- Godwin Cotter
- 9 minutes ago
- 5 min read
After a hiatus we return to the comic book drama, The Rise of Nothing. While it was intending to be a comic satire but sadly, real life events have a tendency to outflank this comic book in terms of ridiculous silliness. What was intended as humor and jest ends up being merely a partial catalogue of current events. Anyways, the comic book characters, already uneasy by the menacing rising nothingness at the base of each panel, are now plunged into a war that nobody wanted. At this juncture with war breaking out in the comic book and real life, a quick refresher on just war theory is most apt.
The US-and-Israeli-Pearl-Harbor-style attack on Iran fails to meet the just cause criteria for a just war. Revenge, regime change, economic gain, pre-emptive strikes or colonial- style interventionism does not supply just cause. The criteria is quite restrictive and boils down to a defensive war to protect human life from imminent danger. Another aspect of just cause is that all other diplomatic means to prevent war proved ineffective. Both times the US and Israel attacked Iran, negotiations on Iran's nuclear program were ongoing. The diplomatic processes were jettisoned by the aggressors in this case. The March 6th U.S. demand for "unconditional surrender" and the "selection of great and acceptable leaders" amounts to a demand that Iran give up its sovereignty. The general theme has continued throughout the peace talks. On May 1st, Trump claimed he has won the war already and Iran is begging for a deal but he wants to win by a bigger margin. On May 2nd, Trump told a cheering Florida crowd, “We … land on top of it [an Iranian oil tanker] and we took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business...We're like pirates." And this was during the ceasefire. Diplomacy is obviously not a stick that the Trump has been shaking at Iran. Trump and Netanyahu have allergic reactions to diplomacy with any that don't share their Epstein connections.
Jesus said in Luke 6:45, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Another criteria of a just war is the right intention and that is nowhere found in Trump's truth social posts and the barking of his lapdogs.
Another one of St. Augustine's just war requirements was that it be declared by a legitimate authority. In the precursor to the current conflict, the U.S. and Israel thumbed their noses at the UN commission of inquiry report that Israel is committing genocide is Gaza. So the international body of nations that is providing some authority in this case has been sidelined. But even on the level of the U.S. nation, this war has waged without congressional approval, the legitimate authority according to the constitution. We have witnessed Pete Hegseth alternately declare that the U.S. has been at war with Iran for 47 years and later that the U.S. has not yet been at war with Iran for 60 days because, supposedly, the clock stops ticking during a ceasefire. In both statements are attempts to block the legitimate authority of the congress to decide on the matter. Or maybe Hegseth is displaying Fox News logic from is short career as a commentator on weekends. The U.S. Iran war is ongoing and approaching it's 50th year. However, the U.S. Iran war is not ongoing and has not reached it 60th day that triggers congressional oversight. The ceasefire where we fire on Iranian ships and commit acts of piracy stops the clock ticking towards congressional oversight.
Additionally, with a just war, there must be a sense of proportionality. If the act of going to war brings more evil and pain into the world than simply allowing events to occur without intervention, the war is not just. The jury is out on this one already, especially in the countries relying on international trade in the Persian gulf.
Another requirement is a serious chance of success. One might have thought the U.S. would be clear-eyed and sober in the aftermath of the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. was quagmire in Iraq for almost 9 years because of the mythical weapons of mass destruction. Now it's a worldwide quagmire, all because Trump sees the possibility that Iran may in the future become come the newest member of the nuclear club.
A just war has two main pillars. There are the rules for right conduct both "ad bellum" (Latin for "towards war") and "in bello" (Latin for "at war"). Basically the conduct during war must also be just. Bad conduct can turn a just war into an unjust one. Important criteria are proportionality and distinction. Are distinctions being made between combatants and civilians? In Gaza, the majority of 73,000 people violently killed have been women and children. In Lebanon 2,700 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and over a million persons displaced. Trump's April 7th threat to Iran that "a civilization will die tonight...never to be brought back" and the May 4th threat that Iran "would be blown of the face of the earth" does not indicate any consideration for either distinction or proportionality.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a great admirer of the United States, remarked. "America will be great if America is good. If not, her greatness will vanish away like a morning cloud. A true effort to make America great again is surely needed, but it needs to start individually and interiorly, in short spiritual conversions. All the efforts to drain the swamp merely produced a new swamp monster. In spite of their profuse invocations to God, the thrice married Paul White-Cain, thrice married Pete Hegseth and thrice married Donald Trump all seem like just a new iterations of swamp creature, a variety that sports religious camouflage. Come Lord Jesus, Come! (Song)
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St. Michael the Archangel Icon
I do have a limited number of hand painted icons of St. Michael the Archangel. They are written on gessoed oak boards, roughly 9.5 x 12.5 inches in size. The pigments used are traditional raw earth materials and ground up minerals and the halos are gold leaf on clay. Photos of two of the icons are below.
Were a Canadian or American reader to donate $150 dollars in their currency to Fear of the Lord Comics, and also supply me with their mailing address, I would send them a St. Michael icon. God bless and have a great day.
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