Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part twenty-nine

We live at a time of political theater.

Warfare can now be livestreamed on one’s computer.

As we know, however, dramatic moments can fade into memory very quickly, especially if subsequent events make initial celebrations entirely unjustified.

As a Catholic first and foremost who is also a native-born citizen of the United States of America, whose conversion to the true Faith was promoted during my long college teaching career and, of course, has been a them in the past thirty-four years of writing for various Catholic publications, I will shed no tears for the murderous Ayatollah Ali Khameini, but there are American families who are going to shed many tears over the deaths and injuries that will be occurring over the course of the next few weeks as Donald John Trump continues to do the bidding of Benjamin Netanyahu’s “Greater Israel Project.”

Although that it appears the Crown Prince of Saudi Araba, Mohammed bin Salman, also lobbied President Trump to take decisive action against the Iranian regime, it is certainly the case that the primary force behind the joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran was none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, who is forever seeking devils in the Middle East to destroy to make the area “safer” for Israel.

I. No Casus Belli

To be sure, the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran has been a major force supporting terrorism against Israel, the United States of America, and other Western countries for over forty-seven years as its leaders have been committed Mohammedans who think nothing of dealing death to “infidels,” which is how the false, blasphemous “prophet” Mohammed himself spread his false beliefs throughout the Arabian peninsula up into most of North Africa, much of which was Catholic, in the twenty-two years since he founded his false religion and the time of his death in 632 A.D.

However, the fact remains that the Islamic Republic of Iran posed no immediate threat to the national security of the United States of America that justified the attack that began on Saturday, February 28, 2026, when, acting upon intelligence gathered by the United States Central Intelligence Agency, the Israeli Defense Forces launched missiles into the Teheran, Iran, compound where the late Ayatollah Ali Khameini lived and made his headquarters. No casus belli existed.

Although an incredibly smashing success even if many Islamic regime leaders remain ready to continue the “revolutionary” path charted by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini forty-seven years ago, there was no wound to justice or imminent threat that made the attacks a necessity at this time.

II. All Means Were Not Exhausted to Avoid Armed Conflict

As noted on this site’s home page yesterday, Sunday, March 1, 2026, the Second Sunday of Lent, 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.

III. Trump Started the War Without Congressional Authorization

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.

IV. Clear Objectives Have Yet to be Stated

President Donald John Trump gave differing rationales before “Operation Epic Fury” was undertaken in conjunction with the Israeli “Operation Rising Lion” as to why an attack was being considered, something that a writer for The Federalist publication noted two days before the attacks began:

Last June when the United States targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities in a series of coordinated airstrikes with Israel, President Trump boasted that “Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated.” He said that on the day of the operation, which hit the enrichment facility at Fordow, buried under a mountain, as well as sites at Natanz and Isfahan.

In the ensuing days and months, Trump repeated this claim, saying that Iran’s nuclear facilities and capabilities had been “obliterated.” In August he said, “We obliterated … the future nuclear capability of Iran.” In October he said, “Well, they don’t have a nuclear program. It was obliterated.” In December he said, “We obliterated their nuclear capability.” He said the same in January, multiple times, even claiming we had obliterated Iran’s “enrichment capability.” As recently as this month Trump repeated the claim — “totally obliterated” was the phrase he used.

So if that’s true, if we “totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities just eight months ago, then why are we about to go to war with Iran? After all, the justification for U.S. strikes on Iran has always been that we cannot allow the regime in Tehran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Most Americans agree with that, and it’s easy to understand why. But we were assured, over and over for months, that Iran’s nuclear program had been totally destroyed.

Now the administration is suddenly saying something different. During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, President Trump accused Iran of restarting its nuclear program and working to build missiles that would “soon” be able to reach the United States. Really? How is that possible if we utterly destroyed their nuclear program in June of last year?

And if we didn’t actually destroy Iran’s nuclear program, then when is the president going to come out and admit that? The American people aren’t idiots, we can handle the truth. Just tell us that the strikes last June weren’t as effective as we first thought and that’s why we’re now giving the Iranians ultimatums now about how they need to destroy their nuclear facilities and abandon their enrichment programs.

