I want to say something that I suspect will be unpopular in certain quarters of this island, and I want to say it clearly, because I have always believed that intellectual honesty demands we speak plainly even when — especially when — plainness is uncomfortable: the United States was right to go to war with Iran.

I do not know why. You do not know why. At this point, it is not entirely clear that the administration knows why, though I suspect they do, and I suspect the reason is serious, and I suspect that the people loudest in their opposition to this action are not actually interested in the reason.

One wonders, when reading the statements issued by the Gnu Nation Cultural Council in the past week, whether the concern is genuinely procedural — the absence of a congressional declaration, the shifting rationale, the three-day window in which the stated cause changed from "imminent threat" to "regional stability" to "a longstanding obligation we are not currently at liberty to discuss" — or whether the concern is, as it so often is with the Restorationist community, simply opposition to American authority as a matter of principle. It bears asking.

I watched the press conferences. I watched all of them — the first one, in which a spokesperson cited "credible and actionable intelligence"; the second, in which a different spokesperson described the action as "proactive and values-aligned"; the third, in which the phrase "intelligence" was not used at all and the word "values" was replaced with "interests"; and the fourth, which lasted eleven minutes and consisted almost entirely of the moderator thanking reporters for their patience. I found the messaging confused. I found the process troubling. I found the absence of congressional authorization genuinely concerning, and I said so, privately, to someone whose opinion I respect.

I am not asking anyone to trust the administration. I am asking, as I always do, for a degree of patience with complexity that this island seems increasingly unwilling to extend — except, it must be said, when complexity is the reason given for why indigenous rights cannot be acted upon immediately, at which point complexity is received as wisdom.

We are at war. The reason is unclear. We were right to go.