There is no moral excuse for "a preventive war." The leaders of the Episcopal Church apparently understood that in 1952. This was the height of the Cold War during the national shock at learning that the US monopoly on nuclear weapons had not lasted forever, that the apparent post-WWII US global hegemony faced a real competitor from the battle-hardened Russian Soviet Union. No excuse for preventive war in 1952. (This informative snippet flew by me by way of the Bishop of LA. John H. Taylor.)
No excuse now either, however awful the Mullahs have been for Iranians. Christian religious leaders today, mainline Protestant and Catholic, remind us of that.
Trump has offered no plausible purpose or imaginable outcome for his war on Iran. The Washington Post reports that a combination of Saudi Arabia and Israel talked our gullible toddler into his Iran strikes. They point out:
Now Trump will bear the risk of the bet he has placed: that a major military operation conducted from the air can achieve political goals on the ground.
Retired General Mark Hertling knows a thing or two about wars.
... The first night of a war is always the easiest night to make look clean. ... Degrading a regime’s capabilities is a military task; but replacing a regime, or trying to reshape its behavior through punishment from above, or compelling its people to rise up—those are strategic gambles that seem to rest on hope more than on a clearly articulated plan.
It is true that air campaigns can destroy things. What they cannot do, by themselves, is build political outcomes.
Pity the Iranians. Pity us all dragged into combat by foolish, greedy, vainglorious leaders.