If it was true, if we really did obliterate Iran’s nuclear facilities as thoroughly as Trump says we did, then when is the president or someone from the administration going to come out and explain the justification for going to war with Tehran now, after neutralizing their nuclear threat? Don’t tell us it’s about the nuclear facilities we destroyed. What is the real reason we’re about to go to war?

These questions are important because launching a war of choice against Iran is a big deal that we shouldn’t undertake lightly — and certainly not for murky or shifting reasons. A decent respect for the opinion of the American people should compel any White House to at least give a plausible reason for launching regime change strikes on the other side of the world.

But what we’re getting from Trump is inconsistent. Last month when Iran was killing protesters, Trump threatened military action against Tehran, suggesting that targeting protesters was a red line. But today the issue seems to be Iran’s supposedly obliterated nuclear program, which is inexplicably once again a major threat to American interests. Last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked why the U.S. would need to strike Iran if its nuclear program had already been destroyed. She said, “Well, there’s many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran.”

That might be so, but it’s incumbent on the administration to pick a reason and make an argument to the American people. You can’t tell us one week that we have to strike Iran because the regime is killing protesters, and the next week tell us that we have to strike Iran because the regime is enriching uranium at sites that are supposed to be destroyed. At a certain point, it begins to look like the Trump administration is fishing for a reason to strike Iran.

Sorry, but that’s not good enough. It’s also not good enough to take Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s word at face value on the question of Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Netanyahu has been warning that Iran is on the brink of a nuclear weapon since 1996. There are videos circulating on social media mashing up 30 years of Netanyahu claiming Iran is about to have a nuclear weapon. Forgive me for being skeptical at this point — especially after Trump made a huge deal of obliterating Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure eight months ago.

Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that some U.S. officials think Israel should attack Iran first and let Iran retaliate against the U.S., saying “the politics are a lot better” that way, and it would “give us more reason to take action,” according to an anonymous administration official.

The whole thing feels like spitballing. And for those of us who are old enough to remember President George W. Bush’s “slam dunk” on WMDs in Iraq, it also feels oddly familiar. Polls might show that Republicans support regime change in Iran (although unwilling to risk any U.S. casualties to achieve it), but what they will not tolerate is being lied to or misled about why we’re going to war.

Given our past experiences being hoodwinked into disastrous Middle East wars, being honest about what’s really behind this push for regime change in Iran is likely the only way for the Trump administration not to turn the American people hard against it. (We ‘Obliterated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program. So Why Are We Going To War?)

This is all quite accurate, of course, and President Trump still has not settled on any one particular reason as even the Israeli goal of “regime change” may not occur given the fact that it is not clear that all of the Islamic regime’s leadership is willing to surrender, and Trump himself has said on the one hand that he is “willing to talk” to the “new leaders,” whoever they may be, but that American military operations may continue for another four weeks or “so”:

President Trump said on Sunday that the U.S. military intends to sustain its assault on Iran for “four to five weeks” if necessary, insisting that it “won’t be difficult” for Israel and the United States to maintain the intensity of the battle even as he warned of the possibility of more American casualties.

In a brief telephone interview with The New York Times, Mr. Trump offered several seemingly contradictory visions of how power might be transferred to a new government — or even whether the existing Iranian power structure would run that government or be overthrown.

Among the options he suggested was an outcome similar to what he engineered in Venezuela, in which only the top leader was removed during an American military strike and much of the rest of the government remained in place, but newly willing to work pragmatically with the United States.

The assault on Iran is considered far more complex and risky than the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro, who was Venezuela’s leader, in part because Iran’s leadership oversees extensive military abilities and because of deep divides in Iranian society over the country’s course. And unlike Venezuela, Iran has sustained an active nuclear program.

The interview with Mr. Trump seemed to reflect the degree to which his administration remains uncertain about how the next few weeks will unfold, both on the battlefield and in the creation of a replacement government in Tehran.

But he insisted the Pentagon retained plenty of forces, missiles and bombs to sustain the military assault “if we have to.”

Asked how long the United States and Israel could keep up this level of attacks, he responded: “Well, we intended four to five weeks.”

