JOHANNESBURG - Modern warfare continues to prove that the world is a global village.
The US and Israel's war against Iran has choked the supply of oil, fertiliser, liquefied natural gas and other products globally.
This has raised the cost of living around the world. The end of the fighting is also impossible to predict.
Psychologist Saths Cooper said those directly and indirectly affected are living in fear, uncertainty and insecurity.
READ | Trump warns 'whole civilization will die' in Iran if ultimatum expires
Cooper said US President Donald Trump’s actions are creating severe anxiety and instability.
"There's something else that's going to be a consequence, and that's devastation and lives lost, lives lost, and the sheer ability to use the power of the US economy and its military might as a personal fiefdom is telling. It also tells us how the world is being affected, which it shouldn't be, by such threats and fear," Cooper explained.
Trump issued one of his most glaring threats of the war over the weekend.
He warned that ‘a whole civilisation will die’ in Iran if the country doesn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"I don't want that to happen, but it probably will," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Cooper said Trump’s threat pushes the world to a dangerous situation as he demonstrates his overreaching power.
He noted that Trump's first term was marked by impulsive, turbulent, and divisive leadership and said that pattern is being repeated.
"It is being shown in a very terrible way right now because he says what he what he wants to, there's no filter to what he says, and then goes on and threatens. We should not be put in a where we are on a knife edge and wait to hear the latest utterance or whatever he wants to say," Cooper said.
He also expressed concern about the impact on the young.
"Our children are seeing missiles as if they're normal. And you can see it instantly throughout the world. There's no warning that we put on this for whoever is watching and listening. So, the whole world is gripped by this mania right now and it's a terrible one because it affects everybody," Copper added.