Could This Be the End of Dubai? (Boo-fucking-hoo!) [View all]

A video was circulating on social media last week of what appeared to be an Iranian Shahed drone flying over al-Mamzar beach in Dubai on March 8. A fighter jet was in hot pursuit, trying to shoot the drone down. Below, people were sunbathing under umbrellas. The comments ponged between whether it was more amazing that people were still on the beach during wartime and whether it was news at all that people kept living their best lives, since they trusted their government to keep them safe.

Dubai, which sits near the Strait of Hormuz, was supposed to be safe. Instead, it has been under attack by Iran since Feb. 28. More than 260 ballistic missiles and over 1,500 drones have been detected over the United Arab Emirates; most have been intercepted, but their percussive booms have become part of the city’s soundscape. The city that had spent decades billing itself as a sleek sanctuary — luxe, apolitical, income-tax-free, floating above and apart from the fractious region around it — was suddenly no longer insulated.

Dubai is on edge. Big banks asked employees to stay away from their office towers. People took shelter in underground parking garages or wherever they could find cover. Parents told their children the explosions overhead were Ramadan fireworks. At least four people have been killed so far in the Emirates — including a Pakistani, a Nepali and a Bangladeshi.

Those with means, many of whom had gone to Dubai to work in financial firms, hedge funds, family offices, law firms and consultancies, scrambled for commercial flights and private jets out of the Persian Gulf region.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/opinion/dubai-hormuz-war-iran-elite.html?

*****************************************************************************

Dubai is an affront to the environment, good taste, and just humanity in general. I hope it dies.