My complete analysis of The United States entering into the Israel-Iran war

 Let us start with Augustinian Just War standards, when you station troops outside of your borders that is an unjust invasion, and nothing you do past that point can be considered just warfare.

The concept of alliances did away with Augustine's three simple rules for a Just War a long time ago, but they are worth repeating.

1. The only Just Cause is self defense repelling an invasion.

2. Your Cause becomes unjust if you invade in revenge.

3. Show Love for your Enemy by using proportional tactics to repel the invasion on your own soil.

By Augustine's standard, even the illegal immigration across our southern border by criminal combatants is an invasion- but all we can do is capture them with potentially deadly force and send the living ones back across the border.

And flying a 36 hour mission to invade another country with bombs from 30,000 feet? Yeah, that's a war whether you want to call it one or not, because your troops left your country to go attack somebody else.

Now having said that, let's examine Trump's decision by the more modern just war standards listed in the Summa Theologicae:

Jus ad bellum (Justice of starting a War)

1. Just Cause. 45 years of non-compliance with nuclear treaties, and we need to defend an ally, yep, we've got Just Cause.

2. Right Intention. We only bombed nuclear installations that were actively enriching uranium. We avoided civilian targets.

3. Last Resort. Back to #1, but this time it is a bit more murky. Was it truly the last resort? Was there no other way, despite 45 years of trying, to figure out a solution?

4. Probability of Success- 100% successful, no American Casualties. But the question becomes, will Israel and Iran take the bait that the United States has entered the conflict and stick to a ceasefire? It appears the Ceasefire was violated within minutes of the deadline passing.

5. Proportionality: Yes, our bombers avoided civilian casualties and the runs were limited to three sites. Iran's 13 missile retaliation was also proportional (12 shot down, one missed target).

Jus In Bello (Justice During a War)

1. Proportionality- Same as 5 above.  We hit three sites, no civilian casualties, unless you believe Iran's argument that all nuclear sites are civilian.

2. Discrimination- Our bombing runs discriminated between nuclear scientists trying to enrich uranium, the support staff that worked for them, vs civilians living in cities.

3. Right Conduct- Warriors must avoid actions that are intrinsically evil.  The human death in these bombing runs was a secondary effect to the primary target of the technology itself.

It's closer to a Just War than we've gotten in the past 125 years.  Not even WWII was this clean ethically.