A Manufactured War Demanding Surrender, Delivering Destruction: A New Era of Modern Authoritarian Imperialism

"The demand for unconditional surrender prolonged the war and multiplied the horrors inflicted on civilian populations, not to mention the justification it provided for the atomic bombings." ~ Howard Zinn

“When powerful states demand unconditional surrender from weaker ones, it is not peace they are after, but submission. This has nothing to do with justice and everything to do with control.” ~ Noam Chomsky

“Unconditional surrender is often less about ending war and more about annihilating the enemy’s capacity to resist, even morally. It can turn war into an act of collective punishment rather than a path to peace.” ~ Chris Hedges

“In the end, we made war not to defeat a regime, but to demand total submission. Unconditional surrender, in this light, became a justification for horror.” ~ J. Robert Oppenheimer

You’re witnessing a world where the old rules no longer restrain powerful nations, where international law is dismissed as irrelevant by the imperialistic powers to ignore it. Behind the scenes, Iranian officials quietly pursued open diplomacy with the United States and other nations, hoping to ease suffocating 20 year sanctions and perhaps revive a nuclear non-proliferation deal or treaty. But even as these diplomacy talks unfolded, a darker sinister backstabbing strategy emerged.

Coordinating with the Trump Administration, Israel launched a preemptive military strike on Iran, while negotiating talks were taking place, unauthorized by the United Nations and without credible evidence of an imminent threat. The assault was methodical, targeting radar systems, military bases, anti-aircraft and anti-missile launchers and suspected nuclear sites in a sweeping bombing campaign.

Iran was caught off guard, but quickly retaliated, firing missiles at Israeli targets and scrambling defenses against incoming drones and warplanes.

You recognize this rhetoric. It’s the language of history books, where unconditional surrender masquerades as peace, but in truth demands total domination. It recalls the devastation of World War II, where the demand for absolute submission paved the way for obliterated German and Japanese cities and redrawn borders. But Iran is no Nazi Germany. It is a theocratic state entangled in complex regional rivalries, driven not by conquest but by survival and fear. Iran is not an imperialistic state. To trap it with unlawful force and demand its submission is not diplomacy, it’s imperialism, a modern-day authoritarian American military dictatorship.

And so the question remains, what end can this bring but destruction, retaliation, and yet another irreversible slide into war? Every ultimatum, every missile strike, every declaration of moral superiority narrows the path to peace until all that remains is rubble and a massive genocide similar to the Gaza strip.