Israel’s shock’n'awe on Iran – straight from the trademark US playbook – essentially failed, despite the initial combination of speed, meticulous military planning and the element of surprise, including hacking the Iranian electronic communications within the military grid; decapitation of the vertical IRGC nomenklatura; the spiderweb drone attack playbook; and bombing – ultimately ineffectual – of key nodes of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

The Global South, meanwhile, watches the horrendously deadly ping-pong between Israel and Iran – with increasing awareness that the cornered West is an even more dangerous animal day after day, waging Total War under the mask of peace.

From Nigeria to Indonesia to Vietnam – BRICS members and BRICS partners – there’s a growing consensus that Iran must not be allowed to fall. It’s that serious. The spell of unrestricted Western diktat has finally been broken: all that will survive is “the loud lament of the disconsolate chimera”. It takes a – failed – shock’n awe to break the camel’s back.