Just War in Iran? It’s essential for Christians to think like Christians about anything, including current world affairs.

Unfortunately Dr. Patterson, takes Just War Theory and cherry picks those elements from that theory that align to scenarios of the current situation that justifies the war today. He skips over the inconvenient elements of Just Wary Theory that contradict the current state of affairs. For example, his first point, just cause, or what is typically titled, "Jus ad Bellum", you must also take into elements such as 1) has proper Authority been given to the individual who initiates the war, 2) All peaceful alternatives must be exhausted, and 3) the prospect of success (not the prospect that you succeed bombing them, but the prospect that the war will achieve the ultimate end, which according to Dr. Patterson is to stop state sponsorship of terrorism, which it is doubtful it will do. Dr. Patterson, instead just focuses on the fact that the US has been attacked by Iran in the past. He does little to flesh out the more challenging aspects of Just War Theory and the current elements of the day.

Further complications is that Trump's inner circle did not support this war. Instead of continuing to push back they are trying to figure out how to please the president, and thus creating an echo chamber. The end game of the war is shifting by individual and by every day. Israel has spent a year bombing Gaza to oblivion and they still have no accomplished what they set out to do. They have even committed significant troops on the ground. I believe Trump is way out of his league on this one. Thinking he is going to bully a regime that has no problem dying for their cause and instead view death as a reward. If Trump thinks he can just continue to bomb the country for the next 2 years, he is going to find that support amongst the public will entirely evaporate, more so than it is already. He is going to quickly find that his technique of "bully others into submission" to get what he wants is not going to work for Iran. I don't understand how we can campaign for no new wars and mock Obama and Biden for their need to use force in Iran, and he just plain flips as soon as he is in office and does exactly what he promised he wouldn't do, and his core crowd still loves him. Loves him if he says no new wars, and will just as equally love him, if turns around and laughs and says, nope I will go to war, and you need to pay for it. Thanks.

For me, Trump's failure to establish a coalition and justification under international law is a little troubling (#2), but the big deal is that even if the portion of committed Islamists ready to kill and die for the Ayatollahs is only 1%, that's still 900,000 people, half of whom are male.

So until you persuade the rest of Iranians that a free society is worth fighting for, and arm them, you've got a situation really about 10x worse than Gaza. I am fully in favor of punishing those who would rain death down on Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors (that would include Iran's armorer, Russia), but there is a point there the President really needs to think things through more. Dropping bombs is not the same thing as reforming a society, and we learned that very well in Vietnam.

Not only Vietnam, but both Russia and the US learned this in Afghanistan and the we also learned this in Iraq. And if we really want to target those who want to rain death, why not bomb Russia, Yemen, Sudan and many others. I am having a hard time with the justification of this. Let alone the fact that in the end it will just make the whole region more dangerous, not safer. Terror cells will be populated with young people who lost their parents due to the US bombing, supported by a new regime even more bent on US and Israel's destruction.