Heads I Win, Tails You Lose- The Senseless War

What I see when I turn on the news channels is scenes straight out of an action movie - unimaginable ones that haunt and strike fear into my heart. I’m only ten, but I’ve always been really interested in politics. I may not know everything about war, but I know one thing for sure- war destroys lives. 

Tensions have been bubbling like a lab experiment gone wrong for years over Iran’s nuclear program. In late 2025, huge protests broke out inside Iran, and the government responded with an iron fist. Then, on February 28, 2026, the U.S. and Israel launched a massive surprise operation called "Operation Epic Fury."

In the very first wave of strikes, they hit the top of the leadership, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other high-ranking officials. It was meant to stop Iran's nuclear program and maybe even change the government. But little did they know- they were meddling with a dormant volcano which would erupt with calculated, strategic fury, changing global power equations forever.

If it were up to me, I would have never started this war when the option of negotiation existed. Nations and their leaders may hold different beliefs and perspectives, but in the end, they all seek the same thing- the best possible future of their people. And if not for themselves, at least for the people, the leaders of the US, Israel, and Iran should not have started this war. Every single time, war creates a more insecure world, not a safer one. 

At first, it looked like this war involved just two or three countries, but it has led to something bigger, and it’s affecting the whole world. The bombing of the IRIS Dena, an Iranian ship returning from India after a naval exercise, marked the expansion of the territory under attack and the escalation of the war, as it had been hit by torpedoes about 2000 miles from the war zone in international waters. Even the lives of innocent school children have been deemed acceptable collateral damage. Yes, about 160 innocent school children died a gruesome death during the bombing of Minab by Israel in Iran. Iran has blocked the Strait of Hormuz, leading to oil shortages worldwide. Suddenly, this smaller, supposedly weaker power has managed to unsettle the established world order completely. Did it need to come to this? A brawl in the schoolyard has now taken over the street! What is it proving? I think the only message children like me are getting is that the adults in charge of the world today do not care that they are destroying the environment, the global economy, and the lives of thousands of people who have nothing to do with the conflict.

All this leaves us with an unresolved, complicated question-

If leaders are supposed to protect their people, why does it feel like they only care about protecting their own power?  

Why does the world look scarier and more unpredictable the more ‘advanced’ we become as a species? Perhaps, it’s time the world powers stepped back and took a long, hard look at the pain they are leaving in the wake of their tit-for-tat attacks on each other, because whoever wins, the world loses. I heard someone use this term- ‘Pyrrhic victory.’ I didn’t understand it then, but I think that’s what we will see soon.