Americans against the war with Iran are resorting to morality reasons for their protests. War is immoral. Dropping bombs on innocent people is immoral. Forcing people out of their homes is immoral. Is America’s invasion justifiable. Is the assault criminal and/or immoral.
One definition of morality is the distinction between right and wrong, or good and evil. Of course, everyone has their own moral compass, which may not jive with others.
Is Iran’s behavior for the past five decades immoral? Ask an ayatollah and he would say of course his country is moral. It is the duty of religious men to flush out the evil doers. Some “holy people” in Iran think that encouraging mayhem and murder of others, who do not worship God in a certain way, is justifiable and moral (but I don’t).
Who is the ultimate judge of what is moral and immoral? Most would say Nazi Germany was an immoral country and needed to be destroyed. The actions of Iran are very similar to what happened during WWII. Thousands of Iranians have been killed or incarcerated.
President Trump has independently judged Iran an evil country that will always be immoral under rule of its theocracy government. The US Congress did not vote on whether the US is acting morally in its efforts to cause a regime change. Trump believes his intentions are righteous based upon the behavior of the rogue state. It would be “more righteous” if Congress voted on the invasion of Iran.
There are many people who agree with Trump, both Americans and others around the world. The president said many times that Iran’s bellicose actions are immoral, and the US has a duty to come to the aid of its allies, primarily Israel and Sunni nations. There is no court to seek justice. There is no legal body to judge whether the US is acting morally.
And so, the US bombarded Iran unmercifully. In the US, we believe we are always on the side of righteousness. Our actions might be criticized publicly, but there is nothing any courts can do about it.
Even Pope Leo has jumped on the bandwagon. He claims the US is not righteous in its actions. I hasten to remind the pontiff that he still needs to take care of the pedophilia epidemic in his own church.
So what do we do? After the destruction and negotiations, Iran still is resisting the will of a of the US. The American military has come very far in its efforts to destroy Iraq’s military and nuclear aspirations. Certainly, the desire of all nations is to prevent Iran from having and using nuclear weapons. Not only that, it’s an existential situation that needs to be taken care of once and for the benefit of mankind.
What would have been the best way for the US to respond to Iran’s rogue government? I think that many more people would be on the side of Donald Trump if he had solicited permission from Congress to move forward with the invasion. Then again, if the president feels a situation deteriorating dangerously, he should be obligated to take action.