For the past several weeks, Iranian missiles and drones have been flying across the Persian Gulf toward the United Arab Emirates. Air defenses have intercepted the vast majority of them. The damage on the ground has been limited. The headlines come and go. But focusing only on the military exchange misses the larger story. What is happening to the UAE may be an early signal of something much bigger. If the conflict with Iran is part of the emerging global rivalry between the

Since the opening of the Epic Fury / Roar of the Lion war last week, Iran has made its strategic choice clear. It is not trying to win the air war in a classic sense. It is trying to bankrupt its adversaries. Wave after wave of low-cost Shahed suicide drones have been launched toward the Gulf States – at the UAE, Bahrain, and Kuwait – with the UAE bearing the brunt. By the end of the first week of battle, more than 1,300 drones had been fired at the Emirates alone. Most were

Wars are often described in terms of power: who has more of it, who used it first, who escalated. That framing is comforting to those who want moral symmetry where none exists. Operation Lion’s Roar (Operation Epic Fury in the U.S.) is not about symmetry. It is about choice. Specifically, how power is used, and what a society believes is worth protecting. On Saturday morning, Israel and the United States acted. Not theatrically. Not impulsively. They acted after Iran had exha