Officers in the United States military have strong training in ethics, including studying Just War Theory. I never served in the military, but as a civilian, I have been proud of the professionalism of our military, which is the envy of militaries across the world.

It was surprising, then, to read U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman’s statement regarding the Iran strikes in the June 23 Mining Journal. In his statement, Mr. Bergman, R-Watersmeet, praised the strikes and spoke about his 40 years in the U.S. Marine Corps where he retired with the rank of lieutenant general.  I fear, however, that our representative may have slept through some of his military ethics classes, otherwise it would have troubled him that this attack failed several core principles for a just war.

To be just, the cause of the war must be to re-establish a just peace. Whether or not that will be the case remains unknown. Will it achieve a verifiable and lasting end to Iran’s nuclear program (as Trump stated it would) removing the threat against Israel, or will Iran decide to use whatever resources it has left to move directly toward creation of a bomb to ward off another attack like this one? That would be exactly the result most feared.

The action has to be waged by a legitimate authority. According to the U.S. Constitution, only Congress has the authority to declare war. People may quibble over whether Saturday’s action constitutes “war” but the President used that word several times when he announced the results of the bombing. Congress has delegated some powers to the President to respond to attack, but this was not the case in this situation. Trump ordered the bombing on his own and informed only the Congressional leaders of his own party before ordering action.

The probability of success has to be high for the act to be just. What Iran’s reaction will be is a huge unknown. Will the bombing be a “one-and-done” leading to Iran’s abandoning their pursuit of a nuclear deterrent or will it lead to even broader fighting?

And lastly, all non-violent options must be exhausted before use of force can be justified. Negotiations were proceeding slowly but were ongoing and there was no credible indication that Iran was close to having a nuclear weapon ready to deploy. Trump overrode his own U.S. intelligence agencies by stating that Iran was on the verge of having a usable bomb.

Iran has been on record for decades declaring that it wants to see the destruction of Israel and has been duplicitous in denying its nuclear ambition. Like many people, I would like nothing better than to see the nuclear threat against Israel disappear. Nonetheless, Trump’s bombing on Saturday was both reckless and unjust. Mr. Bergman, of all people, should have recognized that.