‘Dangerous as hell’
Brendan McManus SJ :: This is not a video game: the Iran crisis and manipulation.
Cardinal Cupich in his statement, “A Call to Conscience,” March 7, 2026, is courageous in calling out the White House on their “gamification” of war, referring to the use of action movies spliced with real war footage. Real death and suffering are being trivialised as a video game as a way of dehumanising enemies, fuelling overblown ‘US victory’ fantasies, and creating a superficial narrative of “good guys and bad guys”. There is something more sinister going on here, too, though at a deeper level: the undermining of democratic accountability and public discourse; the subtle manipulation of the narrative to fuel facile interpretations that avoid real critical thought; the decoupling of any sense of objective truth; and the impoverishment of language.
As Moises Naim outlines in The Revenge of Power, there is a playbook concerning extremists and manipulators and all the factors are in play here: control the narrative, quash dissent as unpatriotic, undermine and diffuse the media, use ‘explosive’ language that demonises, blames and justifies action, remove any constraints or oversight on military action, step outside UN guidelines and international law, justify the use of extreme violence as patriotic and in self defence. The following are some of the philosophical issues fuelling populism and undermining democracy and rational debate.
The first is from philosophy and logic and is called the ‘ad hominem’ (appeal to or attack on the person) trick or sleight of hand. It is in such widespread use to the extent that people take it for granted and don’t see it for what it is: the weakest and dirtiest trick to divert attention and attack another personally, as a clever way of manipulating a situation. You see it everywhere from policy statements to press briefings to social media posts. The classic formulation is on display in the USA when the President gets asked a sticky question about the war and legitimate action, and instead of answering, turns it on the journalist as a ‘loser’, a ‘bad person’, or a member of an ‘unagreeable’ media organisation. It’s a great trick because it dodges the question and wrong-foots the questioner. It is despicable but hides in plain sight.
The second relevant issue from Greek philosophy is sophistry, the calculated use of deception and false arguments to win at all costs. We can see this use of false and spurious arguments to justify military violence; the first casualty in war is always truth and the levels of post-truth manipulation here are truly staggering. There is a complete untethering from any objective data or facts, and a rewriting of history, logic and wisdom to suit the narrator. It is the victory of opinion, hearsay and rumour. Creating “alternative facts,” or “false news,” and spin is rampant here… the tragedy is that so many people go blindly along with it and swallow the blatant lies and misinformation. They want to believe it, want it to be true, so that no critical thinking is done, no criticism is allowed, and anything goes. We are really in trouble here.
War is evil, always wrong, and a failure. Pope Leo has widely condemned this war. Our task is to use every peaceful political and non-violent means to resolve conflict, and by no means have these avenues been exhausted here. Also, it’s a long way to fulfilling any of the conditions for a ‘just war (America Magazine, 6 March). Tragically it is always the innocent that are the ones that suffer and die (Israeli genocidal tactics in Gaza is the same brutal pattern), the only winners are munitions companies, military equipment manufacturers and the political and military ‘hawks’. Our task is to use politics and peaceful means to prevent violence and resolve conflicts. Instead, here we are unleashing a violent whirlwind, creating massive casualties of war, traumatising millions and inheriting suffering for generations.
Underneath all the bluster, hype and overblown language are the deeper issues of real motivations and hidden dynamics…there are two political leaders here under threat personally because of corruption/abuse charges and using this as a desperate measure of hanging onto power and distracting the public. ‘We are too busy with fighting our war to be dealing with these trivialities, goes the discourse. It sounds reasonable, but it’s a manipulation and clever sleight of hand designed to insulate and protect desperate power-hungry leaders. The levels of egoism, corruption, narcissism, self-promotion and arrogance are off the scale here.
Another insight from liberation theology is to analyse the situation in terms of context, culture and operating philosophy or ideology. Just simply looking at this situation in terms of power, money, relationships and colonialism reveals a very ugly truth that it’s not what it is portrayed as. In terms of business and commerce, there’s a lot at stake here; it’s no accident that Iran is one of the biggest oil producers, and also that control of the Hormuz Strait means control of this crucial transport and shipping conduit. There is no ‘clear and present danger’ here, rather a chance to advance Israeli and US interests and gain control of the region. It’s a shameless use of political and military might against a much weaker opponent that will undoubtedly stir Islamic-Western tensions and continue to spill over into other countries. They are irresponsibly playing with fire.
Finally, there is the most heinous use of religion as an ideological justification and motivation that is truly twisted. US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth uses religious, apocalyptic and ‘crusader’ rhetoric to justify the military campaign. Once you separate religion/theology from philosophy/reasonable discourse, you can justify almost anything. There is a terrible abuse of scripture, appalling theology, a deeply distorted image of God, and the deepest betrayal of the NT teachings of Jesus to such an extent that it is truly evil and transparently manipulative. It is very effective, though, at justifying, motivating and cancelling rational discourse; it moves it into the realm of unquestioning ’faith’ and untouchable absolutes. Dangerous as hell…
Now is the time for people of goodwill and peace to step forward; we need to protest these appalling, unjustified acts of violence and war (without responding in kind), and act urgently to restore some sort of sanity, diplomatic channels, international law and genuine peace. It is a very dark time, but we have real hope that humanity, reason and love will prevail.