“It won’t be difficult,” Mr. Trump added. “We have tremendous amounts of ammunition. You know, we have ammunition stored all over the world in different countries.”

He made no mention of the Pentagon’s concerns that the conflict could further deplete reserves that military strategists have said are critical to retain in scenarios like a conflict over Taiwan or Russian incursions into Europe.

During the roughly six-minute call, Mr. Trump said he had “three very good choices” about who could lead Iran, although he declined to name them. Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s top national security official, Ali Larijani, said that an interim committee would run the country until a successor to the supreme leader was chosen.

Mr. Larijani oversaw the abruptly ended negotiations for a nuclear deal with the United States, and in January was targeted in sanctions by the Trump administration for his role in the crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Mr. Trump did not answer a question about whether he thought Mr. Larijani could lead the government of Iran.

The president offered a variety of often inconsistent visions of how a new government could take shape after the targeted killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for more than three decades until he was killed by an airstrike on Saturday.

When pressed on his plans for a transition of power, Mr. Trump said he hoped Iran’s elite military forces — including hardened officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who have held substantial influence and profited from the existing regime — would simply turn over their weapons to the Iranian populace.

“They would really surrender to the people, if you think about it,” he said.

It was those same security forces — in particular, the Basij, which organizes local militia — that opened fire on street protesters in January and killed thousands.

Then he offered a very different model of what the transition of power in Iran might look like, referring repeatedly to his experience in Venezuela after he ordered a Delta Force team to seize Mr. Maduro.

“What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” Mr. Trump said.

His answer implied that what worked in Venezuela would work in Iran, a nation with about three times the population and a military and clerical leadership that has ruled with increasing repression since the 1979 revolution. Over the past several weeks, Mr. Trump has repeatedly brought up Venezuela as the model of a successful operation and hoped to replicate aspects of it in Iran, identifying leadership that would be more cooperative and friendly to the United States.

But he has been told by his advisers that the vast differences in cultures and history made it virtually impossible to apply the strategy used in Venezuela — in which the existing government was kept in place, after it agreed to take instructions from Washington — and try to replicate it in Tehran.

Nonetheless, Mr. Trump appears enamored of using a Venezuela-like model in Iran.

“Everybody’s kept their job except for two people,” Mr. Trump said of the outcome in Venezuela.

He was vague on the question of who should be in the top ruling position in Iran after the ayatollah’s death, or even who should decide.

At first, when asked whom he wanted to lead Iran, he said, “I have three very good choices.” He added: “I won’t be revealing them now. Let’s get the job done first.”

But then he described a scenario in which the Iranian people would overthrow the existing government.

“That’s going to be up to them about whether or not they do,” Mr. Trump said. “They’ve been talking about it for years so now they’ll obviously have an opportunity.” That would, of course, be the opposite of the Venezuela model that he had said minutes earlier he wanted to replicate.

Mr. Trump also said he did not think that the Arab states in the Persian Gulf were needed to join the United States in striking Iran, even though Tehran has targeted many of them — and Israel — with retaliatory missile and drone attacks. Mr. Trump spoke from Mar-a-Lago, about 36 hours into the conflict, and soon after he received news of American casualties. Saying he could only speak briefly because he said he was about to meet with “the generals,” he acknowledged that his administration expected more casualties, based on projections offered by the Pentagon.

“Three is three too many as far as I’m concerned," Mr. Trump said. “If you look at projections, they do projections, it, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that.”

“We expect casualties,” he added.

But he professed confidence that Iran would, in the end, bend to America’s and Israel’s will. “The country has been very substantially weakened, to put it mildly,” he added.

Already, the United States and Israeli forces have killed a number of Iran’s military leaders, leaving a power vacuum that the Iranian government was already seeking to fill.

Mr. Trump said that he was open to lifting sanctions on Iran if the new leadership showed itself to be a pragmatic partner.

But he also refused to say how — or if — his administration would defend the Iranian people he has said should overthrow the current government.

“I don’t make a commitment one way or the other; it’s too early,” Mr. Trump said. “We have work to do and we’ve done it very well. I’d say we’re quite ahead of schedule.”

