Nobody Wants War for Its Own Sake, the Pope Says - And That's Exactly Why It Never Ends

If you want to understand how a war spreads, all you have to do this Monday is look at a map. It began in the Strait of Hormuz. Now it's reaching for the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen announced that it intends to blockade Saudi shipping at the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea. Until now, Saudi Arabia has still been able to reroute part of its oil exports through that corridor while Iran tightened its grip on Hormuz. If the Houthis follow through on their threat, today's supply squeeze could turn into a full-blown crisis, leaving half the world's energy supply dependent on two strategic chokepoints at the same time.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree justified the move by accusing Saudi Arabia of continuing its blockade of Yemen. Regional experts say that narrative is aimed primarily at a domestic audience and argue that Houthi operations remain closely tied to Tehran's strategic interests. It is an old playbook - dressing up someone else's war as an act of self-defense.

The Houthis in Yemen have announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. According to their own statement, the move would significantly disrupt or even cut off Saudi oil exports through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Meanwhile, the fighting has entered its tenth consecutive night. U.S. Central Command reported strikes against Iranian command centers, launch sites, and air defense systems, saying the objective was to weaken Iran's ability to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian state media reported attacks near Shiraz in southern Iran and explosions in the port cities of Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Abbas, and Qeshm. Off the coast of Oman, an unidentified projectile struck a tanker along the very alternate shipping route the U.S. military had recommended for commercial vessels. Iran, in turn, launched strikes against Kuwait and Bahrain, both of which host American military forces. Since Friday, at least three U.S. service members have been killed, a fourth remains missing and is presumed dead, while Iranian officials report at least fifty people killed since the ceasefire collapsed.

Multiple explosions have been reported from different parts of the cities of Chabahar and Konarak.

Trump responded to the deaths of American troops with a threat posted online. Every time Iran kills an American service member, he said, Iran will pay many times over, adding that he had already given those orders to the military. That same Monday, however, the Pentagon acknowledged that the number of American troops wounded over the past two weeks had climbed to nearly one hundred, most of them suffering what it described as mild traumatic brain injuries. Pay attention to the language. While Trump talks about retaliation many times over, the military talks about mild concussions, and somewhere between those two narratives the wounded disappear into a reassuring statistic.

Into this language of threats and reassurance steps a third voice, and it comes from Rome. This Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV will publish a new book titled Unarmed and Disarming - Peace Is a Gift. In the foreword, he writes that peace is not created by nuclear weapons, but by disarmament. A truth that once seemed self-evident during the decades of détente, he argues, has now been overshadowed by a new arms race that should alarm the world. He does not single out any country by name. Instead, he opens with one sentence that reaches every nation involved in this war. Even those who wage war, he writes, always claim they are doing so in the name of peace, because no one dares admit that they want war simply for war's own sake.

That is where the real philosophical force of this moment lies, and it is a thought far older than the Pope himself. More than sixteen hundred years ago, Saint Augustine laid out the conditions under which a war could be considered just. During his flight to Spain in June, Leo said those conditions are not being met in Iran. By the moral standard that has shaped Western thought for nearly fifteen centuries, this war falls short. That is not a political judgment. It is a moral one, and that is exactly what makes it so uncomfortable for those in power.

Die Macht reagierte, wie sie auf jeden unbequemen Einwand reagiert, sie versuchte, dem Sprecher das Rederecht abzusprechen. Trump beschimpfte den Papst im April als furchtbar für die Außenpolitik. Der amerikanische Botschafter beim Heiligen Stuhl behauptete, Leo spreche gegen den Krieg nicht als Oberhaupt der Kirche, sondern nur als weltlicher Herrscher des Kleinstaats Vatikan, als sei sein Wort dann weniger wert. Der Vatikan wies das zurück. Der Papst spreche stets als Hirte, hieß es in einer Erwiderung, und wenn er gegen den Krieg das Wort ergreife, verkünde er schlicht das Evangelium. Leo selbst hatte schon geantwortet, er fürchte sich nicht, weder vor der Regierung Trumps noch davor, die Botschaft laut auszusprechen.

So stehen an diesem Montag 3 Stimmen gegeneinander. Die des Präsidenten, die Vergeltung im Vielfachen verspricht. Die des Militärs, das die eigenen Verwundeten kleinredet. Und die eines alten Mannes in Rom, der kein Land beim Namen nennt und dennoch von allen am deutlichsten gehört wird. Zwar sagen beide Kriegsparteien, die Tür zur Diplomatie stehe offen, Teheran habe über Vermittler Vorschläge erhalten, Rubio wolle die offene Tür gern sehen. Doch während man von der Tür spricht, schickt Washington mehr Kampfflugzeuge in die Region. Es ist der Satz des Papstes, der über allem bleibt. Niemand wagt zu sagen, dass er den Krieg um seiner selbst willen will, und genau deshalb hört er nicht auf.