By Mohamad Hammoud
From Modern Iranian Ruins to the Scorched Earth of Indochina
The recent catastrophic missile strike on a family wedding ceremony in Sirik, Iran left a four-year-old child dead, alongside three others, and wounded more than fifty guests. According to Reuters, this was not simply an isolated tactical mistake. Rather, it represents the predictable consequence of an unchecked global power operating with absolute institutional impunity.
This wedding tragedy closely follows a horrific opening strike against the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' primary school in Minab that killed over 160 civilians, mostly young children, according to Senate records documenting the ongoing Department of War investigation. Together, these devastating atrocities highlight how Washington consistently treats non-combatant lives as acceptable collateral damage in its pursuit of foreign policy objectives.
This brutal operational calculus mirrors the ongoing war of aggression executed by "Israel" in Gaza and southern Lebanon, where human rights organizations document thousands of innocent women and children's lives claimed under relentless aerial bombardments. In both cases, a shared institutional doctrine systematically prioritizes total military dominance over the most basic human rights of local populations.
That profound indifference toward non-combatant survival, however, did not emerge in isolation. It reflects a tactical framework developed decades ago in Southeast Asia. In his groundbreaking historical book Kill Anything That Moves, investigative historian Nick Turse exposes how top American military commanders in Vietnam issued explicit directives ordering ground troops to slaughter everything that moved inside designated free-fire zones. Turse reveals that high body counts were demanded as official policy from the top down, effectively transforming quiet rural farming villages into sites of systemic massacres.
A remarkably similar operational strategy governs modern "Israel" war of aggression along border crossings and enforced no-go corridors. Whistleblower testimonies published by "Israeli" veterans' groups describe standing orders where any human figure entering restricted zones is targeted with immediate lethal force, directly echoing the unrestricted murder tactics documented during the American war in Vietnam.
This relentless dehumanization converts entire civilian communities into legitimate targets on paper, allowing state forces to execute sweeping destruction while maintaining an official stance of legal justification.
The Imperial Playbook of Erasure and Nuclear Threat
The historical record demonstrates that Washington has long tolerated extreme human costs to project global hegemony. Nowhere is this more starkly highlighted than in its distinction as the only power to ever deploy nuclear weapons in combat. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 instantly vaporized over 100,000 civilians, setting a horrifying global precedent for offensive mass destruction.
According to historical archives from the Atomic Heritage Foundation, the overwhelming majority of those victims were non-combatant residents pursuing their daily routines.
The history of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remains relevant when considering how American power is invoked during modern wars. During the war on Iran, American political rhetoric once again raised the specter of overwhelming force. Trump, on several occasions, threatened to wipe Iran off the map. Indeed, reports emerged that the nuclear option was, in fact, discussed.
Together, these threats and reports point to a broader pattern in which the possibility of extreme military force becomes normalized as an instrument of foreign policy. This persistent nuclear posturing demonstrates how strategic supremacy is prioritized above the survival of human populations, creating an umbrella of intimidation that shields aggressive foreign interventions from meaningful international enforcement.
But the imperial playbook extends beyond warfare and nuclear threats. This violent interventionism relies on a centuries-old blueprint of forced displacement and native erasure.
Records from the Smithsonian Institution detail how the early American government executed the widespread removal and killing of Native Americans to secure vast territories for incoming European settlers. In an undeniable parallel, "Israel" established its occupation through the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinians from their ancestral homes.
Today, the continuous supply of advanced American munitions used to hit schools, shelters, and refugee camps ensures that this legacy of expansionist violence persists. Furthermore, this structural alliance reflects a deep ideological alignment, where both entities view indigenous resistance as an illegitimate barrier to their historical ambitions.
Ultimately, both nations operate within a shared imperial paradigm where native populations are treated as obstacles to be systematically removed or subdued. By persistently maintaining that their strategic objectives override basic human rights, these two powers have institutionalized a global culture of total war that excuses the slaughter of non-combatants as a necessary cost of empire, ensuring that future generations remain trapped in a destructive cycle of unchecked state violence.
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