Iran, Historical Perspective, and Just War
A quick rundown of recent events
On December 27, 2019, an American civilian contractor was killed in Kirkuk, Iraq, by a rocket strike carried out by a Hezbollah splinter group long reported as funded and controlled by Iran.
In response, United States forces bombed three sites associated with Hezbollah killing at least 25 individuals. It is unknown if all casualties are confirmed fighters.
This US strike was followed by protests at the US embassy on December 30, 2019, at the US embassy in Bagdhad, Iraq.
The next day, protesters breached the compound wall and stormed the embassy. US troops repelled the attack with no deaths and reportedly no severe injuries.
Three days later, on January 3, 2020, General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC’s) Quds Force, was killed in Baghdad by a US airstrike. President Trump claims that the strike was not retaliatory, but a necessary killing to stop a war.
This timeline is a little over one week of historical context. One week.
I am not going to attempt to play the “who attacked who first” game. I am also not going to go into the Constitutional arguments for whether or not the President has the right to perform airstrikes without congressional authority (Dr. Joel McDurmon handles this very question here). What I do want to do is urge caution, offer some historical perspective, and call on believers to soberly consider the costs of war.
What if it was our backyard
Consider these historical events.
In 1952 the United States voiced support for a military coup d ‘état when elections in Cuba appeared to favor Communism.
After the successful coup with the then General Batista becoming a military dictator and canceling elections, the US officially recognized his government as legitimate.
This prompted a long and bloody civil war cumulating with the Communist Fidel Castro regime taking over in 1958 and General Batista fleeing into exile.
Economic tensions increased as the Communist government nationalized US assets, and the US placed economic sanctions upon the nation.
In 1960 the CIA conspired with the mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro and set up a pro-U.S. government. In return, the mafia would be free to “do business” in Cuba.
In the following years, several assassination attempts took place by US assets.
During April 17, 1961 – April 19, 1961, US-trained Cuban exiles along with US military personal attempted an invasion of Cuba. They failed miserably. The botched invasion led to thousands of deaths.
Why bring up the Bay of Pigs Invasion? I want to offer some perspective. The United States has over 60,000 troops stationed in the Middle East with many bases surrounding Iran. We are in their backyard. Soviet Cuba is perhaps the most relevant modern example of a similar geopolitical situation, though in reality, the Soviet presence and influence in Cuba pales in comparison to the military assets we have dedicated to regions within striking distance to Iran. Some have asked what the US would do if, let’s say, China decided to set up shop in Mexico. From history, it seems we’d do everything in our power to topple that government, legal or not.
According to the inflammatory rhetoric coming from places such as Fox News and neoconservative warmongers such as John Bolton, would Cuba have been justified in assassinating high ranking US intelligence officers who were planning the invasion of its sovereign soil? After a clear act of war resulting in thousands of deaths, would Cuba (or its ally, the Soviet Union) be justified in declaring war on the US and firing missiles into Florida? Would it have been justified for Che Guevara to bomb the CIA headquarters?
No, they would not have been justified.
Historical Perspective
What about our own history with Iran?
The United States government admitted to the CIA engineering a military coup in Iran in 1953. This was a military coup d ‘état against a democratically elected Prime Minister and secular government made in cahoots with the British for the sake of Iranian oil profits. The US and British supported Shah was given autocratic power in Iran.
After several years of understandable political unrest, a revolution broke out attempting to depose the Shah. During this time of unrest, the US backed Shah arrested up to 3,200 political prisoners.
In 1979, Iranian revolutionaries took control of the government and installed a fascistic Islamic theocracy.
The deposed Shah was granted asylum in the US despite Iranian officials calling for his extradition so he could face charges of corruption and crimes against the Iranian people perpetrated by his secret police. The Iranians saw this as a gross injustice. Eventually, the Shah is granted asylum in Egypt and remained exiled there.
During the revolution, the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, is overrun and 52 Americans are taken hostage. This becomes known as the infamous Iran Hostage Crisis. Some defended the hostage-taking by claiming that the US embassy was an opportunity base for seditious covert US operations.
Later, when the US released CIA documents and when documents found by the Iranian revolutionaries were released, the claim that US embassy staff members both conspired to assist in the 1953 coup and to destabilize the new Iranian government was confirmed as authentic.
In 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Iran. This leads to a brutal eight-year-long war with over a million deaths. The United States provided logistical support for Saddam’s Iraq.
During this war, Iraq killed tens of thousands of Iranians with chemical weapons. This did not lose Iraq any Western support.
In the following years, Iran becomes a state sponsor of terrorism against other Islamic nations, Israel, the US, and various Western countries.
Would Iran have been justified in declaring war against the US then?
No, they would not have been justified. Every pro-war commentator has given the one week version of our dispute with Iran. However, the context for that dispute goes back much further than the last few weeks.
Though some prerequisites for a just war were certainly met in both the Cuban and Iranian scenarios, from a consistent Christian worldview, we must view Just War more holistically.
a holistic view of just war
Just War is more than about who attacked first. Just War is more than the external circumstances we can “check off” to justify war. For a Christian, Just War also means first being a just nation, the political and military leaders truly having righteous motives, and how we go about conducting that war.
Communist Cuba is a murderous and totalitarian regime. They cannot conduct a just war any more than a pig can sprout wings and fly away. Soviet Russia did not engage in “Just War” even when they were fighting Nazis. Justice does not flow from murderous regimes in the same way a corrupt tree does not bear good fruit (Matthew 7:7-8).
