Political speak, mostly. PR
Japan in WW2 provides a classic case in point.
By the end of 1944 Japan had little effective offensive military capability left. Writing was on the wall. Their military power was "obliterated" in terms of regaining their prior conquests. They still had some fight left in them however.
By mid-1945 it was even more clear that Japan was "on the ropes", most of it's fleets and air forces destroyed, majority of it's manufacturing bombed and burned out, population starting to starve ... yet the leadership wasn't willing to admit defeat and like Nazi Germany, the allies were expecting to actually have to invade the homeland Islands and conquer most to all of the nation by ground warfare. For all realistic, objective perspective, Japan was even MORE obliterated. But their leadership wouldn't accept such.
Operation Downfall* was in extensive planning and prep, and it was expected that it might take into mid 1946 before Japan could be defeated and TOTALLY obliterated as a military power, and viable nation.
Fortunately, the USA had a few atomic bombs in the works, unknown to the vast majority of military planners, and once a couple of them had been dropped and used, the leadership of Japan finally realized what was "writing on the walls" over two years earlier.
*
Operation Downfall was the proposed plan by
United States and
British Empire forces for the invasion of the
Japanese home islands near the
end of World War II. It was canceled when
Japan surrendered following the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet
declaration of war on Japan and
invasion of Manchuria.
...
en.wikipedia.org