Mr. Trump added that the U.S.-Israeli military strikes had “knocked out a big portion” of the Iranian navy, including nine ships and the navy headquarters.

After about six minutes, Mr. Trump said he had to end the interview.

Later Sunday afternoon, he returned to Washington. (Trump Says Iran War Could Last Weeks and Gives Competing Visions of New Regime.)

President Trump is delusional if he thinks that the hard-core Mohammedans who are vying to succeed Ali Khameini are going to be ready to make a “deal” with him the way that Delcy Rodriguez has done in Venezuela, and they are making it clear they do want to talk with Trump:

Iran’s top national security official said the country will not negotiate with the United States. Ali Larijani’s social media post referenced a Wall Street Journal report that, citing U.S. and Arab officials, said he had made a fresh attempt to resume nuclear talks with Washington. President Trump also said on Sunday that Iran’s new leadership had let him know they wanted to speak to him and that he was willing to do so, but Larijani’s post seemed to contradict that. (Iran Live Updates: Israel Strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon as Trump Says He's Prepared to Fight for Weeks.)

Moreover, it is eminently clear that President Trump still has no clearly stated objectives.

Regime change?

A good many leaders have been killed. More remain, and some of them are eager to take up the “martyred” Khameini’s mantle.

What guarantee is there that someone worse than Ali Khameini will not come to power and start slaughtering anyone who is thought to have cooperated with the Americans and Israelis?

Where does this madness stop?

President Trump issued a statement yesterday that the operations will continue until all objectives have been realized, but he has yet to state what those objectives are:

Over the past 36 hours, the United States and its partners have launched Operation epic fury, one of the largest, most complex, most overwhelming military offenses the world has ever seen. Nobody has seen anything like it.

We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including Revolutionary Guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems. Just now was announced that we knocked out nine ships plus their naval building, all in a matter of literally minutes.

Iran's formerly Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is dead. This wretched and vile man had the blood of hundreds and even 1000s of Americans on his hands and was responsible for the slaughter of countless 1000s of innocent people all across many countries.

Last night, all over Iran, the voices of the Iranian people could be heard cheering and celebrating in the streets when his death was announced. The entire military command is gone as well, and many of them want to surrender into saving their lives. They want immunity. They're calling by the 1000s.

Combat operations continue at this time in full force, and they will continue until all of our objectives are achieved. We have very strong objectives. They could have done something two weeks ago, but they just couldn't get there.

Earlier today, CENTCOM shared the news that three US military service members have been killed in action as one nation, we grieve for the true American patriots who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, even as we continue the righteous mission for which they gave their lives, we pray for the full recovery of the wounded and send our immense love and eternal gratitude to the families of the fallen. And sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is. Likely be more but we'll do everything possible. Or that won't be the case, but America will avenge their deaths and deliver the most punishing blow to the terrorists who have waged war against, basically, civilization.

They have waged war against civilization itself, our resolve and likewise, that of Israel has never been stronger. America is now again the richest, most powerful nation in the world by far. But the only reason we enjoy the quality of life that we do and the freedom and security is we have done things that others are unable to do, but it's because of warriors who are willing to lay down their lives to do battle with our enemies, and they do battle better than anybody an Iranian regime armed with long range missiles and nuclear weapons would be a dire threat to every American.

We cannot allow a nation that raises terrorist armies to possess such weapons. Would allow them to extort the world to their evil will not going to let it happen, not happening to us, and we're not going to let it happen to others.

The United States has the strongest military the world has ever seen. I rebuilt our military in my first term. There's never been a military like we possess, and frankly, there's nobody even close. But we are now using that military for good. We want to have it for good purpose. We're undertaking this massive operation not merely to ensure security for our own time and place, but for our children and their children, just as our ancestors have done for us, many, many years ago, this is the duty and the burden of a free people.

These actions are right and they are necessary to ensure that Americans will never have to face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and lots of threats. For almost 50 years, these wicked extremists have been attacking the United States while chanting the slogan, Death to America, or death to Israel, or both. They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror. We are the world's greatest and most powerful nation, so we can do something about what they do. These intolerable threats will not continue any longer.

