An Unjust War: Part II
"The Strait of Hormuz, the 'two weeks to a nuke' fiction, and the dust Trump is willing to destroy a civilization to obtain." By: Chris Ferrara
“Well, that’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into!” Oliver Hardy’s famous lament to Stan Laurel could be uttered by each of us in view of the spectacular mess Donald Trump created with his elective war on Iran.
In Part 1 of this article, I discussed the classic just war criteria. To recapitulate:
· the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
· all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
· there must be serious prospects of success;
· the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
It should be obvious that Iran committed no act of war against the United States before Trump began his massive bombardment of that country on the manifestly flimsy pretext of Iran’s alleged connection to groups opposing US interests in Middle East conflicts that were none of our business in the first place. This is the bogus “Iran has been waging war on the United States for 47 years” rationale, which I disposed of in Part 1.
Since Part 1 appeared, moreover, Trump has made it perfectly clear that in order to obtain whatever outcome he is currently demanding from the Iranian mullahs—and the demands are constantly shifting—he has every intention of “produc[ing] evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated” by unleashing the “power of modern means of destruction…” Let the man’s own words on Truth Social convict him:
· “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said at a White House press conference.
· “We have a plan… where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again. I mean, complete demolition, by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we want that to happen…”
· “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
What are these threats but rank extortion of the entire population of Iran? If he does not get whatever he wants in a signed and sealed agreement, Trump declares he will impose collective punishment on 93 million people who are the very victims of the radical Muslim dictatorship that directly resulted from United States intervention via the 1953 coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI-6. Recall the teaching of the Angelic Doctor that a war can be “declared by the legitimate authority, and for a just cause, and yet be rendered unlawful through a wicked intention.” What could be more wicked than the threat to destroy an entire civilization with weapons of mass destruction?
The Strait of Hormuz Canard
And just what is it, this week, that Trump wants the Iranians to agree to? First of all, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Trump demanded only after his unprovoked, totally elective war prompted its closure by the Iranians in retaliation. This situation is akin to a bully agreeing to stop his savage beating of a puny opponent only if the puny opponent ceases to offer any resistance to the beating. Reopening of the Strait was temporarily effected by the US naval blockade of Iranian ships, but as of this writing (April 18) the Iranians have resumed firing on ships attempting passage through the Strait. At the same time, Iranian state media have denied Trump’s claim of a peace deal, calling it “camel dreams” and “castles in the sand.”
