Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth, for the Colson Center on Johnstone Street. For early Saturday morning, the world learned of Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the hands of the United States and Israel. According to the official White House description, it is, and I quote, a precise, overwhelming military campaign to eliminate the imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime, destroy its ballistic missile arsenal, degrade its proxy terror networks, and cripple its naval forces, end quote. It's always essential for Christians to think like Christians about anything, including these kinds of historic events. And we do so through the lens of essential and foundational Christian doctrine, truths about life and morality and human value.
Thankfully, there's a long history, both in the church and the Western world, that wrestles with the morality of military action. I asked Dr. Eric Patterson, president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, and an expert on what's known as the just war tradition, about the historic events of the last few days. Here's Dr. Eric Patterson.
Patterson. John, thank you for having me and this opportunity to talk a little bit about just war theory, or what be better to be called just statecraft. As you said, we're just in a dynamic situation. It's only been about 48 hours since the United States had a military operation alongside Israel striking these targets in Iran, killing the supreme leader and a number of other military officials striking military targets across the country. And of course, Iran has retaliated with strikes in at least five neighboring countries, which is nothing new for them.
And so let me say something about the Christian tradition about thinking about issues of war and peace, but first remind us that going back to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran has been a rogue actor in international affairs, attacking its neighbors and attacking the United States. It's estimated by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, for instance, that there have been at least 180 attacks by Iran and its proxies on the U.S. in recent decades. And let me just remind you of a few of them to set the stage. The attack on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia was by a Iran-backed proxy.
The attack on our embassy in Beirut that killed 220 Marines in 1983 was by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed proxy. That same year, they tried to do the same unsuccessfully in Kuwait, I believe. I could go on and on. Attacks on Israel, attacks in Iraq. It's estimated that Iranian-backed militias killed maybe as many as 200 American troops in the early 2000s in Iraq.
They've been a destabilizing factor in Syria. They've been trying to build nuclear weapons. They've supported the Houthis and created a civil war in Yemen. I could go on. This is a bad actor.
The evidence is there. and uniquely bad because they are the number one state sponsor of terror and working on this nuclear program.
Now, putting all of that to the side, but remembering kind of the evidence that someone should do something, the Christian tradition asks three questions. First, what is the moral basis for the decision to use force? And then second, once that decision has been made, how do we use force morally? And then third, with an eye towards a better peace, what are the ethical steps in the late and post-conflict phase? And that's why I call it actually just statecraft, because it takes the diplomats, the political leaders, the humanitarians, as well as the warriors to all be involved from the early phases, the deterrence phase, the diplomatic phase through a hot war to the diplomatic and the settlement on the back end.
The just work tradition says first in making that decision, it should be legitimate government authorities acting on a just cause with right intention. And certainly as a country that's been attacked many times and our allies have, the United States government is a legitimate actor to protect the lives, livelihood, and way of life of our citizens and our allies. Just word tradition says that we should act on a just cause. Just causes are things like preventing future wrongs. punishing wrongdoers and stopping ongoing wrongdoing.
Self-defense, of course, fits that category, but so does this effort towards justice. And it should happen with right intention. That's a Christian element that's beyond any legal or illegalities in any case is we look on the heart. Even if something's legal, the morality of it is an intention. And what you've heard from the president and from others is not a dehumanization of the Iranian people.
We don't call them names. We actually act out of love. We'd like to see the Iranian people free from tyranny and at the same time, a change in regime that is no longer a threat to their own people and to their neighbors. And so thinking about this specific case, that's the place to start. That was Dr.
Eric Patterson, president and CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and an expert on what's known as the just war tradition. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org. In a moment of cultural confusion, many Christians know their faith matters, but aren't sure how to live it out with clarity and courage.
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