Now, Christian, is the US a just nation? Do our laws reflect the character of God and his precepts to us? Are our legislators and our President faithful in doing justice and encouraging peace? We may not be Communist Cuba or Iran, but we do kill millions of babies with taxpayer-funded abortion. They put undesirables up against a wall and shoot them; we just kill them with “medical” tools and pills. We support and legally protect homosexuality and homosexual “marriage.” We encourage and actively vote for theft for our own covetousness. We meddle in the affairs of foreign nations for our own selfish interests.
Lamb’s Reign editor Jordan Wilson explains further.
“The action in Iran cannot be seen as taking place in a vacuum. It’s not as simple as “the American embassy is American soil so we need to defend it.” Or “so and so threatened American interests” so we needed to act.
It is but another domino falling in the larger context of the first Iraqi intervention in 1991 and the even larger context of US Foreign Policy since the Korean War. Getting ourselves entangled in endless conflicts on foreign soil for which we do not understand the culture, the larger mission, the fallout or the unintended consequences of our actions (short term or long term).
This is not a partisan comment as every President on both sides as engaged in it to one degree or another. It’s also not saying there weren’t good intentions at various points. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
It’s also another domino falling in the broader context of global statism. Nations where states are are continually at war with each other to buttress their own power domestically and use international conflict to consolidate power over their citizens. See the “patriot act”. The idea is to trick people into thinking that the state apparatus is equivalent to the country and its citizens. The state wants you to shame anyone who doesn’t go along with its reckless policies as being unpatriotic. An unflinching nationalism is their goal. See China and North Korea as the most obvious example, but it exists subtly to one degree or another in most nations, including ours.
This isn’t just limited to what happens in the US but applies to the Iranian people, many of whom are tricked into following their state apparatus with the same gusto.
What is going on with this latest action is not a conflict between the American people and Iranian people but a conflict between two states. Until we can identify this charade for what it is, we will continue to see an unending train of endless punch and counter-punch with each side arguing endlessly about who punched first and at what proportion.
If you think this post is a specific condemnation about this latest specific action you’re missing the point.” - Jordan Wilson
Jordan hits the nail on the head. There are not any “just” or righteous participants in this game, and the United States is decidedly not the “good guy” in this Middle East Cold War. We have, for decades, tampered with Iran’s internal politics, pulled off a coup, and financed their regional enemies. To be very clear, Iran is a wicked nation guilty of many war crimes, civil rights crimes, and much more. But to be even more precise, everything Iran is guilty of Saudia Arabia is also guilty of very similar offenses and civil rights abuses; while we continue to make arms deals with them. According to leaked Department of the Treasury documents, there are ties between the Saudi Royal family and terrorism. Further, according to leaked embassy documents, Saudi Arabia remains "a critical source of terrorist funding." Yet we make arms deals with Saudi Arabia and consider them a close ally in the region. It should also be noted that Sunni Arabia is a vicious adversary of Shi'a Iran. Going to war with one state sponsor of terrorism helps another state sponsor of terrorism. But Saudi Arabia is "our" state sponsor of terrorism. Our actions against Iran, now, in the past, and the future, is not about justice, righteousness, or peace. It is about politics, money, and power. The bloodlust of nationalism runs thick in both the US and Iran.
In Iraq alone, death tolls are in the hundreds of thousands (at the very least) ever since we decided to “help.” Thousands of American soldiers have been killed. We toppled the secular Iraqi government and now, nearly seventeen years later, Iraq is close to becoming a client state of Iran. Consider the cost and consider the history. We now have a stack of official documents proving that our government has lied about the Afghanistan war in many different ways. Is the Middle East any safer or peaceful since the United States started setting up shop there? Seven years ago, I urged peace in Syria, not because I can tell the future, but because the historical record of US military involvement is littered with ostensibly good intentions that inevitably lead to more death and more war. It does not take a prophet. Since these comments, ISIS/ISIL emerged in the power vacuum in part caused by our interventions.
A word of warning and caution
Iran, Hezbollah, Assad, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Saudi Arabia, other Sunni Gulf States, Turkish insurgents, Russia, and the USA’s military involvement in the region is sinful and against God’s Law in every way. The never-ending conflicts in the Middle East are a gang fight of varying degrees of Godless thugs. It is pointless, and joining in just makes the US another thug. The geopolitics of the region is extremely complicated, but the solution to our involvement isn’t complicated. Stay out of it. Let the churches send an army of missionaries. Only by God’s grace will there be peace. We urge extreme caution. Not only because of the potential for an incredible loss of life but because warmongering will bring reproach upon the Bride of Christ. God does not bless warmongering and trusting in warhorses and chariots.
War can be justified. However, before we consider any war of ours just, we should look at ourselves according to the Law Word of God. Are we on the moral high ground? Before we consider any war, do we truly know that the intentions of our elected officials and military leaders are righteous? Though some headlines may allude to noble causes, do we know that the reasons for war aren’t just political power plays and plays for economic and diplomatic gain? Before we consider any war, are we the type of nation that will consistently engage in just combat? Will we have a clearly defined mission? Will we indefinitely occupy and set up a puppet government? Will we fund Sunni Islamic-fascists as long as they’re fighting Iranian Shi'a Islamic-fascists? Will we target civilians? Will we torture? Will we murder?
No matter the justifications for the recent killing of Qassem Soleimani and no matter the potential Iranian retaliation, we need to be slow to answer these questions. Before a single bomb is dropped or before a single bullet is fired, we need to answer these questions. Thinking war is justified because of two very recent incidents is incredibly short sighted and unrealistic. We have been waging proxy wars with Iran and meddling in the politics of the Middle East for decades. Sadly, though all-out-war may still be prevented, too much blood has already been spilled in that region.
Pray for peace, brothers and sisters.