I once again urge the Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian military police, to lay down your arms and receive full immunity or face certain death. It will be certain. Death won't be pretty. I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment, to be brave, be bold, be heroic, and take back your country. America is with you. I made a promise to you, and I fulfilled that promise. The rest will be up to you, and we'll be there to help. Thank you. God bless you to our incredible warriors, and God bless the United States of America. ('Operation will continue till all objectives met' - full Trump remarks.)

How can an unarmed people “take back” their country when the “revolutionary guard” and military police slaughtered thousands of their fellow countrymen in January and are being warned not to take the streets unless they want to be slaughtered as well:

Iranians received a text message from a verified Revolutionary Guards number early Sunday morning warning them against taking to the streets to protest. “Any action that disrupts security will be viewed as cooperation with the enemy and will be met with the iron fist of the intelligence wing of the revolutionary guards,” read the message, which was viewed by The New York Times. (Iran Live Updates: Israel Strikes Hezbollah in Lebanon as Trump Says He's Prepared to Fight for Weeks.)

What further targets remain for the military to keep up the attacks for another four or five weeks?

When do President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu know their respective “missions” have been accomplished?

These are the sorts of questions that serious policymakers must address before the beginning of hostilities once it has been established that a genuinely imminent threat exists. The fact that President Donald John Trump is ruminating about these questions to reporters (he spoke to a reporter for The Atlantic as well yesterday.)

Operation Epic Fury is being conducted on the fly, which is no way to run a war while burning the nation’s supply of munitions, a fact Chicom mass murderer Xi Jinping is not ignoring as Vladimir Putin’s propagandists believe that his hands have been “untied” (when were they ever tied?) to take over the Baltic States, starting with Estonia (see Russians threaten horror strikes on Europe in revenge for Iran - 'Trump untied our hands'.)

Ah, but the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Brian  Mast (R-Florida), has found a “clear military objective,” namely, to eliminate all military hardware in Iran that could cause harm to Americans anywhere in the Middle East:

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital in an interview the United States now has a clear and defined military objective in Iran: dismantle the regime’s ability to strike Americans.

He said the U.S. mission is "to literally eliminate every single piece of military hardware that exists in Iran that can reach out and touch an American somewhere throughout the Middle East."

"That is what we are conducting right now so that we do not get hit with something, a surface-to-surface missile or a surface-to-air missile or anything else, certainly with a nuclear tip, but with any other tip as well." (Brian Mast defends US Iran strikes, rejects Israel dragged America claim.)

Boy, that is a long way from claiming the goal was prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons that Trump said nine months ago that they had no capability of building about he said the American military had “obliterated” their nuclear program, and it is also a long way from claiming that Iran was within a week of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States of America.

If eliminating every piece of military hardware in Iran that is capability of harming Americans in the Middle East is to be the “objective” now, why do not President Trump nor Representative Mast seek to eliminate every piece of surgical hardware and pharmaceuticals that do kill thousands of innocent preborn American babies every day?

American preborn babies are in imminent danger of being executed, either under cover of the civil law in most states or by the Trump’s administration refusal to enforce the Comstock Law, but that, of course, is of no concern to either Donald John Trump (Donald John Trump's Genocide) or to the pro-abortion Benjamin Netanyahu (No One Has Killed More Israelis Than the Israelis Themselves).

V. Where is the Proportionality?

Without any clear objectives to be accomplished, it is impossible to judge whether the good end to be sought will be outweighed by the foreseen evil but unintended consequences that occur even in truly just wars.

As we have seen already, a hospital in Teheran, Iran, has taken a direct hit from an Israeli missile (Baby and patients evacuated as Israel attacks Tehran hospital), something that I, for one, find it hard to believe was an “accident” given the IDF’s record of striking hospitals in Gaza.

Iran’s client terrorist group in Lebanon attacked Israel, and Israel is now engaging in one of its favorite pastimes, bombing Beirut (Israel bombs Beirut after Hezbollah fires rockets in Iran war retaliation.)

