There is something repulsive about instrumentalizing my nation in some weird extra-biblical Protestant fantasy about the last days.

The case that a nuclear-armed Iran would be against U.S. interests is straightforward. Preventing this outcome doesn’t justify any and all sacrifices, but it certainly requires attention. However, I keep encountering what I consider “red flag” arguments. That is, arguments that, when made, arouse my suspicion or repulse me.

The Return of Condi’s Mushroom Cloud:

Benjamin Netanyahu: “Today it’s Tel Aviv, tomorrow it’s New York. I understand America First, I don’t understand America Dead.”

Sorry, but the threat Iran poses to Israel is orders of magnitude greater than the one it poses to America. Conflating them in this dishonest and hysterical way is a giant red flag. It tells me that statesmen are deliberately lying to me, trying to excite my emotions and shortcut my deliberative judgement. If you have to do this, I start to also distrust the things you say that seem more reasonable.

Outright Insane Demagoguery:

Mark Levin: “They all sound like a bunch of Marxist-Islamists. Let me be clear, this is good versus evil. You’re either a patriotic American who is going to get behind the president of the United States, the commander in chief, or you’re not!”

Apart from the “substance” articulated here, I think broadcasting people who speak like this to audiences that comprise overweight septuagenarians seems like a potential class action suit.

Levin has wanted conflict with Iran for decades now. His urgent shouting and appeals to direct loyalty to the president offend me as a free citizen once they finally stop offending my corporeal being with their volume and shrillness. If this is how Levin feels and emotes as he seeks to influence the president on prime-time Fox, then I am absolutely not reassured by those saying, “This isn’t Iraq, it’s not regime change, it’s one targeted strike.” If this is a battle between good and evil, and if half my countrymen are Marxist-Islamist-whatever, then it seems that the proponents of this war wouldn’t be satisfied by one night of fireworks at Fordow.

The U.S. Has a Divine Purpose, and It Has Nothing to Do with the U.S. or Its People:

When they say that God wants you to bomb, it’s a great time to start “testing the spirits” that are speaking to you. I have (at least rhetorically) supported Israel in its campaign against its enemies since October 7, 2023, because I believe that war is just. I have some special affinity, too, in that some more-distant family relations are Jews living in Israel. I also think that the United States benefits from co-developing military tech with Israel, and that in general Israel is a “model” U.S. ally: democratic but also capable and self-sufficient. Once that is established, you have all the prerequisites for friendly give-and-take among those with shared interests. I would even go so far as to say that the U.S. has a special relationship with Israel because Israel is a co-heir and custodian of our civilization’s most ancient religious traditions. In the same way, we will always find ourselves partly tied to Western Europe.

But there is something repulsive about instrumentalizing my nation in some weird extra-biblical Protestant fantasy about the last days. Or about morally coercing me by invoking my Creator and telling me he has rendered my existence and that of my nation to a geopolitical purpose. This is about as credible as telling me that God intends to blend me like an egg white into the foam of a gin fizz.

I know there are some bad arguments from the restraint side, too. But these have jumped out at me this week.