So, here we are again, at war in the Middle East. Despite blistering critiques of other presidents, claiming they would bomb Iran in order to try and win elections, it’s Donald Trump – the man saved from Vietnam by “bone spurs” who now may well send young Americans to die in the desert.

The most treacherous moments in American history were not started by enemies. They were enabled by citizens who followed leaders that were not honest, nor had good intentions for others.

Watch Pastor Paul’s Trump V Trump on Iran Video for more thoughtful content on this subject

The Cost of Club Membership and who pays for it

The Iraq War was sold on the claim of weapons of mass destruction. Weapons our leaders knew DID NOT EXIST. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis died in the violence that followed the invasion and its aftermath. American soldiers died too. Entire regions destabilized. Extremist groups gained oxygen in the chaos.

A former CIA official once warned that every time we bomb the Middle East, we create more families who see America not as liberator, but as enemy. Violence is fertilizer for the very extremism it claims to eliminate. The agent said those families become willing to turn their children over to groups like Al Qaeda;

Because America has, once again, proven we are who they say we are.

Vietnam was escalated under disputed narratives and manipulated intelligence. The Bay of Pigs was a catastrophic miscalculation driven by Cold War ego. “Remember the Maine” helped ignite the Spanish-American War after sensationalized reporting by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer whipped up public fury – because WAR! sold newspapers.

Yellow journalism did not just increase circulation. It helped light fuses. Trump sacrificing the lives of Americans and Iranians – with the applause of American Christians spurring him on (pun intended) is not new. We have done this before.

Again and again.

Wag the Dog Is Not Fiction

In the 1990s, critics accused President Clinton of using military action in moments of political vulnerability. The fact that Americans could plausibly imagine a “Wag the Dog” scenario tells you something about going to war with leaders we distrust.

We know political survival matters to leaders, yet we repeatedly refuse to hold them accountable for their use of America’s very costly military power. If we already acknowledge that politicians lie for political advantage, why are we so quick to suspend skepticism when bombs are involved?

And why do we continue to think that American “might makes right” when it hasn’t done so in more than three-quarters of a century?

Then there’s our southern border. People crossing that border do not emerge from a vacuum. For decades, the United States has meddled in Latin and South American economies and governments, sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly. Coups. Trade pressures. Military involvement. Drug war destabilization.

When economies collapse and violence spreads, people move. Then we frame their migration as an invasion as “illegals.” As if our actions through the decade were somehow morally allowable.

We treat symptoms as if they are causes.

The Gospels present Jesus rejecting zealotry. When one of his followers reached for violence, the warning was clear: live by the sword, die by it. And yet modern Christian nationalism often treats military escalation as spiritual obedience. Some believers insist that supporting military aggression in defense of Israel guarantees divine blessing, citing promises made to Abraham.

But that promise was personal. And the Hebrew scriptures also record promises made to Ishmael, forefather of many Middle Eastern peoples, that he too would become a great nation.

Is God in the business of blessing bombs dropped on Ishmael’s descendants?

Is divine favor really contingent on military escalation? Or have we fused nationalism with theology so tightly that questioning war feels like questioning God?

The Pattern

This is not about partisan loyalty. It is about the blindness of nationalistic theology. Caiaphas in the Christian New Testament believed the divine plan for his time in history was for his race, religion and nationality to “Make Israel Great Again,” even at the cost of their own people and partnership with horrible men. He even stated straight out that the death of one of his own (Jesus) was worth it in order to see the cause of their religious nationalism advanced.

When leaders contradict themselves about war, we shrug. When evidence collapses, we move on. When rhetoric escalates, we normalize it. Because belonging to the club is safe. Standing alone in dissent takes massive courage.

But the club membership matters. And if a few hundred thousand Iraqis or – god only knows how many – Iranians will now have to die for political expediency… that’s just the price to be paid to keep our club membership current.

But war is not rhetorical. Or theoretical. Or a talking point. It rearranges childhoods. It creates orphans to be radicalized. It buries civilians whose names we will never know. It makes heaven cry.

If you already believe politicians lie for power, then giving them unchecked authority to initiate conflict is not patriotism. It’s peril. It’s an abdication of duty as a taxpayer who funds our little boy leaders playing with their toys.

When leaders lie, innocent people die. History has shown us that repeatedly.

The question is not whether politicians are capable of manipulation.

The question is whether we will continue to reward it.