The Huge Mistake: The U.S. Joins Israel in Bombing Iran
Editor’s note: This is a quick response to last weekend’s events, and we expect to have more to say with the rapid developments this situation is likely to have.
The date of publication, June 24, is also the third anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, so we pro-lifers in the United States are observing it in various ways all over the country.
by John Whitehead
Israel bombed Iran for many days in an apparent attempt to destroy Iran’s ability to build nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated by bombing Israel. Hundreds of Iranians and dozens of Israelis have been killed to date. US President Donald Trump contemplated joining Israel in bombing Iran, and finally did so on June 22, 2025.
American involvement in Israel’s war against Iran war is a catastrophic mistake. Here are some reasons why:
The current war against Iran is not a war of self-defense.
While Iran might be pursuing the capacity to build nuclear weapons, Iran does not yet have such weapons nor is it clear when Iran might have such weapons.
The Trump administration’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, told Congress in March 2025 that US intelligence’s assessment was that: “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized [a] nuclear weapons program.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when he announced Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran, acknowledged that he did not know when Iran might build nuclear weapons, saying, “It could be a year, it could be within a few months.”
Even if Iran did build nuclear weapons, there is no guarantee Iran would use such weapons against Israel, the United States, or any other nation. Using these weapons could carry very serious negative consequences for Iran.
Attacking Iran’s nuclear weapons capacity is thus not self-defense against an attack but an attempt to prevent some future, uncertain threat. Unleashing actual violence to prevent speculative future violence is not justified.
Waging war on Iran may encourage the spread of nuclear weapons.
The lesson other nations watching the current war might draw from recent events is that they should build nuclear weapons for themselves as quickly as possible. Possessing such weapons could serve as insurance against attacks such as Iran is enduring.
The current war may escalate out of control.
If Israel or the United States decides the current bombing is not sufficient to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions; or if Iran retaliates by killing American troops in the Middle East, the war could get much bigger. At worst, it could escalate into a war by the United States to overthrow Iran’s current government.
Past US wars of regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya show how disastrous such wars turn out to be. Such a war in Iran would likely have similar results.
For all these reasons, the United States should not have joined Israel’s war on Iran.
==================================
For more of our posts on how wars are unjustified, see:
Gaza War: Outrageous and Foolish
The Preferential Option for Nonviolence in Just War Theory: Opportunities for Just War and Pacifist Collaboration
The Civil War Conundrum, 150 Years Later
Finding Common Ground on and Learning from World War II
Seeing War’s Victims: The New York Times Investigation of Civilian Casualties in Iraq and Syria
==================================
On the anniversary of the Dobbs decision, see our posts that comment on Dobbs directly:
Major Obstacle Removed! (June 24, 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade)
Reflections on the Alito Draft Leak of May 2, 2022
Post-Roe Life-Affirming Help / Rachel MacNair
Post-Roe Stats: the Natural Experiment / Rachel MacNair
Roe v. Wade: Legal Scholars Comment
[…] The Huge Mistake: The U.S. Joins Israel in Bombing Iran […]
Involving states that do not yet possess nuclear weapons raise ominous questions: Will the recent bombing campaign by Israel and the United States against Iran lead Iran to make an all-out effort to build nuclear weapons?
Unfortunately, it seems that other nations didn’t need the recent bombing of Iran to get the idea that they should get nuclear weapons for themselves.
When India demonstrated its nuclear bombs in 1999, some spokespeople for other countries assumed it was entitled to a permanent seat on the UN’s Security Council. After all, for a long time, the only five countries that admitted having nuclear bombs were exactly the five permanent members of the Security Council.
India’s disgusting sneering celebration of its admission to the nuclear bomb world demonstrates that many countries consider having nuclear bombs a matter of national pride. (In addition to India’s special case of boasting it has “grown up” and tossed Mahatma Gandhi’s pacifism on the dustbin of history.)
More recently, a reason given for invading Iraq in 2003 was that it showed signs of dreaming of developing nuclear bombs. Was it the only country?
What other countries are dreaming of possessing nuclear bombs? Which are closer to getting them than Iraq was? Which might the US not know about? Which does the US know about but let be, because they’re our “friends” for other reasons?