At the time we editorialised that the attacks amounted to wanton recklessness, and subsequent events have done nothing to alter that assessment.
The uprising by the Iranian people against their government so confidently predicted by US President Donald Trump has not come to pass. Instead the baton of leadership has passed to the son of the late former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s theocratic rulers seemingly remain firmly in place, despite US boasts of having taken out 48 leaders in one shot on the first day of the war.
Nor does Iran’s offensive capacity seem to have been limited. President Trump continues to claim that its military has been devastated, but Iranian missiles and drones continue to explode in neighbouring countries.
Confident predictions of early victory continue to be made by senior US politicians but there seems to be little grounds for that positive assessment — or a clear definition of what ‘‘victory’’ entails.
Iran continues to deny it has been negotiating a settlement, and the list of countries being dragged into a war not of their making continues to expand. Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been attacked by Iran, and Israel has launched an invasion of Lebanon as an adjunct to its support of the US attacks on Iran.
Now Yemen is entering the fray, the Houthi threatening to close access to the Red Sea.
That waterway has been used by Saudi Arabia to get its oil to world markets due to safety concerns about navigating the Straits of Hormuz — its usual shipping route for oil exports to Asia . . . where it is refined and then sold to many other countries, including New Zealand.
While this is not a world war, it certainly has global implications. Global markets remain jittery and uncertain, prices for many goods — most notably fuel — are skyrocketing,
The longer this goes on, the worse its effects will be, especially for a far distant country like New Zealand. In a month or two petrol prices storming toward the unthought of heights of $4 a litre or more for regular grade may be the least of our concerns.
If global shipping slows, or even halts, due to not having the fuel to sail all this way, imported goods — the cost of which are already likely on the rise — may well also become scarcer.
The country can endure a lack of luxury goods for a while, but if shipments of food fail to make it to these far off shores that will further bring this Middle East crisis closer to home.
For now, we are assured by the government that adequate fuel stocks are either in New Zealand or on their way here. So far, so good, but should both Gulf shipping routes become blocked that would likely not be the case for much longer.
It has already offered temporary relief for some working families through targetted tax credits, and assured those who missed out that other help would soon arrive due to annual benefit adjustments.
Tomorrow NZ Superannuation for a married couple who both qualify will lift, low-to-middle-income families with children will receive a small increase in the family tax credit, and student allowances and benefits will receive an inflation adjustment and the minimum wage will rise.
Some of those hikes will exceed the estimated average $50 a week the increase to the in-work tax credit will give recipient families, some are well below — but they do back the government’s assertion that some assistance was on the way for lower earners, even if it is not as much as many would have hoped for.
The government has also released a plan of the actions it will take should fuel imports slow or reach a bare trickle. It seems sensible and has been released well in advance of it needing to implemented so that the country knows what it is facing.
Everyone hopes that it will never get to that, but any further progress along the four-step fuel plan path is entirely dependent on factors far beyond New Zealand’s control.
Mr Trump launched this military adventure in the name of global security. Given the immense cost of ongoing global economic insecurity, many will be asking if it has all been worth it?
