IT is a grave and perilous fallacy if we think we are safe. We are not safe. Nobody is. And, when I say ‘nobody’, I surely mean nobody on Earth. The expansionist moves made by Israel represent a warning sign. Benjamin Netanyahu has tragically misled his countrymen to believe in his delusions and recklessness that have already resulted in a Gaza catastrophe, reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble and human lives to mere numbers.

No less alarming are the moves made by the United States, with President Donald Trump wilfully, dangerously and blindly following the Israeli prime minister with zero regard for what this might mean to the world at large. In fact, he does not apparently care what it might mean to the US, its people and its economy.

The US approach seriously risks the integrity of Nato alliance, the already delicate relationship with the Gulf states, the outright defiance of the world order, the systematic tearing apart of vulnerable Asian, African and European economies, and the irreversible loss of long-term friends across the globe.

But, most importantly, Trump has failed entirely to foresee his own negative graph of popularity in his own country as a direct and inevitable result of his reckless adventures.

The war in Iran has brutally disrupted the world across every single continent, culture and religion — Asia, Australia, Africa, the Americas, Europe; Christians, Jews, Muslims and countless others. Societies and human beings regardless of culture or faith are literally feeling the rising heat of this war. They are feeling the collective trauma spreading like wildfire.

The question of burning urgency in many a mind is about the silence of international leaders and heads of states. What are they waiting for? Are they still not sure about the destructive intentions of Israel and the US? Do they still need more mountains of substantial evidence regarding drowning economies and their brutal implications for societies and the common man? Are they still waiting for more blood-soaked records for future historians to document — records of the unspeakable brutalities caused by this war, brutalities that have already caused enough disruptions, enough suffering, enough grief?

Though Spain and France have taken certain soft measures, and Turkiye, Egypt and Pakistan has worked hard to mediate, such efforts were not being openly supported by major world powers. This approach is surely not going to work. To stop this war beyond the current ceasefire is everybody’s business. It is the business of every conscious world leader and power on this planet to intervene now — forcefully, immediately and with all the collective strength they possess — to save our future generations from an abyss that currently seems to their destiny.

The world must force the US and Israel to stop further destruction before it is too late. If time is lost, if we continue to hesi-tate, this madness may lead to the un-thinkable. It is everybody’s business to make sure the ‘unthinkable’ never happens.

Dr Hasan Orooj
Islamabad

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2026