The Iran war is not a religious war — stop making it out to be one

Back in 2007, as my unit was training to deploy to Iraq, a movie came out that galvanized my fellow Marines. The movie was “300,” an adaptation of a comic book about the Battle of Thermopylae, between the Spartans and the Persians. 

It made sense that my fellow Marines would love the movie. It featured a bunch of buff guys defending their homeland against a foreign invader, with the odds stacked heavily against them. There was no retreat, and they fought to the end.

But then something crazy happened. A few of my Marine buddies started likening the movie and the Spartans to our upcoming deployment to Iraq.

Even though we were the foreigners and had taken over the country with overwhelming military force, they saw things the other way around. It baffled me, until another Marine told me that it was their way of justifying why we were going there. The notion that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction had long been debunked by then. No one felt good about dying for Halliburton. So they latched on to a story to help justify their potentially impending doom.

As we attacked Iran and continued our “forever wars” in the Middle East, something troubling emerged from the ranks of the men and women who are on the front lines, along with our military leaders and some politicians. There is messaging that this war with Iran is somehow a religious war tied to the Book of Revelations, the second coming of Jesus, and the end of the world.

One of the stories was of a military commander who told his non-commissioned officers that Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.” It would be easy to write this off as a single military commander off his rocker, who shouldn’t be in command of a U.S. military unit. But the Military Religious Freedom Foundation said they received more than 200 complaints in a couple of days from service members being told in separate instances that their military mission was key to fulfilling Christian prophecy.

Add the fact that Israel is also at war with Iran, along with several high-ranking Trump officials being ardent Christian nationalists or devout evangelicals, and you have to ask yourself: What is the reason for this war? 

Trump has given many excuses and moved the goalposts several times on what the exact objectives are. Many Americans are jaded about the conflict, even though we clearly have the upper hand. This is a cause of concern, because as the war evolves, there is a good chance that the objectives will change in a way suited to Christian nationalists’ beliefs.

Look no further than the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who is known to espouse a support for Israel that is less about American interests and more about Christian prophecy. Huckabee said it would be fine if Israel took over the Middle East. This is not only a pipe dream for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it also has support from some evangelicals who view Israel’s domination of surrounding lands as key to bringing on the End Times.

Trump and company have been known to play this game before. The move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel during the first Trump term, wasn’t just a strengthening of support for Israel’s claim to the Holy City. It was a show of support for Christian Zionism, which views Jews “gathering” in Israel as a necessary condition to bring about the Apocalypse.

Thousands, if not millions of evangelical Christians hold the view that the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East will somehow trigger Christ’s return. And it is their right to believe such things. But there is a major issue when Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Huckabee, and company start using those beliefs to justify waging, continuing or expanding an already unpopular war.

George W. Bush, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, famously called the war on terror a “Crusade” — something he later walked back, since he did not want it to seem that the war on terror was a war on Muslims. But with Trump, Netanyahu, and others now proclaiming and even overhyping Iran’s terror capabilities against the U.S., that caution seems to have been abandoned.

With friendly Muslim countries that allow U.S. bases on their home soil bearing the brunt of Iranian drones and missiles, the idea that this conflict with Iran is a religious war is insulting, stupid and dangerous. 

We don’t have clear objectives for this war. We don’t have an end result that we are aiming for. Does that mean this conflict will go on until actual Armageddon happens? How about we dial down the religious talk and get actual goals here? It might be the key to ending forever wars.

Jos Joseph is a recipient of the Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary/ Opinion. A graduate of Harvard and Ohio State, he is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.

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