the ongoing US-Israel bombardment of Iran: “Really, I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory – because it is their territory.” If there’s one silver lining to the man, it’s that he always knows how to say the quiet part out loud.

To state the obvious, the Gulf region emphatically isn’t Chinese, Korean, Japanese, European, or even American territory. It belongs to the people and nations who inhabit it. Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, all of these are sovereign states, legally equal to the US or any other power. There is no international law that says the permanent Security Council Members have a right over other countries territory. At least, not officially. Because what Trump is happily admitting to, is that no matter what the law states, in practice the entitlement of Empire and major world powers says something else.

For any keeping track, this is the US starting a war, failing to prevent the straight being closed, and being apparently unable to reopen it themselves – even though Trump said they didn’t need help two weeks ago when declaring the war won. It just exudes competence and strength, doesn’t it. Source.

Behind Trump’s statement is the acknowledgement of both the continued imbalance of power in our world, and the injustice it creates. There is a reason Trump and his administration don’t recognise the sovereignty of the countries they attack, or even trade with. The USA has a long doctrine that their national security overrides anything else, including the security or well being of another nation. The underlying philosophy is of course, American exceptionalism: that the United States can do whatever it wants because it is God’s chosen (or at least, because it has the guns to do it). This is why the US sanctions and blockades Cuba, why the CIA and US military continue to intervene in Latin America (“Their” backyard), and why the Americans see no overreach in attacking Iran. They might wear one or mask over their imperial ambitions, but in reality the driver of American might is entitlement, that their wealth and weapons buy them the privilege to do as they please. After all, the US has often snubbed its nose at international systems, having pulled out of the WHO, dragged its heels signing onto bans against civilian bombing and other war crimes, and informed the public it will bomb the Hague before it allows an American to be put on trial at the ICC. The Americans claim to be a nation apart, a shining beacon of liberty – but if that was ever true, it certainly isn’t now, because no country that values liberty or freedom would enable and support the oppression and disempowerment of others, borders be dammed.

The arrogance and entitlement of empires is going to make our planet unlivable before it raises us all out of poverty, or finds the time to feed all the hungry.

However, Trump’s comments aren’t about America – it’s about the other wealthy nations and powers. After all, it’s “their” territory the US is involved in, and “their” resources being blockaded. The irony that the reason for that blockage is US foreign policy is of course, apparently lost on the American leadership. Why is it their territory? Because “it’s the place from which they get their energy.” According to the President of the USA, buying resources from another part of the world makes that place “yours” – a different leader better with euphemisms might have said it meant ‘national security’ or interests were at stake, but the meaning is the same. Why does the US bomb Iran? Maybe to help Israel. Maybe to expand their control over the world’s oil and minerals reserves. Or maybe just to remove a power that is unfriendly towards them: after all, almost every hostile country to the US has been hit by economic and military pressure since 2024. In reality though, all of these reasons are the same: they do it because they can, or at least they thought they could. And because the US is just an empire like any other, no matter what excuses they offer or lies they tell.

Behind the language of freedom and the promise of prosperity is a country founded on broken treaties, unjust exploitation and outright genocide. Far more of that prosperity depended on violence and death. Source.

We won’t have a just world, or a truly happy for humanity and the earth, until we break the binds of empires down and develop systems where people can be equal with one another. It might sound impossible or naïve, but I would argue the alternative is far less feasible. In the past two centuries we’ve seen world wars, genocides, and so much ecological damage it might cause irreversible harm to the planet. The arrogance and entitlement of empires is going to make our planet unliveable before it raises us all out of poverty, or finds the time to feed all the hungry. They think the world is theirs, but it isn’t. It belongs to all of us, and we need to bring about a system that recognises that fact, one teaspoon of sand at a time.

– The Teaspoon