How do I feel about the bombing of Iran?
When I was a youngster, Iran was ruled by a Shah, which was basically a monarchy. This type of governance is common in 3rd World countries because in most places, “might makes right” and the group with the guns typically decides who gets to lead the country. Under the Shah, Iran increasingly embraced Western culture, including capitalism. Today, you will see very pleasant pictures of what life was like in Iran prior to 1979, but I think those are probably somewhat misleading. I take them as more of a tourism ploy. For some Iranians at the time, things were not as rosy as the pictures suggest. The Shah and his military had to hold onto their power with force and enforcement, so anyone who disagreed with them was at risk of harsh treatment. Nonetheless, Iran was viewed as a possible democratic outpost in an otherwise very hostile Islamic region by the late 1970’s.
When I was 11, Iran experienced a revolution which was caused by economic issues and an increase in protests, some of which were fomented by an Iranian Mullah living in exile. The religious Muslims prevailed in the revolution (they had the guns in 1979), and the Shah fled Iran for Egypt to avoid being executed. Many of the Shah’s officials “disappeared” in the months following his exile, leading most to conclude that they were executed by the Islamic replacements. The Shah died of cancer a year later. The Muslims were led by a Shia Islamist cleric called Ayatollah Khomeini. He was the guy living in exile and stirring up the revolution against the Shah. Khomeini became the leader of Iran and declared it to be an Islamic Republic, reversing all the laws which had made Iran a very Western looking and feeling country under the Shah. Things such as women’s rights were eliminated and patrols made sure that women followed all the Sharia laws regarding their freedom of movement, association, and dress. Hatred for the West, especially the United States was a key aspect of Khomeini’s Islamic government. Resistance against the Ayatollah was not tolerated and the consequences were more severe than it had been under the Shah.
A few months later, a large group of armed Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 66 hostages, who they held for over a year (444 days to be exact). Eight American soldiers were killed in an aborted effort to free the hostages about five months into the situation. Khomeini attributed their deaths to an “act of God”, stating that it showed that God was on Iran’s side.
Iran’s economy faltered under Islamic rule. Khomeini died in 1989 and was succeeded by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei was just as radical as his predecessor and he may have hated the West and the United States even more. Under Islamic rule, Iran’s primary goal was to develop nuclear weapons and to crush challenges to the Ayatollah’s power from Iran’s own people.
In the 1990’s, Iran worked with China and Russia in an effort to develop Iran’s own nuclear weapon program. In spite of international regulation and numerous peace deals, sanctions, inspections, and threats from Western countries, Iran continued to move toward the development of nuclear missiles capable of reaching Israel, Europe, and the United States. “Death to America” was the slogan embraced by the Iranian military and government leaders, all of whom were devotees of the Shia branch of Islam. Commonly the death was to the scientists who were working to develop the nuclear program for Iran because one or more international spy agencies carried out a number of successful assassinations over the years. While NATO and many leaders across the world tried to work toward peace and the disarmament of Iran and other nuclear superpowers, Iran developed secret nuclear facilities in an effort to develop their nuclear weapon system without being detected. Their efforts were not known to be successful but Israel’s intelligence agency was able to find out through a spy operation, that by 2018, Iran had been able to develop a nuclear weapons program disguised as an energy program.
Some countries wanted to believe that Iran would not develop nuclear missiles capable of striking Israel and other countries, but all the evidence pointed to the development of such weapons within a few years. The two main components of a nuclear weapons program is enriched uranium and the missiles needed to transport the nuclear weapon to its target. When uranium is enriched to 90% it is “weapons grade”, meaning it is capable of creating a nuclear blast. In order to produce energy to power homes and businesses, uranium only needs to be enriched to 3% or up to 5%. It takes 3 weeks to a few months to enrich uranium to 60%, but there is no reason to enrich uranium to that point unless you are trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Once a program is capable of enriching uranium to 60% it only takes a few days to get it to 90%. One nuclear weapon requires about 55lbs of 90% enriched uranium. It was recently reported that Iran had about 880lbs of 60% uranium, so enough to produce 16 nuclear weapons within a matter of days.
