Destruction is rarely inextricable from the US Empire– for decades, it has sunk its claws into nation after nation, inciting war and stripping societies of their foundations. Yet beyond this overt violence, the people of the Global South endure a more silent war– rarely understood and in ways words alone cannot encapsulate.

On the night of Saturday, March 6, Israeli strikes targeted several of Iran’s oil depots and refineries, igniting widespread fires and shrouding Tehran with thick black smoke. Iran’s Red Crescent Society advised residents to stay indoors, issuing warnings over the health risks of exposure to toxic pollutants present in the air. Contaminated with soot and chemicals from burning oil, “black rain” fell over the city in the aftermath.

Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, said the strikes released “hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air,” which are “endangering lives on a massive scale,” according to the BBC.

Israel and the United States have a long history associated with environmental warfare – studies have shown the latter is the world’s largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gases, with most of the damage a result of its global military activity. During the Vietnam War, the United States deployed herbicides such as Agent Orange, whose toxic legacy continues to cause cancers, birth defects, and ecological devastation decades later. In Iraq, following the so-called ‘War on Terror’ that killed millions in West Asia, the remnants of depleted uranium and white phosphorus led to a sharp increase in the birth defects in Fallujah, as well as cancer and leukaemia. The rate of these afflictions is comparable to that reported among survivors of the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Breast cancer is also reported to be one of the leading causes of death for Iraqi women – one study measuring blood samples found there were uranium levels recorded in both groups, with higher uranium levels in women with breast cancer compared to women without cancer.

Cancer incidence in Iraq has even increased twofold after the war, seeing about 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year.

In Palestine, Israel’s genocidal campaign has obliterated the besieged enclave’s civil infrastructure. The devastating environmental impact left by the colonial regime has led to widespread air pollution, 50 million tonnes of debris and hazardous material due to bombardment, and a contaminated water supply, resulting in waterborne and respiratory diseases, among others. With the United States’ permission, more than 281,000 tons of carbon dioxide were generated in just the first few months following October 7th 2023.

For those living in the Global South, the brutalisation inflicted by the United States and its proxy, Israel, has had irreversible effects that continue to be felt long after blood-stained boots retreat from the ground.

Militarism and man-made “natural disasters” that sweep across the region extend beyond the visible damage to civilian infrastructure – they impose profound physical and psychological suffering at the hands of the empire. Disease outbreaks, malnutrition, and a growing mental health crisis in the region are merely a diminutive fraction of the large-scale anguish its inhabitants must endure.

Studies have long documented the environmental degradation that comes from disproportionate war, noting that contamination can persist in the environment for years, damaging landscape resources. TNT, which is used in military applications, is classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a possible human carcinogen and is known to harm soil health, vegetation, and overall human health.

Despite claims of chemical weapons, threats of terrorism, or foreign intervention being necessary to “emancipate” the people of sovereign nations, civilians and critical infrastructure are frequently targeted in the context of Western meddling – costing millions of lives, devastating ecosystems, and destabilising thousand-year-old civilisations in the name of imperial conquest. For the Global South, the language of philanthropy is but a veneer concealing an unending campaign of resource extraction and geopolitical rule.

On the international stage, the United Nations has recently expressed concern over the environmental consequences, rising civilian casualties, damage to civilian infrastructure, and the growing displacement of people sweeping the region. Yet within the United Nations framework, Conference of the Parties (COP), its primary vehicle aimed to combat the climate crisis, rarely confronts the largest polluter on Earth, the United States. In this context, condemnation is futile without enforcement.

Institutions that have repeatedly allowed the United States, and by extension Israel, to violate international law without material consequences are just as complicit in these war crimes as the aggressors. It is this contradiction that we must confront – are we to believe in the authority of international law when justice is rarely preserved for the oppressed? 

The deeper failures of these systems are evident through passivity and cowardice. War does not end when white flags are raised or when jets are called back to their home bases; it embeds itself in the fabric of a society. When the blade of imperialism strikes, its effects often supersede the immediate damage, lingering for years to come. These wounds fade into scars that endure through intergenerational trauma, leaving communities robbed of stability and trapped in a state of fight-or-flight, haunted by the fear of what might return.

There are real human costs to every decision made in faraway boardrooms – decisions often detached from the reality and long-term consequences of every bomb dropped, every missile launched, and every shot fired. 

Those in the Global South are owed life free from intervention, and far more than televised statements and empty declarations. We must support those who resist – for without enforcement, international law is nothing more than performance. It becomes merely a stick the West uses to beat other countries with, while never applying the same standards to itself.