Peace is a dream sold to people to justify more wars, seize more resources, and accumulate greater power to subjugate fellow human beings in today’s political and capitalist world. Words like brotherhood, equality, human rights, justice, morality, religion, democracy, nationalism, freedom of expression, and the rule of law are often weaponised to perpetrate atrocities, shed blood, and deceive the masses in service of the ruling elite’s partisan interests.
Global organisations such as the United Nations (UN), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) were not created to serve the common people, but to protect and advance the interests of a powerful, often ruthless, global elite. This is not cynicism — it is a reality confirmed by history and reinforced by today’s political landscape.
The First World War was fought “to end all wars,” yet it ended with 40 million dead. The Second World War promised “to fight fascism,” but it concluded with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the rise of the United States as a global empire. The Cold War that followed claimed millions more lives through proxy wars, interventions, and political repression.
Eric Hobsbawm, a renowned historian, estimated that wars in the 20th century caused around 187 million deaths — roughly 10% of the global population in 1900. According to The Times, since 1945 the world has witnessed hundreds of conflicts, with at least 285 distinct wars — a number that continues to rise. In fact, 2024 saw more conflict than any year since the Second World War. Researchers recorded 61 state-based conflicts across 36 countries, surpassing the already high levels of violence from 2020 to 2023. Of these, 11 escalated into full-scale wars, each resulting in over 1,000 battle-related deaths. An estimated 160,000 people were killed in organised violence in 2024 — the fifth-highest annual toll since 1989.
Around 76,000 battle-related deaths have been reported in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. In Gaza, Israel, backed by American weapons, has killed over 100,000 people, including children, women, journalists, doctors, and many UN workers. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, but they are unlikely to be arrested. The United States has refused to cooperate, threatened the ICC, and continues to supply arms to the perpetrators.
Every American war — from Vietnam to Afghanistan, from Iraq and Libya to Syria, and now the bombing of Iranian nuclear sites — has been justified using words like “liberation,” “democracy,” and “security.” But in reality, these wars have primarily served to destroy and exploit weak, resource-rich nations for profit and access to resources.
Trump pledged to end America’s “forever wars” during his 2024 campaign. Yet on June 21, 2025, he launched a bombing campaign against Iran, without congressional approval, a UN mandate, invocation of the War Powers Act, or allied support. The attack followed two weeks of deceptive diplomacy, during which Trump publicly offered Iran more time to negotiate while US B-2 bombers were being armed in secret. The real goal was not diplomacy; it was to induce regime change and crush Iran under the banner of international peace.
Trump even suggested assassinating Ayatollah Khamenei and threatened Iran with further attacks after bombing its nuclear sites at Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz. The UN Charter forbids the use of force (Article 2[4]) except in cases of self-defence (Article 51). Yet Israel and the United States invoked “pre-emptive self-defence,” constituting a clear violation of both articles and international law. Trump also admitted he had prior knowledge of Israel’s June 13 strike, which killed Iranian generals and scientists. This provides further evidence that the preceding negotiations were merely a ruse to deceive Tehran.
Moreover, in 2013, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reported that Israel had at least 80 nuclear warheads, making it the Middle East’s only nuclear power. Israel has never admitted this nor allowed IAEA inspections of its Dimona facility. In 2021, signs of expansion emerged at the site. This secrecy and lack of accountability make the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran, an NPT signatory, over alleged nuclear ambitions deeply hypocritical and expose a double standard in global nuclear politics.
Jack Rasmus, the author of The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump, writes that Trump’s decision was unilateral and personal — guided more by Israeli interests and Mossad intelligence than by US national security or the findings of American intelligence agencies, which had concluded Iran had no nuclear weapons. This marks a dangerous break from precedent: a war serving foreign interests, bypassing constitutional checks, and reducing diplomacy to a strategic ploy. Iran is now unlikely to trust future negotiations, and the attack may accelerate its nuclear ambitions. No country will trust Trump—or the USA—to negotiate peace sincerely. Nations like Russia and China see US diplomacy as a tactic, not a solution. Russia learned this in Ukraine; China will likely keep it in mind over Taiwan and the South China Sea. Negotiation, for the US, is a ruse.
According to the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), at least 92 of the world’s 195 countries have been involved in cross-border conflicts in recent years. Each war creates new arms industries, strengthens military ties, and spreads more lies.
The world’s largest arms makers—Lockheed Martin, Raytheon (RTX), Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Boeing, and General Dynamics—have earned hundreds of billions of dollars from ongoing deception, bloodshed, and devastation. In 2023 alone, the top 100 weapons firms collected more than $630 billion. These corporations do not prosper in peace; they flourish on perpetual war. They wield global influence, and expecting peace to prevail under their watch is wishful thinking. Until all nuclear-armed states dismantle their arsenals and limit atomic energy to civilian use, non-nuclear nations will keep pursuing bombs for protection. Until people take back justice from the powerful, war will keep pretending to be peace, and injustice will keep hiding behind the law.