Imminent: As per Oxford “about to happen – they were in imminent danger of being swept away.”

Iran’s 1983 attack on U.S. Marine barracks

Regretfully, these days all opinions about our war with Iran must be prefaced with an against the grain declaration that usually is “I am shedding no tears for the Ayatollah, BUT” for those in opposition and mostly from the left.  For the proponents on the left, like H.L., the disclaiming declaration generally goes something like “I generally oppose most of what Trump is doing BUT”.  I will go further, restating what was said in previous H.L. numbers that “Trump is utterly without redeeming social value.”

My support for this war was prefaced in several previous H.L. numbers, such as H.L. 138 “The Squad Backs Iran in Its’ Proxy War Against Israel and The United States” (5/21/2021) whose title suggests America was already at war with Iran, as the families of thousands of dead Americans would have confirmed.

My support for the current phase of this war is not because it does not require a Congressional declaration, as it does, or at least compliance with the War Powers Act, which will not happen because of the feckless Republican controlled Congress.

I support the war because Iran was about to kill and grievously harm more Americans, American interests and American allies, as it regularly has for almost five decades.  H.L. will not list these atrocities, as there are numerous websites devoted to doing that and describing and reporting the numbers of Americans killed and maimed in these terrorist attacks.  The next was imminent, as has been true for 47 years and while each tragically occurred.

Rubio, Trump, Hegseth

The logic of the opposition based on the assertion that “none of what Iran does is new” makes relevant the question “why now?” and even if imminence is conceded.  Trump, Hegseth and Rubio are incapable of avoiding serial contradiction as they attempt to answer that question.  But they all play the imminent nuke card, that opponents correctly point out contradicts what they told us last June, that the Iranian nuclear weapon capability was obliterated rather than the apparent truth (widely reported at the time) that it was badly damaged and delayed by as much as a year.

Of course, opponents and even Trump loyalists knew he was lying back then, which is both redundant and tautological.  Nevertheless, opponents of the war disingenuously chant “there is no imminent nuclear threat – you told us that you and Israel eliminated it last year.” By the way, Israel never lied similarly and quite the contrary.

Three weeks before the commencement of our air campaign, The New York Times reported that “Iran Is at Work on Missile and Nuclear Sites, Satellite Images Show” (NY Times 2/6/2026).  That Times report also indicated that the pace of missile construction was much more rapid than repair of Iran’s badly damaged nuclear weapons program.  With the implicit suggestion that America must wait until the weapons program catches up to the pace of their weapons delivery system before doing something about it.

These facts are an answer to “why now?” but also raise a question about or condemnation of the failure until now to comprehensively attack the facilities where Iran is building nukes, missiles and drones.  To that question I see no good answer, certainly not the quarter measure assaults of last June.

Iran attacks Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar

There are other good reasons for this attempt to deliver death to the Iranian regime that has promised and prayed for “Death to America” every day of its existence.  Every day in the last four of those years has witnessed Iranian drones killing Ukrainian civilians and those drones are now visiting Qatar, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Jordan and even Azerbaijan.  No Iranian drones yet in Turkey, just missiles.  Iran was the cause of October 7, 2023 and all the Houthi assaults on international shipping.  Iranian oil will lubricate China’s war machine when it invades Taiwan – an event that has been imminent for years.

I not only am willing to believe that Trump went to war with Iran for all the wrong reasons and/or without really knowing why, but that actually is my belief.  Regardless, I support this war because the grave danger from Iran was imminent in the only sense for this prerequisite for a war of choice to have any validity.