Whoever is in charge of the Iranian military is sending missiles across the Persian Gulf into Quatar, Dubai (where the ballroom of the Palm Hotel took a direct hit from an Iranian drone), United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain, angering leaders of those governments while the aforementioned crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, says that the Saudis will join the fight against Iran if it attacks inside of Saudi Arabia again as happened outside an American military base near Riyadh:

JUST IN: Saudi Arabia is LOCKED AND LOADED—fully prepared to unleash a devastating military response if Iran dares attack again. CNN’s Nic Robertson: “This is a really new and big step by the crown prince here to authorize the possibility of Saudi response if Iran attacks Saudi Arabia again.He called their attacks yesterday, and in the early hours of today, cowardly, he said that these attacks by Iran were cowardly because Iran knew that Saudi airspace was not being used to attack Iran. And this has incensed him.” “There have been attacks around the capital here that have been intercepted. There was an attack near a military airfield in the north of the country. There have been attacks further east much closer to the Persian Gulf, much closer to Iran. They’ve been repelled so far.” “[Mohammed bin Salman] says, he is authorizing the right and the military here to respond if they are attacked by Iran.”

“The crown prince had a telephone conversation with President Trump and in that conversation, the crown prince had full support from President Trump… for how they should respond.” (RedWave Press on X: "JUST IN: Saudi Arabia is LOCKED AND LOADED—fully prepared to unleash a devastating military response if Iran dares attack again. CNN’s Nic Robertson: “This is a really new and big step by the crown prince here to authorize the possibility of Saudi response if Iran attacks Saudi https://t.co/ypiNzyid9D" / X.)

Someone in Iran was even stupid enough to launch missiles in the direction of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea, on which the British have a military base, prompting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to say that the United Kingdom would respond militarily to any such attacks and permit the United States to use its facilities after first wanting nothing to do with the joint American-Israeli attack (Iran missiles fired towards UK military bases in Cyprus, defence minister claims and Starmer denies U-turn claims after giving go-ahead for US to use UK military for strikes on Iran.)

\We were told by a number of Trump apologists in the past few weeks that an American military attack upon Iran would not produce the same catastrophic results as occurred twenty-three years ago this very month when then President George Walker Bush authorized the American invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

As seen above from the absolute lack of clarity about the ultimate objectives of Operation Epic Fury an Operation Rising Lion, President Donald John Trump has no more of an idea as the “end game” in Iran as George Walker Bush had in Iraq and, unlike Iraq, the current conflict has turned quickly into regional conflicts and has the potential for creating even more chaos, confusion, death, and destruction than occurred in Iraq.

Quite simply, the bottom line is this: there was and exists no moral justification for the action undertaken by Israelis and the Americans on February 28, 2026.

This entire action was designed to achieve the goals of Israeli national security and not that of the United States of America, and no one—including Donald John Trump nor Benjamin Netanyahu—has any idea how and when this is going to end. It is yet another unspeakable stain upon President Trump that three Americans have been killed thus far and that, by his own admission, that more are likely to die (“that happens in war,” he said) for the sake of Benjamin Netanyahu’s “Greater Israel” project.

As I wrote in The Remnant on January 31, 2003, prior to the start of the Iraq War, “For What?”

To what end?

To what good end?

This thing is already a mess, and it does not promise to be cleaned up neatly anytime soon, especially as Iran is blocking the GPS of ships in the Straits of Hormuz (see Strait of Hormuz ships hit by projectiles after U.S.-Israeli Iran strikes), something that will drive up the cost of fuel oil and gasoline around the world, including right here in the United States of America.

Readers of this site understand full well that men who do not view the world in light of the true Faith wind up thinking that they can “plan” the “better” world or establish “peace everywhere in the world” by the use of armed force absent an imminent casus belli and only as an absolute last resort.

Let me reiterate the fact that preemptive war is inherently immoral and can never be justifiable. 

The ends never justify the means and, as Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (US Army, retired) noted yesterday, euphoria fades.

Once again, let me stress the simple fact that we are to follow the Prince of Peace in all things and to recognize that there is not one moment of our lives in which we are permitted to think, speak, or act without recognizing the following very simple truths:

I am the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. [2] Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. [3] Now you are clean by reason of the word, which I have spoken to you. [4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. [5] I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

[6] If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. [7] If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. [8] In this is my Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become my disciples. [9] As the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. [10] If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love. (John 15: 1-10.)

