Yes, I am preparing a commentary about the joint American-Israeli attack upon Iran yesterday that killed the ruthless murderer of his own people named Ayatollah Ali Khameini. However, the hour is late and the situation is dynamic.
For the moment, however, suffice to say, that no matter the results thus far, preemptive war is forbidden by the Just War Theory. Contrary to what President Donald John Trump said within the past week, the Iranians were not close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States of America. That claim was as fictitious as President George Walker Bush’s claim in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that were capable of posing a direct threat to this country before he launched his own preemptive war, which Donald John Trump has rightly condemned over the years.
None of the predicates of the Just War Theory, which I outlined nine days ago in Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part twenty-eight, were met prior to the launching of the attacks yesterday, February 28, 2026.
Indeed, Omani Foreign Minister Badr-al-Busaidi, who was serving as an intermediary in the indirect talks between the American government and the Iranian Islamicists in Geneva, Switzerland, said that an actual and enforceable deal between the two sides was within reach when the attacks began:
Oman Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who had been a key player in talks aimed at preventing a war between the U.S. and Iran, expressed dismay at the Saturday morning strikes by the U.S. and Israel.
“I am dismayed. Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined,” he wrote on X.
“Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this. And I pray for the innocents who will suffer. I urge the United States not to get sucked in further. This is not your war,” he wrote.
On Friday, hours before the strikes, the Omani foreign minister had played up progress in the talks.
“Now we are talking about zero stockpiling and that is very, very important because if you cannot stockpile material that is enriched, then there is no way you can actually create a bomb,” al-Busaidi had told Margaret Brennan of CBS’s “Face the Nation” in an interview posted Friday.
Iran holds a stockpile of between 300 and 400 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium that nuclear experts have warned can be converted to a nuclear weapon.
Al-Busaidi said if there is a deal, international nuclear inspectors, likely from the International Atomic Energy Agency, could inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities at places like Isfahan and inspect the stockpiles.
At the time, some saw the remarks from al-Busaidi, who met with Vice President Vance on Friday, as a last-ditch effort to stave off strikes by the U.S. on Iran amid signs President Trump was frustrated with the lack of progress with Tehran. (Oman foreign minister expresses dismay at US strikes on Iran: 'This is not your war'.)
Badr-al-Busaidi is correct.
This is not America’s war. It is, of course, Israel’s war, and Donald John Trump is usually at the ready to do pretty much what the man who planned the genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, Benjamin Netanyahu, wants to be done.
As a final note until I resume work on this subject later this afternoon, there is also the little problem called the Constitution of the United States of America, which assigns the power to declare war to Congress.
For those who think that an adherence to the Constitution’s delineation of powers to the three branches of government should not apply when a “man of action” such as Donald John Trump holds the presidency and is willing to do what others in the past had not done, remember that the totalitarians within the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and Kamala Harris Emhoff did not believe that the constitutional protections of free speech applied to Donald John Trump in particular or to anyone who criticized their policies. Such critics, including me (see Believing Catholics Pose No Threat to a Just Social Order), became the subjects of investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation while even Republican members of Congress had logs of their phone calls subpoenaed by the likes of the arrogant Jack Smith.
If the Constitution bound the Biden oligarchy not to do the illicit things that it did, it also binds President Donald John Trump to make his case for military action to Congress, and the fact that this has not been done since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked for a declaration of war against the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941 (Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan) is irrelevant to what the Constitution requires. How did the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars turn out?
The ends never justify the means no matter who is president.
Those of us who are Catholics must judge the events of the world soberly as we keep ever in mind the fact the war is a regrettable last resort, not a preemptive first resort.
Pray for the safety of our troops who have been put in harm’s way as well as the safety of all innocent civilians everywhere throughout the Middle East.
Most importantly, pray for the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, especially by beseeching her through her Most Holy Rosary.
Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.
