POISED though he may be to unleash a deadly barrage of bombs and missiles on Iran, Donald Trump finds himself questioning why Tehran has not yet “capitulated” in the face of his military build-up in the Middle East. The US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told Fox News on Saturday that Trump was “curious” about Iran’s resolve to resist his warnings if a deal was not reached on Tehran’s nuclear programme.

There are straightforward reasons to explain Iran’s refusal to surrender as Trump wants. But they may not make much sense to the world of pelf and plunder that the US president subscribes to like an addict. Let’s say the answer, if the so-called ‘most powerful man on the planet’ is indeed interested in one, lies in defiant deaths people throughout history have preferred to abject surrender.

One need not go too far from US shores to observe an instance in 1775 when an American patriot, for goodness sake, Patrick Henry, gave the world the slogan: “Give me liberty, or give me death.” Henry eventually succeeded in persuading Virginia to join the American war of independence against colonial Britain. Around 80 years later, Patrick Henry’s call was picked up by a host of Indian rebels against British rule and gave rise to a metaphor: 1857.

More recently, again not far from America, Trump and Witkoff should be able to understand Iran by simply reading about the life of 23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie. While in Rafah on March 16, 2003, the activist-diarist joined other International Solidarity Movement volunteers........

© Dawn