The Pope of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pope Pius XII, exhorted Catholics to have great confidence in the August Queen of Heaven, Our Lady, and in her intercessory power:

29. And since We have great confidence in the intercessory power of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, it is Our ardent wish that, during the novena customarily held before the Feast of the Assumption, all Catholics throughout the world raise public prayers to heaven for the Church, which is — as We have said — afflicted and harassed in certain lands.

30. We confidently hope that Mary will not refuse or leave unfilled Our entreaties and the unanimous prayers of all Catholics — she whom We, with divine approval, decreed and proclaimed, in the Holy Year of 1950, to have been taken up, body and soul, into the abode of blessedness in heaven;[16] she whom We solemnly declared and ordained to be properly venerated by all mankind as the Queen of Heaven;[17] she, finally, whose maternal graces We invited a multitude to enjoy on the centenary of her appearances, as a gracious giver of gifts, in the grotto of Lourdes to an innocent girl.[18]

31. By your entreaties and your example, Venerable Brothers, may the flocks entrusted to you approach the altars of the Mother of God prayerfully and in great numbers on the days named. May they pray with one voice and one spirit that she who “became a cause of salvation to the whole human race”[19] might obtain for the Church the freedom she needs if she is to bring men to eternal salvation, reenforce just laws with the mandates of conscience, and bolster the bases of civil society.

32. Through Mary’s maternal intercession, they should pray particularly that shepherds kept far from their flocks, or otherwise restrained from the free exercise of their ministry, may be restored as speedily as possible to the positions they formerly, and properly, held; that the faithful who are beset by intrigues, falsehoods, and dissension, might find strength in the full light of truth and in unqualified union and charity; that the wavering and weak might be so strengthened by God’s grace that they will be ready and able to bear up under any hardship without abandoning Christian faith and Christian unity. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

We are lost without Our Lady. Lost. Doomed. Damned.

Anyone who thinks that the problems which beset the world-at-large and the Church Militant on earth at this time can be ameliorated without a firm reliance upon, confidence in, and an unapologetic public proclamation of devotion to her and her intercessory power, and by this I means to call out all “conservative” Catholics in public life who write as naturalists (Americanists, American exceptionalists, founderologists, libertarians) and who refuse to make any public reference to Our Lady, her Most Holy Rosary, and to the fact that no one can save their souls without being devoted to her and cooperating with the graces she sends to them to do so.

Pope Pius XII called upon Catholics to pray to Our Lady so that all Catholics could have their lawful shepherds again, and we should do so now so that we can have a true pope restored to the Throne of Saint Peter to which each of us will readily and humbly submit in all of his decisions and declarations without a moment’s hesitation:

33. We ardently pray that every diocese might soon have its lawful shepherd again. May Christian principles be taught freely in all lands and among all classes of citizens.

34. May the young, in grade schools and high schools, in workshops and on farms, escape the snares of materialistic, atheistic, and hedonistic doctrines, which cripple the wings of the mind and cut the sinews of virtue. May they rather be illumined with the light of the wisdom of God’s gospel, which will rouse, raise, and direct them to what is best.

35. May the gates of truth be everywhere unobstructed; may no one bar those gates unjustly. May all men realize that nothing can withstand for long the force of truth or charity.

36. And, finally, may the heralds of the gospel soon seek out again the peoples whom they once led to Christ with apostolic zeal and exhausting toil, and whom they ardently desire to raise to a richer Christian and civil culture, even at the cost of difficulty, toil, and adversity.

37. May all the faithful ask these favors of the dear Mother of God; and for those who persecute the Christian religion may the faithful implore forgiveness in that spirit of charity which led the Apostle of the Gentiles to say, “Bless those who persecute you.”[20] They should also be mindful to pray that these men be given God’s grace and heavenly light, which alone can scatter the shadows of error and set consciences aright. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Interjection:

Yes, we must forgive others as we are forgiven.

