Donald and Bibi Were Wrong.
I know this not as analysis. I know it because I heard the explosion.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu made a catastrophic strategic error on 28 February 2026.
Not because peace with Iran was achievable. Not because the Iranian regime does not bear deep moral responsibility for the suffering it has inflicted on its own people and across the region. Those are separate conversations.
The error was this: they launched a war that would land hardest on nations that did not launch it, did not sanction it, and were not consulted about it. They assumed the GCC would absorb the consequences of a decision made in Washington and Tel Aviv, and that regional governments -- polished, professional, diplomatically restrained -- would manage the fallout quietly.
They were wrong.
"Gulf producers have lost an estimated $15.1 billion in energy revenues since the first strike. Tourism is haemorrhaging $600 million every single day. Forty thousand flights have been cancelled."
Dubai International Airport, the world's single busiest hub for international passenger traffic, has been struck and partially closed. Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery has taken fire. The Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global oil passes, is effectively closed.
These are not side effects. They are the direct, foreseeable, and foreseen consequences of a military operation planned by two governments that would not bear the first order of those consequences.
The GCC has spent decades building a different future - Vision 2030, UAE diversification, Qatar's LNG infrastructure, Bahrain's financial sector. That architecture rests on a single premise: that the Gulf is stable, predictable, and safe for long-term capital. That premise was demolished in a weekend.
I heard the explosion. I felt the building move. I looked out and saw what the decisions made in Washington and Tel Aviv look like from 150 feet away.
Nations should not be made to pay for wars they did not choose. Neither should the people who live in them.