Based on Iran’s secrecy and determination over the years, along with the mental and emotional weakness of many of the other countries trying to negotiate with them, I think it is reasonably likely they have or would soon have enough weapons grade uranium to supply them with up to 15 nuclear missiles.
Whether they have the missiles to carry the weapons and the accuracy needed to guide the weapons is less certain. However, they would not have to send a nuclear warhead very far in order to change life was we know it. Any nuclear blast near Israel would be regarded as an enormous victory by terrorists.
On June 22, 2025, the U.S. and Israel bombed several “secret” nuclear bunkers in Iran, setting their nuclear weapons program back significantly. However, since that time, Iran has rebuilt numerous nuclear facilities and had resumed the enrichment of uranium. Some say that Ayatollah Khamenei was against the development of nuclear weapons, but it seems that he was just using that reputation as a way to provide cover for the development of a nuclear arsenal. He was not the type of guy who one would try to deceive. If he truly didn’t want nuclear weapons and found out that his government was developing nuclear weapons, heads would have literally rolled. One of the trademark methods of Iranian execution in recent years was to hang victims by slowly raising them up from a crane. It was a very public method intended to strike terror in the minds and hearts of all who might disagree with the Ayatollah.
The rapid redevelopment of the program since June 22, 2025, suggests that Iran’s real intent continued to be becoming a nuclear superpower, and possibly (I suspect likely) to use one or more nuclear missiles to either destroy much of Israel, much of the United States, and other perceived “infidels” or to lobby for a more powerful position on the world stage.
On February 28, 2025, the U.S. and Israelis carried out much more extensive bombing in Iran, killing numerous leaders in the Iranian Islamic Government, including Khamenei himself. His successor was elected and then also killed within a matter of hours. When the Shia religious leaders gathered to elect the next Ayatollah, the Israelis dropped bombs on the entire group, likely killing many or most of them.
With slogans such as “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”, which the Iranian government has used ad nauseam over the past 5 decades, there is little doubt about Khamenei’s intentions if he were to obtain nuclear weapons. In the meantime, Iran has trained, financed, and supplied some of the world’s most violent and dangerous terrorists such as Hezbollah and Hamas, making Iran a state sponsor of terrorism. They have also harassed shipping throughout the Hormuz Straight, threatening lives, commerce, and international relations. Apparently Iran has also attempted assassinations of the U.S. President. Within Iran, they have been known to condemn women to public execution, public beatings, and have imposed severe restrictions on their rights. Added to the recent massacres of public demonstrators, Khamenei’s regime which has shown nearly total disregard for human life and an insane infatuation with the destruction of Israel and the United States. If such a regime suddenly has ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, the likelihood of international disaster seems far too likely.
The fact that Iran has now sent missiles into ten or more countries around them (fellow Muslim led countries which have not been hostile to Iran in the past) only confirms the dangerousness of the Iranian leaders as well as the possibility that they have adequate technology to carry a nuclear warhead on one of their missiles.
People still doubt that Iran was close to having nuclear weapons. Senator Mark Warren still doubts that Iran was close to possessing a nuclear weapon and the UN Atomic Commission agrees with him. However, NATO Sec. Gen. Mark Rutte just announced that NATO confirms that Iran was close and that it posed a threat to Israel and Europe. It takes a lot of humility for NATO to confirm anything Donald Trump says given their disagreement on many things over the past ten to fifteen years. I wonder if it comes down to who you believe on the matter? Do you believe what Iran officials say or do you believe what military and intelligence specialists say?
Meanwhile, since the June bombings, Iran’s Islamic government has seen significant protests from its own citizens. In spite of massacres of protesters (some report 30,000 dead, others in the low thousands), and a large increase in executions of political prisoners1, the protests have not died off. The Iranian Islamic Republic has done all they can to shut down reports and images of the demonstrations, including a total internet blackout which disabled phones and other lines of civilian communication. Suppression of communication in order to prevent the spread of popular resistance can be effective, but it is also a significant sign of weakness for a government. U.S. and Israeli intelligence and leadership likely saw this as the perfect time to strike at the head of Iran, thereby helping the protesters remove the radical Islamic leaders and replace them with leadership more supportive of basic human rights.
