Is Operation Epic Fury a just cause?

By Richard D. Land, Christian Post Executive Editor Friday, March 06, 2026

President Trump has launched Operation EPIC Fury against the ultra-terrorist cabal that has been operating the Islamic terrorist state controlling the country of Iran since 1979. Since that date, they have been fomenting terror and revolution throughout the Middle East and the world.

The Iranian terrorist state has been killing Israelis and Americans, as well as their fellow Iranians and Islamic compatriots who do not agree with them. The mullahs have labeled America as the “Great Satan” and Israel as the “Little Satan” and have pledged themselves to the destruction of both. It has often been reported that they have openly declared that Iran could “do with one or two atomic weapons what Hitler failed to do” — eliminate the Jews!

At the grievous expense of their own people, the Iranian mullahs have spent their country’s impressive oil riches in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction — including nuclear weapons and the guided missiles to deliver them.

In order to deal morally with dilemmas and crises precisely like this, Western Civilization and the Christian faith have developed “just war” theory. Building on Greco-Roman philosophies and people like Aristotle and Plato, the great Christian theologians Augustine (354-430 A.D.) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 A.D.) promulgated just war theory — the circumstances under which Christians should participate in armed conflict and what the acceptable means are under which they could participate.

In summary, the requirements are:

1)    Just cause. This requirement excludes wars of conquest for material gain or wars of revenge. A “just cause” does not include subjugating the citizens of other countries.

2)    Must be defensive. Just war theory would disqualify offensive wars. This does not mean that nations have to wait to be attacked. If it is clear that other nations are actively preparing to attack you, you do not have to wait until they act. In the Six-Day War in 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan were actively in final preparations to attack Israel. Israel struck first, destroyed the Egyptian Air Force on the ground, and won the war in the first two hours of the conflict.

My father was a 20-year-old sailor in the U.S. Navy in December 1941, sailing with the U.S. Aircraft Carriers re-enforcing Wake Island when the Japanese Task Force operating under radio silence attacked Pearl Harbor without a declaration of war. I have been assured by Pentagon authorities that had the U.S. Task Force encountered the Japanese that close to Pearl Harbor under radio silence, they would have considered it a hostile act and responded accordingly.

3) Last Resort. Every reasonable effort should be made to resolve conflict before violence is used. This does not require endless delays.

4) Noncombatant Immunity: Under no circumstances should civilians be deliberately targeted, and great care should be taken to avoid or minimize civilian casualties if at all possible.

5) Prudential Judgment. Is it likely that the good gained from armed conflict will outweigh the cost in human life and suffering? For example, it is difficult to imagine that the European governments that plunged that continent into what is now known as World War I would have ignited that horrible conflagration that decimated an entire generation of British, French, German, Austrian and Italian young men had they been able to foresee it.

Applying these criteria to the American and Israeli intervention in Iran, it is clear that they meet just war criteria. President Trump and our government, along with our Israeli allies, made it clear that we had repeatedly tried nonviolent initiatives and then limited violent actions (the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities), and the Iranian mullahs remained openly defiant. I suspect the critical turning point was when the Iranian negotiators evidently bragged that they still had significant amounts of enriched nuclear material (enough to make 11 atomic bombs very quickly, perhaps in less than a month). When they said that, I suspect the American negotiators (and I know the Israeli negotiators) said, “That’s it! Time is up. We must go.”

President Trump authorized the lethal use of force and said, “We are doing this to give your country back to you. Now is your chance to take your country back from the mullahs who hijacked it in 1979.”

I don’t know this, but I suspect that the Israelis may have said, “That’s it. We cannot gamble any longer. America, please do this with us, or we will be forced to do it alone." The problem is, the Israelis cannot guarantee de-nuclearizing Iran without using their own nuclear arsenal (which they do have). This would have involved the first use of nuclear weapons since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

It must always be remembered that the “worst” (the Holocaust) has happened to the Jews. They remember. They will not allow any resource they possess to go unused to prevent it from happening again. If the choice is they get nuked or they nuke them, Iran will be nuked! Remember, the mullahs have probably murdered as many as 30,000 of their own people who were demonstrating against them in the last 45 days.

In conclusion, resisting aggression and terrorism is an essential ingredient in maintaining a civilized society.

As British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) concluded about two centuries ago:

“A man who has nothing which he cares about more than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free unless made so and kept so by the existence of better men than himself. As long as justice and injustice have not terminated their ever-renewing fight for ascendency in the affairs of mankind, human beings must be willing…when need is, to do battle for the one against the other.”