To the editor: President Trump is demanding that Iran give up its sovereignty, and surrender unconditionally, to the United States (“Trump demands ‘unconditional surrender,’ role in picking Iran’s next leader,” March 6). Unfortunately, that will not be an option for Iranian leadership.
Trump’s war is costing American taxpayers nearly $900 million per day. The president ordered the attack on Iran while peace talks were ongoing. We attacked Iran before it attacked us.
Trump’s unilateral decision to attack Iran was a planned coordinated action, in collaboration with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and was done without notifying the Congress of the United States.
Trump’s unilateral decisions are affecting more than 300 million Americans and the lives of millions of men, women and children in the Middle East. Imagine that: one man having unilateral decision-making power satisfying his ego with the idea that he can attack sovereign nations with impunity, replace their leaders and appoint leaders who will bend the knee, allowing Trump to control that country’s destiny.
Unfortunately for Trump, Iranians are warriors, and many would die before surrendering. The president has only created a war that our grandchildren and their grandchildren will likely be fighting for years to come.
Donald Peppars, Pomona
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To the editor: With his demands for unconditional surrender in Iran and for influence on who its next leader will be, President Trump has partially unveiled his true intent.
Any Iranian “leader” installed by Trump will automatically be viewed with suspicion by the Iranian people, especially the hard-liners. But that leader will inevitably need to carry out Trump’s wishes (especially in sharing Iran’s oil) to retain his patron’s sponsorship, which will only further antagonize the population, leading to civil and perhaps armed unrest. No doubt, Russia and China will look to establish rival factions in the resulting mess. It will be an impossible job to govern such an Iran, which will splinter into chaos and powerlessness.
That is exactly what Trump wants: a weak and disorganized Iran, which won’t be strong enough to project or use power and proxies in the Middle East. In doing so, Trump would be coupling the example of the British, who a century ago released their protectorate in the Middle East after drawing boundaries for the resulting new nations in a way to maximize confusion and conflict, with the example of Soviet-era (and current) Russia by installing and propping up puppets in what are semi-vassal states.
As history shows, all that might end up being “good” for the U.S., but at the cost of long-lasting chaos, corruption and violence for the people of those countries.
Brad Golstein, Woodland Hills
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To the editor: Trump’s raving insistence on “unconditional surrender” from a country we have no business going to war with may warm the cockles of Netanyahu’s heart, but it will bring less safety to Israel, the United States and in particular American Jews, who will see already worsening antisemitism increase exponentially. On the last chilling subject, I recommend Peter Beinart’s harrowing and accurate cri de coeur to his community on his “The Beinart Notebook” podcast, “The Danger This War Poses to American Jews.”
All these heartbreaking Middle Eastern wars since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 leave nothing but cinders, power vacuums and anger in their wake. Underneath it all are two core issues that, unless they are faced, will lead us inexorably to a nuclear exchange and who knows what global misery.
In brief: Firstly, Palestinians need a national redress for the takeover of their land in 1948, either by the recognition of a separate state or binational combination with Israel. Secondly, Israel is widely believed to have a significant nuclear arsenal. That needs to be eliminated if it expects other states around it not to attempt to defend themselves in a regional balance of terror. We — and Europe — do it with Russia, after all.
With all its complicated and fearful national psyches, we desperately need a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. Keep in mind that nuclear weapons can be acquired rather than manufactured, and Pakistan, a southern neighbor of Iran, possesses nuclear weapons.
A hot war with Iran is a big step in the wrong direction. It is a complete dodge for two leaders who are essentially indicted criminals.
Gregory Orfalea, Santa Barbara
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To the editor: I believe the White House’s use of movie and video game clips in its messaging gives us a clear picture of how the Trump administration views the war on Iran. This is a game to the Pentagon and the White House. Real consequences, like the deaths of schoolgirls and blowback attacks on U.S. allies in the area, are not acknowledged or planned for. Our military deaths are viewed as bad news against the administration, not a tragedy for the families.
Carol Karas, Camarillo
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To the editor: The cantankerous tone of this article, which repeatedly and not-so-subtly questions whether the Trump administration knows what it is doing in Iran, is betrayed by its use of the disgraced Rob Malley as a supposed source of expertise (“What is Trump’s true objective in the Iran war? U.S. targets provide a clue,” March 8). This is the same Rob Malley who was forced to quit President Obama’s 2008 campaign because of contact with the terrorists of Hamas and who was relieved of his position as special envoy to Iran in 2023 by the Biden administration after allegedly mishandling classified information.
The aims of wars have often been malleable, evolving with events on the battlefield. It took the Allies until 1943 to decide that their goal in World War II was unconditional surrender. It took the U.N. more than a year of warfare to settle on a demilitarized zone at the 38th parallel as the goal of the Korean War. The U.S. went from a goal of winning the Vietnam War to one of “Vietnamization” as the war effort ran into political opposition at home. The goal of the Iraq war went from turning the country into a Western democracy to propping up a regime minimally friendly to the West.
With this context, the goals of the Trump administration for the Iran war seem at least acceptably clear. A denuclearized Iran without a threatening ballistic missile program — one not inflicting terrorism on its neighbors and around the world — and governed by a figure who will be acceptable to the West.
Semantic quibbles should not be mistaken for opaque wartime goals. Iran has been a threat to Israel, the West and the U.S. for 47 years. Thousands of Americans have been killed, wounded and traumatized by this horrible regime. The destruction of its nuclear, missile and terror apparatuses will make us all safer.
Daniel H. Trigoboff, Williamsville, N.Y.