The life of a Catholic is not that of revenge and hatred. It is not that of willing harm to those who persecute us. It is about forgiving others and seeing in our persecutors our best friends as they have been chosen by God to be the means by which we may humbled, brought low before men, made the laughingstock of all, and to be held contemptibly even by complete strangers. This is, after all, what Our Blessed Lord and Saviour chose to do when He effected our Redemption during His Passion and Death:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [2] And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: [3] Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. [4] Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

[6] All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. [8] He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. [9] And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. [10] And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

[11] Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12] Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors. (Isaias 53: 1-12.)

We cannot imitate Our Lord’s self-abnegation without Our Lady’s help and without imploring her to be virtuous as we climb the heights of personal sanctity, something that Pope Pius XII emphasized as he concluded his last encyclical letter, Meminisse Iuvat:

38. But, as you well know, Venerable Brothers, a renewal of Christian life must accompany these public petitions. Otherwise such prayers are idle words, which cannot be wholly pleasing to God.

39. And so, out of that ardent and zealous charity with which all Christians are bound to love the Catholic Church, they should address their prayers to heaven, but they should also offer interior acts of penance, works of virtue, sacrifices, inconveniences, and all the pains and hardships under which we labor, of necessity, in this mortal life, but which we should occasionally, take upon ourselves voluntarily, in a spirit of generosity.

40. Through this sound renewal of their way of life, joined with suppliant prayers, they will win God’s favor for themselves and for holy Church, whom they must embrace as they would a loving mother.

41. The faithful should present the sort of picture — as often as circumstances require — which is described so wonderfully, beautifully, and meaningfully in the Letter to Diognetus: “The Christians . . . are in the flesh, but do not live by the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey valid laws, and even go beyond the demands of law in the conduct of their lives. They love all men, and yet all men persecute them. They are not understood, and yet they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet their life is quickened. . . They are dishonored, and yet in the midst of dishonor they find honor. Their good name is railed at, and yet is presented as evidence of their justice. . . When they conduct themselves like honest men, they are punished like criminals; while they are being punished, they rejoice as though they are being exalted…[21]

42. “To express all this briefly: what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.”[22]

43. If a Christian way of life flourishes again, as it did in the age of the Apostles and martyrs, then we can reasonably hope that the Blessed Virgin Mary — who longs with a mother’s heart that all her sons should live virtuously — will graciously heed our prayers and will soon grant, in response to our petitions, happier and more peaceful times for the Church of her Only Begotten Son and for the whole human society.

44. We wish, Venerable Brothers, that you will make Our wishes and exhortations known on Our behalf, in the way you think best, to the faithful entrusted to your care. Meanwhile, as a pledge of heaven’s blessing and a witness of Our paternal good will, We lovingly impart Our Apostolic Benediction to each of you, to the flocks entrusted to you, and individually to each of those who suffer persecution and torment because they defend the rights of the Church and give evidence of the love they bear her.

45. Written at Rome, in Saint Peter’s, on the fourteenth day of July, in the year 1958, the twentieth of Our Pontificate. (Pope Pius XII, Meminisse Iuvat, July 14, 1958.)

Yes, we need Our Lady’s help to live virtuously and to grow in holiness. It is holiness that we need, not stratagems of the natural order. The only success that matters to Our Lord is that we save our souls by means of the graces He has won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross and that He chooses to send to us through the loving hands of the Mediatrix of All Graces, His Most Blessed Mother.

As we pray for the safety and safe return of our troops after being placed in harm’s way needlessly in this time of chastisement that is unfolding within the Providence of God so that we may intensify our prayers and be serious about making reparation for our own sins, may Our Lady send us the graces to pray daily that everyone in the world, including in the Middle East, will exclaim una voce dicentes:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dóminus, Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

May Our Lady, to whose Immaculate Heart the cause of world peace has been entrusted by her Divine Son, help us to be at peace always with her Divine Son by making a good, integral Confession of our sins to a true priest (if one is available where one lives in this time of apostasy and betrayal) and to be earnest in our efforts to reform our lives as we grow in our love for her and her Most Holy Rosary with every beat of our hearts, consecrated as they should be to her Divine Son’s Most Sacred Heart that her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.