Sometimes, an old Hollywood scene acquires an uncanny resemblance to real life – art does imitate life, occasionally.

This article was first published on my Substack webpage. It is republished here for consistency.

Back in 1989, the Hollywood action blockbuster Black Rain hit the theatres. Michael Douglas plays a zealous, brash homicide detective who tracks down members of the Yakuza. The film is a typical Hollywood over-the-top action flick; Douglas goes to Japan and fights not only the Yakuza, but the bureaucratically inert Japanese police force. 

Why am I talking about this film? There is one, crucial telling scene which is relevant for purposes here. Navigating his way through the Japanese underworld, Nick Conklin (Douglas’ character) confronts Sugai-san, the oyabun (crime chief) who is a primary target of Conklin’s investigation. When challenged, Sugai offers a justification for his criminal activities.

He said “I was 10 when the B-29 came. My family lived underground for three days. When we came up the city was gone. Then the heat brought rain. Black rain. You made the rain black, and shoved your values down our throat. We forgot who we were. You created Sato and thousands like him. I’m paying you back.”

Sato is one of Sugai’s lieutenants, a westernised gangster who wanted to take over Sugai’s business empire. 

Let’s focus here on the point about black rain; the atomic bombing of Hiroshima was a kind of international chemical warfare, making the rain toxic and unfit for human or nonhuman animal consumption. This repercussion on its own constitutes a crime against humanity. No, the 1989 movie is not a historically accurate epic, nor is it meant to be taken seriously. However, let’s keep in mind the point about black rain.

Turning the rain toxic is not just something that belongs in movie fantasy land. The US military has turned the rain black – in Tehran.

In the ongoing US-Israeli attack on Iran, the US deliberately struck the Shahran oil refinery. Residents of Tehran woke up to an apocalyptic scenario, with heavy black clouds of pollutants hanging in the air. An act of intentional chemical warfare, the humanitarian and ecological consequences of this devastation will be felt for years to come, and not just within Iran’s borders.

By striking an oil refinery, hazardous chemicals and pollutants were released into the atmosphere – the United States military turned the rain black and acidic. The Iranian authorities advised Tehran’s residents to remain indoors. The sunshine was blocked out, and the government had begun the arduous task of cleaning up the damage. 

The pro-war Iranian diaspora, long agitating for a US-Israeli attack on their home country, need to ask themselves if this is the result they were seeking. Perhaps the playboy charlatan Shah-in-exile Reza Pahlavi, the man who keeps applying for a job that does not exist, and his imperial supporters, could now live in Tehran, celebrating as black rain falls on their heads.

One of the Gulf nations that hosts US military bases is the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Iran has repeatedly struck American military facilities in the Gulf region, the UAE included. Washington, Tel Aviv and their Gulf allies have been shocked by the scale, efficiency and persistence of the Iranian response. 

I am not one to celebrate missile strikes, simply because I do not know for certain that I would react courageously in a wartime situation. I do not advocate for war, basically because I am not a hypocrite; I like to think I would be brave in a military operation, but I have to be honest and say I do not know how I would react with bombs exploding and missiles falling. As a civilian, I do not advocate that anyone be put in that terrible position.

There is one group of civilians who will, if not cheering be at least grateful, for Iranian missile strikes on the UAE – civilians in Sudan. For the past several years, a paramilitary force, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), supplied by armaments from the UAE and Israel, have waged a genocidal campaign in the Sudanese civil war. Famine conditions, mass displacement and atrocities including sexual torture, have been inflicted on Sudanese civilians caught up in the fighting since April 2023.

With Iranian missile strikes against the UAE (and Israel), the armaments supply line has been disrupted. The RSF, starved of guns and ammunition, is being steadily defeated by the Sudanese army. The latter has carried out strikes against RSF supply depots and soldiers, already facing a depleting stock of resources with which to fight. A reduction in genocidal violence by the RSF is welcome news for Sudan.

The same criteria which were applied when evaluating the RSF as a genocidal group should also be applied to the actions of the US and Israeli military forces. The political leaders of Washington and Tel Aviv have made deliberate decisions to inflict mass casualties and ecological destruction on the Iranian nation. It is high time to hold them to account for their crimes against humanity.