Since February 28th, Civilians have died, members of the American and Israeli military have died, and many more innocent people are likely to die as a result of the decision to bomb Iran. May they all rest in peace, certainly for the civilians and the American servicemen and women, but also for those who wished evil. We can wish for the repentance of very evil people, such as Khamenei, even at the moment of their death because people are not our enemies, Satan is our enemy. Chanting “Death to America” which calls for the death of people, can only be brought on by Satanic oppression, obsession, and possession.
All that said, can a Christian condone or support the bombing of Iran and the killing of its radical leaders? Time will tell, but as things stand today, it is certainly possible.
In order to consider this a “just war”, several basic criteria are considered.
1. Has the government done all they can to avoid war? Diplomacy, concessions, all other options been exhausted? Basically, war has to be the last resort, so all efforts to avoid violence have to be exhausted.
2. Is there a just cause? The opponent’s goal must be grave, certain, and lasting. The goal has to be a morally good goal.
3. Is there a reasonable chance of success?
4. Is the force used proportionate to the cause? Are there minimal civilian casualties and are the rules of engagement being honored?
In reality, the United States has engaged in diplomatic efforts to end the conflict with Iran since 1979. The efforts have been interrupted by violent acts from both sides over the years, but for the most part (I would say at all times), the United States has been the voice of reason, had death in good faith, and has avoided inflammatory rhetoric. Meanwhile, the Ayatollahs can’t seem to settle on much other than “Death to America” backed up by behavior and decisions which are intended to carry that out. This seems to go a long way toward satisfying #1 above, and the U.S. government likely has a mountain of information, some of which the general public will never know about.
The purpose of the current military actions appears to have a just cause. As discussed above, you can’t just stand there and hope an insane aggressor, who is infatuated with your destruction, chooses not to lash out violently as soon as he has the weaponry to do so. The threat of nuclear disaster is simply too great if NATO and the U.S. government have accurate information. So, #2 looks reasonably likely to be satisfied.
Based on the success of the bombing in June, 2025, there appears to be a very good if not extremely good chance of success. However, different people have different ideas of what success looks like here. In my opinion, success looks like the avoidance of an Iranian nuclear bomb wiping out innocent civilians in the near future. That is the minimum though. It would be awesome if the power vacuum in Tehran allowed a truly peaceful and democratic leader and government to step in and take over. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen. More than likely, a different group will forcefully take over. However, maybe they won’t be radical Muslim terrorists which is a legitimate goal. Whenever a powerful government is not controlled by terrorists it is a very good thing. So this would be a huge improvement in Iran!
By avoiding the use of ground forces and by being as careful as possible to hit only military targets the U.S. and Israel appear to be trying to adhere to #4 above as well. I pray that they do not harm any civilians. A school has been hit and the Iranians say over 100 children were killed. Whether that was an intentional or mistaken act by Iran or a missile sent by the U.S. or Israel, let us pray that it never happens again and that all those killed are in Heaven as we speak. One thing we have learned about Iran and its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah, one can never trust the information they shovel out. Iran has lied about many things all along, so the only way to know the truth about what has happened in Iran and what will happen, is to investigate each and every claim. There is always a risk in believing the U.S. government. The “weapons of mass destruction” claims of the Bush Administration are prominent in many minds right now. That said, there is much more evidence of capability in this case, so I cautiously believe that Iran already had some capability, or was very close as of February 28th.
Since I am not an elected official tasked with these decisions, nor am I a member of the military tasked with carrying this out, I have the luxury of time. I can’t stop a war, nor can I deem a war just or unjust. All I know is that a lot of people are in a living Hell right now, and civilization truly hangs in the balance. I need to pray for peace and pray that the actions of the United States government (including the military) are just and that they are based on facts.
