When Donald Trump took to social media gave Iran an expletive laden warning, that also seemed to mock their religion, he wasn’t just issuing a military threat. He was revealing the central misunderstanding driving this war.
The US president posted on his Truth Social website: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
He assumes that nations, like frightened individuals, will always choose survival over dignity.
But even his own actions betray uncertainty. Deadlines have come and gone. What was once an immediate ultimatum has now stretched into shifting timelines — “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” — extended just enough to suggest that even Washington knows this is not a simple game of pressure and compliance.
Because this is not a negotiation over logistics.
It is a confrontation over identity.
There is a simple truth about human beings that applies just as much to states: no one willingly takes sides against themselves. A man who has spent his life telling the truth will not suddenly embrace lies to save his skin. A ruler who has built his identity on strength will not accept humiliation in exchange for safety. To do so would not be survival — it would be self-erasure.
And nations behave no differently.
For decades, Iran has cultivated an image of itself as a defiant, sovereign power — a state that does not bow, does not kneel, and certainly does not take orders from Washington. That identity is not incidental. It is foundational.
Now consider what is being asked of it.
Not merely to reopen the Strait of Hormuz — a vital artery of global energy flows — but to do so under insult, under threat, under a public spectacle of coercion. Trump has gone as far as to say that if Iran does not comply, it may not “have a country,” that its power plants and bridges could be wiped out, that everything could be “blown up.”
This is not negotiation.
This is humiliation, broadcast in real time.
And humiliation is the one currency no nation, especially one that has spend decades being one as defiant as Iran, can afford to accept.
Even the economic dimension of this crisis reinforces the point. The movement of tankers — including those chartered by companies like Petronas — through the Strait underscores what is at stake. This is not just about Iran and the United States. It is about global leverage, about control over a chokepoint that gives Tehran relevance and power in a system otherwise dominated by larger economies.
To surrender that leverage under duress is not just a tactical loss. It is an admission of subordination.
And no state willingly chooses subordination.
Trump’s strategy, however, is built precisely on that expectation. It treats Iran as though it were a peasant before a king — a weaker actor that will eventually kneel to avoid destruction.
But Iran does not see itself as a peasant.
As a matter of fact, from all signs, it might see itself as a king just like America sees itself as a king - it might see itself as a lesser king than America, but in terms of category, it sees itself as belonging the same category of a king amongst nation as America.
And here lies the fatal flaw.
A king can demand that a peasant kiss his feet, and the peasant may comply. But when a king demands that another king to kneel like a peasant, just because he is a lesser king, he is not asking for submission — he is inviting defiance. The lesser king may lose. The lesser king may even die. But what the lesser king will certainly not do, is kiss anyone's feet.
He won't, because to kiss a lesser king's feet is to cease being what he believes himself to be.
This is why the destruction of infrastructure — like the B1 bridge between Tehran and Karaj — has had such a profound psychological impact. It was not merely an attack on concrete. It was an attack on pride, on self-sufficiency, on the narrative Iran tells about itself.
And pride, once wounded, does not negotiate easily.
Meanwhile, Tehran’s response has followed the same psychological logic. Iranian leaders have warned that the region will “burn” if escalation continues. They have refused to enter formal peace talks, even while messages pass indirectly. They understand that walking into negotiations under visible coercion risks not just a bad deal, but a loss of legitimacy at home.
Because if they agree under these conditions, they do not return as leaders.
They return as symbols of surrender.
Even within the United States, there are signs of discomfort with this approach. Figures like Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders have criticised the rhetoric as reckless, warning that threats against civilian infrastructure and expletive-laden diplomacy risk not only moral failure but strategic collapse.
Because when diplomacy becomes spectacle — what some have aptly called a kind of “digital-age wayang kulit” — leaders stop negotiating and start performing.
Trump must continue escalating to maintain the image of dominance he has projected. Iran must continue resisting to preserve its identity as a defiant power. Each side becomes trapped in its own narrative.
And narratives are harder to compromise than interests.
This is why the war shows no real signs of ending.
Deadlines will continue to shift. Threats will grow louder. Oil markets will tremble. Tankers will pass through contested waters under rising tension. And yet, the core dynamic will remain unchanged.
Because the problem is not a lack of pressure.
It is a lack of understanding.
You cannot force a nation to publicly abandon its identity and expect peace to follow. You cannot demand submission and call it negotiation. You cannot humiliate an opponent and expect them to cooperate.
You can bomb bridges. You can cripple infrastructure. You can devastate an economy.
But you cannot bomb a nation into rejecting itself.
And until that reality is understood, every new deadline will not bring peace closer.
It will only bring the war closer to the point where neither side can back down — not because they lack options, but because they can no longer live with the consequences of choosing them.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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