On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched a surprise military attack on Iran, shattering any pretense of peaceful negotiations. The assault came at a time when Washington claimed to be engaged in peace talks with Tehran—a modus operandi reminiscent of the 12-day war in June 2025, when similar negotiations served as cover for a previous round of US-Israeli aggression. Those discussions, like the current ones, proved to be nothing more than a facade for military action. This imperialist war, framed by US officials as “preemptive strikes,” has no legitimate basis under international law and fundamentally has nothing to do with nuclear weapons.
Trump’s Open Call for Regime Change
In a televised address following the attack, President Donald Trump made the true objectives unmistakably clear. “To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative face certain death,” Trump declared. He then directly called on the Iranian people to overthrow their government: “The hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government.”
This rhetoric echoes the colonial language of past empires that claimed a “civilizing mission” while exploiting resources and subjugating populations. Trump’s admission that the goal is to install a puppet regime recalls the CIA’s 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after he nationalized Iranian oil, challenging British and American corporate control.
Iran’s Immediate Retaliation
Washington’s arrogance led it to underestimate Iran’s capacity to respond. Within hours of the US-Israeli aggression, Iran launched retaliatory strikes against American military installations across the region. The al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest US military facility in the Middle East, was hit, along with American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
The US has surrounded Iran with more than 40,000 troops across dozens of military installations, all of which remain potential targets. Unlike Venezuela, where the US recently kidnapped internationally recognized President Nicolás Maduro, Iran presents a far more formidable challenge. With a population exceeding 93 million—significantly larger than Iraq when the US invaded in 2003—and a territory of strategic importance, Iran cannot be easily subdued. Trump himself acknowledged the potential cost, warning that “the lives of courageous American heroes may be lost.”
Netanyahu Joins the Chorus
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, currently wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Gaza, has for years aggressively lobbied the US toward direct confrontation with Iran. Following the attack, he echoed Trump’s public statements, tweeting, “Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands,” calling for the overthrow of the Iranian government. The irony of a wanted war criminal preaching about freedom and peace-loving values appears lost on Western audiences.
A Long-Standing Imperial Project
This war is not merely about Trump and Netanyahu’s domestic political calculations, though both face pressures at home. The US empire has sought to overthrow Iran’s government for decades. Former NATO commander General Wesley Clark revealed that immediately after 9/11, the Pentagon made plans to destroy seven governments in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally Iran. The US succeeded in six of those countries. Iran remains the last target.
Yet the ambitions driving this aggression may extend even further. Israeli politicians have begun openly designating Turkey and Pakistan as future threats, suggesting a regional transformation that goes beyond the immediate conflict with Iran. Even more ominously, the US ambassador to Israel has reportedly signaled that it would be “fine” to extend Israel’s borders from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers—a vision of expansionist conquest that echoes the oldest colonial fantasies of controlling the entire Fertile Crescent. These statements reveal that the overthrow of Iran, while the immediate objective, may be only one phase of a much larger project to redraw the map of West Asia entirely.
The Nuclear Lie
The pretext of nuclear weapons is demonstrably false. Iran does not possess nuclear weapons and has not sought to develop them. In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the US and other world powers, agreeing never to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. The International Atomic Energy Agency repeatedly verified Iran’s compliance. Yet in 2018, during his first term, Trump illegally tore up the agreement and reimposed sanctions.
If Iran actually had nuclear weapons, the US and Israel would not be attacking—just as they have never attacked North Korea. The nuclear allegation is the same lie used to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where claims of weapons of mass destruction proved entirely fabricated.
The Real Motivation: Oil, Geopolitics, and Hegemony
The Middle East, more accurately called West Asia, contains the world’s largest oil and natural gas reserves. China imports approximately 80% of Iran’s oil and is the largest purchaser of Persian Gulf energy. As the US wages a new Cold War against China, controlling these resources becomes strategically essential. Washington wants to cut Beijing off from its energy supplies while ensuring American corporations profit from regional exploitation.
This same logic explains the US campaign against Venezuela, which sent 80% of its oil to China before Washington intensified efforts to overthrow its government. Cuba currently faces a US oil blockade aimed at collapsing its economy. In each case, energy serves as a geopolitical weapon.
Netanyahu has boasted that Israel serves as America’s “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the region. A US citizen for much of his life, educated in America and connected to Republican circles for decades, Netanyahu represents the extension of US colonial power into West Asia. The goal is total dominance over a region essential to global energy supplies and trade routes.
The Puppet-in-Waiting
The US has already selected its preferred replacement: Reza Pahlavi, the so-called “crown prince” and son of the US-backed dictator overthrown in 1979. Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in the United States and never held real employment, has been secretly meeting with the Trump administration. Following the attack, he tweeted that “the aid that the president of the United States promised to the brave people of Iran has now arrived,” calling this a “humanitarian intervention.” He threatened Iranian security forces to either join the US project or “go down with the regime.”
The model for Iran can be seen in Syria, where the US spent billions arming extremists to overthrow the government. When the Syrian government fell in late 2024, it was replaced by a former al-Qaeda leader whom the US media has since whitewashed and who now visits the White House. This is the “freedom” the US empire brings.
Conclusion
This war has nothing to do with nuclear weapons, democracy, or human rights. It is about imperialism—the drive to control resources, maintain global hegemony, and crush any independent government that refuses subservience to Washington. From the 1953 CIA coup to the Iran-Iraq War when the US backed Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks against Iran, to the current bombing campaign, the objective remains unchanged: a puppet regime in Tehran that will open Iran’s resources to American exploitation.
The Iranian people have faced US hostility for over seven decades. They understand that the bombs falling on their country carry not freedom, but the same colonial domination their ancestors overthrew in 1979.
