It looks like the Trump administration might trigger war on Iran. Venezuela and North Korea are also possibilities. We are on the precipice of a war that could be used to shore up President Trump’s poll ratings, distract the American people from investigations and to fast-track an autocratic political agenda.

Pulling out from under the multilateral negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran and creating a hair-trigger situation with our battleships in the Persian Gulf has set the wheels in motion toward war. Crushing economic sanctions along with no willingness to compromise also sets the stage for war. National Security Adviser John Bolton and other neoconservatives have been looking for a justification to intervene in Iran since the ’90s.

Justifications were manufactured to invade Vietnam (Gulf of Tonkin) and Iraq (weapons of mass destruction). When oil tank­ers are attacked in the Persian Gulf, one wonders if that is staged to create justification to go to war. As horrible as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been, a war with North Korea or Iran would cause far greater bloodshed and likely draw in global powers with nuclear weapons.

Negotiations and compromise represent the best outcome for security and peace. I pray for President Trump as I seek to follow Jesus’ way of love. I pray that my fellow Christians will speak out against trumped-up “justifications” leading to war.

Wendell Wiebe-Powell
Elkhart, Ind.