Stop the US-Israeli war against Iran

By Art Laffin
Pax Christi USA 2016 Teacher of Peace

Art Laffin is a member of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington DC. He is author of the new edition of The Risk of the Cross: Living Gospel Nonviolence in the Nuclear Age.

Despite numerous calls for a diplomatic solution since before last June’s attack of Iran by Israel and the US, the Trump administration, without Congressional approval, has, with Israel’s urging, initiated a joint war against Iran. No matter the shifting justifications given by the Trump administration for this war, or what one thinks about the Iranian government, this war is an unspeakable affront against God and a crime against humanity which must be absolutely condemned and stopped now.

In talks held between US and Iranian officials prior to the war, the Trump administration called on Iran to capitulate to US demands or face military reprisals. US officials were not pursuing a true diplomatic solution, but instead its own and the nuclear armed state of Israel’s imperial ambitions of Middle East domination.

The US-Israeli initiated war against Iran resulted in the deaths of Iran’s supreme leader and other military officials. To date (March 11), more than 1,300 Iranians have been killed, including 175 school children and staff who died on February 28 from the US-Israel bombing of the Shajarah Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, Iran.

More than 5,000 sites have been struck and more than 10,000 civilian sites across Iran

Numerous people have been injured and displaced. Iran has responded with retaliatory strikes in the region. Casualties also include: eight US soldiers, 13 Israelis, 14 from different Gulf states and more 570 in Lebanon. (A live tracker of the death toll and injuries, Al Jazeera)

As a result of Israeli and US bombings of oil depots, Tehran residents have reported toxic air and soot covering streets and cars as well as well as throat pain and burning eyes. The World Health Organization’s director said, “Damage to petroleum facilities in Iran risks contaminating food, water and air — hazards that can have severe health impacts especially on children, older people, and people with pre-existing medical conditions.”

The financial cost of the war is staggering with estimates that the war is costing up to $1 billion a day.

Instead of heeding UN and papal appeals, and the call of other nations and faith leaders, numerous NGOs and many peace organizations and people of faith and conscience in the US and worldwide to stop the war and pursue a diplomatic solution, the Trump administration and Israeli government has intensified it. This war has now escalated into a wider Middle East conflict, and Israel has expanded its military intervention in Lebanon. The Trump administration has called for unconditional surrender of Iran and has warned that “Iran may face complete destruction and certain death.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth asserted that it will continue its relentless bombing of Iran: “Death and destruction from the sky. All day long.” US pilots “have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly.” …Rules of engagement “are designed to unleash American power, not shackle it…We can sustain this fight easily, for as long as we need to…We will take all the time we need to make sure we succeed.”

 The Pentagon and Israeli military are also now considering deploying special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Christian Nationalists have cited biblical justification for what is described as a “Holy War.” A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing March 2 that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that President Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to independent journalist Jonathan Larsen as published on Substack.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that has been working against religious extremism in the United States military for two decades, has reported more than 200 new complaints since the initial strikes against Iran, with members across all services claiming that high-ranking officers are tying the mission overseas to fulfilling a Christian prophecy. As the linked article notes, “Upwards of 95 percent of MRFF members are Christians.”

On March 5, some pastors and faith leaders were hosted by the White House to pray for the president and military as they wage war against Iran.

To be clear, there can be no Gospel justification for this war. It is a heresy to claim so. Jesus commands His followers for all time to reject all that is contrary to God’s commandment to love our neighbor. Moreover, He commands us to love our enemies and never to kill, forever put away the sword, to renounce idolatry and empire, and resist all violence and killing.

Furthermore, Jesus commands us “to take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.” As the only country who has ever used nuclear weapons, and which has since threatened to use them again against its adversaries, the US must take the log out of its own eye and repent for the nuclear sin and its warmaking. The US cannot legitimately call to account the wrongdoing of others until it first repents for its own wrongdoing.

In the words of Pope Francis, “war is a sacrilege.” Pope Francis also asserted that the very possession of nuclear weapons is immoral. 

In light of the perilous Iran war,  the words of Pope Francis need to be heeded by all people of faith. In the introduction of Against War: The Courage to Build Peace (2022), Pope Francis writes:

War is a sacrilege that wreaks havoc on what is most precious on our earth: human life, the innocence of little ones, the beauty of creation…war is madness, war is a cancer that feeds off itself, engulfs everything… Every war represents not only a defeat of politics but also a shameful surrender in the face of the forces of evil…

I have spoken of World War III, saying that we are already living it, though only in pieces. Those pieces have become bigger and bigger…So many wars are going on in the world right now ... When people allow themselves to be devoured by this monster represented by war everyone loses…

US military and nuclear policy endanger the world, not Iran’s potential nuclear capability which the Trump administration uses to justify its military actions and claims to have “obliterated” after its attack last June. This military action against Iran marks yet another deadly chapter of US aggression in the Middle East, and has striking similarities to the war the US has previously waged against Iraq. In both instances, false claims regarding potential nuclear threats posed by Iraq and now Iran were used to justify the attacks by a US administration. These are manufactured wars based on fabricated justifications.

During the first Trump administration, the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and the INF Treaty with Russia. There would never have been a manufactured crisis of the US attack against Iran last June, or now, if the Iran nuclear deal had still been in place.

Moreover, in its 2019 Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, policy makers from the Trump Administration declared that a limited nuclear war could be waged and won. This doctrine was the latest manifestation of a long-held existing Pentagon policy positing that the US must be prepared at all times to use whatever military force is necessary, including nuclear weapons, to protect its vital interests in the world.

On March 5, a prayer service calling for an end to the war against Iran was held outside the Cannon House Office Building across from the US Capitol (see photo below). During the service, two veterans spoke: Anthony Aguilar, a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and special forces officers with the Green Berets who served for 25 years, and Josie Guilbeau, a former Army All Source Intel Analyst who served for 17 years. As Catholics, they both condemned the war against Iran as immoral and illegal and demanded that the US and Israel stop it immediately.

On March 7, Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich issued a statement criticizing a social media video posted by the White House on March 6 featuring footage from the ongoing war in Iran spliced with scenes from action movies. He stated: “A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening.” He also noted that the “moral crisis we are facing is not just a matter of the war itself, but also how we, the observers, view violence, for war now has become a spectator sport or strategy game.”

And on March 9, Washington DC’s Cardinal Robert McElroy asserted that war in Iran is not “morally legitimate.”

The Iran war is immoral and illegal and Christians should not participate in it. They should heed the command of Jesus and follow the example of St. Maximillian and St. Oscar Romero: March 12 marks the martyrdom of St. Maximillian, a 21-year-old North African who refused to serve in the Roman army because of his faith and was beheaded in 295. And March 24 marks the martyrdom of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. In his sermon on March 23, 1980, the day before he was assassinated while celebrating the Eucharist, Archbishop Romero proclaimed: “…Against any order a man may give to kill, God’s law must prevail, “You shall not kill.” …No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one is obliged to obey an immoral law.” We need to act on St. Romero’s admonition. Moreover, soldiers should refuse to fight and kill and disobey immoral and unlawful orders, especially now regarding the Iran war.

Christians, Muslims and Jews are all descendants of Abraham and children of God. During this Holy Season of Lent and Ramadan, and as the Holy Days of Passover is approaching from April 1-9, peace should be waged not war. Church leaders and all people of faith and conscience must urgently demand that the Trump administration and those members of Congress who support war and regime change in Iran stop the war now and, along with Israel, pursue a path of peace with Iran.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. exhorted us: “The choice today is…either nonviolence or nonexistence.”